Dreams of Arithmia

It was a Friday, and her workplace had a strict no-work policy on the weekends. Hanako turned her phone off when she got home and put it on the kitchen counter. She took off her work clothes and changed into her pajamas. It was a dalmatian onesie.

Hanako quickly ate a small chocolate cake she bought on her way back. She usually avoids foods full of sugar, especially this close to bedtime, but her father always said "a birthday without a cake is not a birthday!"

She washed her hands, brushed her teeth, sat down in her kotatsu and started looking through her notebooks. She didn't go straight to bed after coming home, because she learnt in her research that being 'tired enough' is important. If your body is not sending clear signals it wants to sleep, you'd essentially be wasting time. She used to have nothing better to do anyway, until she discovered world building some odd years ago. She started carefully crafting her own dreamworld. She even bought some tabletop RPG guides for game masters and world building. There was a brief moment of "maybe I should find a group to play with", but that thought quickly disappeared. Her notebooks were labeled 'Arithmia', the biggest one, full of sticky notes, crossed out ideas and sketches, 'd'Algebria', the one she just finished the other day, describing a new region full of places perfect for Lucy to visit, and 'things to try'. She picked that one up, opened up on a page with a dog ear and crossed out "egyptian 12 cubit rope (harpedonaptae)". It was a notebook for things she's read about, but would never in normal circumstances get to try, like measuring property lines the egyptian way. Granted, she is not sure whether she actually did it, because remembering the details of a dream is quite hard, but she had much more important business today.

"What should we do for your birthday? You liked beetles, but we already flew on them last year... Robots? Arithmia isn't so advanced yet... Cars? There are no cars in my dream world, we use—"

Eureka!

A true light bulb moment. Lucy started planning out the events.

***

In her kitchen cupboard she hid a jar of melatonin gummies - her sleep aid. She doesn't really like eating them, they do help with falling asleep, but she doesn't really need help with that anyway. She's saving them for special occasions, when she's excited and can't fall asleep. And she's excited. It does make her dreams last longer and be more vivid, but it usually starts with a nightmare.

She turned all the lights off, did some light stretches and entered her bedroom. Air purifier made her bedroom the pleasant kind of cold. She tucked herself in under her weighted blanket and started 4-7-8 breathing. Breathe in for 4, hold for 7, exhale for 8. All through nose, mouth breathing made her groggy in the morning.

***

Hanako went behind the school building as she was ordered to by her classmates. It was fall, leaves falling, cloudy sky about to start raining. Three girls appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

-Look, she's already here! So fast on her feet, I wonder if she was so fast to leave her little brother behind.

-How about we ask her?

-Have you ever heard her speak anything that makes sense?

I don't like where this is going, I should go.

-Where do you think you're going? Catch her.

What's going on? Why am I running so slowly?

-How about we make sure she doesn't run away anymore? Or run in general?

Girls surrounded Hanako and tied a rope around her right leg, painfully tight. Hanako shriek in pain.

-Pick her up, we'll see how she'll like getting left behind. Actually, we'll leave her hanging.

Hanako's classmates started laughing maniacally. It seemed they wanted to hang her upside down on a tree.

-NO! Not my leg! It's already...

Sudden realization hit. She's lived this situation already. She couldn't remember how she got here, couldn't run well, and didn't need a cane. She was in a dream. All of the fear left her. In her world she made all the rules. She whistled with her fingers and then barking was heard coming from every direction. Dogs of all races jumped out from behind every corner and surrounded the girls. One of the summoned dogs bit through the rope, others started making moves towards the bullies.

-Not today. I need you for something today and I'd rather you're not covered in blood.

Lucy calmed the dogs. They heeded her command and started following their master.

I believe the nearest door is right around the corner.

Doors were powerful. In order to change the place, you could technically go around a corner of some place and land somewhere completely different. But that would make it less believable. Lucid dreamers needed to carefully thread between their fantasies and things that break the immersion, otherwise they would wake up. And so all kinds of entrances, doors and windows most popular, are used to lead into worlds of their own creation.

Hanako grabbed the handle and opened the doors. Bright colors from inside filled her field of vision. Cold weather changed for a pleasant warmth of a place that knew only summer. Doors lead her into royal castle's hallway. She was wearing her blue cardigan, grey gloves and magical bag. Lucy and Planck were advisors to the king. Well, Lucy was. And Planck could be seen as Lucy's advisor. Which made him Royal Advisor's Advisor. But that's a mouthful so no one calls him that. Nonetheless he had a room in the castle! Lucy headed straight to his room and opened the doors to an adolescent boy's room without knocking.