…huh? What? What's that light? My head was aching as I tried
to recollect my thoughts. What in the churning cosmos is going on?
I wondered. Did I fall asleep again? I suddenly remembered
the man who had been chasing me. What was his name again? Tristan,
I remembered, that was it. Aside from that, I only remembered
that I was allegedly in some kind of "Dream-world". Why did
he bring me here? I asked myself, for I was certain that Tristan
had, in fact, brought me somewhere, although I didn't really
know where "here" was. More questions flowed through my head, but I
had no answers, and those were what I really needed. Fortunately, I
had some idea of where to find them. I opened my eyes.
"Welcome back," said the voice of Tristan Evenstar.
"Where exactly am I now?" I asked in a tone of voice that was somewhat
less menacing than I'd intended. "What just happened?"
Tristan launched into a long, technical explanation of the physical
body's journey while the mind sleeps. As far as I could tell, he was
claiming that I had been physically transported to a world created by
human dreams, a place that only the mind visits while the body sleeps.
(Of course, some part of my physical body was back in the real world;
I hadn't just disappeared.) In either case, Tristan was telling me that
I'd just personally experienced the answer to a rather unique question:
what does one experience when one sleeps in the Dream-world? According
to Tristan, my mind essentially acted like I was in the middle of dreamless
sleep, while most of my physical presence sat in the Dream-world. I
listened attentively to Tristan's speech, but I didn't really understand
(or believe) any of it, but, for the sake of getting to the answers
I sought, I accepted it - for the moment.
"So," I said as Tristan finally ended his explanation, "that brings
me back to the big question. What does all this Dream-world stuff have
to do with me?" I punctuated my question with an inquisitive glare.
"The reason I brought you here-" Tristan abruptly stopped talking, a
worried look on his face. "Oh no…" He turned and glanced furtively in
all directions. His face grew pale, almost translucent.
"Tristan, are you okay?" I asked, startled at this sudden change in
the strange man's demeanor. For a brief moment, I wondered if he was
about to die right in front of me (or do something equally dramatic,
though nothing else in particular came to mind).
"I have to go," he told me quickly, beginning to literally fade away.
"Wait!" I exclaimed trying to run after him. Before I could take two
steps, he was completely gone. What now? I wondered. I
have to find Tristan. I have to figure out this Dream-world thing.
I looked around me, determined to find some clue to Tristan's location.
After a few seconds of spinning in circles, I simply picked a direction
and walked in a straight line. Suddenly, my surroundings altered themselves.
I couldn't see a thing and it was kind of gloomy. Is this the Dream-world
then? I speculated idly. I thought most dreams were supposed
to be cheery and delightful. Unless this is a nightmare. An image
started to fade into my eyesight. Startled, I flinched back as I saw
the face of Tristan. But only his face and nothing else. I called out
to him: "Hey! Why did you vanish all of a sudden and why is your face
the only thing I'm seeing?" You'd almost think he was a ghost or
something.
Tristan merely drifted away slowly, his lips moving inaudibly, as if
to say that he'd be back. It appeared to me that he was using a lot
of self-control to drift slowly instead of abruptly disappearing in
a cloud of smoke. Indeed, it almost seemed as if something were calling
him away.
"Wait!" I called, seeing my chance for answers evaporate like a light
mist at sunrise. Too late; he's gone again, I realized. However,
this time I resolved to catch up long enough to get my answers. I ran
after Tristan yet again. Am I supposed to figure out this dream/real
life thing by myself?
I slowed my pace to a walk after running long enough to realize that
I wasn't going to catch Tristan again anytime soon. Since I seemed to
have the whole Dream-world to myself, I decided to try something that
I hadn't thought of before. Every part of my body was functional, but
now I wondered about my mechanical parts. I called up the time on my
cybernetic eyes. I was not really surprised to see that the numbers
were just counting and resetting themselves randomly. I tried to call
up my compass but that was flipping out too. "Forget it," I said, disappointed.
I tilted my head up to the still-gloomy sky and gazed at it. I saw two
moons. Suddenly it all connected in my brain. Was I in the world that
Galadriel had been calling for help from? I felt dizzy again, realizing
that I could be in danger as she was. I felt like I wanted to black
out again. I've been doing a lot of that lately, I thought
ironically as I sat down on the hard earth (not grass) to steady myself.
I forced myself to stay awake. I stood up, still a little shaky. Now,
I thought as I was calming myself down, in which direction did I
last see Tristan? Randomly, I picked a direction and started walking
again. It seemed that searching for Tristan, though a hopeless task,
was at least something to keep me from panicking. Wow, I'm going
to lose a lot of weight from all this walking, I thought. It seemed
like forever, but I was keeping optimistic in my mind. I was making
progress.
In an instant I saw a flash of white light. The place turned bright,
so bright that I fell back, covering my eyes. Images flowed into my
head. In that same instant I heard swirling and all sorts of noise.
I saw everything, like a thousand different movies being fastforwarded
and played right in front of my eyes. Stop! Everything stopped
and went black. Run, I told myself, just run. I started
to run towards nothing, absolutely nothing. Just then the ground beneath
me gave way. I landed and tumbled, still frightened and started to run
again. "NO!!" I screamed, sweat dripping from my face. "What is happening
to me?" I started to yell.
This time I heard noises and voices and ran in the opposite direction.
I tripped and started to fall. I kept falling into darkness as if there
was no end to it. I thought I was going to die if it didn't stop. The
flashes of light, sound, and swirling color were starting to put me
over the top. Darkness consumed me and I saw nothing. It felt as if
I was sleeping awake. What is really happening to me? Is there no
end to this madness? Am I going to survive? That last question
did it. I had a rude awakening to the value of my life. Can I survive?
Can this be a world of death or something? Will I ever see Amanda again?
Will my family ever learn what happened to me? The one coherent
thought that entered my head after that was that I didn't even know
what was happening to me. I was confused. As I fell into that infinite,
eternal darkness, there was another thing sticking with my consciousness
and I: CONFUSION.
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