Andie took a few moments to admire the newborn Dream. She wanted to stay longer, but mindscapes were a very personal place - the kind of place you shouldn’t be without a damn good reason. So, Andie did a quick check to see if Cedric was still around or had silently fucked off - as tired Cedrics were prone to doing. Since he had indeed gone home, Andie decided to follow suit. She’d expected to wind up on the rooftop she’d entered the mindscape from, but instead had appeared in Dyllan’s room. Not totally unexpected, but the accidental intrusion upon her friend’s privacy caught Andie off guard and left her a little flustered.

It didn’t matter. Andie was leaving anyway. She made a beeline for the nearest and only window inside Dyllan’s room - phasing through it and leaping off the fire escape ladder on the other side. Dyllan’s apartment was part of a pretty tight cluster of buildings, so it was easy enough to make your way up by bouncing from wall to wall. Well, easy for a dreamwalker.

With a completely unnecessary flip, Andie landed on the rooftop of a skyscraper. Which one, she wasn’t sure. She hadn’t been paying attention. It wasn’t exactly important, anyway - all that mattered was that she was high up enough to really feel the cool night air. To let the wind blow through her. She had a habit of doing this every time she’d won something she’d almost lost… especially if it was something important.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

First, all the tension, fear, and heat in Andie’s body settled down in the pit of her stomach and began to melt into an uneasy calm. Then a vaguely pleasant feeling rose up through her like helium, leaking out through a smile on her face. Finally, there came her favorite part. Everything inside her just exploded with joy, sending a high voltage current of pride and relief up her spine - a feeling that just could not be contained. Before she knew it, she was grinning like a maniac, spinning in circles and gleefully punching the air. Everything just felt right. Maybe it was a bit selfish to enjoy playing the hero so much, but she couldn’t help herself! Leaping through the sky, saving lives, and smashing through the forces of darkness was just too much… fun? Fun was the wrong word. It felt too cheap, but she couldn’t think of a better one.

“Hey there, Sprout!” A familiar voice came from behind Andie - though without the crinkles of age she was used to. “Would it be too forward of me to assume this little dance means the awakening went well?”