What A Dream Wants

"Welcome back, Master."

He opened his eyes.

It was a girl with dark olive hair tied into a braid. She was sitting on a small fluffy cloud above him, letting her legs dangle. Beyond her was the indigo night sky, filled with innumerable stars.

Wisps swirled around his feet. He was standing on clouds.

"Stop," Steven g.r.o.a.n.e.d, annoyed. "Don't call me master. I told you, it was an accident."

"Mmhm~" Olivia replied. "Right, how was your first day of school?" She smirked. "I'm sure it was great."

"It was decent."

"I'm sure you made tons~ of friends," Olivia smirked.

"Don't tease him, Olive." A blonde hair guy with dark purple eyes calmly said.

"Don't call me Olive," Olive protested indignantly. "It's Olivia."

"Yeah Olive," Steven smirked, "Don't tease me."

"Yeah, yeah whatever," Olive shot back.

"Hey, we actually have business today, so don't dawdle."

"Alright, Mr. Lucky, whatever you say. You're the boss!" Oliva said in a patronizing manner.

"Just... call me Lukas. Please." Lukas sighed. "There's no need to bicker every single day."

"Alright, don't you mean every single night?"

Lukas stared.

"Alright, today, we're transporting a customer from the actual world to the Ethereal Realm. He's already waiting for us." Lukas addressed them.

"Already at the border?" Steven asked.

"Yeah."

Olivia sniffed in disdain.

"An escort mission? What a low-level job..."

"Rank corresponds to how much they pay." Lukas shrugged.

"It's so boring though... and you know they're doing this on purpose."

"Nothing we can do about it," Lukas replied back. "Let's get a move on."

"Alright," Steven answered. Masks suddenly materialized, hiding their face, while cloaks fluttered onto them. The tumbling clouds were overtaken by the sound of silence.

. . .

Mist crept everywhere.

"He's there," Olive whispered. Across the ocean, a gigantic landmass that seemed to stretch out across the horizon was revealed. The only sound that could be heard was the black water crashing onto the shore where more mist loomed. The skies were gray and dreary, filled with dark black clouds.

A figure was standing... waiting by the sandy shore.

"We've arrived," Lukas said to the man. "We will ferry you across."

A boat appeared.

Without speaking a word, the man got on.

Time seemed to distort while distance warped around them.

A few minutes? A few hours? It was hard to tell. Behind them, the landmass was slowly covered by the mist, and now, nothing except the fog and dark clouds resided beside them.

Suddenly, sunlight peeked through the gray skies. The mist disappeared, revealing a blue sky. The dark clouds were replaced by white clouds. And a harbor appeared on a sandy beach.

They reached the harbor and the man stepped off.

The boat disappeared.

. . .

"Alright, we're done, right?" Olivia asked. "Free time for us?"

They took their masks and cloaks off.

"We don't have any other requests, so I assume so," Lukas answered.

"I feel tired today," Olivia said.

"You're gonna dispel your consciousness?" Steven asked.

"Mhm. You know... normal people call it dreaming, right?"

"I-" Steven started to say.

Okay, bye!" Olivia said, disappearing.

'That hag.'

"Hey Luke, I'm gonna explore," Steven said. "Is that fine?"

"Yeah, I guess. I got other matters to attend to." Lukas said. "Do what you want."

Lukas disappeared.

Silence.