I wander around the castle, slightly bored, my job is done for today, I don’t have anything to do. Then I notice a new door, one that I know doesn’t exist. But it does now obviously, for here it is. I go through the door wondering how nobody else seems to notice it. Then the door swings shut.

I am alone.

But wait, am I? For now I realize that this unobtrusive door was really bigger on the inside. Or is it the outside? Does it even matter? This side is bigger. And it is also obviously the outside. Why else would there be a whole mountain range behind me where the door used to be? For some strange reason I’m afraid of being followed, was there something chasing me?

As soon as the door shuts, it disappears. Now I’m stranded, but that’s okay. Why is that okay? Well, I’m supposed to be picked up by my friends aren’t I? Look, here they come on their flying boat. Wait, why is it flying? I dismiss that thought. It just is flying, why doesn’t matter.

It’s sunset here. Isn’t that nice? I like sunset, or is it sunrise that is happening? The point is, it’s pretty. I don’t want the sun-something to end.

Here come my friends, they don’t seem to be slowing down. I move quickly to the side as they crash without a sound in the ground next to me. The only thing that is broken though is their icer, too bad, they had our snack in it.

The boat is manned by my three friends, all of them have wings, and now I notice with surprise that I do too. Well since I have them why not test them out? I leap into the air and everything slows down. I glide over to my friends who now seem as small as rabbits. They seem to be getting smaller. I frown and snap my wings shut. I start to fall, but I fall very slowly. The laws of gravity don’t seem to be working today. Maybe they’re sick and couldn’t come?

I get closer to my friends. There are three of them. One small and two large. The small one is even smaller than a Dwarf. Only three and a half feet tall. The others are closer to my height, but seem to be arguing, but aren’t they always arguing? I wonder what it is about this time, perhaps their respective eating habits. The small one seems to be manning the craft, I smile. Somehow I know that he is a workaholic. He notices me notice him and waves happily. I wave back and land on the boat which is now ready to set sail again.

The small one is dressed curiously with gears for buttons and a loose brown coat across his shoulders. His face is dirty with a grey dust that covers his clothes as well. It also seems to be the main design for his wings which look like a falcon’s. He is very good natured and content with his lot in life.

The other two look like complete opposites. One has a white dove’s wings, the other has black bat wings, one wears a white suit with a silver tie, the other a fuzzy black sweater and black jeans. The one in white is very stubborn and convinced that he is right. The one in black has a very devil-may-care attitude about him, and seems to be arguing with the one in white for pure amusement.

They have had this very same argument over and over again, and I don’t think they will ever stop disagreeing about it. The small one knows that this argument will go on forever if they let it, and so suggests that they agree to disagree. The one in white and the one in black agree to this arrangement, for now. Only when the small one points out to them that while they have been arguing they have had a visitor do they notice me. They greet me happily, and the white one asks my opinion over the argument. I tell them that I won’t take sides, because if I do the other one will be mad at me. The small one laughs at this and says that he takes much the same stance. We all go sailing off into the sun-something chattering happily. The broken icer left on the beach for a very confused dragon to find.

We go sailing over some clouds, and the one in black helps with the simple sail, while the one in white takes care of the rudder and the small one messes with some levers and dials, presumably to keep our height. We are sailing to their island in the sky. Where they call home.

It takes a while, and we nearly get lost in the fog until the small one is able to bring us up and then we see their home. Literally an island in the sky. No idea how it stays there, the small one tries to explain it to me but it just sounds like gibberish, the one in black explains why I can’t hear the small one with one word. Spoilers. The one in white is more effective at explaining why I can’t hear the small one right. Apparently, I’m not allowed to hear it because I haven't already figured it out for myself, that type of technology is too far ahead for my culture, and if I could replicate it I would break the space time continuum. At least that's what I think he said. Once he finished saying it, the words started to fade from my memory.

We are getting quite close to their home, when suddenly we are attacked, and by dragons wielding Icers of all things. They have Smay at their head, and they all look very infuriated. Apparently they blamed us for the breaking down of all their icers, and want revenge for all that spoiled food. One dragon was even yelling something about a head for every head of cabbage.

My small friend tries to speed up the boat and get to the island in time, but the island seems to be getting further away. I see other boats like ours trapped by dragons just a short flight from safety. The winged people in those boats jump out and try to get to the island with their wings, but the dragons easily catch up with them, and one swipe of their clawed talons causes the other winged people to fall.

