Falling. An endless sense of it was all I felt, tumbling end over end into a bottomless abyss of color,
numbing the rest of my senses. I could only see blurs of color around me, changing like a rainbow, as I
fell. I could see far above me the hole that I fell into, and through it I could see a hulking, large,
black shape swatting at three tiny lights that buzzed around it like flies. Falling, falling, falling.
Never ending, just falling. I tried to scream but I could not, I could only fall, and fall, and fall. I
tried to worry, I tried to move, I tried to call for help, but there was only the falling, and falling,
and falling. It was a bottomless pit, devouring me but never killing me. I was falling, and falling, and
falling…
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
THUD! I came to with a gasp, sucking in air as fast as
my lungs would allow. I suddenly was aware that I was deathly cold, and
realized that I was drenched in sweat. Where's Tristan? What just
happened? I felt like I was on the ground, though I could not see,
as my vision was one big blur of color. I began shivering as a breeze
blew by, chilling me to the bone. Where the heck am I? I attempted
to rise, but fell back to the ground, my bones feeling as supportive as
Jell-O. Shazzbott! I didn't know how long I lay there, but finally
I attempted to rise and was able to get up. My eyesight came back into
focus, though everything still seemed to tilt and whirl around. Tristan?
What happened? Who attacked me? Even with my vision messed up, I
could tell that something was definitely wrong. I was standing on a large
plain of bright green grass; the sky was sort of pinkish, with blue clouds
dotting it here and there. A few trees sprang up from the ground, twisted,
with their leaves packed into dense balls of foliage on the ends of the
branches.
"Weird," I said aloud to myself. I was sort of surprised at myself. After
all that had happened to me today, why should I be surprised at a few
pieces of odd foliage? I scanned the horizon for any signs of civilization
and saw far away a small dot on the horizon, what seemed like a small
hut. I tried to magnify it with my eyes, but nothing happened. I tried
again, still nothing. I attempted to pull up the time, but to no avail.
I tested all the functions of my cybernetic eyes, but each one proved
not to work. Maybe all this inter-dimensional travel had shorted out the
robotic parts of them. Not deterred by my malfunctioning eyes, I started
off to the hut.
The sweat from earlier had mysteriously disappeared, and I found myself
in a rather jovial mood, despite the odd happenings of today. I started
whistling, and soon found myself singing out loud one of the oldest songs
that I could remember, the Eagles' Hotel California (my mother
is an avid collector of oldie music). It was strange, I thought, being
so happy after all my previous escapades that day. Maybe I was truly going
whack. I finished Hotel California and looped into Life in
the Fast Lane. I looked up into the pink sky, smiling, and threw
my arms up in joy. I was definitely going insane. I closed my eyes and
let the light fall on my face. The bungalow was still a ways off when
I closed my eyes, but upon opening them I found myself in front of the
small building. "Whoa!" I exclaimed. I must have traveled several
hundred meters in an instant; not even the walkways in Cartersville can
go that fast.
The small cottage was quaint, rather bland looking except for the odd device affixed to the roof. It
was a peculiar contraption, holding at the top a green piece of something shiny. As I stood there
staring at the device, a stooped-over old man, leaning on his cane, walked up to me and said in a
crackly voice, "Dreamer, to Vision's hut Vision welcomes Dreamer."
I turned around to face him, puzzled at his words. Dreamer? What's
he talking about? I wondered.
"Vision's home Dreamer will come; Vision must tell Dreamer many knowledges,"
Vision (I assumed that was his name) said as he turned to go inside, not
waiting for me.
My jovial mood left me, the odd device, my sudden transportation, and the man's cryptic speech
mystifying me. I entered the lodge, which seemed too large to be the inside of the structure I saw,
and sat down in a seat that Vision had motioned for me to sit in. "So, uh, Vision uh, where exactly
are we?" I asked, hoping I had assumed right.
"Vision and Dreamer are in Vision's home," Vision replied, going to a contraption in the wall and
looking through a viewer that I assumed was connected to the instrument on top of the house.
