Chapter Text

Our story begins… with an ending. An ending of a life lived to the expectations of a world without but lived without joy.

A 28-year-old woman decides to leave behind the city where she had lived a… comfortable but mundanely uninteresting life. Yearning a pause to life’s endless demands and responsibilities, she goes to a familiar place: A place of childhood innocence and simplicity. A short way away from the road, down a woodland path to a small, battered cottage with a derelict well and a half-derelict castle-style doll’s house.

Claudia knew this place. It was a place that had been her canvas as a child. A place of infinite possibilities where, with a touch of imagination, all her dreams would come true.

Finding a perfect place to rest, Claudia allowed herself to meditate on those childhood dreams and drifted off to sleep…

Chapter 1 - The Darkened World

Claudia was spinning like she was in a tornado made of light, falling but only at a slow pace. All around her was cold, unwelcoming darkness. A whole mediaeval-like town spread below. As she descended lower, she could see thick, poisonous and spiny vines curled around the buildings in a dangerous and predatory fashion that filled her with dread. At the base of the castle that was the centre of the town, she could see flashes as if someone was using a welding torch or something…

The ground met Claudia’s feet with a hard but not painful impact. She had no difficulty in maintaining her balance. Looking towards a building that reminded her of her childhood vacation cottage, she saw an old man with a knee-length white beard and wearing blue robes like one of the wizards of her childhood fairy tales. He was examining the thorny thicket blocking the door thoughtfully.

Not knowing what else to do, Claudia stepped towards him.

The man peered at her through his thick-lensed corrective spectacles and smiled in a way that was wide and kindly and reminded her of her late grandfather. “Well, hello there!” he said. “Come closer child! Are my glasses enchanted or is there actually the slightest chance that you may be… real?”

Claudia was struck by the essential absurdity of the question and it made her forget the alien threats all around her. “What kind of question is that?”

The old man burst into laughter. “Oh dear, I can see that you must be dreadfully confused! Oh my, yes.” The man’s smile jacked up. “You must excuse my eccentric manner, my dear. I’m afraid that I haven’t met anyone new… In fact, I haven’t met anyone at all for ages!” He cleared his throat. “My name is Myrddin Emrys and as its last inhabitant of any rank, it falls to me to welcome you to Dreamlight Valley!”

Claudia’s mouth moved silently for a moment. “Dreamlight Valley?” That name touched a memory in the back of her mind from two decades ago but, as she reached for it, it vanished like smoke in a breeze. “This place, it’s…” What? Strangely beautiful? Creepy? She decided to focus on the description that fit it the best. “It’s awfully mysterious.” Manners, child! She heard her grandmother’s voice reprove her. “Sir,” she added with an embarrassed blush and grimace.

The man, Myrddin? He chuckled again. “Oh yes, this is a place of grand mysteries indeed. It is also… or at least it was… a place of great magic and wonders.”

“Magic?” Claudia said. “That’s…” That was when the woman looked at her hands and realised that her appearance had changed. She was still wearing the clothes she’d put on that morning but everything had changed. She was seemingly made of cell-shaded art and colour as if she’d transformed into a character from a theatrical cartoon. “Magic…?” she squeaked.

“Yes, I imagine that everything is quite unusual to your eyes, my dear girl,” the old man said. “Firstly, I believe that I should introduce myself!”

“I know you!” Claudia yelped out excitedly. “You’re Merlin! You’re the Merlin! The wizard that helped King Arthur achieve his destiny! From that animated movie: The…” Claudia fell silent again. She was seemingly transformed into a cartoon and having a conversation with a cartoon character from a Disney theatrical release that was old when her parents were her current age. “The Sword in the Stone?”

Merlin’s smile was genuine, if sad. “So, my dear godson Wart is still remembered! Ah yes, one of the few things that I can still recall of late...”

“But you’re a great and powerful wizard!” Claudia protested at the implication of helplessness.

“Oh, more than just a wizard, although I judge myself a fine one,” Merlin protested. He doffed his pointed cap and bowed deeply. “I am also a soothsayer! A prognosticator of the future without equal! I also know my way around alchemy and even a little prestidigitation!” Merlin’s eyes twinkled behind his glasses as he considered Claudia. “Now, given that we have established who I am, let us deal with the question of who you might be and what you are doing in our blighted town.”

“Me? I’m Claudia Ozman,” Claudia replied helplessly. “Just… Claudia.”

“‘Just’?” Merlin replied, humour and wisdom in his gaze. “Simply to be here in the Valley would require you to have travelled here in your dreams and to manifest in such a way…?” The master wizard scratched thoughtfully at his beard. “You must have magic, my dear. A great deal of quite formidable magic, singing in your fingertips and crackling through your bones.”

“Magic? But…” But there is no such thing as magic was the phrase that caught on Claudia’s tongue unuttered. Every child learned this on their way to adulthood: That magic was nothing but a dream and a fantasy that no sensible person believed in.it. You could never survive in the real world if you believed in such things. It had been systematically beaten out of her heart to believe in her daydreams and imagination during her adolescence and her life had become a mundane thing of working in a cubicle and later in an office, shuffling papers and dragging herself home every evening to drink a glass of wine and stare mindlessly at her TV set for a few hours before exhaustion made her crawl into her bed. That was her life and that was reality… at least that’s what she’d been telling herself ever since she graduated college.

Yet, here she was, in a village from a Disney cartoon, or so it seemed, talking to Merlin the Fucking Magician himself! “I don’t know if I have any magic, sir,” she said at last with a helpless shrug. “In truth, I don’t know magic! I don’t even know an abracadabra from an alakazam!”

That sent off Merlin’s hearty laughter again and Claudia smiled uncertainly in response, not sure if she should be laughing too. “Oh, child, magic is not something we choose. It chooses us and it is my experience that it never chooses unwisely!” Claudia didn’t know what to say to that Merlin’s laugher settled into a warm chuckle. “In fact, I’m quite sure that you’re the one we’ve been waiting for!” the old man began to pace around her, measuring every pace with his staff that rapped sharply onto the stone pavement. “Yes, indeed. You’re the one who is going to save Dreamlight Valley!”

Claudia tried to protest but, once again, her words caught in her throat. Instead, she focussed on the facts, something that her fading sense of reality told her was her last refuge from insanity. “Save it?” she blurted and frowned. “Save it from what?” At that moment, she appended the honorific that she’d wanted to utter to this man since she was just five years old: “Save it from what, Master?”

Merlin bowed regally. If he cared about titles, he showed no sign. “Ah, a wise question. After all, how do you find a solution to a problem that is not defined in your own mind?” The old man tapped one of the gnarled, thick thorny growths with his staff. “If we are to restore Dreamlight Valley to the place it once was, a place of wonder, magic and friendship, then the first thing we need to do is to stop The Forgetting.”

Okay, that sounded bad. ‘The Forgetting’; that wasn’t just a vague description of absentminded mislaying of memories. It sounded malignant, something aware with its own Intent and Will all of its own, no matter how terrible its manifestation.

Merlin started pacing again, waving his staff in an agitated way. “We must… We must…” The old man’s face went blank and, nightmarishly, Claudia flashed back on her grandfather in the last few years as dementia stole away his true self and left a petulant and amnesiac child behind that slipped quietly into silence and death. “Master?”

“I’m sorry, my dear girl, I quite forgot what we were talking about!”

“The… The Forgetting?” Claudia prompted.

The wizard’s face cleared. “Yes, The Forgetting. You must forgive me but you can see now from where this cursed affliction gets its name. Even I am not entirely immune to its effects although I have certain gifts that reduce its power over me.” Claudia’s mind raced. Merlin was renowned as a man who, impossibly, lived his life in reverse, a life that extended from the future to the past and this was what made his foresight so perfect: He had literally seen the future.

That was impossible though, right?

Merlin straightened and leant on his staff. “Now listen, my dear Claudia, who in her heart yearns to call herself my Apprentice. Listen to the tale of the Doom of Dreamlight Valley… before I forget it again.”

~*~*~

In times of yore, Dreamlight Valley was a happy place of contented inhabitants. Thanks to the protection and blessing of our Ruler’s magic, we flourished in this land of plenty. Singing and dancing in the celebration of our lives.

