The blonde-haired boy appeared on the dirt lane that cut through the vast fields of purple wheat. He didn’t come through an apeirogon door, or a portal, or even arrive with a flash of light, but simply appeared as if he’d been walking along the road the entire time. And to each side of the dirt lane were hundreds of heavy cargo wagons laden with harvest. A man with skin so dark it was a soft purple approached and fell in step with the boy. The man was well-muscled and tall, with a kind face and intense eyes that missed nothing. “Greetings, Lord Chaos,” said the man. “You wanted to see me, Akot the Wise?” asked the boy. “I want to diversify our crop production. I have prepared land for rice, and an apple orchard.” The boy’s eyes flicked up to the big man. “You do not need my permission, this world is yours.” The man didn’t reply. The boy frowned. “I see, the Purple Dreamer has not been doing his job. That will end today.” “It is not entirely his fault,” said Wise. “If not for him and the Red Dreamer, the battle would have gone worse than it did. He single-handedly fought four of the Sand Walkers to give the others time to escape, and for it his crayon was broken.” The boy stopped walking and turned to the man. “The battle was fought against my advice.” Wise bowed his head in respect; his words were going to be harsh, admonishing the Lord of Chaos was never an easy thing. “As you have said, you gave us free-will to make choices, even if those choices are bad choices.” A storm of indescribable chaos passed over the boy’s eyes; he didn’t like being corrected. The boy reigned in his temper and spread his hands out. “As always, your wisdom rings true. I will be gentle when I drag him from his Crystal Cave, until then, the Green Dreamer will assist you.” The Lord of Chaos waved a hand and a boy dressed in forest green tumbled out of the air and onto the ground. “Ouch! Hey, what gives?” cried the boy in green, then saw the Lord of Chaos with a grin on his face. “Cael! That’s not funny, I thought I’d just fallen out of…” The boy broke off his sentence as he saw the purple wheat. “Oh, wow, look how well the purple wheat turned out!” He jumped up and ran into the wheat field. “Hello, my lovelies, you’ve gotten so tall.” Akot-Wise raised a brow as the wheat leaned into the Green Dreamer to receive a hug and be praised for being so beautiful. As often as he’d seen the Dreamers do strange and unsettling magic, there was always something new to surprise him. He glanced at his Akot brothers; they were lying their scythes on the ground and stepping away from them. Wise sighed, it would take the rest of the day to convince them to continue harvesting the wheat. Half his brothers still wouldn’t go into the forest after the last Green Dreamer’s visit when the trees had danced for him. “Anything else?” asked the Lord of Chaos. “No, thank you. I’ll take it from here,” said Wise. Cael turned and continued down the dirt lane. Wise watched him walk away. The Lord of Chaos was barefoot, as usual, and dressed in heavy wool knee-length pants with suspenders, a white button-up shirt, bow tie, and a gray cap tilted slightly on his head of golden-blonde locks. On the back pocket of the pants was a sewed-on patch of a bright yellow sun with a smiley face. Wise shook his head, if the living incarnation of the Universe wanted to play at being a nine-year old boy, it wasn’t any of his business, but a lot of zeros had to be dropped from the 9 for Cael to have arrived at that conclusion. *** The Crystal Cave was set at the base of a cliff on top of a hill looking out over the Akot Traders’ small city of white buildings. Akot the Dreamer preferred to live alone in his cave instead of with his 2,346 brothers down in the farming community. All the Dreamers had exactly the same number of brothers, or sisters, and each a fragmented soul of one person; a result of having gone through a rip in time and space, whether by accident, or by intent. Each group had one Dreamer, and the rest were known as the ‘Traders’ that loosely governed the many worlds within their territory. Cael didn’t enter the cave, Akot Dreamer would not respond well if he were forced to leave his cave. Instead, Cael waved his hand and a girl of seventeen years, and dressed in a red leather jacket, red pants, and red sensible hiking boots stumbled out of nowhere and onto the path in front of the cave. The girl’s hair was bright red and short-cropped, and she had three earrings in one ear, two in the other, and a piercing on the side of her nose. All her piercings had ruby studs that sparkled as if they were on fire. The girl glared at Cael. “You could warn a girl before doing that.” “The peaches can has been stolen from my yard,” said Cael. “You and Akot Dreamer will go find it.” “Hey, I got an idea, don’t leave powerful magic items lying around your front yard.” “Start at Roselake, there is something odd happening there,” replied Cael. “I’ve already tried to get him to come out.” Cael adjusted his bow tie and looked up at the sky. “I think it’s going to rain.” The girl threw her arms up. “Fine, I’ll try again.” The cave wasn’t a dark and damp thing, but a warm and comfortable cave with purple crystals embedded in the walls and ceiling, and all the furnishings you might expect in a place someone lived full-time. The purple crystals glowed and bathed the cave in a warm light. The girl lifted her head at the scent of freshly baked bread and made a straight line for the wood burning stove against the wall. A plate of purple biscuits was cooling on top of the stove. She grabbed one and stuffed it into her mouth. “You shouldn’t be here, Ember,” said a voice. “We have a mission, Cael wants us to go find a thief.” “There’s one in my kitchen.” The girl laughed and took three more of the biscuits before turning to the source of the