I MUST BE BUILDING UP THIS DREAM TOLERANCE, EXFLIBBERAGUIL THOUGHT HAPPILY.

I’m conscious when I’m in a dream. That’s a step in the right direction. Exflibberaguil stretched and looked around. I can feel the stretch. That’s refreshing.

Exflibberaguil looked around and frowned with displeasure. The dream was a little too uncomfortably realistic. He felt none of the blissful happiness of normal dreams, but the crushing weight of reality. Very real problems were in his head like I’m doomed, and I didn’t eat lunch.

And there was also the absence of his bubble wand which always appeared in most of his dreams, except this one. He tried to will it into existence, but it only made him look constipated.

Another time, he thought sadly.

As he looked around, he realized he was in a very familiar featureless room, which made sense because he once heard dreams were just a way of coping with reality. Situated around him were his captors, which included a heavily bandaged and bald Oakley.

This was what first struck Exflibberaguil strange. Rarely did new things appear in dreams, because dreams almost always consisted of things already seen. It amazed Exflibberaguil that his imagination could come up with a completely new hairstyle and look for Oakley without seeing her in real life.

Exflibberaguil grinned. Even his imagination was superior to others.

After a while of sitting and looking –he didn’t know how long since a minute in dreams could be an hour in real life—Exflibberaguil resolved to sit up and approach the other figures, to see if he could touch them. He could already feel the floor, though perhaps it may have just been what he was currently sleeping on. But could his hands invent the illusion of human flesh?

Exflibberaguil stood up and walked briskly toward Timothy—

--and smacked spectacularly into a glass pane.

Exflibberaguil uttered a sharp cry of pain and fell back. Instead of being frustrated, however, he marveled at the strength of his imagination. Who knew one could feel pain in a dream?

Oakley began to stir, though the doctor and Timothy stayed snoring. Exflibberaguil was examining the glass. Was it glass? Or was it something like a forcefield he conjured to prevent himself from touching the others? And how did he do it?

“Keep it down!” Oakley yelled, her eyes still shut tight.

“What an incredible dream!” Exflibberaguil exclaimed, just to see if he could provoke an answer from fake Oakley.

“Dream?” She suddenly sat up and blinked. “Why are you in it?”

“Amazing,” Exflibberaguil breathed. “I also made you have a conscious mind too! My power is legendary.”

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Oakley tried to pinch herself, but a cast made her hand immobile. She resolved in smashing the cast against her leg. “Ow. No, this isn’t a dream, buddy.”

Exflibberaguil looked even more surprised. “Incredible—”

“Look, pinch yourself and if you don’t wake up, it’s not a dream.”

Exflibberaguil widened his eyes. “I must have underestimated you. Your kind has remedies for problems Mustela has taken thousands of years to solve. One other these unsolved problems are how one is to determine if one is dreaming or living and if living is a dream and the dream world is real—”

“Look, pinch yourself or something, and the pain with bringing you to your senses.”

“Pain?” Exflibberaguil said dubiously, his face changing immediately. “I smacked myself into a forcefield. I felt the pain. I’m capable of imagining the pain.”

By now, both the doctor and Timothy were stretching and waking up.

Oakley shook her head in pity. “You’re too young for this wisdom, I guess. You can’t dream of pain. The only cure to dreams in a good pinch. Isn’t that right, doctor?”

“Mm…yeah…” the doctor murmured, turning over and trying to sleep.

“You have medical proof,” Oakley said smugly.

“…I suppose I can’t say anything against that,” Exflibberaguil sighed. “Darn. I was having so much fun in this dream.”

“But isn’t it the same dream? I mean, you were awake the whole time,” Oakley asked.

“It isn’t the same. It makes all the difference. I have no more imagination than ape-beings.”

“I see,” Oakley replied unconvincingly. She began towards Exflibberaguil.

“You’ll bump into a glass wall,” Exflibberaguil said, right as she smacked into it.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Oakley yelled, rubbing her nose.

“I did. I said there was a force field, didn’t I? And that I bumped into it and it caused me pain. I just assumed you were able to put the two together and form a logical hypothesis. I assumed wrong.”

Oakley glared at him, before examining the glass. “Shatterproof?” she asked.

“Are you stupid?”

Oakley ignored him. “Clever, though I can’t see why they’d let us communicate. And I don’t suppose you know who they are?”

That was right. Exflibberaguil still hadn’t gotten the chance to explain.

“Rabbits,” he said.

Oakley snorted. “Funny.”

Exflibberaguil didn’t answer. He had expected some sort of disbelief. All Sodriew were alike in that way. They weren't very accepting of new ideas. “What I find funny was that you ran about in the maze with no exit," Exflibberaguil said after a pause, expecting some sort of surprise or agitation.

“Oh, I knew there was no exit,” Oakley replied breezily. “Wouldn’t have been much of torture if there was one.”

“You knew?” Exflibberaguil replied in disbelief. “Then why did you keep…”

“Boy,” Oakley replied, looking into his eyes, “it wasn’t the exit that was important. It was the spirit, which honestly, those two didn't have much of." She jutted her thumb toward the two still sleeping figures.

"Spirit?"

Oakley shrugged. "It's what keeps you going, you know? It's the inner motivation that fuels you. It is, essentially, the meaning of life."

"The meaning of life is the reproduction and preservation of one's species," Exflibberaguil recited flatly.

Oakley furrowed her brow. "That's depressing, isn't it? Where'd you get that from?"

"It's a known fact."

Oakley shrugged and sighed. "Well, that's a disappointment. I was hoping you could keep the spirit and fight back as I did. You're next. But I always thought children were a little more motivated. You're strange."

"Funny coming from a weirdo like you," Exflibberaguil replied.

Oakley looked at him in confusion. "Now why--"

"I hope you've all had a good sleep. I made sure of it," said a new voice. "And you two had quite an interesting chat. But I recommend, redhead, to go back to sleep. We have something tiring prepared for you."