Lei.. You need to wake up! A familiar voice called out. Lei~ KAMALEI! She jerked awake, but woke again in this galaxy-like place. 

“Ugh, not this again. Why did it call me my actual name?” Lei sighed, the dream that she had last night repeating itself again. “Why can’t I ever just not dream when I fall asleep~” She whined.

“That’s crazy, I can’t relate.” A voice called out from afar. It was the same voice that was saying her name, telling her to wake up. 

“Wha.. Who goes there??” Lei said, concerned because her dream wasn’t like this last time. Behind her, she heard the voice again.

“I’m right here, calm down.” They said, cooly. Lei turned around quickly and met eyes with the person who had been calling her name.  A beautiful young woman, who looked just around her age. She had light brown hair, which was wavy and shone as if it were wet. The womans face had freckles lining under her eyes and over her nose, and she seemed to have the perfect face shape. Why was someone so beautiful calling to her? She looks exactly like how I want to look, Lei sighed. 

“Oh… Wow.. Hi, I’m Lei, You are?” She asked, dumbfounded. She was mesmerized by this woman’s perfect face and hair and everything about her. 

“You can just call me Des..” The woman said casually. “I already know who you are, Mikayla-Marie Kekamaleihiwalani Hew-Len.  I was the one who offered you a job.” A job? 

Lei was caught off-guard. “Wait, how do you know my government name? And the post it-”

“Yes the post-it, I put it there. ” Des sighed, as if she were annoyed by the fact Lei was surprised. “And it’s not important how I know your full name.” 

“Not important..? Wait, what do you mean, put the post-it there. You’re from my dreams.” Lei stated, puzzled. 

“Huh… You have a lot to learn…” Des sighed, putting her palm over her face. “It’s okay. I’ll teach you all you need to learn about dreamwalking. You could call it training.” Training? Lei attempted to wake herself up, as she did not want to exercise this early in the morning. Shoot, what is up with this dream. I’m not waking up! Lei thought. “Oh my god. Are you that slow?” Des said, sounding irritated. “This isn’t a dream, hello. I thought you would have got that on your own.” Lei felt kind of stupid. This beautiful woman just said she was slow. She would do everything in her power to change that. But, this isn’t a dream? She thought. Des interrupted her thoughts. “Yes, this isn’t a dream, and today, you will officially earn the title of dreamwalker.” 

A dreamwalker? Lei thought to herself. This sounds like something straight out of a movie… 

“Alright. I’ll go through the basics of what a dreamwalker is. I’ll try to explain it in a way that your… Mind can understand.” Des sighed. “A dreamwalker is kind of like it sounds. We go into other people’s dreams to fight against these little monsters called Mera. Mera cause nightmares in normal people’s dreams. Our goal as dreamwalkers is to find the leader and creator of these Mera, and take him down. His name is Cee. We still haven’t found him, but for some reason I feel like you’ll help us figure it out.” Des paused. “You got all that?” She asked. Lei stood, kind of confused.

“I think…” She responded, slowly.

“Great!” Des responded. “Then follow me, I’ll show you where we train.”

Lei followed behind Des, confused where anything would be in this galaxy-like place. Then, suddenly there was a bright light. Des walked into the light, so Lei followed. The light around her faded away, and soon she was standing on a hardwood floor, in a gigantic house. She looked around. How did she get here just by following Des? She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around. Des was standing behind her. 

“So how you like it?” Des asked Lei. “This is the house where Dreamwalkers come together to talk with each other and train. I’ll show you around.”

Lei got a tour of the house, passing by bathrooms, dorm rooms, and the kitchen and living room, then stops at the training center. “So this is where you guys train to fight Mera?” Lei asked. 

“Ding ding,” Des responded. “We go into this little door right here and it does a simulation on us basically mirroring exactly what would happen if we were to get in a fight with a Mera in real life.” Lei was amused. Des continued, “Except here, we don’t get hurt physically.” Lei nodded after every word Des said. 

