Dreamy and the Magic Barrier Part 1: The Crystal Volcano
It was a sunny day in the Magic Forest, but Dreamy was worried.
Not the kind of worried where you forget your lunch. The kind of worried where something important needs fixing, and you’re the only one who can fix it.
Dreamy was the Forest Protector. It was his job to keep the Magic Forest safe. And right now, the magic barrier that surrounded the forest and kept everything inside it protected… was getting weak.
He pulled out the Manual. Every Forest Protector before him had used this book.
“A magic manual?” Dangler interrupted.
“…Yes, Dangler. A magic manual.”
It had instructions for everything — spells, maps, emergency procedures, and at least four different recipes for acorn soup (which Dreamy had never tried, but figured might be useful someday).
He flipped through the pages carefully.
“Ah. Here we go. All I need to do is swap out the magic crystal that powers the barrier.”
Dangler peered over his shoulder. Dangler was younger than Dreamy, smaller than Dreamy, and currently eating a leaf he had found somewhere.
“Sounds easy enough,” said Dangler. “Where do you get a new crystal from?”
Dreamy looked up from the book.
“The Crystal Volcano.”
Dangler stopped chewing.
“The… volcano.”
“Yes.”
“…A volcano.”
“That’s what I said.”
Dangler sat down very suddenly on the floor.
“AAAH. Volcanoes are the one thing I am most afraid of.”
Dreamy raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you afraid of everything?”
Dangler opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
“…No…. AAAH.”
The Manual showed them exactly where to go. All the way to the far end of the realm, right to the edge of the barrier itself.
“That’s really far,” said Dangler.
“You don’t have to come.”
“I might freak out.”
“Then stay behind.”
Dangler gasped. “That would freak me out even more!”
Dreamy sighed the sigh of someone who had been through this before, even though he hadn’t, really. He just had a feeling he’d be sighing this sigh a lot.
“Come on then.”
They had been walking for approximately fifteen seconds when Dangler spoke up.
“Are we there yet?”
Dreamy looked back. The Protector Tower was still right there. He could practically reach out and touch it.
“We literally just left.”
“So… almost?”
Dreamy kept walking.
Two steps later: “Are we there now?”
Eventually — after a very long walk that Dangler narrated in great detail — they arrived at the Crystal Volcano.
It didn’t look like what Dangler expected. It was wide and ancient, with dark rock that glittered faintly in the sunlight, like someone had mixed a mountain with the night sky. Steam drifted up from the top in lazy, curling wisps.
Dangler stared up at it.
“We have to go to the top, don’t we.”
“We have to go to the top,” Dreamy confirmed, already reading ahead in the Manual.
“AAAH—”
“The book also says the volcano only erupts every four thousand years.”
Dangler paused mid-freakout.
“…Oh. Well. We’re probably fine then.”
“The most powerful crystals come from a fresh eruption,” Dreamy continued, still reading. “So each crystal lasts exactly four thousand years. Which means every time the barrier needs a new one…”
Dangler’s eyes went wide as he worked it out.
“…the volcano is about to—”
“Erupt. Yes.”
“AAAAAAH!”
Up they went.
Near the very top, tucked right beside the mouth of the volcano, was a small cave. Just big enough for two sloths to sit comfortably, with a perfect view of everything below.
“Wow,” said Dreamy quietly. “I bet the forest protectors before us made this. A safe spot to watch from.”
“Safety first,” said Dangler, pressing himself as far back into the cave as possible.
“Aren’t you scared?”
Dangler sat up very straight. “I’m not scared of anything.”
Dreamy looked at him.
“…Much,” Dangler added.
Then the ground rumbled.
Both sloths went very still.
The rumble grew… and grew… and then —
POOF.
A soft, deep boom, more of a thud than an explosion. And then, clattering and clinking up through the air —
Crystals. Dozens of them, catching the light like frozen rainbows, tumbling and settling onto the dark rock around the volcano’s edge.
Dangler stared. “That’s… it? That wasn’t much of an eruption.”
He reached out toward the nearest crystal.
“Dangler —”
“OW ow ow ow ow!”
“It just came out of a volcano.”
Dangler blew on his hand. “It’s hot.”
“Yes.”
“Really hot.”
“Yes.”
Dreamy had already found the right page in the Manual. A spell — a simple one — to pick up the crystal without touching it, and carry it safely all the way home.
“My hand is still hot,” Dangler mentioned.
“I know.”
“Just so you know.”
“I know, Dangler.”
Back at the Protector Tower, the new crystal sat on the table, glowing faintly. The old one was still in its place, the barrier flickering weakly around the whole forest.
“Alright,” said Dreamy, opening the Manual to find the replacement instructions. “Let me just check if there’s anything important I need to know before we swap them over.”
He flipped through the pages.
Page 120… 122… he frowned.
124… he flipped back.
122… 127.
His stomach dropped.
Page 124 was missing. The page that told him exactly how to replace the crystal.
“Dangler.”
“Mm?”
“We’re missing pages.”
Dangler looked up. “…Do we need those pages?”
“It tells us how to replace the crystal.”
“…Oh.”
As if on cue, a low, mournful groan echoed through the forest. The barrier flickered once, twice — and dimmed.
“AAAAH!” said Dangler, which was fair.
Dreamy stared at the gap in the book. Where had the pages gone? How long had they been missing? And more importantly —
“What happens if we don’t fix the crystal?” Dangler asked, his voice smaller than usual.
Dreamy looked at him. “I don’t know. The answer would have been on that page.”
They stood there for a moment, the forest quiet around them.
Then Dreamy closed the Manual slowly. Something was stirring at the back of his memory. Something from a long time ago, before Dangler, before any of this.
“I think I know where the pages are,” he said. “But to explain it… we need to go back. Back to the very beginning.”
“The beginning of what?”
Dreamy looked out at the forest he had sworn to protect.
“Back to the day I first came here.”
To be continued in Part 2: The Day the Forest Found Dreamy