"Amber Crookshanks?"

Amber didn't open her eyes this time. She already had a pretty good idea what she'd see. It was the stern woman's voice this time, Alex.

"Amber Crookshanks?"

She still didn't say anything, but opened her eyes, and looked around. Five faces this time, five different colours. The newcomer had a purple light on her face, and the perky smile of a high school cheerleader. The figure for it too, Amber could guess based on the few glimmers of light off her skin. It was only an outline, but just enough to make out who she was.

"We did that bit already," she said, when it was clear enough they were actually waiting for an answer.

"We wanted to be sure you were awake," Jack smirked. He wasn't attempting to be all formal this time, which had to be an improvement. "Now we've got your attention, we've got something important to–"

"What's your name?" Amber interrupted, "You didn't answer last time. And why can't I see you properly? There should be moonlight shining in through the crack in the curtains, unless you covered them up from outside."

"Should there?" Mel raised an eyebrow, "There wasn't last time. I guess you decided not to close the curtains properly after last night, so you could have a better view of us. Smarter than I expected."

"Last night? I've had them open a little crack every night since last time you were here."

"Wasn't that last night?"

"More like three or four days," the cheerleader spoke, "You'll have to forgive Mel, he doesn't pay much attention to events outside his library. More than once he's got caught up in a good book and come out to find he's missed some appointment by a week."

"Don't you get in trouble for that? Anyway, you still didn't tell me who you are."

"My name's technically Arinisette, but nobody can spell that, so they usually call me Arnie. Or Amy if I'm filling in my name on a form, because when I put Arnie people seem to think it's a guy's name only. If you mean the group, I think we agreed on Rainbows. Or maybe Rainbow Knights, the Rainbow Legion, Rainbow Priests, or some other suggestions I don't remember. We can agree on the Rainbow part, anyway. It kind of fits with our totem colours. Even if some of us," and here she turned to glare at Jack, "Think that symbolism is somehow childish."

"Knights?" Amber seemed confused, "I thought you were like wizards?"

"Don't let some of these guys hear you say that," Violet grinned, "I wanted to be wizards, but they think it's like a dirty word or something."

"Who said we're wizards?" Jack snapped, "We most certainly don't associate with the dark arts."

"I guessed," Amber shrugged, "You got in and out without going through the door or window, so I figured it's got to be some kind of magic. I couldn't find anything about it in the library, though. I thought maybe leaving the curtains open a bit would mean I can see you better, but you blocked the light somehow. That's gotta be magic, right?"

"No!"

"Depends how you define magic," Alex offered a compromise, "But Jack and Arnie have good enough reasons for not wanting to be called wizards, so I think we'd appreciate it if you didn't call us that."

"Okay. What are you then?"

"Good question. Not sure there's a word for it in your language."

"How'd you get in, if it's not magic? And can you uncover the window please? It's weird talking to people I can only half see."

"I didn't touch the window," Violet whispered, "I'd tell you more, but Jack says we're not allowed to tell you a couple of things until you agree to help us. I could probably get away with telling you if you guess right, though."

"Violet, that is not–" Jack began to roar, just like Amber's father used to when he was really upset about something. She shrunk back reflexively, but Alex had already half turned towards Jack and given him a warning stare. It must have been the same special stare that Mom specialised in, because the angry words stopped mid-sentence.

"She's quite right, Jack. If Amber can guess more than we expect, then there's no point hiding it from her anyway."

"You said you didn't do anything to the window, right?" Amber took this as an almost-approval to ask the questions that were on her mind. "I think you wouldn't be trying to trick me if one of the others did, because you want to tell me anyway. So, there's nothing on the window. So why isn't the moon shining in? And the streetlights from outside, too. I bet you can't put the moon out, because that would make everybody scared, and they'd be sending football players into space to fight evil aliens or something. Are you aliens, by the way? No, aliens can't be knights I think."

"Did you ever think that it might be a new moon tonight?" Mel suggested, "The moon doesn't shine every night, you know."

"No, that'd be too much of a coincidence. You didn't know I was watching for you, so you wouldn't have planned it like that. So why else can't I see the moon? Mom would say if I'm dreaming there wouldn't be the moon in here, because it's been dark most of the time. Please tell me I'm not dreaming you guys, because that would just be so lame."

Violet put a hand over her mouth and giggled. Looking round all the others, they were trying not to laugh as well. Without meaning to, Amber had managed to come up with something really funny, which was even more annoying because she hadn't meant to.

"No, you're not dreaming," Violet composed herself enough to answer. "I am."

"Oh. So how does–" Amber started replying before she realised that didn't make any sense at all. "Wait, I know that's not right. Because if you were dreaming, then I'd just be something in your imagination, and I know that's not right, because I've been to the library and I've been to school and been to the park, and all kinds of stuff that you don't know about."

"Give the girl a prize," Jack growled, "Yeah, you got it. But I don't really think that was a close enough guess to give you the answer. But you know now, I can't change that. Yeah, this is our dream. Or Violet's if we're giving anyone the credit. And you are technically a figment of our imagination, but that doesn't mean you're not a real person too. It's a pretty complex trick that most people can't easily manage, so count yourself lucky."

"You can..." Amber tried to wrap her mind around the concept, but it wasn't an easy one. "You can dream somebody else into your dream?"

"Right," Violet nodded, "They'll tell you that you're technically not asleep now, but it doesn't make that much difference. Just that anything happening in your home can't wake you. If the doctors were scanning you right now, they'd probably say you're dead."

Author's Note: Please let me know if anyone is interested in seeing more of this. I've started out posting daily, but I'll probably drop back to a less frequent pace in a week or two. Just long enough for you to get some idea of the feel of the story, and decide if it's something you want to see more of. I see a few views on this story but no votes yet; should I take that as a sign it's not grabbing your interest? Does it need a stronger opening before I start posting?