voice. A teenage boy stood concealed in the shadows - his skin and clothing were so dark she hadn’t seen him at first. Akot Dreamer was tall and nearly a man now. His shoulders were wider than when she’d first met him a year ago, and so handsome it took her breath away. “Mmmph mmmph, mmmph,” she replied. “Chew first,” said the boy. “Mmph, these are good,” said Ember. The boy stepped out of the shadows. “It was my mother’s recipe. Why are you here?” “I thought we had a thing, Atok. I thought you liked me,” said Ember. “Oh sweetest Ember, you are as the fire that beats within my heart,” said Atok. Ember went to a large rug with purple pillows stacked in a circle around the edge and flopped down. “I love when you say things like that.” “I am in seclusion,” said Atok. “Yeah, yeah, I know. We got our butts handed to us by the Sand Walkers, and now you’re sulking. Get over it already, it’s been a year. I miss you.” The boy came to the rug and lowered himself on a pillow opposite her. “I have shamed myself and my people.” “You did no such thing. I get it, you’re from an ancient and proud people, and I respect that, but you’re not a warrior. Atok, you’re people are scholars, and artists, and farmers. Cael told us not to fight, but we didn’t listen. Okay, lesson learned, let’s move on.” “My crayon is broken.” “Cael is right outside waiting. He fixed my crayon, I’m pretty sure he can fix yours.” “I don’t like the crayons, they’re not dignified. I felt silly going into battle armed with only a crayon.” “Aww, I think they’re cute. Just the very thought that the universe was created with a box of crayons makes me happy.” The boy lowered his head in that thoughtful pose he always did when being stubborn. “Perhaps crayons for the Green and White Dreamers are appropriate, they are just kids, but I am a man and the Dreamer of the very foundation worlds are built upon.” Ember rolled over onto her side and propped herself up on an elbow. “Mmhmm, and they’re probably going to get married before we do.” “They cannot marry for many years” said Akot, completely missing the joke. “I doubt such a thing is even a thought in their heads.” “Oh really? Bran follows Ronin around like a puppy, and you saw what he did to that Sand Walker that tried to step on her during the battle,” said Ember. “Bran might be the strongest of the Dreamers, but like you said, he’s still just a kid and doesn’t know what to do with his powers yet.” Akot nodded. “None of us know what to do with our powers yet, Jonathon was the last of the adult Dreamers to leave, and now we haven’t even him to teach us.” Ember shrugged. “There’s still the Night Dreamer.” “Jax was the first of the new Dreamers, and in three years he has never seen the Night Dreamer. I heard she might be the original Dreamer. I think even Cael is afraid of her.” Ember sat up. “I can understand that. The Universe was born from darkness, she might be his mother.” Akot unfolded his legs and stood. “You are right, Jonathon is gone now and as a man I must take charge of the Dreamers.” Ember rolled off the pillow and stood. She hadn’t said anything remotely like that. “The Blue Dreamer is seventeen also.” “I thought he was six-years old?” “Naw, he accidently drank from the Fountain of Youth, but Cael reset him back to his proper age.” Akot waived a hand dismissively. “I have been the Crystal Dreamer for two years, I am certain he will defer to my greater experience.” Ember seriously doubted it from everything she had seen. She hadn’t gone to watch the Blue Dreamer’s world being built like the other Dreamers - fire and water didn’t mix and she had no desire to sit through a thunderstorm, but she did go after the storm was over and watched. She watched as the thousands of Jacks appeared out of the mist where Jack Dreamer had chosen to link his world with the old roads. The Jacks had marched into their new world as an army arriving in perfect formation of tight neat lines, and everyone in step with each other. And then the tigers arrived, and also in perfect formation. The wagons filled with supplies arrived next, and catapults being pulled by oxen – they had real catapults! Behind the catapults were the siege equipment, and entire wagons filled with bows, arrows, and javelins. And to each side of the first wagon train marched another six-hundred tigers. The second wagon train arrived next leading more horses than she’d ever seen before – four hundred of them. Thousands of cattle followed next being herded by at least two-hundred tiger cubs. She thought she had seen everything, but the parade wasn’t over yet. An aero-glider arrived from the sky and flew out over the island. She wondered how the glider kept gaining altitude as it circled the island, and then realized the islands had been carefully positioned to create air currents woven between the islands and aligned perfectly with the trade winds. And still it wasn’t over. The rear-guard arrived as a five car train being pulled by a steam engine with Jacks positioned on the roof of the train with crossbows. All the Dreamer groups had formed fairly well organized communities before assuming the role of Traders – but the Jacks weren’t Traders, they were an army. She watched for another three hours as the Jack Army quickly formed five camps complete with fortifications, tents, cattle corrals, latrines, and command buildings. They all knew what to do and there was no waste of effort. No, she doubted that Jack Dreamer would be deferring to anybody’s ‘greater experience’. The Jacks were efficient, experienced, and deadly. It would be best to stay away from them. Cael was at the entrance of the cave with his hand held out when Akot stepped out into the bright sun. Akot placed the two pieces of his broken crayon in Cael’s hand. Cael closed his hand, and when he opened it again, the purple crayon was whole.