But nothing is forever and, eventually, our Ruler left these lands, and in their absence, The Forgetting came and took hold of the minds of us all. As our memories faded, Dreamlight Valley withered into the ruined shadow you see around you. We did our best to preserve the memories of the life that we had enjoyed and the world that had been but to no avail. As more and more of us succumbed to this dread affliction, our town fell into ruin and, one by one, the people vanished, having forgotten their friendships and their place here, fleeing back to the safety of the Realms from whence they originally came.

Seeing as I can the future, I encouraged my peers to hold onto their hope and wait for the day when all would be restored. However, few understood and fewer still were willing to confront the cold, hopeless dark of this world as it had become.

So few of us remain now, as much ghosts as people, haunting the ruins of what had once been a paradise…

~*~*~

Claudia had the urge to burst into tears. As she looked around her at the boarded-up houses and ruined remains of merchants’ shops, she could see remains of bright colours beneath the dirt and rot and the echoes of the joyous songs that must have once been sung here being blown on the haunting empty wind...

“Who was this ‘Ruler’? It seems that they were responsible for most of this?” There was anger in Claudia’s voice and an accusation.

Merlin averted his eyes, not willing to agree with her and further demean the memory of their lost benefactor. “Ah yes… Well,” he drew in an unsteady breath. “The Ruler was the founder of this place. All the wonder, magic and friendship came from their efforts that led to the original building of this place and the gathering of the diverse townsfolk. They diligently watched over the valley and protected us from the depredations of Dark Magic. However, one day, they began to change although I barely remember it now. Nonetheless, the Ruler began to react strangely as if there was something strange about the Valley. They were distracted, even angry at times and, one day… they just simply were gone.” Merlin sighed wearily. “I believe that it has been… years now, although the Forgetting and the absence of the sun makes it hard for us to tell.”

“They just… upped and left?” Claudia was disgusted at this act of abandonment. “That’s irresponsible! A good ruler would not have just abandoned you all like that!”

Merlin sighed. “Oh, our ruler was a kind and noble soul, my dear. I am sure that there had to be an excellent reason why they left… Although I can’t remember what it was…!”

Claudia pinched the bridge of her nose. “Okay, enough with the wayback machine, Merlin. Tell me more about this ‘Forgetting’ that seems to be the most immediate symptom here.”

“Yes, yes,” Merlin began to shuffle, clearly trying to reorder his thoughts; the loss of his Ruler and Claudia’s disgusted accusations had clearly shaken him. “Well, it was only a short time after the Ruler’s disappearance that the village began to be infested with these horrible Night Thorns! They spread through the town like a bad thought, sprouting everywhere!” Merlin frowned. “Whatever they are, they are the vector of this malady. The more they spread, the more clouded our memories became.” Merlin’s face was sad and Cludia just desperately wanted to hug the old man. “There are sometimes now when I can barely remember the faces of my friends or even the names of all the spells I have forgotten.”

Yes, that sounded like her grandfather’s dementia all right. She drew in a deep breath. “Master…” she began in her most respectful tone of voice. “We need to restore the Valley and I believe that these Thorns are something to do with The Forgetting...”

“Yes!” Merlin interrupted, his face lighting up with inspiration. “The Night Thorns! They’re the key here and now! If we were to get rid of them somehow…”

“Then your memories will return as will all your friendships,” Claudia completed. “Then the magic of Dreamlight Valley will be stronger than ever!”

“Yes!” Merlin said. “Yes, that’s it! Hmm… Now, there is a thought: To be rid of the Night Thorns…” Suddenly shrewd, Merlin looked up at Claudia. “This is where your youth and vigour come into play, my child.”

“Master, I will do whatever it takes to restore the valley,” Claudia said, her heart brimming with determination.

“Yes, and this seems to be the only way to fight back and reverse the Forgetting,” Merlin agreed. “Well, I suppose we need to find out just how strong your magic is.”

Claudia might as well have run into a brick wall in her head. Magic again! “I…”

“Yes, a simple test,” Merlin said as he looked over his shoulder. “You know, as clouded as my mind is by The Forgetting, I have been curious about this house.” Merlin used his staff to gesture over his shoulder at the cartoon recreation of Claudia’s childhood vacation cottage. “This place is walled off by the Night Thorns as if they do not want us to gain access to it but they do not actively damage it as if something about it is sacrosanct.”

 Claudia didn’t really know what most of that meant. However, as the two of them crowded around the Thorns effectively burying the doorway, she remembered what Merlin said about a ‘test’ and she realised that what was going to happen would determine, perhaps irrevocably, not just the fate of this once-picturesque valley, its people and her own role in its future.

“These Night Thorns are significant to this crisis,” Merlin said. “My notes confirm that they only appeared after the disappearance of the Ruler. They are resistant to all attempts to remove them; mundane ones of course, but even all forms of magic that I and others could bring to bear. If they are to be removed, it can only be done by someone bringing to bear the power of the Dreamlight.” He smiled mysteriously. “I am quite sure that the simple fact of your presence proves that person is you, my dear, dear child.”

“But…” Claudia desperately grabbed the last few fraying strands of her sense of normality in this chain of events. “I… Use magic? I’m just… ordinary!”

Merlin chuckled. “You say ‘ordinary’ as if it were a handicap, my dear Claudia! No, I’ve known so many ‘ordinary’ people who, when the times demanded it, were able to do quite extraordinary things!” The old wizard pointed his staff at the thicket of Night Thorns. “For now, though, clear your mind of all your preconceptions and all your doubts Focus your will on the Night Thorns…”

Claudia grimaced. “They are too gross to spare too much thought on!”

Merlin chuckled. “Once you have them firmly in your thoughts… then utter the magic words!”

“Magic words?” Claudia blurted.

Merlin chuckled. “Yes, some incantation that will inspire the magic inside into motion! Only you can decide what they are as they are special and unique to your heart.”

Clauria’s mind raced and she facepalmed in frustration. “What? You want me to say ‘Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo’ or something?”

Merlin shook his head. “The Fairy Godmother’s incantation? If that is what your heart associates with magic, then by all means my dear!”

Claudia sighed. “Okay, Master, I’ll try. OW!” She said ‘Ow’ because Merlin had struck her forehead with his staff.

“No, don’t ‘try’. To ‘try’ carries with it the acknowledgement of the possibility that you will fail. You need to do it and succeed!”

Claudia tried to focus her thoughts and banish her doubts but, surprisingly, what dominated her mind was a desperate desire to help the people of Dreamlight Valley and an enormous sense of responsibility to do so. She would not fail them as their previous Ruler had. She flourished her hands with a random gesture of power. “Bibbidi-bobbidi-BOO!” she incanted, gesturing as if throwing the thicket into the sky. The thicket of Night Thorns burst into purple light and, in response to Claudia throwing her arms out to her sides at shoulder height, the spread out like a soundless explosion, fading away as it did so, leaving behind only a shard of glowing pink crystal. “I…? I…?”

Merlin laughed in joy. “Ah! You see? You did it! I knew you would! Bravo! Bravo!”

“I…” Claudia fought down the insane urge to laugh too. “I… I performed… magic?” She clenched her fists either side of her bent elbows as something close to an orgasm passed through her body and felt the urge to start dancing the way Merlin already was. “Master! I did it! I performed magic!”

“This proves it, Claudia! You can manipulate the power of the Dreamlight!” Merlin bent down with surprising agility for his apparent age and swept up the finger-sized crystal. “Ah! There was a side-effect! Your incantation either turned the Night Thorn thicket into a Dream Shard Crystal or revealed that one was at the centre of its growth! Most mysterious! I will have to research this but, until then, we should proceed into the cottage!”

~*~*~

The inside of the cottage was a dispiriting mess that reflected its external dilapidation. The wallpaper was peeling, the panelling pitted and the flooring tiles were knocked aside in places by several large Night Thorn growths. By some miracle that Claudia neither understood nor was inclined to question, the overhead oil lamps on a chandelier were still working despite probably not having been refilled for years. Magic again, she concluded.

“The Night Thorns did not seem to be able to penetrate the walls but have made their way inside nonetheless, unfortunately.” Merlin once again seemed quite disoriented. “Oh! Why… Why are we here?”

Claudia sighed. Once again, the presence of many of these growths seemed to disrupt the old man’s ability to remember. “You said something about this place being important somehow?” she gently prompted.

