Lillian was back home milking the cows. She had never loved doing it, but it was one of the sacrifices she and her family had to make for fresh milk. So, her young, callused hands moved back and forth milking the cow.

There was an issue with the whole process though, she had no bucket for the milk to go into. So, the milk just dribbled onto the ground, pooling into a puddle of opaque milkiness.

Lillian knew something was wrong with the entire scene, but just glossed over it. Even if it was wrong, everything was as it should be here.

The puddle grew and grew. It kept growing much faster than she was taking milk from the cow. It grew until it consumed her legs and crawled its way up her body until she was falling into an endless void of milk.

She wasn’t drowning, she could still breathe. But the milk was everywhere, consuming her. She watched as it made its way to her home where her family had lived their entire lives. The milk consumed her mother, her father, her brothers, and her sisters. Her family had become entirely subsumed by the milk.

Then a hand reached out to her from outside of the milk and pulled her out. She was standing back on her family’s farm with Prince David. He looked a bit younger but was still the same in many ways. He was a prince, the prince, powerful and kind.

He had an empty glass in his hand. Then somehow, put all the milk that was eating her family into the cup. He stood there and took a sip from the endless milk.

“Tasty.” He grinned and looked down at Lillian.

Lillian sighed; she knew that today’s dream had been a bust. At least she didn’t need a weapon, but it was always nerve-wracking when she would be fairly defenseless for the day.

So, she walked up to the prince and bowed. Even in her dreams she should show the proper deference to her employer. Then she took the cup of milk out of his hands and closed her eyes.

As her eyes opened, she was in the cot that she had chosen for the journey. She woke with the rocking boat and the warm glass of milk still in her hand.

Theo sat beside her bed as he always did, to make sure none of her more dangerous dreams could cause any serious damage. Once he saw that it was just a glass of milk, he sighed a little and left the room, giving her as much privacy as possible.

The system had been a pain and a half to get to work properly between the two of them at first. They both had started working for the prince around the same time and thus were put into a group together. At first no one had even thought of the problem. But one time, a nightmare demon had fooled her into taking it out of dreamland and chased her down the halls while knights and guards had to fight it. Then everyone realized that Lillian might need someone to watch what she brought into the world.

Thus, Theo had trained himself to wake up thirty minutes before Lillian. And Lillian trained to make her sleep schedule as non-erratic as possible. This made them the mean and lean duo they were today.

Neither of the two had particularly liked each other at first. Theo was a nobleman’s son with a stick so far up his ass that it was a wonder he wasn’t choking on it, while Lillian was a bit of a country hick all wide eyed at the fancy palace and shiny things around her.

She never would have even thought that she could have been a part of this whole debacle without Sam the seer. Apparently, Sam had been able to see Lillian’s potential once she had been given a gift. Which prompted the prince and a whole contingent of guards to show up at her family’s farm.

Her family raised livestock, and they did it well. They provided milk to everyone in the surrounding countryside and make a killing on the meat they raised.

They were hard working folk that had been exclusively gifted by Farm, until her of course. Her mother could see the health of any livestock they were in possession of, while her father could heal them. It made for quite the dynamic duo of farmers. All her four sisters and three brothers were older than her and had followed the trend of being gifted by Farm. So, when her thirteenth birthday finally hit, Lillian had been content with her future. Maybe she would be a farmer, but she would be with her family.

Then her gift had been from Dream and had been no help on the farm. She had always been a hard worker, but with nine other people having gifts that specifically related to tending to their animals, she was hopelessly useless.

Her family didn’t really need her, even though they loved and appreciated her. She could still get into a good tussle with her brothers or listen to her mother sing her little songs to herself, or watch her father drunkenly tell some story that annoyed everyone in the family except him. But it wasn’t what she had dreamed of.

She spent her days doing her siblings’ tasks, just worse than them. She started developing a sort of inferiority complex about how little she could do to help support her family.

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Right during the worst of it was when the prince and his whole squad arrived. The family saw them coming from a mile away since they were incredibly loud, full of pomp and circumstance.

The prince stood near the back, obviously unused to being out in the farmlands on the outskirts of the kingdom, but still regal in his repose and stature. The family had all lined up near the house, hoping this was just some practical joke a neighbor had thought up. Sam was the first one to speak to the family.

“Which one of you has a gift from Dream?” Sam’s voice was soft, and their eyes were filled with kindness. Lillian shyly raised her hand, hoping she wasn’t in trouble.

After making eye contact with Lillian Sam continued while keeping their gaze focused on the young Lillian, “what are you planning to do with that gift of yours?”

Lillian paused for a moment, thinking very hard about that question. She had never even thought about what she could do with her gift, instead she had spent this whole time thinking about how her gift wasn’t from Farm. What could she do with it? Could she be a knight in shining armor making people’s dreams come true with the powers granted to her form her own?

