Summary: I don't know if anyone remembers or still watches a cartoon called "The Dreamstone" but I used to love it when I was a kid. This is based on a little dream I had a few weeks ago, which caused me to remember it. Basically it's a girl standing alone in the Land of Nightmares…unless you ever watched it that probably means nothing to you but I hope that if you're reading out of curiosity you will appreciate this. It was a beautiful cartoon that seems to have disappeared off the face of Earth (in the U.K. anyway!).

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with "The Dreamstone" - when it was on in the U.K. about twelve years ago it was owned by Carlton and CITV, I don't know who owns it now but I'm just borrowing it and make no profit from this what so ever. However the girl described is my own creation.

Rating: PG just to be safe in case it's a bit "dark"…although I think I suck at dark writing…ah well.

Nightmares

It was dark, not complete blackness but gloomy enough for the mysterious aura of death to encircle every particle of anything that lived but most things had already fallen victim to it's merciless grip, lying forever frozen in time. The sky oozed with blood, a red curtain scattering over the endless horizon lifted high above the jagged rocks bowing beneath it's threatening form. The black clouds released their menace and anger as they rolled along engulfing what little light there was showering onto the barren landscape stretching for miles into nothing. They split open much like a skull fallen foul of an axe, powerful electricity jumped from it's prison of collective water droplets sheering through a rock face and scattering the disturbed boulders to the four corners of this miserable land.

She looked skywards from where she was silently standing, the thunder clap rumbling into her ears had broken her from her trance, her mind numbing activity of staring at the thirsty ground resting underneath her tatty leather sandals. She sighed, she did not belong here, and she wanted to leave this wretched place. A forceful gust of wind rushed past her, the hairs on the back of her slender neck stood on end prickling down her unhealthy flesh. Everything here was in a sickly state, skin remained white for no sun ever emerged to taint it. This land was truly one of nightmares.

That is the name of this forgotten place, the land of nightmares where even the very bravest of souls were drained of all colour at the thought of setting a single foot on its soils. Everywhere harboured a new danger, a hideous monster complete with hundreds of knife like teeth feasting on the bones of the dead, a creeper plant ready to trip the unwary, a steep drop into a bottomless pit around the corner of a towering mountain. If there was anything that being forced to live here had taught her it was to be cautious and selfish for ones own existence. The wind filtered through her black wire hair, she swept it back behind her hunched shoulders once the breeze died away and relaxed, he was calling her.

The girl turned, picking up her great purple skirt between nimble fingers to avoid tripping herself towards the uninviting ground. Once at rest she looked back towards the aged footbridge hanging by a thread over a darkened chasm. It led to the centrepiece of this land - the Black Mountain of Viltheed. The sight of the ominous sphere of the Red planet of Doom hanging behind the tallest tower of the inferior mountain never failed to overpower her and make her jaw drop. In wide-eyed awe she felt helpless, drawn in by its beauty and wonder but sickened by its evil. She slapped a single hand over the chiselled features of her face to break the spell. She was young and could boast a well formed face had it not been for her time here. Fear and loathing for her current position had affected her greatly; once past her twenties she knew that age would show no thanks to the cruelty she endured. She had also lost her humanity over the few years she had been a prisoner in a land only found in the darkest corner of the most twisted mind. A little delightful girl had been replaced by a snarling teenager, every layer of her character torn away and sanded down leaving a bitter being in its place. It had been so long since another human being had crossed her path, emotions within her were as lost as a needle in a haystack. She pondered this and smiled - at least she could remember that needles and haystacks were part of a very cliché Earth saying.

Nobody would believe that a whole population of beings lived in a vast city beneath that mountain, it lay as still as the night with no sign of any other creature present in the entire surrounding area but this one lonely girl. The mountain had always scared her to the marrow in her delicate bones for its entrance was fashioned as the mouth of a dragon, lengthy stalactites and stalagmites rose from the roof of its mouth and the floor to form alarmingly realistic teeth. A pathway had been carved to one side of this mouth allowing access to the inside, the endless corridors and chambers within its gut but often this doorway bellowed with smoke or fire and the churning screams of those unfortunate enough to be in its path rang out towards the purple mist of Limbo - perhaps even heard in the so called forbidden land on the opposite side.

