Everyone goes somewhere when they sleep. Dreamland is the most common name, but some just think it's your unconscious figuring itself out or filing away memories. But then there are those who knows what it really is. A whole other world where your true self, the self unbound by your physical body, is able to go. In this world, if you can focus yourself enough to consciously travel it, is a shop. A funny little shop keeper knows the ones who are awake in this world and those who travel within it asleep. The sleeping ones can't get in. The ones who are awake are welcome with a smile, the tinkle of a bell, and ask What dream will you trade me for my items today?

If you've ever awakened in the morning to find an unusual object on your nightstand you swore you'd never seen before, but somehow know it's your's? It means that you were able to wake up in that world and travel to the shop.

Their legs were broken, their lower back was damaged, and they were bruised all to hell. Still, havenworlders were safe, so while uncomfortable, they were not too upset about the situation. A scaffold some workers has been on had given way and they'd shoved the havenworlders out of the way quickly just as it collapsed pinning them beneath. Security had to come rescue them as the havenworlders were too small to get them out. Still, being stuck in the chair, in casts and braces, knowing they were going to be like this for a while, and then in physical therapy for ages, got old fast. Sitting in the park alone, it was also getting rather depressing. They were used to going to the gym and being active. As it was, they'd just be happy with having someone to talk to right now.

I figured I would take a stab at hoping for a part 2 of a story? It's from this prompt.

https://steemit.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02494-f304-mr-sunshine-s-new-friend

Ms. Lilcoon goes looking for her friend, Mr. Sunshine, after she has the surgery on her paws to make them more like dextrus hands. She's grateful he saved her and had tried to keep in touch by writing him. But with her hands bandaged for a bit, writing would be hard. She told her family about what happened, of how he saved her, and was given permission to go and meet him for lunch and a chat. After all, everyone needs to have friends, right?

This prompt is because I've a friend who has severe anxiety and their companion animal is a pitbull. The dog is gentle, well-trained, and wears a vest to tell others it is a therapy animal. And yet, many times, they've had to explain that it's a therapy animal, even pointing out the vest, when places try to force them to leave because it's a pittie and people immediately assume that means "vicious".

They had been fighting anxiety their entire life. While they did their best to handle it, there were times when, even with medication, they were overwhelmed. When they got their support animal, it was a bit of a learning curve, after all people expects skitties or dogs, not winged reptiles. They wore a special pair of glasses that, when their life-signs showed anxiety levels rising to the point where medication would not assist, and there were no dangers in the area, the words You are safe would slowly show in a corner, and the animal would softly begin to groom them, calmingly, to ease their fears. However, going aboard station, when others saw the monstrosity on their shoulder, well, sometimes they had to calm others' fears about the creature they carried.

Anyone who's had humans aboard their ships will know one thing for certain, even when asleep, humans can be very loud. They call the harsh, almost predatory growling-like noise, snoring. There was a reason if you want to allow humans to have quarters aboard your ship, you sound proof it. However, it's also often an indication of the human having an obstructed airway when they sleep, which could be, from a medical standpoint, worrisome. However, once you heard that sound, you knew they were well and deeply asleep. But then again, enemies also knew that sound meant they were asleep, too. What they didn't know, was how well humans can fake the noise and take someone off-guard.

I think you mean this one?

https://steemit.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02504-f314-who-waits-forever-anyway

Yeah, as gentle and as harmless as they appear, and to anything bigger than it is, a hummingbird is harmless, though they will swoop at you if they are agitated enough depending on the type of hummingbird it is. Especially mother hummingbirds if you get too close to their nests. The problem is, they don't do it often because their metabolisms are so fast they actually have to eat, a lot, just to survive. A hummingbird can actually starve to death just by flying around too much if they don't eat regularly. They are an animal that, despite all that they eat, are always on the brink of starvation. So that aggressiveness comes at a terrifying, sometimes deadly, cost to them. But then again, they come from a deathworld, so sometimes insanity isn't in the mind, it's sheer survival.

https://www.livescience.com/1072-secret-hummingbirds-amazing-energy.html

They wanted to keep the masses obedient. They wanted to keep the people miserable. They didn't want them to learn to think for themselves. They wanted the people to be living parts for their industrial complex. Then role play gaming came in. When power outages would occur, to "protect nature" of course, gaming systems would be useless. They forbade most board games for being "damaging to young minds" and the high ground of "wanting to stop gambling". But this new game... it was insidious, the books for the games were banned, confiscated, burned. It encouraged people to learn to read past the necessary after all. The dice were banned, confiscated, melted and burned. It could lead to gambling. But yet this game continued. Charts and maps hand drawn, alternatives to the dice found, people were starting to think strategically, learn to escape the misery and see it in a new light. The people were starting to realize where the real power was. The gatherings of gamers were banned, no explanation given this time just coldly banned, there were massive arrests, just to try to stop the spread of the games. But people now had a taste for it, and a taste of what could be. And in the darkness a voice whispered to the people who played the games, "Roll for Initiative, set yourselves free."

What book are you talking about and where can I find it? I love your short stories.