Breister and Annie, despite their earlier adventures and courageous natures, battled against panic. The river roared in their ears, and the earplugs were nearly useless. Gradually, however, their panic subsided. Although the canoe plunged and bucked with dizzying motion, they soon realized that the canoe would not capsize. The surging river carried them down the perfectly smooth rock tube, with a surprisingly small amount of water sloshing in the bottom of the canoe.
Hours passed and exhaustion eventually overwhelmed panic and excitement. Breister and Annie fell into fitful sleep, unable to completely forget their troubles and fears. Toshty slept like a baby.
At last, Toshty’s voice called to them, as if out of some hazy distant place in their dreams. “Wake up, you landlubbers! It’s time to sail on the Ocean of Dreams!”
The raging river had now flowed into a large, calmer body of water. The three friends sat up. Toshty unpacked the fish-oil lanterns and lit them. He directed Annie to light another and, in the warm glow of both lamps, they could see their surroundings somewhat.
Fantastic rock formations rose all around them. The light of their lanterns illumined the shapes, making them cast weird flickering shadows. The lake actually flowed around the rocks as if there was a fantastic range of mountains rising from the lake. Paddling skillfully, Toshty piloted the canoe in and out around the formations. How he knew the way, Breister could not guess. Breister was astonished that some of the forms looked exactly like dreams he remembered from his periods of sleep coming down the river, and even far in his past.
“These are the dreams and nightmares of my life!” Breister gasped, looking at Annie. She was turning her head slowly, looking around at the rocks. Her face showed a mixture of emotions: surprise, uncertainty, awe, fear. Breister recognized the same feelings in himself. A particular formation and its shadows would seem similar to a dream Breister had once had, and that memory would trigger new images among other shapes and shadows. It was a strangely beautiful and wonderful experience, but at the same time unsettling.
“The more I see, the more I think I see!” Annie said. “It’s as if shapes and shadows trigger memories of dreams, and memories make me think I see more images!”
“And dream follows dream,” Breister replied in amazement. “It’s as if we’re moving in a dreamworld where the real and the unreal play with each other...”
As they paddled along in their surreal surroundings, here and there small painted boards were stuck up on the rocks to give directions. Some signs were warnings: “NO PASSAGE WELCOMED!” Toshty explained that these were posted by the Norder Wolves to warn the curious and lost away.
Paddling through the Ocean of Dreams, gradually the rumble of the river was left behind and the eerie stillness of the great underground returned. They heard few sounds except the periodic sound of cave birds flitting about somewhere in the darkness and the soft splash of their paddles, until a voice called out: “Hullo, my frippers! What’s the lark?”
Toshty, instantly alert, answered the inquiry, addressing a large Wolf wearing a heavy leather and iron uniform. The Wolf was floating nearby in a rowboat. “Stay there, friend,” he replied, “we are friendly frippers taking a lark to the Rounds. No cargo, no weapons, no money.”
The Wolf, armed with an immense club, had a snub-nosed, flat-browed face that made him look dangerous. But he also had a strangely friendly manner about him. His ill-fitting uniform, and small red eyes peering through spectacles, made him seem more interesting than threatening. A leather helmet, perched precariously on his head, and tilting so badly over his left ear that it threatened to fall off at any moment, only added to this effect.
“Hullo, my frippers! What’s for grubstake?”
“No eggs, no honey, no dried fish,” Toshty replied. He obviously knew the routine.
“Hullo, my frippers! What’s the game?” the Wolf asked.
Toshty replied once again, this time with a strange look of steely courage in his eye, “No stopping, no more questions, no more answers.”
The Wolf scowled at the three friends, staring at them over the top of his spectacles. After a long moment, during which Breister and Annie sensed a tense nervousness in Toshty, the Wolf said: “Forget the way, frippers! Stay away!”
Toshty, letting out a slow breath of relief, began paddling again, guiding the canoe near the Wolf’s rowboat. Reaching in his pocket he pulled out a small package and tossed it to the Wolf. “I forget your face, I forget the place, nevermore to talk of it!” he called out to the Wolf as they passed on in the direction they had been going.