Chapter 1: Scared of Dreaming

The Dark Burdens of Solarist

Chapter 1: Scared of dreaming

Ruby finished her dinner, and went to get ready for bed. She brushed her teeth and snuggled down into her soft comfy bed, scared to fall asleep. Scared to be evil, scared to kill heartlessly. Next minute, Grace came pounding into the room screaming at Ruby,

“HI RUBY, WHY ARE YOU IN BED SO EARLY??”

“I want to try get as much sleep in as possible. You know because I’m sort of a bit scared to dream,” Ruby replied, not purposely sounding intelligent.

“Oh come on, silly, stop being a baby,”

“Grace it’s not funny, you know I’m genuinely scared because of what happened last time,” Ruby said, and then turned around to ignore Grace.

“One time or another I will barf at you going to bed so early, it’s disgusting...in some way,”

Ruby didn’t reply, and pretended to be asleep.

“Ok, suit yourself, I’m going out to get ice-cream,” Grace rolled her eyes and walked out the room.

Ruby turned back around to see if Grace left. She stared at the ceiling for a couple of boring minutes. She closed her eyes, and begged not to ever go back to Solarist. As her eyelids grew heavy, a colourful swirl appeared into her mind. Ruby found herself sitting on a familiar throne, in a familiar palace.

“NOOOO!” Ruby screeched. “Come on, WAKE UP RUBY,” she kept telling herself. She was wearing a big cream coloured gown with layers of gold melted into beautiful patterns, she was holding a shiny, sky blue staff with a blue diamond on top. Ruby cried, as much as she liked feeling rich she hated this place. Ruby was alone, Grace wasn’t there, neither was Tania or Toni. Suddenly she heard loud footsteps, a maid came, this time it wasn’t Mary. It was a man, in a white ball gown and red high heels, his beard swishing around. All the other maids were smirking at him.

“I guess you’ve learnt your lesson, haven’t you?” said one of them, the others cracked up laughing. Ruby giggled to herself.

“Someone care to tell what’s going on?” demanded Ruby with a slight smirk. The man looked up at her. He went on his knees.

“Well, it’s a long story. Your majesty, I am being punished,” he answered.

“Go get changed, you’ve had your humiliation,” Ruby told him “They will stop laughing at you,” Ruby may not be able to leave this star, so she wanted to make the most of it, and make it a better place, and rule fairly.

Ruby woke up to find Grace rushing over to her.

“Ruby,” she panted, “I’m sorry for disturbing your sleep, I get that you’re still scared-”

“No, I’m not!” Ruby interrupted. “It’s kind of my fault anyway. You were right, I am a bit of a baby, because it’s not like I actually died…”

“Girls! Breakfast!!” Mum shouted from downstairs. The hungry twins came rushing down the stairs to find a stack of pancakes and maple syrup on the table. They dug into their servings and got ready for school. As they walked out the door,

“HAVE A GOOD DAY!” Mum shouted. They rolled their eyes and in return,

”BYE MUM,” they said. Ruby wanted to tell Grace she was back in Solarist, but then she didn’t want her to worry, so she decided to keep quiet. They walked into Ruby’s class and found their teacher, Mrs. Roberts sound asleep in her chair. They giggled at each other as she started to snore. The girls went to wake her up, they poked her gently.

“Oh goodness!” she awoke with a surprise. “Thank you my dearies, my goodness, how embarrassing. I must not have had enough coffee this morning,” Mrs Roberts joked. The girls laughed. They walked out of the room, and into Grace’s classroom.

“Good morning, Sir. How are you today?” Grace said, cheerfully.

“My, what lovely manners, Grace. Why, I’m fine today!” he answered. “And who is this?” he pointed at Ruby.

“Oh um, hi?” Ruby greeted him.

“Sir, this is my twin sister, Ruby,” Grace nudged Ruby, softly.

After a short conversation, they walked out the door when Ruby whispered

“Does he not know it’s rude to point?”

“I don’t know, go ask him,” Grace pushed Ruby towards the door.

Soon an average day of school passed, and the girls walked home with Toni and Tania, their twin friends who they met in Solarist.

“So, have any of you guys had some interesting dreams recently,” Toni joked.

“You mean nightmares,” Grace replied.

“It was sort of cool. It was like a play date every night,” Tania shrugged.

Ruby wanted to talk about her dream from the previous night but said nothing. She didn’t want them to know.

That night both sets of twins fell asleep and Ruby appeared in her throne in Solarist. The man was changed into some more suitable clothes.

“How may I help you, my queen?” he said.

“You can send some supplies to the villagers for me please,” Ruby replied. The servant looked shocked, but did as Queen Ruby instructed.

“On my way, your majesty,” he bowed. The servant scampered away to gather all the resources.