"Yes, but where is Vision's home?" I inquired, hoping that if I spoke like him he would understand.
"Vision's home is in Leomand, Leomand is in Dreamer's type's intelligence."
Now I was even more confused. "Why am I here. I don't think I'm supposed to be here."
"No, Dreamer should be in Dreamer's reality, but Vision saw Dreamer in Beyond, and sent Ordens to get
Dreamer from Nothing, and Ordens brought Dreamer to Leomand," Vision said, turning back to me.
"What do you mean, that you had to get me from nothing? Why did you have to get me then, and who are
the Ordens?" I asked, frustrated by Vision's lack of proper speech.
Vision simply smiled and said, "Nothing was going to end Dreamer; Dreamer
was informationed by Strange, so Nothing wanted to end Dreamer. Ordens
are similar Vision's type, and Ordens fixed Dreamer's situation." I slammed
my fists into the arms of my chair and leapt up from the seat, furious
over the old man's inability to communicate very well. "What the heck
is your problem, you decrepit old man! Can you not speak like a normal
person?"
Vision continued smiling and calmly said, with a touch of sorrow in his frail voice, "Vision has not
communicated with Dreamer's type for many time, Vision only sees Dreamer's type's thoughts with
Vision's telescope. Vision is not regular to, as Dreamer says, speaking." The old man looked up at the
ceiling wistfully, then suddenly walked out the door.
"Vision! Wait! I didn't mean to-" I stepped outside after him and found three other people waiting for
me. Two of them were men, not appearing much older than I, one a bit taller than the other, and the
third person being a rather lovely lady who gave me an interesting stare.
"Dreamer, here are Ordens who fixed Dreamer's situation," Vision said, motioning towards the three
figures.
"Hello, I'm Neil. I guess I should thank you for saving me from this Nothing thing," I stammered. The
woman's stare pierced my soul like a surgical laser through cake.
"No problem. It's our duty to keep people safe from Nothing," the taller guy said with a smile. "Oh, I
almost forgot my manners, I should introduce us. I am Arclite Orden, this fellow," Arclite motioned to
the other man, "is my brother, Gabriel Orden. And that beautiful flower over there is our sister, Maus
Orden."
"Hi, like I said, I'm Neil." I spoke easier now, as Maus's stare seemed to become an approving one.
"Well Neil, one of us Ordens will escort you around Leomand at all times, for other than the ferocious
Nothing, there are dragons, zombies, vampires, giant crocodiles, and all manner of nasty things people
have dreamed into our land," Gabriel said with a smile.
"Dragons? Zombies and Vampires? No way!" I shouted in disbelief.
Maus spoke up and said, "I think you'll understand if you know that while we call it Leomand, to your
people, you call it the dream world."
Now it started making sense: I couldn't use my eyes because I was in a dream, and I was able to travel
so fast because of that also. I must have been happy because in most dreams I'm pretty joyous. It also
explained Gabriel's comment about dragons and zombies and all that. If I was in a dream, then obviously
someone on Earth was bound to dream of those things.
"I believe that Gabriel will be the first one to watch you, Neil. I must go investigate some odd things
happening in the Star Trek areas." Arclite gave a polite bow, and suddenly disappeared. I wasn't so
surprised now; it was a dream after all.
"I need to return to my watch over Gala. Good day to you, Mr. Neil," Maus said with a smirk before
disappearing as well. Vision had gone back into his house while I spoke with the Ordens.
"Well Neil, it's just you and me now, so where would you like to go now that you're in the dream world
of Leomand?" Gabriel asked with a devilish grin across his face.
"Where can we go?"
"Anywhere, for anything is possible here, reality is not reality, and make-believe is even more true
than anything ever said by whatever their names were, um, Confucius or Socrates or whoever." That day
was one of the greatest in my life, being able to see my wildest dreams right in front of me. Though
the question of Tristan's whereabouts was always in my mind.
|