The black-winged friend loses his devil-may-care attitude, and begins to look worried as he watches his other friends get captured by dragons. He and the white one begin to talk about evasion strategies. The small one brings them back on the topic of what to do in the here and now, and sets them back on their jobs of manning the sails and keeping the direction of the craft steady. Then he asks me if I have any ideas. I ask if there is an unobtrusive entrance on the underside of the island. The threesome smile, immediately understanding my intentions.

Give her all we’ve got! the white one shouts to the small one, the small one twists eight large knobs and three small ones all the way over to one side. Then he shoves a big black lever as far up as it could go. And a large red button pops up. It has a bright blue sticky note on it that says Do Not Press!! The button has a picture of a skull above two bones that are crossed in an X shape on it. The small one grins and confides in me that he has always wanted to have an excuse to do this. I raise an eyebrow at him.

The dragons are getting closer, but so is the island! Maybe we won’t have to press that scary button of doom after all! Then the dragons seem to remember as one that they can use more than their talons to catch us. The one closest to our tail lets out a blast that sets our rudder aflame. We are forced to swerve to avoid a direct hit. The white one beats out the fire with his jacket. The small one coaxes the boat to keep on going just for a little bit longer. Then, when it seems that we are about to crash into the island, the small one shouts, Now!

He pushes the button, the one in white shoves the rudder- which he has successfully put out -to one side, and the one in black loosens his grip on the sails considerably, nearly letting them go entirely. We go into a steep dive. The one in black lets out an eager whoop, the small one shouts out in pure delight, and the white one grins wildly, an expression that I realize he doesn’t use often. This time we are falling fast, very very very fast. The small one shouts. And…. Pull up! Up! Up! His voice squeaks with urgency. The black one and the white one, who had tied off the rudder, pull hard on the sail, making it go tight as a drum. We shoot back up, and then level out. We’re nearly there, I can see the hatch which we’ll go through, I can hear the dragons that were chasing us, grumping at each other, each blaming each other for losing us. Then I hear a cry, I found them! Coming from below us. I see a huge Icer swinging toward us and then everything goes dark for a single instant.

The scene changes.

Now we are being carried by the dragons into a prison. It looks a lot like the one I was in for twenty-two years. There are many other prisoners other than us. They stare at us, at me, accusingly as if I was responsible for putting them there. I see some familiar faces in the prison, my parents, some of my best friends, people that I fought with during the war, even Briareth is here. I thought a King’s Archer might be able to escape from the dragons. He is also glaring at me from behind bars though. Did I somehow hurt all of them?

“Why didn’t you save us?!” Cries Briareth, “Why didn’t you do more? I got you out of the Dwarven territory and this is how you repay me?”

Others join in his screams. “Why didn’t you save us, Faladel?” “Isn’t a prince supposed to take care of his people?” Even my father seems to blame me for this mess, his words hurt a lot, more than the rest combined. “You’re a failure as a prince and as my son. You don’t deserve to sit by my side.” Mother doesn’t even stick up for me. She just turns away. That hurts worse than anything she could have said.

“What did I do?” I cry. “I didn’t do anything! You know I wouldn’t do anything to betray the Elves!”

My Father’s voice is scornful, “It’s not what you did you dundering imbecile, it’s what you failed to do. Your lack of insight and wisdom has led us all to being captured. You’re the reason that we are all in prison currently.”

“What didn’t I do?” I whisper, defeated by my father’s words.

My mother glances over her shoulder, a look of utter disgust on her face. “Die when you were born,” She says without a pause, “and save us all from the curse that is your life.” And then turns back away from me, as if she can’t bear to keep looking at me. I’m stunned. Not Mom, too.

Father starts up a chant with the other prisoners, all my old friends. “All hail the half-wit prince. All hail Faladel Mithrandir, the curse of the Elves.” The dragon that was holding me has disappeared, I run for the door but it seems to get smaller with every step I take toward it. My head hurts. But I must continue, get away from all these accusations. I run and run and run, but when I finally reach the doors, I realize that they are sealed forever. I can’t escape the accusations, nor my father’s disdain. They are all that’s left now.

I wake up sweating, blinking away sparks in my eyes, only a feeling of desperation to escape as a remnant of my faded dream. I wonder what I was trying to escape from as I roll over and fall back to sleep, this time with no dreams.