She chuckled to herself with a slight evil twang in her throat, she was only forbidden to journey there because there lay the happy, bright and care free Land of Dreams. If she were to succeed in travelling there she would never return and then where would he be without his human slave running around to clean up the messes left by the other beings in their tireless quest to overthrow the most precious object to touch the entire planet with its magic, the object that by merely existing thwarted his plans.

Urpneys, she thought, the most useless creatures to wonder the planets surface with one exception. The surprisingly intelligent Frizz - her favourite. Frizz has always tried to understand her predicament, she had been taken away from those who loved her to a strange and frightening land, forced to serve a servant of evil and at the same time lost everything that made her human. He only understood because he was the only Urpney with half a brain in his head to question the environment he lived in and secretly the hierarchy he was forced to worship. He would never speak out, if he did so he would be banished to the Pit of No Return where disgusting water creatures would tear into his flesh with their mighty pincers and crunch on his defenceless bones with their enormous fangs. The only person he could talk to was the girl and he would do anything he could to help her find a way home but at the same time he too wanted to escape the place he dwelled through accident of birth. She saw him approaching across the footbridge, the look on his face was of concern and instantly she knew that he had been sent to bring her back inside before she could even think of running.

Urpneys are strange little creatures. They are about the height of a ten-year-old child and resemble very slightly a cross between a goblin and a dwarf. She often grinned at this observation whenever an Urpney came into sight. Their skin was of a leathery texture and quite pink, complete with purple blemishes upon their irregularly shaped noses. These spots were present on the small tails that sprouted from them, poking through their dark medieval styled clothing with three small spikes along the tip. Their eyes were rounded and wide giving them a permanent perplexed expression, framed by tufts of short multicoloured hair. Of course no Urpney had multicoloured hair, like humans they have many different shades but a wider natural range. As Frizz arrived at the girl's side stray strands of his pale blue hair were poking in an unruly manner from beneath the helmet resting idly on his head. He looked up at her with his black eyes and saluted her with a grubby hand above his bushy eyebrows.

"Madam…it is time to return, you belong inside where the Master can protect you…" he whispered as she knelt to his level to avoid straining against the now howling winds. She sighed and fingered at the hilt of her dagger absent mindedly, twisting it in the restraint, which held it to her belt. "I know you don't wish to stay here but if you fail to escape your fate is far worse, please come back inside…I'll have nobody to talk to…"

"You have your wish Frizz…I will return, but remember there is a world in that vast space above this awful skyline that is my home. It is my destiny to return there and forget the horrors of this place once and for all…I can feel it," she said, rising slowly to her feet. He bowed respectfully and offered a tiny hand for her to take, she did this with a sting of reluctance in her decayed heart and walked glumly as he led her back over the chasm towards the mountain. It was pathetic that her only friend was not even of the same species as her but she was glad of his company, she would have gone insane had it not been for his determination to make her feel welcome as a living being rather than a reluctant slave.

The teeth of the dragon dangled above her head now as they entered the mountain, the light of the Viltheedian day sunk behind them both leaving them in the dank bowls of the mountain ready to face the doom of their masters wrath. She loosened her grip on Frizz's hand and began to slip away into a cold memory. The memory of the night when her world had been shattered into a thousand fragments leaving her life as a useless shadow of its former self. A tear forced itself from the corner of her left eye and rolled down her cheek to let its presence be known. As the cold of that liquid surged across her skin she knew that all was not lost. If a memory could erupt emotions long buried to the surface once again then perhaps the time of her release was not too far away…maybe someday, she thought.

NOTES: Hmm can you believe all the details are from memory? I'll admit I have made Frizz out of character because from what I remember he was a little wimp! The rest of it is hopefully accurate…I don't know. I expect no reviews anyway because nobody ever remembers this cartoon! Ah well I enjoyed writing that, there could be more if my mind allows it…I have no idea where it would go but there is room for a story here don't you think?