“Welcome to the Castle of Dreams.” Teddy began his tour. “Here, your dreams can come true.”

All around the children were walls lined with doors. They looked up and saw that there were four floors in the castle, each with their own set of doors. There were azure steps with gold railings that led up to them.

“The doors on the third and fourth floors are for the older children only. For now, you must only pick ones on the first two floors.” Teddy told them.

In the center of the room, was a long staircase made of red stone that led to the top floor. At the pinnacle of the stair, was a dark, wooden door. It was an ancient door where deep, old magic could be felt if one were to get close to it.

“That’s where the Author lives,” Teddy explained. “He built this castle and keeps it. He’s the reason that any of this is to be. So, children, you must never go up there and bother him; he deserves his privacy.”

Sam stared at the door. Her heartbeat quickened and she couldn’t pull her eyes away from it. She felt a small something inside her call her to it. She took a step forward until Teddy’s voice broke her hypnosis.

“Hmmm...now which room should we start with?” He put his paw to his chin. “Ah, yes! Follow me, children!”

As the children began to follow the bear, a few of them saw The Sweet Dreams rise from where it was floating and rose towards the entrance. As soon as it made its way through the opening, it turned it into bubbles; leaving only a silvery, sparkly residue in its place.

The children were led down the hallway, just on the other side of one of the staircases to a door made of light-colored wood. Although there was a strong, magical presence radiating from the door, albeit not as strong as felt from the Author’s door, there were only two noticeable features on it.

The first was a shiny, ebony door handle that had thin, white stripes running through it. The other, at the top of the door, was a U-shaped symbol etched in the wood. One half of the symbol was a mighty, crashing wave. The other half was a curved palm tree that met the wave harmoniously at the bottom. The smell of coconut hung in the air.

Teddy turned the door handle and the mechanisms inside made a clicking sound. The door opened with a deep creak of the wood. Bright, white light poured from the inside and the group stepped through.

The light dimmed. A warm breeze gently caressed their faces.

Soft, white sand moved underneath their feet. A mid-day sun hung in a pristine blue sky warming the air. Several palm trees were lining the beach; colored in deep, rich brown and bright spring green. Crystal clear water lapped against the beach, the water reflecting the blue of the sky.

“This is the inside of a dream door,” Teddy explained. “Here, you can create to the limits of your imagination.”

“How does it work?” One kid asked at the center of the group.

“The Author made it so that all you have to do is think of something and it’ll appear.”

“Like this?”

The kid put his hands to his head, grunted hard, and stared like he was trying to move something with his mind.

A few seconds later, between two of the palm trees, a small golden mist formed and with a POP a hammock appeared, already tied to the trees.

“Wow!” The kids exclaimed in unison.

The kid – his name was Clarence– ran to the hammock, jumped in it and rocked himself back and forth.

“This is amazing!” He exclaimed, then returned to swing himself into the utmost state of relaxation.

Teddy flashed a soft smile and soon the beach was filling with all kinds of objects from the kids’ imaginations. Wooden huts with fire pits outside of them popped up. Steam poured out of some of the windows and the air filled with the scent of cookies and chocolates. Flora and fauna of all shapes and sizes that you wouldn’t believe appeared out of thin air and made the beach colorful and loud. There was excitement everywhere.

Despite the merriment taking place, Sam stood solemnly at the edge of the beach. The water lapped at her feet as she stared at the endless sea. Normally, she would have been jumping in the waves and building castles in the sand, but something inside her, like a million invisible strings, called to her from across the horizon. Somewhere in the back of her head, she heard a voice call Onward.

Bella saw her from a little way off, standing on the beach alone, and ran to her. She jumped into place next to her, almost falling on her face into the water. She stared hard at the horizon, but then curiosity took over.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"I wonder what's out there."

"Out there? Who says anything else is out there?"

"I don't know. I feel like there is something out there..." Sam trailed off for a moment. "Like, if there is an ocean inside a door inside of a castle then anything could be possible."

The girls stood in silence for a moment. Water lapped at their feet.

"Well, let's go," Bella said matter of factly.

Smiles crept across the girls’ faces and they went straight to work. They dreamt up a small, wooden canoe. At the center of the canoe stood a thing mast with a white sail. On the sail was an insignia of Teddy with an eyepatch and a black pirate hat.

Seeing the image, Bella asked, “Shouldn’t we tell him where we are going?”

“Um.,” Sam replied. She stood in the boat, scanning for Teddy. “I don’t see him anywhere. So..if he left us alone, we should be safe.”

“You’re probably right.”

And then they were off! The island grew smaller as they sailed across the water; their hair blew in the wind. Just before the island disappeared completely, something started making loud splashes in the water. The boat stopped and the splashing sound became louder and louder because they were getting closer.

Sam and Bella huddled close together, ready to protect each other. They gasped, in terror and amazement, when out of the water arose a large sea monster arise from the depths. The creature has scaled cyan skin with a soft white belly. It has a purple mane that ran from the top of its head to the middle of its back. From the serpent’s nose ran two long golden tendrils on either side of its face. Riding on the neck of the creature, trying desperately to hold on, was a dark-skinned young boy named Billy.

“WOAH!!” He cried. The creature plunged back into the waters then out again as it leaped over the girls’ boat; continuing this process as it headed back to the island with a screaming Billy in tow.

A warm tropical wind helped dry the girls off and they continued forward. They sailed towards the sun, that seemed to set the closer they got to it. The sun dipped into the ocean as they eventually reached a small island.

“I knew it,” Sam muttered under her breath.

The girls disembarked and stood on the soft sand. Their feet sank slightly until the sand was up to their ankles. It was easy enough to pull out, though, as they sauntered on forward.

After a while of finding nothing but sand, trees, and a few large rocks the girls’ excitement was quelled.

“Well, what do we do now?” Bella asked with a frown.

Sam kicked at some sand and then got an idea.

“I know!” She snapped her fingers together. “We could fly over the island and see if there’s anything to see from the air!”

“That’s a great idea, Sam!”

The girls dreamt of two creatures that soon stood before them. Bella had dreamed up a majestic white unicorn that had a sparkly purple horn. Sam, on the other hand, had dreamt of a white tiger. Both creatures were tame, of course, and both sported a pair of grey wings. The girls mounted each creature and as if acting telepathically, they took off into the air above.

The warm air had cooled against their faces as the flew. They searched up and down, high and low until the entirety of the island had been discovered; unfortunately, they found not one interesting thing. They hovered, above the island, their animals seemingly having a conversation with each other.

“Umm...Sam, I’m kinda getting bored of this,” Bella admitted. “Can we go back and play with the other kids?”

Sam starred at the island, her eyes wildly flying back and forth as though she was missing something.

“I’d like to stay around here a little longer.”

“Ok...suit yourself.” Bella puffed. “Maybe when you come back later, we can play House or something.”

“Yeah...sure.”

Bella sailed off on her unicorn back towards the beach. Sam and her tiger landed on the island.

“Alright...um...Taali! That’ll be your name, Taali.”

Taali growled with approval and licked her face.

“Let’s see where else we can sail.”

They both sat in the boat, although concern flashed across Taali’s face, and pushed off from the beach. Sam felt the small voice in her head call onward, and she tried to follow it toward the setting sun.

The water and the sun melted into seemingly one, golden object. Sam furiously blinked her eyelids from the blinding colors. Then, she heard a faint buzzing sound as the water and green petals swirled around the boat. Taali didn’t seem to notice, she continued licking one of her paws. Sam looked in all directions, but couldn’t find the source of the buzzing, which grew louder and louder until everything turned white and Sam awoke in her bed.