Family of 101

Chapter 11: In the Dreamtime

Cody's POV

Everything was quiet in our home. It was rather late at night and every one of us were all wiped out after the Halloween gathering at Regent's Park. The very second my body felt the soft mattress of my bed, I was immediately out like a light. To avoid a potential stomach ache the following morning, I decided to save the sweets I had gotten from the event until tomorrow. Some of my other siblings including Dizzy and Dee Dee however didn't hesitate to stuff their faces until their buckets were almost half empty. I guess they were never told that sugar before bed supposedly increases the risk of nightmares. Not even a few seconds after I passed out on my bed, I blinked to suddenly find myself in an open field surrounded with a sky of clouds, so bright I thought this was what Heaven looked like. I felt the soft grass on my hands as I trailed them across the tiny forest of green blades until I suddenly felt the recognisable hardback paper of my sketchbook's cover. I looked down to see it on the ground with one of my sketching pencils next to it. I picked the little book of blank pages up and opened it, pencil in the other hand. I tried to look around to see if I could see anything that would give me an idea to draw. The field itself looked empty for miles, I couldn't even see any trees in the horizon. I decided to sketch out a tree I once remembered seeing back when my mom once took me to Yateley Common Country Park. As soon as I had finished adding the details to the leaves, I suddenly saw myself shrouded in a shadow and looked up to see something that wasn't there before: a tree exactly like the one I had drawn right in front of me.

I stared at the huge plant of timber and leaves stunned before looking back down at my sketchbook. Wanting to test a theory I had in my mind, I turned to my left and sketched out a simple cube on another blank page, keeping an eye on the area in front of me and when I connected the drawing's last line, a cube roughly about the size of a kitchen oven materialised in front of me. My theory was right as I came to the conclusion that I was dreaming with my sketchbook having the ability to make anything I draw appear in front of me.

I wanted to see if I could explore out of my current dream scenario so I opened another blank page and drew myself with a pair of angel wings as I felt something on my back seconds later. I glanced behind me to see a pair of pure white wings fluttering delicately. I practiced some flaps to get used to them, slowly quickening the pace of my new wings and didn't even notice I was becoming airborne until I realised that my feet weren't touching the ground. I looked down to see that I was hovering a short distance above the grass. I flapped my wings some more to gain more height and even practiced a few swoops before I then flew up to the clouds and didn't stop until I passed them. I no longer saw the fields of grass below me as they were covered by a blanket of clouds like I was above a floor of cotton. The only two things surrounding me were the pure blue sky and the bright sun, until I noticed a trail of gold glittering across the sky. The source of the trail then slowly came towards me until I saw who it was.

Dorothy with a pair of wings herself, these ones looking like those of a butterfly fluttered in front of me and smiled upon recognising me. "Hi Cody!" I suddenly heard her say, her voice having a baby-like lisp. With this being a dream, anything was possible. I waved at her, returning a smile of my own when she faced her left and her face fell into concern. "Oh no! Da Vinci's in twouble! Come on!" My eyebrows raised as Dorothy gestured me to follow her, which I did so. We both sailed above the clouds until I saw a hole in the mass of white condensed vapour. Lowering down to it, I saw Da Vinci being forced off a cliff as she fell into a mass of what looked like a mix of paint. The ones who had shoved her off were all humans and anthros in suits, surrounded by many of Da Vinci's paintings, all having tags on them with a score rating of zero. My only assumption being that these were art critics of the harshest category and they were seemingly punishing her for making art that was apparently "atrocious" in their eyes, emphasizing Da Vinci's anxiety of being judged for her work. The Dalmatian in question was slowly sinking into the paint and the mass was now up to her neck.