“Yes, I sense that too, Claudia. If only I could remember why! It's these blasted Night Thorns clouding my mind!” He looked over at the woman with a pleading expression. “It seems that I must depend on your magic again…” Merlin shakily lowered himself onto an armchair with wooden armrests. “Yes… Yes, if you would be so kind…?”

Claudia didn’t feel the need to hesitate or question. She stepped up to the nearest growth and repeated her previous movements. “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo!” The thornbush burst into purple- light and vanished. Then another and then another. Claudia had stopped using the incantation but the gestures and intent seemed enough. With the last Night Thorn growth, didn’t even bother to use her magic. She brought her sneaker-clad foot down on it and crushed its branches underfoot, making them wither, wilt and crumble into dirt. “Well, that felt nice and cathartic,” she said.

“My goodness!” Claudia followed Merlin’s gaze and saw that, where one of the Night Thorn growths had stood was a glowing blue-white orb. “My Apprentice, if you would, fetch that for me would you?” he requested gently.

Claudia did so and was shocked when the blue light resolved into a physical print of a photograph. It was of a defeated-looking Merlin, standing in the thorn-infested main plaza of Dreamlight Valley as… Claudia blinked and tried to reinterpret what she was seeing to no avail. In the foreground of the image was a black human-sized anthropomorphic mouse in a pair of red shorts and brown loafers. At any other time, Claudia would have run screaming but her sorely abused sense of reality had already left the building for a relaxing rest on a sunny beach somewhere, so she simply waited for her Master to explain.

“My goodness!” Merlin said. “My theory is proven! With the Night Thorns gone, my memory is already returning! This picture! It was from shortly after our Ruler left and… Mickey! That’s Mickey; one of Dreamlight Valley’s oldest and most respected citizens!” The old wizard shook his head in annoyance. “Yes, that is certainly Mickey Mouse! It is like a fog has lifted and I can remember something at last! We were at the Castle of Dreams and we hid something there! Something of great importance, I think!”

Claudia nodded firmly. Mickey Mouse. Yes, of course he would be here. “Well, if there was something of importance hidden, Master, we should go and find it!”

“Ah! That’s the impetuous spirit of youth, my dear child! Everything must be done now, eh?” Merlin shook his head. “No, now your powers have been proven, there is time enough for that. No, there are far more immediately important matters to resolve now.” Merlin rose stiffly, walked over to one of the hastily boarded-up windows and looked pensively out onto the plaza, lit only by the ghostly light of the Aurora overhead. “No, first we need to recover the Royal Tools. They are a quartet of vital foci to use to restore and tend to the lands! They have a magic all of their own you see! Ancient and powerful. They were originally brought here by the Ruler and they had used them ever since to tend to the Valley.”

Claudia nodded slowly. “I suppose I will have to find them if I am to help restore this valley,” she murmured.

“Your heart is pure and generous my dear,” Merlin said with a ghost of a smile. “Nonetheless, it is only by working together that we can hope to get out of this mess but the Tools will certainly be an asset. The first we need to find is the Pickaxe. The Ruler seemed to have made its location particularly obvious at the time of their departure as Mickey and I found it wedged into a stone.” The old wizard smiled at Claudia. “Not unlike another Royal implement that I have encountered once or twice in my lifetime.” Merlin did some fast thinking. “Come to think of it, the abandonment of the Pickaxe appeared connected the darkening of the skies and I seem to recall that the Night Thorns began to spread soon afterwards. Yes, the Pickaxe is clearly a major key to solving this mystery. Yes…” He shook his head. “The strongest of the residents of Dreamlight Valley were not able to extract the Pickaxe from the stone but none of us had your connection with the magic of this place that you evidently have, Claudia. It is possible that you will succeed where all others have failed. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time some random child pulled a tool from a stone and became a hero to a whole land, would it?”

Claudia nodded. “Okay. So, go to the Plaza, find the pickaxe and get it out of the stone. Got that. Then what?”

Melin raised a bony finger in a ‘lecture’ gesture. “The other three Tools also need to be found as, combined, their powers are great: The Watering Can of Life, the Fishing Rod of Plenty and the Shovel of Might.” Merlin shot the woman a fierce gaze. “This is no idle quest, my dear Claudia. Your responsibility and your duty now lie here in the Dreamlight Valley. If you recover the Tools, your destiny and your life will be inexorably bound to this place and to its own fate. If you take these steps, they will be irrevocable and there would be no stepping back.” The old man seemed to grow taller and broader and his blue eyes burned with mystical fire. “Do you accept this burden, Claudia Ozman? Do you swear your life and your service to this land and to its people?”

Claudia took a step back, thoroughly intimidated. However, when she replied, it was from the heart. “Master, from the moment I first arrived here, I was struck by how wrong the Valley’s condition was and was determined to find a way to fix it. Knowing that so many have suffered…! How could I turn away with the job half done?”

Merlin smiled and suddenly appeared every one of his hundreds of years of age. “My dear child, your heart is pure as I’ve already said and we can ask no more of you than this.” Merlin looked around. “Of course, you will need a home of your own if you are to live in the Valley with us. So… This house will be yours.”

Claudia looked around and was struck suddenly about how much the decor reminded her of the interior of her parents’ old vacation cottage. Small, perhaps, but with such great potential and with a warmth and familiarity that her apartment back in the City did not have. “I will treasure and care for this place, Master Merlin.”

Merlin nodded. “Just as the softest whispered word can call forth great magic, this house bears with it the promise of the true warmth of the home hearth!” Merlin scratched his nose thoughtfully. “You know, the Ruler once had a house, just like this, during the Golden Age of the Valley.”

Claudia blinked. “What, didn’t they live at the Castle?”

Merlin chuckled. “Goodness gracious no! That place is more of a… nexus, if you will. A place where all the realms of dreams met. No, the Ruler had a home of their own and was very happy there…” He frowned. “With their wife? Was there a royal family? My memory is still full of holes and past and future are confused, even now I am in a protected space free of the Thorns.”

Claudia sank into the somewhat-moth-eaten armchair against the single room’s back walls with the cold fireplace to her right and a battered-looking stove to her right. “Now,” Merlin said kindly. “I do think that you need a recharge already.” His hand dipped into his pocket and emerged with a blue treasure chest, hovering in a sparkling blue magical field, which he put at Claudia’s feet. “The fruit trees of the Valley are still viable even in the eternal night that our doom has brought upon it and you should be able to find nourishment there once you have eaten your gift. Additionally, you can rest on the furniture. You will need all your strength for the quest ahead.”

Merlin stood erect and nearly ran for the front door. “Now, I must research this Dream Shard and also inspect the gates of the Castle to see if the return of Dreamlight Magic to the Valley has weakened the Night Thorns guarding its gates. Please meet me there after you have found the Pickaxe.”

Without another word (something that she felt was likely characteristic of the Wizard), Merlin strode form her new house and into the night.

“Okay then,” she said dryly.

The Royal Tools, Part I - The Pickaxe of Bounty

Claudia popped open the chest and… Magic, of course, it was bigger on the inside. It hid a full-sized sturdy study chair that dropped out, as did a bushel of apples, a length of good rope, a few balls of twine, a charcoal grey polo shirt and… She blinked in surprise at the sight of her red hiking backpack that she’d been resting her head against when she fell asleep back in the Waking World. This should have surprised her but, on some level, it didn’t. The Master had already so vastly increased the scope of her world that she could barely imagine what it was like living life without this knowledge of the flexibility of reality in the Valley.

After setting the chair by the entrance door, Claudia began to pace the room. There was a sturdy Sea Chest in the corner under a window on the wall where the fireplace was set and Claudia felt that this was her ‘inventory’ of sorts. After swapping her casual button-down blouse for the polo shirt (far more suitable for saving a world, she decided), she examined the 1970s-style transistor radio. The batteries were sound but there were no signals on any channel, which didn’t surprise her at all. She stood up straight and touched the mouldy wallpaper and…

God!

Seemingly in response to her touch, the room began to shift and reform, the wallpaper being restored to a pristine mustard colour and the plaster panelling making up the lower part of the walls suddenly flawlessly smooth and freshly painted white. The floor meanwhile lost its battered tiling and became pristine and newly laid wooden plank flooring. With a *poof* sound, the wood now in the fireplace ignited and Claudia rubbed her hands to warm them.

Magic, of course, but Claudia had not carried out any incantation or spell that seemed to have caused this. Was the house responding to its new Mistress’s will?