“Okay, so how do I train?” She asked.
Des smiled and chuckled. “Okay, you’re so impatient, come in here.” Des walked in the door, and Lei followed. Suddenly the space around her turned into that purple galaxy she was in earlier, and she heard a low growl. Mera? She thought. These things sound scary. But there were no monsters in sight. She saw Des ahead, and decided to go over to her. She was next to her when suddenly a black and purple orb surrounded by gas appeared in front of her face. Lei screamed.
“AAA WHAT-” She started. 

“Shut up,” Des laughed. “This is what Mera are.” She swung her hand and the Mera sliced in half, almost as if it were magic. “First training test, failed!” Des pointed and laughed at Lei. “Let’s try this again.” She chuckled.

So, they tried again. And again. Eventually, 3 Mera appeared total and Lei wasn’t able to take down one. She needed something to fight with, she couldn’t fight with her bare hands. “How do you slice the Mera like that?” She asked. 

“Oh, that? Shoot, I probably should have took you there before we started training. What I use to fight Mera is a special weapon, that you get from a machine. It basically scans you and gives you a weapon that suits you and your skills best.” Des responded cooly. Lei was annoyed. 

“You didn’t think of giving me a WEAPON before we fought MERA?” Lei snapped, and sighed. “Gosh… Where do I get this weapon thing then?” Des was kind of embarrassed. 

“I’ll show you.” She sighed.

Lei followed Des into the light again, returning back to the room they were in before they started training. Des sat near a clear machine. 

“Okay, this is the weapon-printer-thing..? Basically just sit here, click this green button, and a weapon will appear. You can’t change the weapon you get, because it’s designed specially for you based off of your skills, like I said earlier.” She said.

“Great, so I just.. Touch this?” Lei said, as she pressed the small green button on the machine. Suddenly, green smoke filled the machine, and Lei noticed there was something inside it now. She looked closer, and there was a black and green pocket knife in the machine, that seemed to have a dragon carved on it. Woah, Is this my weapon? She thought. Des stood up and peered through the glass machine. 

“Woah, a pocket knife- what color is the blade?” She asked, before opening the machine and handing the small weapon to Lei. Lei flipped it open, unveiling the jet-black color of the blade, complimenting the sharp edge and hole in the middle, giving it a ninja-like finish. Des’ jaw dropped instantly. “No way! A black weapon? Only the best dreamwalkers ever get black weapons.” She said, admiring the sleek black blade. Des’ phone rang. Answering it, she spoke casually. “Ethan, where are you?” Lei heard soft noises coming from the phone, but couldn’t understand what the person on the other end was saying. “Yes, we’ve been here for so long already. Literally where are you.” Des said. “No, just hurry up and get here I want you to meet the new member.” She sighed, as she clicked the bright red button on her phone, hanging up. 

“What was that about?” Lei asked with a chuckle. 

“Oh, I want you to meet one of my friends. He’s a dreamwalker too, and I think you two will be great friends.” Des said, smiling. “He was supposed to be here 30 minutes ago, but I guess it’s fine that he’s late.” She rolled her eyes. Suddenly, the door behind them opened. 

“I’m here, you emo.” A voice called behind them. “Hi, I’m Ethan. I’m a junior in high school, nice to meet you.” He said, dapping Lei up. 

“Lei. Same here.” Lei responded, unsure of when she even learned how to dap up people.  

“Great, now that we’re all here, let’s go back and train so Lei can defeat her first Mera!”

The three of them head back to the training area, back to the galaxy-like surroundings that Des and Lei fought Mera in earlier. Lei heard a low growl around her, and a Mera appeared above Ethan. Quickly, he shot what looked like a laser-beam at the Mera, and it disappeared. Cool.. Lei thought, as her mind drifted around how she might fight with this pocket knife. 

“So, you, dakine-girl. How old are you?” Ethan suddenly asked, snapping Lei back to reality. 

“Oh, I’m 13. In the 8th grade.” Lei responded. 

“8th? Geez, these kids are getting younger and younger.” Ethan sighed. Des glared at him. 

“Okay Gramps, I think you’re just old.” She said, teasing him. “So, Lei, since you’re new to it and all, I’ll give you an overview on basically what that neat little knife you got does.” And the rambling started. “So, basically, the blade or part of your weapon that does damage to the Mera is enchanted. When you flip open your knife, it gives you a little boost of things you can do. You basically get stronger and more powerful when you have your weapon out, and are fighting a Mera. We can try to test out what your knife does specifically.” Des informed Lei. 

