It all began when someone left the window open. The ancient, cracked, faded wallpaper folded itself like origami into small fluttering birds and soared to the outside world. I quickly headed for the window and peered out. I watched in awe at how the birds effortlessly, naturally folded with the wind.

It was thrilling to think that these creatures blowing in the wind were created by me. They had transformed from dreams to reality and were now flying through the air. I was exited but also afraid, what else had I dreamed up last night? My eyes widened.

I could not believe what I was seeing outside my window. There were unicorns, witches, huge moths dancing polar bears and rhinocrocodiles. I rushed downstairs and hurried outside. Wow. That was the only word I could use to describe the scene.

I didn’t know exactly what to do. I mean these creatures weren’t exactly all my fault, I was not conscious when I imagined them, but despite that I still felt as if they were my responsibility. I looked at my creations as they wandered around aimlessly it seemed. The witches were screeching and buzzing around, the rhinocrocs grazed in my front yard, the unicorns gracefully trotted through the clouds, and the giant moths rested on my roof.

“How do you do?” I stared up and a humongous polar bear stared down at me.
He adjusted his bowtie, and danced away. I was amused, but then I suddenly realized, would I be the only one seeing his? I doubted it, but as I saw the morning light of the sun peek through the clouds I knew if I was going to do something about my fantasies I would have to do it soon, it was almost daybreak.

My parents would be up soon to start there early cup of coffee. It was five twenty when I awoke and my parents would be up by six thirty, but my parents weren’t the only ones I had to worry about. The creatures would be in the city in no time. I would have to find a way to catch them all, or at least push them farther into the country. My family owned a weekend house in the country and I was more than thankful for that now, if I would have been in the city my creatures would have been seen in no time.

I had no neighbor that I knew of in the country but that didn’t mean there was none. Then I heard a cry for help. I looked to the sky and saw that a unicorn was struggling in some kind of fight. There was a chain around her neck, and then I saw him. A man, flying out of the clouds, was holding on to the other end of the chain.

He looked like he was determined to catch the unicorn, and he was having fun doing it. I don’t know how he was doing it. He was pulling strongly on the chain, and planted his feet firmly on… the sky? But when I took a good look at him, I realized he hadn’t been in my dream! He was sporting a cowboy hat with some sort of printed animal fur on the rim, a long white sleeved shirt with a brown vest and ripped jeans.

But the strange thing was his boots. They were brown leather cowboy boots,
nothing special about them, except they seemed to be grounding him to the sky. He didn’t seem human. He whistled and yelled as he reeled in his catch. The unicorn struggled; she neighed, kicked, and bucked, but to no avail.

She was pulled in easily as she lost her strength and was eventually lying on a cloud, out of breath. Why was that man doing something so cruel!? “Hey!” I knew he couldn’t hear me, but I kept screaming anyway. “Hey, stop that!” I said.

I felt I was about to cry. He tied up the unicorn and brought it down from the clouds. He took out a necklace, tapped it and the unicorn disappeared. I couldn’t believe my eyes. He seemed to be finished, so he turned to me, tipped his hat politely and
bounded off.

“Hey, wait! Who are you?!” I yelled at him. He turned back and smiled,
as if he was expecting the question.
“Why, I'm the dream-catcher.”