Claudia decided that was something that she could mediate on at a different time. Until then, her Master had set her a task to begin to restore this land and she intended to carry it out.

~*~*~

Standing outside her front door. Her front door of her new magical house, how easily that came to her! Anyway, looking out into the Plaza was a depressing sight. The Night Thorn infestation was, on focussed examination, endemic in this area. The tangled thickets of pure amnesia and hopelessness seemed to crowd close around the buildings as if planning to prey on whoever might live there. Not wanting to risk having the apparently burrowing magical plants somehow get back under the walls, Claudia went to work, using her magic liberally to remove all the growths from the garden area around the small one-room building.

She quickly made a discovery: A standard USPS-style mailbox with its flag raised to show that there was mail within. Maybe I can work out from the address who the previous owner was. Maybe it was… I dunno, Donald Duck or something?!? No, wait, the Master said that the Ruler and their wife lived in a house like this. Maybe it will be addressed to Snow White or Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty?

On an impulse, Claudia opened the mailbox and fished out the package and covering letter within. When she touched the package, she felt a jolt of power through her fingers. Quickly opening the package, she found a bundle of maybe forty of the finger-shaped pink crystals that Merlin had identified as a Dream Shards. The letter was in elegant cursive but Claudia, used to the eccentric handwriting of her manager, was easily able to interpret it.

Sire,

As you requested, here are the latest Dream Shards I have formed from the background magic around the valley. As you are aware, these are the pure and formless essence that everything that exists here and you can use them to conjure anything you desire. However, the more complex the conjuration, the more shards will be needed.

For your information, I have attached a list of the known objects that can be conjured and the cost of doing so. Naturally, it would be more reasonable to simply purchase the item from McDuck’s General Store and keep the shards for powering a magical item or something else suitably rare.

Nonetheless, I trust in your judgement in this matter.

I remain, your obedient servant,

M

So, the Ruler was gathering these dream shards before they left? Claudia wondered why and couldn’t help but suspect malign intent. Nonetheless, that was only a suspicion and she couldn’t prove anything. She looked at the handful of shards. “So, little one, let’s see what you can do, hmmm?” According to her Master’s list, five shards could give you an item of apparel, so she laid the crystals out in the palm of her hand and concentrated on the crystal, urging its power to manifest itself.

The shards exploded into blue light that threatened to simply fade away. Barely aware of what she was doing, she tried to catch the arcing nimbuses of energy with her free hand. Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo! Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo! She frantically incanted in her head. The light seemed to concentrate back into a ball in her palm and Claudia randomly focussed on the ideas of comfort and warmth.

The light was gone and Claudia was staring at a colourfully embroidered long-sleeved grey woollen pullover. She looked at the colourful embroidery and realised that it was a simple diorama of Mickey Mouse dancing surrounded by colourful stars. “Figures,” she muttered to herself with a silly smile. Seeing this pullover was a huge warmth in her heart. She’d owned one of these as a child and growing out of it in early puberty was a huge blow to her. Well… It seems that magic returned what biology took away. She lifted the jumper over her head and pulled it into place. She blushed when she realised that the collar was loose and that her shoulder stuck out of the neck-hole at one end.

“Okay, now we know how to do this… The list says three shards can give a personal decoration.” She measured out the shards. “Now, let’s get this right! Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!” Claudia blinked foolishly at what was in her hand. A child’s hairband with two huge circular mouse ears. With a strange sense of inevitability, she slid the band into her hair. She was wearing Mickey Mouse-themed clothing now! It really seemed to be right.

“Okay, let’s save the rest of these.” Claudia tucked the shards and Merlin’s letter into her backpack. Suddenly, a wave of sickness and dizziness rolled over her. She had never felt so hungry! Was this some kind of counterattack by the Night Thorns? No, she remembered Merlin’s warning about restoring her own energy. It seemed that magic, like exercise, required bodily resources.

Rather than faint in the middle of the plaza, Claudia pulled out one of the Apples her master had gifted her and bit into it.

Wow!

It was like she’d one-chugged a super-sized energy drink! The symptoms were gone and she was practically dancing in expectation of the next step.

“Mow?” Claudia looked down to see a… what was that creature?

“Hey, little guy, where did you come from?” Claudia asked the reptilian with brown splotch markings. After considering the grinning beast for a few moments, Claudia was struck by its similarity to a miniature crocodile of sorts. However, the brown markings looked like chocolate ice cream stains. “Okay, wherever you came from, you should go back; I don’t think that I’m going to be going anywhere safe tonight!” She stepped away from the little creature.

With another cry of ‘Mow!’ it ran over to stand at her side again. “Come on, don’t you have a person you should be with?”

The little creature… Claudia already began to think of it as a ‘Chocodile’ grinned up at her toothlessly and looked hopefully at her.

“Okay, look… I’ll feed you, just the once, alright?” She dropped the apple core in front of the Chocodile’s snout and it greedily snarfed it down. It stepped a little closer. “Not going to abandon the source of food, eh? Okay, more fool me for feeding ya!”

Claudia knelt and extended her hand. The creature responded by nuzzling her fist happily. “Great. Another mouth to feed; literally.” Well, he was cute; she wasn’t about to chase it off in the middle of this horrible post-apocalyptic landscape! Claudia scooped up the creature and laid him across her shoulders, where he gripped on tightly. “Okay, hang on Choco; it’s gonna be a wild night, no matter how long that is!“

“Mow!”

Claudia began to work her way across the plaza, dissolving the few remaining Night Thorn thickets immediately around her house before stepping up to the fountain in its centre. She saw two dilapidated buildings. One looked vaguely like an artisan cafe from the City and the other more like a bank, although both were boarded up. Time to start work; her time playing Survival Horror games told her that abandoned shops could be a place to loot supplies. She stepped to the cluster of thorns outside the bank-like building and subvocally cast. This time, the Night Thorns didn’t just evaporate but, instead, left behind a small pile of gold coins with a compass rose marking.

“Wait, free money?” Puzzled, Claudia picked up the coins. There were no obvious mint markings. If anything, it seemed that it was pure bullion value although some of them had denomination values, either a ½, a 1 or a 5. Curious, Claudia began to dissolve as many of the bushes she could and the one around the bank-like building did seem to contain stacks of the coins. Then, much to her shock, one particularly large bush exploded into multiple masses of coins that scattered across that corner of the plaza.

Claudia heard a noise like an angry duck: “Wa-wa-wa-wa-waaah!” and something like a white duck in a blue tail suit and stylish top hat shot across the plaza, scooping up the coins. “Mine, mine, mine!”

No, it wasn’t Donald Duck at all. Actually, Claudia knew this infamous old miser and merchant from many Disney-produced TV shows and comic books: Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck’s billionaire uncle and arguably the richest toon of them all. He was a nice Duck at heart but his greed was often his downfall. The duck adjusted his pince-nez glasses and looked at the woman in puzzlement before speaking in a broad Scottish accent. “Well, hello there, neighbour!” The stood up straight and adjusted his cane in embarrassment, doffing his top hat and bowing humbly. “Och, Ah have tae apologise for my actions, Lassie, but ye should never sneak up on a duck who is morning his impending insolvency! Ah mean… Look at mah shop!”

Claudia could see his point. The windows were all hastily planked over as if to deter looters. “Well, to be honest sir, I think that the whole town is in a pretty bad state.”

Scrooge nodded. “Aye, well there’s no sense being all hopeless about it. A visionary sees opportunity for profit in every corner, no matter the situation, even if one has nae customers anymore. Ah mean, after the sky went dark, all the townsfolk skedaddled, sooner or later! Eventually, the clients all dried up and I had to temporarily shut up shop.” Scrooge frowned. “Actually, Ah decided to wait here until someone came back and… and…” The white duck merchant frowned. “Actually, Ah stayed tae guard my shop and mah money until… until the Night Thorns blocked me in and…” He shook his white feathered head. “Then I just don’t remember anything for I dinnae know how long before ye magicked away those thickets and made all mah gold rematerialize like that!”

Claudia felt cold. She remembered how Scrooge had appeared seemingly from nowhere after she had dispelled the Night Thorn bush blocking the entrance to his shop. She wondered how many others of the townsfolk were like that, walled in by these unnatural nightmares, in a state of forgetfulness and mindless fugue, waiting for someone to find them and rescue them. It was horrible and it was going to end soon, if she had any power over matters.