Probably not. At the end of the day there was only one thing she ever wanted from her own power.

“To help my family.” Lillian replied with as much confidence as she could muster.

“That’s a noble goal, and something we could help you with.”

After that, Sam and the prince hashed out the details of her work, with her, her mother, and her father. Sitting around a large table made for ten, the five discussed how much she would be getting paid, and how much would be getting sent home. The prince and Sam assured her parents that she wouldn’t be getting into any danger if she didn’t want it. They discussed her living arrangement and how she would be able to send letters home.

A whole new life was made for her in front of her very eyes. It was very different compared to the farm life she had always imagined herself with. She had always thought her life would stay right in this home. With her loving and warm family.

But she left. Off to see a new world in a new place, and to be a new type of useful to her family. Right before she left her mother took her aside and gave her something.

“Lillian, I know that you have fantastical dreams in that beautiful mind of yours. But I hope that you can sleep on this and dream of home every once in a while. Just to remember that we’re here, wishing you nothing but happiness in this new adventure of yours.”

With that, Lillian’s mother handed her a pillow, and Lillian left home on the second greatest adventure of her life.

Currently, she was still in her bed embarking on the greatest adventure of her life. Both of her parents had sent very strongly worded letters trying to convince Lillian not to go, but she wanted to. The prince had done so much for her, and if she could use her ability to help him in any way, she would.

She took the pillow her mother had given her so many years ago and smelled it. The scent had faded with time, but if she stuffed her nose deep enough into the fluff, she could smell home. It was immensely comforting, especially while she was feeling a bit seasick.

Lillian stepped out and took great care to place the glass of milk somewhere it wouldn’t spill, while looking for her clothes for the day.

Once she had completely readied herself for another day of boring tedium on the high seas, she carefully picked up the glass of milk, taking care to make sure none of it spilled and stepped out into the passageways of the ship.

It was a gargantuan ship and making her way to the dining room was a laborious effort. Trying to scale a ladder one handed while trying not to spill a glass of milk was a true test of skill and willpower, but Lillian eventually made it. The trick was to clutch the milk between her arm and body to keep her hand open and able to clasp. She only spilled a little milk over herself, but hopefully someone would have a gift to get the funk out of her clothes.

As she arrived at the dining room, she spotted her prey. It was the man who had been causing her endless trouble for the past couple of months, but finally when she had been free of having to deal with him and his shenanigans he came back into her life with even more shenanigans. Sure, he was fun, but that wasn’t the point, this was about revenge.

“Good morning, Joy. Loving the sea life?” Her devilish grin was still hidden from Joy’s view. It magically disappeared as Joy turned to face her.

"Good morning to you too. I am having a blast.” Joy was bursting at the seams with energy and enthusiasm, which somehow only seemed to annoy Lillian more.

“I picked you up this glass of warm milk.” Instantly Joy’s eyes narrowed. Lillian was a nice person, but she had a prankster’s heart deep inside her. As he looked in her eyes, he saw a hint of mischief in them.

“Take a drink of it first.” Joy figured she had slipped something into his drink, maybe she got one of the sailors to piss in it.

At first Lillian played mock hurt at being accused of doing something untoward to Joy’s glass. But her grin seemed to get a little wider, not that Joy noticed.

“Why are you so distrustful Joy? What have I ever done to you?” Then she took a big old swig of the drink. Joy was so intently watching her face for any sign of discomfort or revulsion that he didn’t notice that the glass of milk was just as full as before she took that drink. “See, nothing wrong with it.” Lillian pronounced as she licked the excess milk off her lips.

Joy was still suspicious, but it would just be rude if he didn’t drink it now. So, he grasped the glass and slowly raised it to his lips.

Once the lip of the cup touched the lips of Joy, Lillian struck. Her hand snaked underneath the glass and tipped it so that he couldn’t stop the deluge of milk. Joy expected the dousing to last a second or so once it happened. It was a bit embarrassing, but honestly not that creative for Lillian. He had expected better.

But the milk never stopped running. More and more milk came out of the glass, until Joy pulled himself away gasping for air. Once Joy had escaped from the flowing milk Lillian turned the glass upright and it seemed like a normal glass of milk again. Still full, despite dousing Joy moments earlier.

“Did you dream up a glass of never-ending milk?” Joy asked as he wrung the milk out of his clothes, to no success.

Instead of answering Lillian stood up on the table and shouted to the entire dining room. “Free and fresh milk for anybody who wants it.”

As people shuffled over to her table, she poured out glass after glass of milk. Smiling and cracking jokes with her colleagues, a glow of warmth pervaded the room. Everyone had a glass of milk that tasted just like her home.

Except Joy, he went off sulking hoping to find someone with a liquid based gift to dry his clothes. Milk stinks and he did not bring many spare changes of clothes. He didn’t want to start getting too cheesy on everyone.