New Littlest

New Littlest sat nervously in her little corner of the heap, waiting for Old Littlest to arrive. Oh the suspense. She had heard so much of this Old Littlest. New Littlest was about to take the place of Littlest. Littlest was about to become Gossamer because of her legendary gossamer touch. Therefore, New Littlest would become the pupil of Gossamer and learn all about how to be a dream giver. So, she thought to herself I am about to become the student of one of the greatest dream givers ever, no wonder I am a little nervous.

Oh dear, was that the sound of the dream givers coming back after their long nights work? Yes it was, one by one the dream givers filed in and slumped down in the heap to sleep. New Littlest watched anxiously for Gossamer to come but she didn't come. Finally after much patience her waiting was rewarded and she saw the figure of Gossamer coming through the entrance into the heap. Elderly announced to the whole heap that Littlest had fought against the sinisteed. The other dream givers gathered around her asking to hear more about the evil sinisteed. “ I didn't really fight against them” Littlest admitted “I just gave a boy named John a dream so that he would be strong against their evil grasp. They came while I was still giving the dream so I bestowed it as quickly as possible. I don't really know what happened after that.” Littlest continued more thoughtfully. “I must have dropped to the floor, I was very tired. I imagine that one of the evil sinisteed must have kicked me under the bed as they came to torture John. I don't really know what happened after that except for that I was very scared and they made terrible, awful, horrible noises! Then it was quiet and Elderly came and found me” There was silence for a few minuets as the rest of the dream givers processed this information. No one had ever come as close as Littlest had to a sinisteed. The others in the heap were a bit amazed by
Littlest. They seemed afraid to come close to her. As if her mighty power made them unworthy of her presence. After the elder dream givers had talked for, what seemed to New Littles, a very long time. Ancient One informed Old Littlest of her new name-Gossamer.

New Littlest knew that she must wait until night for her and Gossamer to go out on their nightly rounds together, but the wait, the the agonizing wait. As if it hadn't been bad enough when she had been waiting for Gossamer to arrive at the heap, at least that had only been an hour or two. But this, this was hour upon hour of waiting, and oh, how could she wait any longerto go on her first expedition for giving dreams?

Well, finally the long wait was over and night fell. However, before New Littlest and Gossamer could go out and give dreams they had to get an assignment because now that Gossamer was Gossamer rather than Littlest she no longer had the same assignment as she did when she was Littlest. Gossamer spoke with the older dream givers for a long time. New Littlest tried to listen in. The elder dream givers were discussing with Gossamer what she would do next. “I want to go back to John,” Gossamer was saying. “he needs me” “But Elderly already has charge over that house.” responded Ancient One. “There is someone who needs you even more right now Gossamer. You must train New Littlest. Also I think you will find your new home quite adequate for training a new dream giver. After that you may be given the home where John lives.” “Alright it may be fun to teach a new dream giver. I just finished being a little dream giver myself.” said Gossamer smiling down at New Littlest.

Gossamer and Littlest were soon on their way to a house. “Gossamer” New Littlest began as they made their way along the dark street. “What are the sinisteed?” “The sinisteed are creatures that used to be very much like us, but then they were not content to follow the ways that we bestow dreams. They wanted to give dreams about other memories than we do. They wanted to know more about the people that they were giving dreams to. When they touched things in the people's houses that they gave dreams to, they pressed to hard and found out things that they shouldn't have found. They found out too much about the people. We don't need to know every thing, New Littlest, just the fragments that we will need to know to make dreams” New Littlest sat enraptured by Gossimer's story. “I feel very sorry for some of the sinisteed because some of them were not trying to be bad at all.” Continued Gossamer “Some were even trying to help people but they were not trained well by their teachers as to how they should give dreams. Some others didn't listen to their teachers and were careles. My teachers had to warn me about becoming like that many times.” New Littles was shocked “You mean that you could have become one of the sinisteed if you had been careless and not obeyed your teacher?” Yes, well maybe” replied Gossamer. “I don't really know. I guess that there is really no way of knowing. I don't think that it will be a problem for you New Littles. I think that you will be a very good dream giver. You remind me of myself when I was a little dream giver” “Really?” New Littlest asked. “Yes, very much so. Only I was much more mischievous than you. You are a very curious dream giver but you are not nearly as rambunctious as I was. Don't forget to have a little fun now and then” Said Gossamer with a wink at New Littlest. Then New Littlest remembered about the sinisteed again. “But you were very brave when the sinisteed came weren't you?” New Littlest said proudly. “I suppose some would say that.” replayed Gossamer modestly. “But the important thing is that they didn't hurt John.” “Who is John?” inquired New Littlest. “He is a very special little boy who needs a very good dream giver who can be very gentle and know just how to give very happy dreams. He has been very sad in his life and needs the strength of happy dreams. He was hurt very badly, by a man. His father I guess. This man beat him and his mother if they cried and he made John eat dog food!” explained Gossamer. “Oh,” was all New Littlest said. She didn't fully understand and all these bad things were new to her. She had never been exposed to any thing but happiness where the new dream givers were made. but she figured that maybe she would understand some day.
Soon they arrived at the house. First Gossamer then New Littlest slipped silently below the
door. It was getting harder for New Littlest to slide beneath doors. Her form was filling out and she was, in fact, becoming quite stout. New Littlest however slid quite nicely between the door and it's frame.

As New Littlest walked around the house she was amazed at every thing that she saw. She
wanted to touch every thing. She wanted to run around the house and glide her fingers over every thing. She turned around and around just looking at every thing. “The first thing you must know New Littlest...” Oh, Gossamer is speaking to me. “Is that you may touch things but for now you must only touch the things that have happy memories and you must always touch very, very gently.” With that Gossamer demonstrated as she delicately touched the faces on a picture. “Look here, this picture shows a little girl with her grandmother. This picture has many memories in it, there is baking cookies, warm hugs, reading books, and many other happy things. There are also some sad memories when the grandmother died but I shall leave that out of the dream I am creating. Some day I will teach you about mixing sad and happy memories but not for now.” “You can find all that in just touching a picture?” asked New Littles. “Yes you can” responded Gossamer “Now here, touch.” And thus began New Littlest's career as a dream giver.