Scrooge’s hands made of clustered feathers reached out and gently prized apart Claudia’s fingers to reveal one of the coins she’d just collected. “However, Lassie, seein’ the light o’ this gold reminds me again of how the town used to be. So many investment opportunities.”

Claudia frowned too. That sounded a bit like her boss back in the City. “I just want to help the people of this town; there’s more to it than money.” Scrooge didn’t seem impressed. She directed a shrewd look at the duck. One thing she’d learned in her professional life was that it was important to talk to people in the right way. “So,” she continued loudly. “In the interests of getting in on the ground floor… tell me more about this ‘investment’ opportunity of yours.”

Scrooge rubbed the bottom of his beak in a way that seemed reminiscent of a human scratching his chin. “Aye, well ah could use some help, this much is true…” he said at last. “Ah know! Maybe you and I could form a partnership of sorts?”

“I’m listening?”

Scrooge tossed the coin he’d so unobtrusively plucked out of Claudia’s hand and then looked at it reverently. “A business needs a startin’ investment, Lassie. If ye can find enough o’ these Star Coins to help me tae reopen and stock mah shop?” Claudia made a tumbling motion with her hands to encourage the Duck to continue. “Ah have the machinery, contacts and tools tae rebuild much of this town so long as ah can afford the resources, Lassie.”

Claudia raised an eyebrow sceptically. “Just you, Mr McDuck?”

“Ah, I have one minor-league competitor,” he allowed. “Goofy was his name; ran a fruit and produce stall out in the Meadows. Havenae seen anything of him since the day the darkness fell.” Scrooge chuckled. “Our Goofy has nae the mind for money but his prices are lower and his stock simpler. Help him get his stall running again and you’ll be able to get ye’re own account into liquidity and then help me restart mah business! Here, this will aid ye.”

Claudia looked at the scroll the duck was holding out and realised it was a map. “I’ll let ye be about yer business, Lassie. “Thank ye kindly for freein’ me!”

Claudia watched him go. “Bastard lifted five Stars from me,” she muttered. “Well, we’ll call it a fee for the map as well as the tip about the locals and move on.”

~*~*~

Now dreadfully aware of just what horrors might await within, Claudia redirected her movements towards the house on the opposite side of the longitudinal path in front of her house. Like her own, it was closely surrounded by the predatory-looking magical plants and she had to carefully burn a path to the front door of the simple but homely red bungalow.

Having cleared a route, Claudia was able to jimmy open the door latch on the house to see, inside the one room, a very familiar round-eared shape. Mickey Mouse! The globally famous icon was trapped behind a wall of Night Thorn thickets just beyond a set of furniture that was clearly branded on his own appearance.

The mouse waved and made a whistling noise. “Hiya pal!” he called before laughing nervously. “Um… Lend a fella some help?”

Claudia gestured and half of the wall of thickets dissolved into purple light, one resolving into a Dream Shard. “Mickey! I’m so glad to see you! With everything that’s happening and Merlin being so unsure about where all his friends were after all this time…!”

Mickey laughed easily and slapped Claudis’s shoulder. “Yeah, I saw him talking to you through the window. I was going to put together a welcome package for you but there are so many Night Thorns in here that it was difficult to remember what I was doing or how to get out again!” Mickey frowned. “Actually, I… uh… ha-ha… I kind of forgot altogether what I was looking for!”

“Just sit down, Mickey and let me help,” Claudia instructed. She started to vaporise the bushes until she found a framed piece of parchment hidden behind a bookcase at the far end of the room. The script was gibberish to her human eyes. She would ask Master for a primer in reading the local script when she saw him again.

The last Night Thorn bush released a stiff photograph. When Claudia looked at it, it was obviously the café from near Scrooge’s location. Mickey was sitting at an outdoor table and seemed to be discussing something with a normally sized grey rat. She shot Mickey a jaundiced look. “A cousin of yours, Mickey?”

“Hot dog! It’s all coming back! That is the owner of the restaurant! Remy!” That tracked as the signage on and around the building identified it as Chez Remy. “Nah, he’s not a cousin!  He’s from France! He was the best cook in the town; always tryin’ new recipes! And I was always happy to try them! Never sorry either! Ha-ha!”

Wait, a rat running a restaurant? Not that it was impossible; she was sure this Remy could keep things a lot more hygienic than some of the lunch carts in the city!

“Yeah, good ol’ Remy,” Mickey was continuing. “After the Forgetting started, he had to leave town and go back to his original Realm but he left me his recipe book to keep safe for him! Yeah, I buried the recipe book.” Mickey’s smile froze. “And… I… kinda… forgot where with all the forgetting magic around. Maybe hidin’ it wasn’t the smartest of ideas but none of us was thinking straight at that time.”

Claudia was getting that dizzy fatigue feeling again. I need to be a little less spendthrift with my magic,” she decided, taking out another apple to snack on.

Mickey was looking at Claudia shrewdly. “Y’know, Remy knew lots of recipes an’ wrote them all down in his book! They were nutritious too and they’d give you a lot more energy than just eating raw fruit or vegetables!”

Claudia sighed. “So, what you’re saying is that recovering this rat’s notes might actually make my life easier?” Mickey’s face fell and Claudia reached out to squeeze his shoulder. “Don’t fret, Mickey. I’ll find your friend’s recipes for his sake, not mine. Besides, having a decent eatery in town can only encourage people to come back.”

Mickey seemed genuinely surprised. “’Encourage’! Wow! No, Having Remy’s open again will bring them streaming in! Everyone in Dreamlight Valley knew that it was the place to eat!”

Caudia dragged herself to her feet. “Okay, well nothing’s gonna happen until we find the Royal Tools!”

“Well, okay then,” Mickey said quietly. “Look… I don’t remember much but you’d best check the other side of town, down towards the beach.”

After leaving Mickey’s house, Claudia diverted towards her own house and used her powers to clear the Night Thorns that blocked the path to an apple tree in her side yard. As Merlin had said, the tree’s fruit were unspoiled somehow but she doubted it would grow again. She picked a few and, remarkably, they were tasty and fresh, giving Claudia another burst of vigour.

It was a good thing that she did so because, heading towards the path down to the coast, the Night Thorns were a lot denser and more determined in the way they were tangled around the ‘normal’ plants.

As if… they were protecting something.

It was then that she had a stroke of luck and memory. Merlin had said that the Pickaxe was jammed in a rock and there was a rock: A huge crag about a hundred feet from Scrooge’s now-closed shop. Claudia had avoided the area on the other side of the crag from the miserly Duck’s shop simply because the bushes were so thick back there and, now she thought about it, she realised that as a clue she should have checked out at once.

After topping up with another apple, she began to carve her way forwards until, in the blind spot of the crag relative to the shop, she saw a yellow light. After vaporising a few more bushes, she reached the crag and found the tool wedged in the rock. “Okay girl, this is your King Arthur moment!” she declared, taking a two-handed grip on the handle and bracing herself.

She could not possibly be prepared for how right she was; the Pckaxe just slid out of the rock as if it weren’t stuck at all. Of course, her tug was so strong that she ended up sprawled on her back with a loud inaudible laugh track playing in her head. “Should have seen that coming.” That was when Claudia heard the rumbling like a… ‘A volcano?!?” she blurted as the crag fragmented and crumbled by an immense power driving up from below it.

Claudia was on her feet and vaulting over the surviving Night Thorn bushes in the area. “Crap-crap-crap! This is bad! This is so bad!!!”

That is when the crag erupted, but not with burning lava or scalding volcanic gas. Instead, a spear of light shot up into the sky. Somehow the spear struck something and the darkness that enveloped the land was shoved aside with a sunlit sky was revealed instead. Claudia staggered to a halt to look at the magical display. Mickey and Scrooge were both looking at the daylight, magically restored. “Ach, but that’s a sight, no tellin’ a lie,”

“Uh… Yeah,” Mickey said. “That it is! Good job there, pal!” Mickey slapped Claudia’s back. The woman wasn’t really listening. All she could hear was a song from her youngest childhood:

When you wish upon a star,

Makes no difference who you are!

When you wish upon a star,

Your dreams… come… true…!

The Royal Tools, Part II – The Shovel of Might

Claudia heard someone whistle. “Uh… Claudia? Pal?”

