The
Dream Defenders
by
Neal DenHartog
Genre:
YA Fantasy
A vivid, dangerous dream world. Real-life consequences. Better ready your defense.
When
fourteen-year-old Nolan Erling wakes up with a headache for the
fourth straight day, he suspects the likely culprit to be any number
of things—from his annoying baby brother, to vehicular crashes with
his elderly neighbor, or even his questionable late-night food
choices—not his dreams.
Aeryn
Sandman knows the true cause, though. She is a junior agent with the
DREAM Institute, a secret organization tasked with protecting the
world’s population while they sleep, and she’s on her first
assignment.
Her
mission: infiltrate Nolan’s life—and his dreams—and keep him
safe, all while persuading him to join their protective force.
But
recruitment missions are no walk in the park, and Aeryn’s goes
horribly wrong when Nolan’s powers unwittingly unleash two dream
creatures locked away in a restricted area of the dream world. While
Aeryn and Nolan search for ways to contain the escaped beings, they
uncover a much greater conspiracy.
For
these dreams can kill, and someone is orchestrating their actions in
the dream world. If Aeryn and Nolan can’t figure out who is behind
it, no dreamer will be safe, and neither will the organization that
defends them.
Discover
a book with a fresh voice, genuinely humorous characters, and a
compelling, original storyline. The Dream Defenders will
appeal to readers of all ages.
★★★★★ -
"A spectacularly imaginative story." - Indies Today
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“Then how do you explain that?” Nolan pointed to a spot in the ocean where the water was churning and bubbling.
Aeryn squinted and put a hand to her brow to get a better look. A murky sheen rippled on the surface of the water, like an octopus had expelled a cloud of ink. The inkiness failed to disperse in the waves, though, instead coagulating and intensifying as it spread along the water. The cloud shimmered and began to swirl around clockwise, forming an oily vortex that floated purposefully toward Nolan and Aeryn.
“Did you do that?” she asked as the eddy creeped closer.
“It is my dream,” Nolan said. “Blame me, I guess.”
“Well, Dad did say you were special.”
Nolan wasn’t sure if she meant the good kind of special or the bad kind. Then two slimy green heads with bulbous eyes rose to the surface of the whirlpool.
She probably meant the bad kind.
“Uh-oh,” Nolan said, as another head broke the surface and a trio of trident-wielding frog-men emerged from the eddy. They stood taller than Nolan and Aeryn, their heads undoubtedly amphibian, with angry yellow eyes. Their well-muscled torsos and arms were distinctly human, the color of seaweed, and they gripped their weapons in earnest. Nolan frowned at his own skinny biceps, feeling woefully inadequate. The frog-men marched toward them on their all too human legs.
“What are those?” Aeryn cried in alarm.
“Now those, those are my fault.”
She glared at him menacingly, like she wanted to impale him with a trident too.
“Post-apocalyptic mutant frog-human hybrids.” He shrugged innocently. “With tridents.”
“What?”
Nolan scratched his head as they backed away from the new arrivals. “They were following me earlier. Guess I should have warned you about them.”
Aeryn looked panicked. “They—they shouldn’t be here. They can’t be here!”
“Why not? It’s my dream,” Nolan said defiantly.
“No, it’s not! I told you, it’s limited. Ocean. Sand. Garden. House. That’s it. That’s all.” Then her bright green eyes widened in realization, and she gazed at him appreciatively. “Wait. You, you brought them here. You brought rovers here!”
Before she could explain to him what rovers were, a trident whizzed past her head, missing by centimeters and blowing her hair back.
“Get back!” Nolan yelled, and he shoved her away as another trident sailed in between them. This one grazed her fluttering sarong.
“We gotta go,” Aeryn told him as she clutched the covering in her hand. “The house. It has an exit.”
Nolan didn’t question her.
They ran.
The two of them weaved between sand dunes, feet pounding out a path back to the beach house. Nolan hoped the sea creatures’ legs hadn’t quite gotten accustomed to land yet, so they could put some distance in between them. The dunes themselves offered some small protection, enough to prevent further tridents from sailing at their heads.
After another minute they rounded the final dune to where the house should have been. Aeryn let out a curse that shocked Nolan more than seeing those creatures climb from the water. All with good reason, of course. There was no beach house.
“Language!” he chided her, although the curse seemed justified, given the garden now covered the entire yard and enveloped every level of the deck. Root-like tendrils had tunneled up out of the earth and wrapped themselves around the wooden structure. Dense, green leafy vines meshed with the root system, forming a veritable wall of growth that completely sealed off access to the beach house.
“Now what?” Nolan wondered aloud.
Aeryn shook her head, scowling. “We gotta go through it.” She hopped into the foliage without hesitation, swatting lethal-looking brambles out of her way.
Nolan followed suit, trampling the brush underfoot and wincing with each step. Burrs and thorns dug into his bare feet and tore at his arms, slowing him down more effectively than any trident. If they didn’t uncover the exit soon, they would be sitting ducks for their pursuers. He glanced behind them, scanning for bulbous eyes and pointy metal weapons.
“You said I made this garden, right?” Nolan shoved a rose bush aside, drawing blood.
“Yeah.” Aeryn’s breath came in gasps.
“Then I should be able to make it go away. Or, like, summon a machete or something.”
“You do that, then.” Aeryn grunted as she ripped a tangle of roots out of the ground and tossed them aside.
“You keep acting like there are all these rules and limitations. In case you haven’t noticed, I am the one dreaming. Anything’s possible.”
“Fine!” Aeryn snapped at him. “Make all this disappear, then!”
Eventually, they reached the deck of the house, or at least, where the deck should have been. The wall of vegetation had not only wrapped around it, but it entirely encased the building. Aeryn ripped at the plant matter, trying to pry the mesh apart, but it was woven together like a suit of chain mail and didn’t budge.
Nolan wondered if he could merely close his eyes and will the vegetation away, but a chorus of angry croaks interrupted his thoughts. The trio of frog-men had caught up to them, and a troop of their closest friends spilled into the yard.
“Now would be good.” Aeryn gulped.
The creatures fanned out along the edges of the garden, wary of the strange mass of vegetation. Had the garden been littered with lily pads, the creatures would have had no issue hopping right across and introducing Nolan and Aeryn to the pointy end of their tridents.
“I’ll hold them off.” Aeryn stepped forward. “You focus on the wall.”
Nolan nearly protested. Shouldn’t he be the one protecting her? He was about to ask that very question, when she reached out and plucked a flung trident out of the air from in front of his face, saving his melon from an unfortunate ending. Without missing a beat, she flipped it over in her hands and heaved it right back at the now empty-handed creature. It embedded itself in its chest with a sickening thud, knocking the mutant off its spindly man-legs.
Okay, scratch that, Nolan thought. She could be his protector.
Neal
DenHartog was born, raised, and currently resides in Iowa. After a
fifteen year career in the sciences he decided to rekindle his
childhood passion for writing. Now, when he's not donning a lab coat,
he writes stories about dreams.
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