The Twelve Labors of the ONEIRONAUTS: Recent Episodes
Chris Botkin
Book 4, "The Twelve Labors of the ONEIRONAUTS," is a book of dreams -- or maybe nightmares. An "oneironaut" is a traveler in a lucid dream, and in this installment of the Cousin Chronicles, the Cousins and Pets become oneironauts, trapped in Dreamland.
To earn their release, they must perform a variety of "labors," that through sheer coincidence may remind us of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Pilgrim's Progress, The Wizard of Oz, The Odyssey, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and "Argonautica" by Apollonius of Rhodes.
In Dreamland, they learn two things: they control the dream, and one never knows when a plague of dung beetles will come in handy.
-- Chris Botkin
In Chapter 6, the Lord of Alchemy's "favor" or reward is rather surreal, and very rather.
-- Chris Botkin
In Chapter 5, Madison cooks great-great-grandpa's favorite dish -- ham and beans -- for supper in the Gooneybird galley, with leguminously gas-tronomic consequences.
-- Chris Botkin
In Chapter 4, the Cousins hone their combat skills at a paintball park.
-- Chris Botkin
In Chapter 3, the Cousins and Pets are waffling around the galley table, hoping Amelia's drawings won't get them in another war, and trying to think of something fun to do, when Logan gets an idea. He does that, sometimes.
-- Chris Botkin
In Chapter 2, Lukas gets called in to pitch in the last inning of a tournament baseball game, with his team ahead by two runs, bases loaded, and no outs.
(In real life this was Logan, but Lukas asked to be a star athlete in this book, so I gave the story to him.)
-- Chris Botkin
In Chapter 1, we do not know who is speaking, or where they meet, or what they are talking about, but at least it's a short chapter.
-- Chris Botkin