Claudia looked over at Mickey. “Yes, Mickey, I’ll come and help you find Remy’s cookbook; I said I…”

“Uh, no, it’s actually that I think I know where I left it now.” Claudia frowned in genuine surprise. “Ha-ha, yeah. I was hanging around my house, doing some thinking and it just popped into my head!” Mickey shifted nervously. “Yeah… I’m kind of sure that I buried it somewhere near Remy’s place so he’d be able to find it easily if… when he came back.”

Claudia nodded thoughtfully. “Okay, that makes sense; I’ll check it out.” As she turned towards the derelict building, Mickey stepped to her side. “No, Mickey, it’s dangerous. I’m going to have to get through a lot of Night Thorns and we know that they can confuse you.” Mickey seemed about to argue and Caudia was quick to override that. “It’s dangerous, Mickey. I know that you only want to help but this isn’t the time or place. Let me see if I can find Remy’s book and get the area around the Restaurant cleared out, okay?”

Mickey sighed. “Okay, whatever you say, pal.” He looked a bit downcast but Claudia was sure he’d be okay once his friend was back. As with the area around Scrooge’s old shop, the area around Chez Remy was choked with Night Thorn thickets, some of which were quite large. However, something about restoring the day had changed how Claudia’s powers worked. She had a real second wind and was able to destroy a lot of the thorns almost without effort. A few Dream Shards were revealed as were a few stacks of coins. She did wonder about what was causing these particularly dense growths.

The reason quickly became apparent as a shovel with seemingly a golden head and a sparkling yellow jewel in (much like the one at the base of the Pickaxe’s handle) at the junction of shaft and head. The tool levitated into the air and gently flew over to Claudia before settling into her hands. Like the Pickaxe, the Shovel felt like… it belonged there.

With the Night Thorns mostly cleared away, Claudia began a slow tour of the area around Remy’s restaurant, she noted several rock outcroppings and, most importantly, several areas of visibly disturbed and uneven earth as if the ground had settled a round something that had been buried. “Okay, I can take a hint,” Claudia told herself.

She’d never been much of a gardener since puberty. Schooling and work had kept her in environments where the ground was mostly paved or covered in asphalt and she was hardly used to digging up the soil. However, something, possibly the power of the Shovel, made it easy.

Not much was initially there but after attacking a few areas of obviously recently covered excavations, she found, instead of Star Coins or a pack of plant seeds and, finally, a green medieval-style treasure chest. Excited, she easily broke the padlock with a blow of the shovel (and there didn’t seem to be the slightest damage to the alloy of the shovel blade after that). Claudia threw open the chest and found…

There was an excited whistle for her attention and Mickey ran over, practically tripping over his feet in his excitement. “You found it, pal” You really found it!”

“That I did, Mickey!” Claudia squeezed the anthropomorphic mouse’s shoulder. “Right where you’d said it would be!” Mickey seemed a bit abashed at the praise and didn’t seem to be following the woman’s path as she walked back towards her house.

The Royal Tools, Part III – The Watering Can of Life

Claudia found that staying in the house until the sun set was enough to completely revitalise her. She struggled out of her armchair with the silent determination to buy a bed as soon as possible. 

She’d probably have to get Scrooge’s store working first.

Always a neat freak, Claudia was not happy to tolerate the Night Thorn thickets surrounding her house and began to focus on removing them and the rocks also protruding from the soil. There was one particularly large patch and she figured that it might be covering something important. The association of the Night Thorns to The Forgetting didn’t seem coincidental and blocking access to the tools needed to restore the Valley and from things that might return memories by association made sense. 

So, Claudia wasn’t as surprised as she could be when, as one large patch of Thorns dissolved, a brass watering can with an elegant teapot-like spout and a sparkling golden gemstone at the lower joint of the handle to the body. 

That’s when she heard Mickey whistling in his distinctive way for attention. The world-famous mouse was standing in the middle of a square of trestle fences, beside what looked like a strawberry bush. “Oh, hey there Claudia!” he said with some forced cheer as he looked around him. “Gee… My garden’s a mess. Minnie loved this place and loved gardening. I don’t know what she’d say if she could see this now!” 

Claudia decided that being positive would be best for Mickey’s mood. “Ah, it just needs some love”

“Yeah,” Mickey said. “I tell you what, we’ll clear this area and then I’ll show you how to make food so you are ready to fix the Valley! Minnie’s crackers really always hit the spot! So, we’ll need some wheat flour!”” 

“Okay, MIckey, show me how!” 

Mickey seemed nervous and even a little hesitant. “Um… Don’t think any less of me but… The real reason that I wanted some crackers is because it was Minnie’s favourite recipe to make me happy. If I had them… I could tell myself that she was here.”

Claudia knelt before the mouse, putting her eyes at about chest height to him. “Are you okay, pal?”

Mickey’s laugh was a bit forced but genuine enough! “Oh, I’m okay, just missing Minnie, that’s all.”

At Mickey’s direction, Claudia planted a small crop of wheat next to the fruit bush. However, when she watered the plants with the Watering Can…? Well, magic. The seedlings sprouted up in less than a minute and, with three minutes were at hip height, a bright, vibrant and healthy green.

“Ha-ha! Yes! That’s the Ruler’s watering can! Those seeds should be ready to harvest by tomorrow!”  Mickey grinned. “Minnie always says that you can tell the health of a plant by the colour of its leaf! There was a special note in that recollection.

“You miss her a lot, don’t you?”

“Oh, like nobody’s business!” Mickey said. “You’re here now, though, and we’re going to see things get better!” Mickey looked around. “Y’know, I used to care for a lot of the gardens around these parts, growing food for people to make into meals or for Goofy to sell. The Ruler trusted me with the gardens around your house and I did the best to keep the Night Thorns at bay but, somewhere along the line, they swallowed up the Shovel and Watering Can and there was nothing more I could do!“

“It happens,” Claudia said reassuringly.

“It must have been that darn Forgetting!” he spat. “I don’t know where I lost them! The Thorns were fighting against us, even then!”

“But, now that Claudia is here, things are going to improve!” Both Claudia and Mickey turned to see Merlin striding over, a definite spring in his step. “Ah! good to see you both! I see that you’re well on the way to recovering all the Royal Tools! Most impressive; couldn’t have done better myself!”

“Master!” Claudia said, blushing slightly at the praise. 

“Hey, Merlin! Yes, she’s even brought back daylight!” 

Merlin smiled, stroking his beard, and looked around. “Yes, most impressive. I was looking for you Claudia as I’ve been studying that Dream Shard you found in that Night Thorn thicket.” Merlin raised the finger-shaped blue gem. “As I suspected, the shard is pure, solidified Dreamlight. Everything in this Valley is made of it. Your ability with Dreamlight should enable you to even build and repair buildings with it.”

“Can it make furniture, Master? I’ve already used it to make some clothes!” 

Merlin’s eyebrows shot up. “Have you really? Goodness gracious! You are daring and quick-witted! Yes, yes it can.”

“So, why did the Ruler want so much of it?” 

Claudia quickly outlined her discovery in the mailbox and this made Merlin frown again. “Really? Two scores you say? Curious; they must have been preparing a new Zone of the Valley to need that much concentrated magic around. Oh well, whatever they were doing, I’m sure it was for the best but we’re unlikely to learn about it now, what with them missing!” Merlin drew out a star coin. “The shards are ‘wild’ solidified Dreamlight. However early on the Ruler discovered a far better way to store their power. The Star Coins are not mere currency; they are a storage medium intended to allow us to obtain items here in the valley - Furniture, clothing and even to alter our abodes! Certain of the inhabitants can use it to provide us items from ‘templates’ that they have acquired through various means…”

“That’s how Scrooge’s shop works,” Claudia predicted. 

Merlin bowed his head with a smile and a twinkle in his eyes. “Indeed it does, Claudia. Conjuring from raw crystals is difficult but using Star Coins in a template is far simpler and less likely to fail.”

The old Wizard moved slightly. “Now, my young friend. All that remains is for you to find the Fishing Rod of Bounty and you’ll have all four tools. Once we have those, we can attempt to penetrate the thorn forest around the Castle.” The old Wizard smiled and made a tumbling ‘let’s go’ motion with his hands. “Chop-chop, my dear Apprentice. Much to do!” With a flash of light and a puff of smoke, he was gone.

