Phantom of a Novel

Last night, dreamed part of a novel:

The main character, a small boy – I think a Boy Scout, because scouts featured in my dream as well – was at some kind of camp, but one where there was either a cave or a monstrous abandoned theater nearby. In any case, the theater/cave was full of seats and had a stage with a curtain, etc. The cave/theater is populated with humans and animals, putting on shows every night. One night when the boy is watching a performance, some kind of creatures – black rats or some other kind of thing – burst onstage and demand to know who has the compass. No one really knows what they’re talking about, but the Boy Scout happens to have a compass on a string around his neck. Animals in the audience notice and the black creatures call him to the stage, where they then shove him through the curtain, and then through the wall behind the curtain, into their world/some kind of alternate world.

In that world, he still has his compass, but rather than showing directions, the compass shows seasons. As he arrives in this new world, he notices that the compass is pointed towards spring. He’s thrown into a dungeon while the black creatures try to decide what to do with him – they don’t take the compass from him because they’ve been told to wait for their master to arrive, who wants the bearer and the compass unseparated.

While in prison, other animals help break him out and they hide him in this world.

At the end, they’re all in a castle where the leader of the black creatures and the leader of the free creatures are holding some kind of council – meant to be farcical because the black creatures are in charge and are about to kill all the others. Someone somewhere has found additional instructions for the compass that the black creatures don’t know about – I’m not sure but it’s almost like the Boy Scout went through another curtain or wall and found another world where people know about the compass and how to use it – and he’s told to set the outer ring of the compass so it points to winter just before the leader of the black creatures takes it from him in triumph. Once taken, the compass freezes the king of the black creatures and his minions are in fear of the compass and their plans of domination fall apart. Then the Boy Scout makes it back to camp and is chastised because he’s been missing for a week and no one at camp got to earn any merit badges because they’d all been looking for him.

At this point, I’m not sure how much is dream and how much is embellishment as I mulled the dream over during the day. I just know it was very vivid and begged to be written down before I forgot it all.