“Wait, my knife can do something.. Besides stabbing and stuff?” Lei asked, confused.

Des laughed. “Yes, every dreamwalker’s weapon has some special ability to it. Mine is that the blade on my arm turns into molten metal, and can change shapes at my will. Ethan’s little gun shoots out enchanted snowballs- but infused with citric acid, which is toxic to Mera. Try fighting one and you should discover what your power is in battle.” Des finished, as the three of them walked around together, waiting for one of the simulation-mera to appear. Suddenly, it popped in front of the three, snarling at the three of them. Lei flipped over her knife, and in an instant, she was suddenly behind the Mera. It dissolved in front of her eyes as she realized. She did it! She finally took down her first Mera! Lei looked over to Des, expecting her to be just as happy as she was, but Des just stood, mouth agape, staring at Lei. “How. Did. You. Do. THAT?” Des asked, an expression on her face that read ‘you just did something really crazy and i’m surprised right now.’ Lei was confused, did she teleport?

She just sat, proud of her first kill. Then she remembered. Where did that dude Ethan go? She thought, looking around for the blonde haired- jockey boy. She decided to just follow Des, as she was leaving. Des head toward the light again, and Lei followed closely behind, dying to sit down on a couch and sleep. She felt as if she hadn’t slept in days. They made it back, and came to find Ethan sitting down on the couch, playing on his phone.
“What.. When did you get here?” Lei asked, genuinely confused on when he made it out of her sight and came back. “Nevermind. I’m too tired, I want to sleep.” She gave up, before sitting down and immediately falling asleep. 

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BE- Lei slapped her alarm clock, irritated that it was waking her up. 

“Hey, let me sleep a little bit more..” She groaned, opening her eye a little to see who or what was waking her up. “Des.. Is that you?” She asked, before opening her eyes and realizing that she was back in her room. In shock, she practically flew off her bed, looking around the room. It seemed like she was back at home, but she didn’t want to be back. She wanted to be back as a dreamwalker. “NOO!” She shouted, before she jolted awake, back on the couch she fell asleep on earlier. Oh.. It was a dream.. She thought. She sat up, looking around, when she noticed that Des and Ethan were looking at her with puzzled expressions on their faces. 

“Uhhh…. Are you okay?” Des asked. “You randomly shouted in your sleep, it was kinda scary.”

“Oh yeah, my bad. I just had a dream.” Lei responded, kind of embarrassed that she shouted in her sleep, again.

“Weird.” Des said. “Was it a nightmare? You could have fought the Mera that caused it if you realized it was a dream. What was it about?” She asked. 

Lei took a moment, and answered, “Basically I was back at my house but I didn’t wanna be back, and it seemed like I didn’t have my dreamwalker powers anymore.” She told Des. 

“Ah, interesting dream. You do know that eventually you have to go back to the human world right? While we’re dreamwalking, our conscience gets replaced with an identical conscience as yourself, so you act the same even though it’s not really you. When you go back into human form you also inherit the memories that the other conscience made while you were gone.” Des explained, while Lei sat thinking. 

“Cool… But I don’t wanna go back home yet. I like it here.” Lei sighed. 

Des chuckled. “Eventually you’ll have to, its only a matter of time.” 

Lei, Des, and Ethan sat around, talking about what it’s like to go back home. Lei learned that she may have to fight mera while she’s in human form, in the real world, but specifically only dreamwalkers can see Mera. They decided to go train again, and Lei got the hang of fighting with her pocketknife. They trained, slept, and hung out for 2 more days before Lei got homesick and decided she finally wanted to go back home. 

“Bye guys! Text me if anything comes up, I’ll be there in a flash.” Lei told the others as she left the dream realm. She head toward the exit room, and sent herself back home, expecting to be back in her room as a human again, but was instead greeted by several Mera in her room. With a shriek, she got out her pocket knife and quickly took down the Mera. That was weird. She thought. Why were they all just waiting for me here? She sighed and shrugged her shoulders, and just went on with her day. She head downstairs, and found her mom in the living room watching tv. 