Mickey was looking at Claudia with an expression of awe. “You… You’re a Sorcerer’s Apprentice…?” he asked. “You have no idea how long I’ve dreamed…”

As Merlin and Claudia walked away, Merlin drew another Sea Chest from within his robes, this one a deep ruby red. “Ah, now my young Apprentice, there is very little time for us and I can’t exactly monopolise your day with lectures. This chest is linked magically with my library and you will be able to extract any book you want from there.” Merlin smiled and touched his crooked nose. “May I suggest with the theory of Dreamlight and how it interacts with the material world of this realm? Given the nature of your power, that subject would seem right up your alley!”

~*~*~

After collecting the fruit from Mickey’s garden and from the apple tree beside Claudia’s house, Mickey was able to judge the wheat as fully grown and was ready to harvest. The two friends then retired to Claudia’s house.

“They say that giving is a sign of friendship,” Mickey said. “So, here is a gift from me to you!” Mickey reached behind himself and drew out a Dream Shard with something etched ono it. A cooker. “Should be enough raw power,” the ever-positive Mouse said. ”Here, you need some working gear!” Mickey added. He held out a pair of workmen’s grey denim dungarees. Well, if she was going to be farming, Claudia couldn’t’ exactly do in in her normal tan pants, could she? Mickey left the folded clothes on the sea chest she was using as her storage to the left of the fireplace.

Taking the gift, Claudia stepped over to the corner beside her cabinet and put the Template down. She held her hand over the artefact and concentrated; the shard burst into golden light and, with a few crackling fireworks a charcoal-burning hob and oven materialised.

“Now, you need to study those recipes that you found in Remy’s yard,” Mickey instructed gravely. Reaching into her backpack Claudia pulled out the Rat Chef's cookbook only to find that the title had changed from ‘Remy’s Recipes’ to ‘Claudia’s Cookbook’. “Wh…?”

“Ah, Remy won’t mind,” Mickey cheered. There were only two recipes in the book: ‘Fruit Salade Grande’ and ‘Stuffed Peppers’. With a reverent smile, Mickey placed his hand on a blank page and, when he removed it, a new recipe was described for ‘Minnie Mouse’s Matzo Crackers’.

A little water and a rolling pin were all Claudia needed to have the food cooking away in the oven. Because they seemed rather dry, Claudia also set out to prepare a Fruit Salad too. Claudia and Mickey were both drooling as they sampled the chopped apples and strawberries. “Delicious!” Mickey said. “Y’know, pal, I’m sure that Remy will be back in the valley eventually. Until then, though, well you’re a decent chef!”

There was a ‘ping’ from the clockwork timer and Claudia fetched out the crackers. Mickey looked at them reverently. “I’ll sleep easier tonight, having enjoyed these, Claudia. Just as my Minnie would have made them.” Claudia grimaced subtly and set her kettle on the stove for a relaxing cup of tea.

Mickey was clearly struggling with his ambiguous feelings, so the two friends sat on the floor in the middle of Claudia’s ‘work in progress’ living area. They picked at the fruit salad for a while and Claudia focused on just being there for Mickey and reassuring him with her presence rather than trying to fix his problems because she didn’t know even a hint of where Minnie was or how she was going to get her back.

Finally, Mickey got to his feet, setting down his teacup. “Well, it’s been real, pal but I’d better head back if I’m gonna be any good making the most of what you did with the gardens! At least I’ll have a good night’s rest with the Night Thorns gone and being sure I’ll wake up and still remembering who and what I am.”

Honestly, Claudia couldn’t imagine what the surviving inhabitants of Dreamlight Valley had been going through because of those demonic plants and she was happy to have done at least something to help them. “I’ll see you in the morning, Mickey,” she reassured him.

After showing the mouse out of the house, she turned back to look around the single room.

She didn’t feel really interested in stopping to rest yet, so she decided to start moving around the furniture. Doing so opened an empty spot in the corner to the right of the fireplace. This gave Claudia an idea and she intended to run with it. She reached into her pack and fished out Merlin’s letter from before The Forgetting and confirmed that she would need another twenty Dream Shards to conjure an item of furniture. However, as she wasn’t planning to make just a wooden shape, she decided to use all thirty-eight shards (the remainder of the package plus all those she’d ‘harvested’ from Night Thorns that she had dissolved. Well, she wanted bed covers after all; she had no idea what requirements like that might do to the needed raw materials.

After laying out the dream shards, Claudia took up her now-familiar casting pose. “Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!” she declared. The Dream Shards broke up into blue-white light and, lacking any template to fix onto, tried to just dissipate into the environment. Claudia exerted her will and tried to force it back into a shape… into any shape, really. The Dreamlight crawled along the woman’s fingers and arms, feeling kind of like a static shock from velvet or some other material, the hairs on her arms standing on end. 

“Come on, come on…” she begged the raw magic, focussing on the idea of a comfortable…

She looked at the wooden-framed adult-sized single bed and snorted in amusement at the heart-shaped carving on both the head and foot end panels. The bed had covers with green, grey and blue longitudinal stripes and plush pillows. It was exactly in the place she had wanted it to be.

Nervously, Claudia nudged the new item of furniture with her foot. When it didn’t collapse into dust and ash or just fade away into purple smoke like the Night Thorns did, she decided that was safe to try.

Claudia felt exhausted and, the moment that she was horizontal, her eyes slid shut.

The Royal Tools, Part IV – The Fishing Rod of Plenty

To be quite honest, she was surprised to awaken in her little house rather than on the ground by the well near her old childhood vacation spot. How would she ever get out of this dream? Did she even want to? Well, that was all something for another time. 

The house had a simple hand pump attached to a metal hopper and she was able to get a bowl full of cold water to wash herself down before she dressed in her polo shirt, dungarees and Mouse Ears headband. She took a few mouthfuls from the remains of the Fruit Salad and decided that it was time to start the day.

It was dawn and…. oh, what a beautiful dawn it was! With the majority of the Night Thorns in the plaza area destroyed, the green turf gave the area a Garden of Eden-like feel. After making sure that she could summon the Royal Tools, she sprang out onto the battered stone path. Birds sang in the recovering trees and a dark grey squirrel gambolled along the path, skipping over Chockodile, who was looking around himself in a mild, disinterested way.

That’s when Claudia was reminded that this was a cartoon universe as full orchestral music began to play from nowhere and Claudia felt the sudden urge to sing along to lyrics that just popped into her head without any preparation as she sauntered happily towards the Well, smiling like a carefree child.

“Morning in Dreamlight Valley shimmers!

“Morning in Dreamlight Valley shin-i-ies!

“And I know for absolute certain!

“That everything is gonna be fine!”

The women skipped over to the centre of the Plaza around the beautiful ornamental well, surprising a meditative Merlin, who was walking towards the thorn-surrounded bridge over to the gates of The Castle. Of Dreams. Claudia took a ‘introducing my friend’ position.

“There’s Merlin off to his research!” She nearly leapt towards where Mickey was tilling the soil by the trellis walls and pointed him out to an audience that was only in her mind.

“There’s Mickey tending to his plants!”

“Hiya Pal!” said Mouse responded with a cheerful wave.

“The Valley is so happy and so free!

“Can things ever go wrong?

“How I just can’t see!” 

Claudia jumped up onto the lip of the well and danced a jig, clicking her heels against the stones to make a tap dance-like motion. After completing her jig, she jumped down back onto the paved square and ran forwards, her arms flung wide, a beaming grin on her face.

“Morning in Dreamlight Valley shimmers!

“Morning in Dreamlight Valley shi-i-ines! 

“And I know for absolute certain,

“That everything’s gonna be…!”

“Well, hello there, neighbour!” Scrooge was looking at Claudia in a supercilious but pleasantly indulgent way as if one of the townsfolk suddenly launching into a spontaneous song-and-dance number was an everyday occurrence. Which, when a blushing Claudia thought about it, it probably was before The Forgetting. The spell was broken and Claudia felt that she should have heard a needle scratch sound effect.

“Oh, Mr McDuck, good morning to you too!”

The rich snob of a duck snorted. “Ah’m still awaiting ye to get mah shop up and running, girlie!” he remarked. Claudia was about to try to make an excuse but he gestured pre-emptively for silence in a way that reminded her of her manager in the city and reminded her of why she so desperately had needed to escape from that life. “Ye’ve got all yer little ducklings in a row, of that, I’m sure. However, I need my seed fund and that means Goofy!”

