A Caged Dream

2

Dream woke up before the birds. It was still dark, but barely. He smiled. He made it before the sun! Because he was so nice, he waited to wake Nightmare up until the sun was closer to rising. As usual, Nightmare groaned and grumbled a bit before opening his eyes and sitting next to Dream.

As the sun rose, Dream allowed his thoughts to wander. That may have been a mistake. Dream has weird thoughts. He snorted at the mental image of him and Nightmare wearing banana suits and dancing around the tree. Nightmare gave him a strange look but decided he didn't even want to know. A wise choice....

Eventually, the twins got hungry and ate some berries. Strawberries were Dream's favorite and blackberries were Nightmare's favorite. They didn't need to eat very often. Just every once in a while and to replenish their magic.

Luckily, they didn't need to replenish their magic very often now that Dream wasn't using all of it every day. Nightmare didn't have any bruises, cuts, or cracks decorating his bones any more. He had a few small scars but nothing of concern. The twins were healing from the villagers.

They decided to take the day off. The villagers didn't come anymore anyways. They finally stopped trying to convince Dream to help all the time.

They set off towards a waterfall they had discovered a few years ago. It was one of the most beautiful spots in the forest. There was flowers and green grass decorating the surroundings. By the shore, there was golden sand to play on. The water was clear and cool and a startling blue color.

They arrived and took off their shoes, crowns, shirts, and in Dream's case, his cape. They swam around, built sand castles, and weaved flower crowns. Of course, those were quickly abandoned when Dream saw a squirrel and took chase. Nightmare may have complained, but he enjoyed chasing Dream.

When they got back to the waterfall, Nightmare pushed Dream in the water. Dream gave a weak glare and asked for help climbing out. When Nightmare gave him a hand, Dream pulled him in with an 'innocent' smile. They both laughed and had an epic [heh] water fight. They walked back to the tree as the sun set and fell asleep rather quickly from their adventure.

*The Villagers*

"What are we supposed to do? Dream refuses to help!"

"Yeah! We want our positivity!"

"I'm getting overwhelmed with chores!"

"Both of the twins are a waste of space now. We can't even get to the apples."

Johnathan sighed. Being the village elder wasn't fun sometimes. They were right though. The twins were causing more trouble than they were worth.

"If he won't help, why don't we get rid of them?"

"Are you suggesting we kill them?"

"I understand for the purple freak, but for Dream?"

"No I'm not saying to kill the children. Do any of you remember the neighboring village's offer?"

"Where they offered to buy a positivity source? The tree is being guarded, we can't get to the golden apples."

"I know that! I'm not talking about the apples, idiot! I'm talking about the guardian!"

"The guardi- oh. Ohhhhh."

"We could get a lot of money out of him!"

This could work. Get rid of the positive one, have a little fun with the negative one, then take the golden apples and burn the black ones. Jonathan smiled.

"What?! Why would we get rid of the yellow one? We want as much positivity as possible."

"He won't help us and we can't keep him here. His brother would look. Why not make the most of him?"

"I like it. Let's do it." Jonathan's word made it final. Being the elder may be annoying, but it had it's perks. "Now, how are we going to do this? The negative one is a lot smarter than his brother."

The others rolled their eyes with him. It wouldn't be too hard to fool Dream. He was far too trusting and gullible. Honestly, it was a bit pathetic.

"We can say that Dream decided that he didn't want to be with such a negative freak. That's what he would do if he was smart."

"That could work. Have Dream 'leave for the other village' to get away from Nightmare. That'll explain why he isn't seen around."

The villagers smiled. This could work. If Nightmare didn't believe them, they could always kill the freak early. He was only alive because he was entertaining to beat up on. And because of Dream, but that would be irrelevant soon.

They just had to plan out a few more details and the game would begin. They were about to become very rich.

[I just reread the first chapter and realized Jonathan is from a different book of mine. I guess the village elder is always going to be Jonathan in my stories. I heard about the 'village elder' the same way I made this story. Through other fanfics, both on here and ao3. Thank you for all of the support you guys give me. It makes me so happy to get notifications about votes, reading lists, and comments. It's kinda crazy that people like my stories but I'm definitely not complaining. This chapter is kinda short and low(er) quality because I'm doing this on my phone and just winging it. Sorry for the mini essay haha. I hope you enjoyed!]