“Oh, hey Lei! I’m just catching up on this latest episode of the fosters. Did you want to watch with me?” Her mom asked.

Relieved to see her mom again, Lei smiled. “Sure, why not.” She answered. 

The two of them ended up watching The Fosters all night, until Lei fell asleep. The next morning, Lei heard a loud growl in the middle of the night. She quickly sat up and tried to figure out where the sound was coming from. She opened her front door and was greeted by the biggest Mera she had ever seen. She whipped out her pocketknife and teleported behind the Mera, when it turned around just as she teleported and roared at her. Lei stopped for a moment. Why isn’t it attacking me? She questioned. Suddenly the Mera disappeared, and was replaced by a tall, slim man. He was wearing a sleek black suit, and a purple tie that had two brownish lines across the fabric.. Lei stepped back.

“Are you Lei?” The man asked. 

“Who’s asking?” Lei responded, emergency dialing Des and Ethan. 

“I’m Cee. I notice you are different from my oppositions. You are very powerful. You would make a great Mera.” The man, Cee, said in a calm tone. 

Cee? The leader of all Mera, Cee? He’s trying to turn me into a Mera? Lei’s mind was racing with thoughts. How was she going to defeat him? Should she run away? 

Suddenly, Lei heard a woosh come from behind her.

“Sorry, Ethan was struggling to get his shoes on. We would have been a couple seconds earlier if not for him.” Lei heard Des’ voice call out. 

“Yeah I can’t disagree with that, thats my ba…” Ethan paused, looking at the man standing before him. “Des… do you see him?” He asked.

Des looked at Lei and back at Ethan. “We need to get rid of him, this is our opportunity.” She said, with a stern expression on her face. The three of them launched at Cee with their weapons, but flew back from an attack. 

“I don’t want to fight. I only want the girl. Let me have her and I’ll flee.” Cee said, the ‘girl’ in question being Lei. 

“We don’t trust you.” Des said, running at Cee with her plasma blade. She tried to get a hit in, but was deflected by Cee’s attack. How is he defending with only his arm? She thought. 

“You leave me no choice. I guess I will have to use force to get what I want.” Cee stated, walking up to the three of them. Lei walked forward. 

“You want me, not my friends. Fight me. If you win, you can take me, but leave my friends alone. If I win….” She said, not finishing her sentence. Suddenly, Cee jumped towards Lei. Lei flipped open her knife and teleported behind Cee, punching him in the back. Cee quickly flew up, and jumped above Lei before pushing her down, causing her head to hit the ground before her eyes closed and she went unconscious. 

“Looks like I win… I’ll take your friend.” Cee stated, walking away from Lei, and towards Des and Ethan. “You dreamwalkers should never challenge me again.” 

Suddenly, Lei jumped up and flew over Cee, before finally slashing him with her knife. Soon enough, the Citric acid went into effect. “NOO!” Cee yelled, as he slowly disappeared. I guess even the king of all Mera has a weakness to Citric acid. But then Lei realized. She did it. Lei actually got rid of Cee, after just 4 days of practicing how to be a dreamwalker.

 Des and Ethan ran toward her shouting, “You did it!” and they all had a group hug. Des checked on all of them. Lei had a busted lip, a bloody nose, and a pretty bad cut on her head, but it was fixable. Ethan had a cut on his leg from sliding on the ground after Cee deflected them. Checking herself, Des found that She had a bloody nose, and a small cut on her arm, but they would all be okay. 

The trio head into Leis house, celebrating that there were no more Mera at all. Lei was kind of sad at the same time. 

“Even though I’m glad there are no more Mera, I’m sad at the same time because I just started this job. I was having fun..” She said, sighing. 

Ethan laughed. “Don’t even stress it, we can all still hang out, and its less stress for the future as well!”

“I’m honestly surprised that Cee was that easy for the three of us to take down. Even though we got hurt in the progress, the citric acid really did come in handy after all.” Des laughed. “For now, let’s just eat these sandwiches your mom made, Lei, and enjoy our lives!” And that was it, Lei and her friends took down Cee, and Mera were no longer to be found in the world anymore. Or at least.. Not until someone else takes the role of ‘leader of all Mera’... I wonder who?