The Dream Herder

Daisy stared up at the crocodile.

The crocodile stared back and smiled, revealing row after row of shiny white teeth. It looked at Daisy as if its teeth went on forever.

Daisy turned to run, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get her legs to move.

She looked back — the crocodile was much bigger now, so big that it could hardly fit inside the room. As the crocodile reached out for her, Daisy screamed.

And she woke up.

Daisy sat up in bed, shaking. It was only a bad dream, she said to herself, go back to sleep.

But as she settled back down, she heard a strange noise. It sounded exactly like someone stepping on a Lego brick and trying not to say ‘ow’.

As she peered into the darkness, she saw what looked like the shadow of a human; it was sort of there, but it was hard to tell.

“I can see you, you know,” said Daisy. “You might as well come out.”

The shadow became clearer as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and she could see an elf-like creature standing there. He wore a cloak and carried a long shepherd’s crook. Despite the elf’s rather unexpected arrival, he seemed very friendly.

“Once, just once,” said the elf, “I would like to walk across your floor without treading on bits of toys!”

“Sorry,” said Daisy. “Who are you?”

“I’m the Dream Herder,” said the elf, “but you can call me Abel.”

“What’s a Dream Herder?” asked Daisy.

“I round-up lost dreams,” explained Abel.

Daisy looked at him blankly. “I don’t understand.”

“You’re not really supposed to,” said Abel, sitting down next to her. “In fact, you shouldn’t even be able to see…