Claudia frowned. “Goofy? Isn’t he your only real competitor?”

McDuck struck the cobblestones with his stick. “Aye! So, he’s the only one in this rundown ruin of a valley that has access to coin in large amounts! You get that from him and he’ll underwrite mah re-opening many times over!”

That Duck, Claudia mused as she aimed her footsteps towards the stairs down to the Peaceful Meadow and…

Wait a minute, how did I know that? Claudia puzzled over that until she was faced by three huge boulders that were blocking the way off the stairs. Okay, I can handle this, she told herself. She flexed her hand and, with a golden-white flash, the Pickaxe materialised in her hands. Three mighty swings and the stone staircase was clear. Of course, because this was the post Forgetting Valley, she had to also clear away a number of dangerous-looking growths of Night Thorns, one of which was guarding the entrance to a house with familiar-looking anthro-dog on a sign over the entrance.

It’s like with Scrooge! Those fucking Thorns were trapping people in their homes if they couldn't be driven away! With a cry of ‘Bibbidy-Bobbidy-Boo!” the way was clear. Claudia entered a spacious one-room home with modern-looking furniture and appliances. This certainly bore out Scrooge’s belief that the good-natured being’s wealth, as surprising as it was to see him. There were no Night Thorn infestations in the house, which was odd. Had the growth ‘settled’ on just trapping him. Was it capable of that level of sophisticated behaviour?

Goofy was painfully tall and thin, his long, canine face, floppy ears and ill-fitting head-sock all attested to his name as did his incredibly exaggerated gestures and motions. “Gawsh! A new face!” he yelled excitedly. He frowned. “Say… You’re not the scary kind of stranger, are you? You’re just a friend that I haven’t met yet?” Claudia stepped on her urge to say that she could be scary if she wanted to be. He might not understand that to be her ironic sense of humour at work. Instead, she decided to be factual.

“I’m here to help, Mr Goof. Are you okay?”

“Oh, I’m okay,” the mandog said. “I mean… it was really scary when the sky was blacked out; even more than my friends all forgetting stuff and vanishing like that!” He then leapt into the air in glee. “But now you’re here! I just know that we’re gonna be great pals! Uh… If that ain’t too forward or anything? H-yuck!” Claudia grinned unrepentantly. A true Goofy! “Gawrsh! There’s so much I wanna show ya!” The tall being started to count off on his fingers. “Um… There’s ma stall… probably will need some cleanin’ up… Then we can go fishin’... If I can find my lucky rod…!” 

“Slow down, Goofy! We’ve got enough time for all of it.” Hearing about a ‘lucky’ fishing rod reminded Claudia of the last of the missing tools. “We should start with finding your lucky fishing rod!” 

“Oh boy! I was hopin’ that you’d say that! I was lookin’ for it forever! Come on, let’s check around! 

Goofy didn’t wait for Claudia; he strode out into the daylight. Claudia smiled and shook her head. Well, there was no reason to hesitate, was there? As she turned for the door, she walked past Goofy’s refrigerator (which, shockingly, had a chilled water tap) and saw, on the door, a recipe, attached with a smiley-face magnet. One way to beat The Forgetting, she supposed. For a being who loved fishing so much, she suspected that the Fish Soup was standard fare.

Claudia decided to try something. Whilst looking at the recipe, she pulled out her cookbook and, opening to a blank page, pressed her hand to it. When she pulled her hand back, as she’d hoped, the recipe was duplicated. Oh, and it was duplicated. The spell had effectively created a photo of the recipe in the book, right down to Goofy’s messy and loopy cursive. Shaking her head again at the sheer capriciousness of Magic, Claudia followed her big new friend out into the daylight.

Goofy was looking at a pond immediately behind his home plot with a frown. “Garwsh! Those darn Night Thorns are everywhere!” he said mildly.

“Leave it to me, GG.” Claudia said. She stepped forwards and let her magic run rampant. One after another, the thorn bushes burst into purple light and vanished into the ether. As with the area in front of Scrooge’s shop, there were several cashes of Star Coins hidden in the bushes, no dream shards this time. However, there was something that she realised had been hidden away behind one of the Night thorn thickets. Was that…? No, it didn’t behave like one of the Royal Tools. It did not fly over to her. This was an entirely mundane fishing rod, apparently tossed aside on the other side of the pond from where Goofy was standing, sorting through what was probably years-old mail that he’d found in his mailbox. Chocodile picked up the rod in his jaw and started trotting alongside Claudia, looking very pleased with himself.

Returning to Goofy, Claudia somehow persuaded the Cryptid that had somehow adopted her as ‘his human’ to release the prize. The rod seemed intact but the reel didn’t turn. So, little more than dead-weight. “Uh, Goofy?”

“Hey there pal! How about a chat?”

Claudia extended the rod, making Chocodile look annoyed at losing his new toy. “Is this what you’re looking for? I’m sorry but I think that the mechanism is broken!”

The Anthro-dog frowned as he leaned towards the reel mechanism. “Here, let me see! Ah, it’s just tangled up with pondweed;” The tall being pulled the weed out of the mechanism, clearing the foul in a moment. “There! As good as new!” Goofy smiled and did a little excited jig. “You deserve a reward! I got a package from my old pal The Ruler!”

“You did?” Claudia was genuinely surprised to hear that.

“Yup! It’s a fishing rod! Better than this one, as much as I love her!” Goofy extended the rod. “I was going to use it but, now you’ve found mine, there doesn’t seem a point anymore. Besides… It’s reacting to you. I wonder why?”

Claudia gave a slightly sickly smile. All the Royal Tools had responded to her and she was getting a sinking feeling like there was a reason for it. “Uh… maybe because I’m so magical? Seriously, I have no idea; I’m no-one special!”

Goofy’s eyes twinkled with kindness. “Ah, I dunno; you seem pretty special to me!” Goofy handed over the rod, which seemed to be a modern carbon-composite sport-fishing rod. A few of the more boastful guys at the office had been showing off tackles like this. Like all the other Tools, the Rod had a glowing golden gem, this one at the very end of the handgrip and it leapt from Goofy’s hands into Claudia’s.

“Gawsh! It really does like ya! Here! You need a proper angler’s hat if you’re gonna go fishin’ with me!”

The fishing expedition was wonderful relaxing end to the morning and Claudia caught a Rainbow Trout (which she didn’t feed to Chocodile. His lack of teeth suggested to her that he wasn’t carnivorous in any way). “You’re a natural, Miss Claudia! “ Goofy announced. “If you can’t eat all yer catch, bring ‘em to my stall to sell when it’s all fixed up! I’ll see ya!”

Claudia spent the rest of the morning cleaning away the remaining Night Thorns and even getting a Dream Shard for her trouble. So far, she’d collected over 1,200 Star Coins and, as she walked over to the frame of Goofy’s stall, Scrooge was waiting for her.

“Well, hello, Neighbour!” the avaricious business-duck said with a cunning smile. “I see you’ve opened up the meadow and freed mah competitor here!”

“Oh, Uncle Scrooge, ya was always a kidder!” Goofy responded.

“So, Lassie, everything seems to be in place for me to restore this here market stall! I’ll even do this as a free gift for all the help you’ve done for us here in the Valley.” He reached out with his walking stick and used it to tug on Claudia’s arm. “I dinnae plan to be so generous again!”

Goofy’s stall, restored by magic, was every bit what it should be. A simple shelter for a few shelves with a big sign with Goofy’s face on it. “If ye’re ever short of coin, Lassie, I’m sure that you can persuade this gentledog to give ya a fair price for any treasures ye’ve found,” Scrooge remarked.

Goofy gave Claudia a big hug. “I think that today has been my lucky day! You come along, free me, find my lucky rod and persuade Scrooge to fix mah stall for free! H-yuck! Thank you, Claudia!”

Claudia blushed. She didn’t get thanked anywhere near enough. “Anything for a friend.”

“Aw, and you’re the best pal a guy can have!” Goofy said. “Here! As a start, maybe I can let you take some surplus stock, just so people can see that Goofy’s back in business!”

A few bags of vegetable seeds in hand. “I’ll tell everyone, Goofy,” Claudia promised, although, apart from Mickey, Merlin and Scrooge, she’d yet to encounter anyone else in the Valley.

“An you can be an investor! Any seeds or fish you want to sell, come and see me here! I’ll sell on the stock and give you a good price!”