Work came to an end, and with it went Scott's desire to remain among the conscious masses of humanity. He returned home as quickly as he could, given his general lack of athleticism. It was not long before he held a little plastic cup in his hand.

Filled to the brim with the promise of beautiful dreams, Scott gazed thoughtfully down at the syrupy red liquid. "Finally, I can go home..."

Scott downed his night time cold medicine in one swift gulp. His nostrils flared slightly as the warmth of the refreshing elixir overtook him. The modern-life convenience store potion allowed him to breathe a little easier in more ways than one. It would be about a half hour before it kicked in full-force, however. He opted to take a quick shower, and once that was over he hopped onto the Internet for a bit.

He checked through his favorite sites and found that no one had admitted to entering his region, yet. He was certain that someone in the world was in the area, they had to be. It would make no sense to him, otherwise. Even so, these supposed dreamers did not seem to frequent any of the sites that he enjoyed visiting.

Very little new information was posted when compared to his last search, though the online bestiary had grown a little. There were still no entries for the Screaming Onion or Rat Fiend, but there were a few similar creatures listed. “Dancing Jalapeno... A spicy monster that gives you heartburn while it forces you to dance?”

Scott shook his head. He’d had enough interaction with evil vegetables and dinner accessories for one lifetime. He knew that he would have to deal with more of them, however. Ridiculous monsters were quite common in the dream world from what he could see in the bestiary.

One other thing that caught his attention on his favorite site was a new project to unify the world map. "Folks move fast when they have a reason to be excited," he quipped.

People from all over the world pooled their knowledge, and a digital artist rendered the information into a somewhat coherent map. However, the scale of it was the most exciting part of it.

“Well, the world is freaking huge. Good to know,” said Scott.

He thought about the situation for a moment. There was no way to know what time it would be in the dream world when he returned. The grassland ass-slapper did something to the amount of time he spent in that world versus how much time passed on Earth. Clearly, that meant time was more malleable than believed.

People online and on the news constantly cited what scientists claimed. Many scientific researchers believed the time difference was due to REM sleep, but to Scott it was obvious that natural biological sleep functions had little to do with the situation.

The time difference was steady, the same for everyone. Time spent in the dream world seemed to run four times faster than Earth. When he went to sleep in one world, he awoke in the other. That seemed to be the main method of transitioning, though going without sleep for long periods of time in one world or the other would exhaust people.

It was a hard thing for many to accept, the lack of any real biological understanding of the phenomenon. But it was obvious to someone like Scott, a man who had consumed copious amounts of fantasy and science fiction content.

Modern science could not explain the dream, or the transition into the dream world. It could only hypothesize about the situation while the political types tried to sedate the frightened masses through the use of confident speech-making and scientific terms which were no doubt inaccurate.

Scott delved into the depths of the Internet for a few more minutes then began to wrap things up. However, just before he began to shut down for the night an idea occurred to him. He used to make simple jewelry as a child. It kept his hands busy and made his sister happy.

It used to make his mother happy too, but he tried not to think about her. His relationship with her was complicated.

On the one hand, she was the woman who gave him life and spent many happy days with him during his earliest years. In all honesty, he wanted only the best for her.

On the other hand, she refused to believe the truth about her second husband. Harry managed to convince her that he was a victim, just like her poor sweet little girl. He had his faults, certainly. But he would never hurt little Elizabeth. Scott merely reacted violently when he saw them in the room together not long after Harry discovered her.

The official story was that someone broke into the house and performed the vile deed. Harry merely found her there on the floor both bloody and beaten. Seeing his step-father hovering over the corpse of little Liz, Scott went into a childish rage and lashed out with murderous intent.

Scott's mother chose to remain with Harry. In the end, she believed the lie. She would never marry a child rapist, after all. In the process of discovering the truth she threw Scott away like a broken bit of trash.

He was the one in the wrong. Scott was the wicked step-child who attacked his innocent father without cause. It was a mistake, but not one that could go unpunished in the eyes of the law. He was a violent psychotic child, a mentally broken creature who needed state supervision by way of Juvenile Hall and the attention of a court-mandated psychotherapist. It was for the good of the child and for society at large.

Thoughts of the past were quickly shaken from his mind. He chose instead to search out simple jewelry making tips for crafting wire jewelry. Actually, he searched out one thing specifically. He learned to make chain bracelets as a child because the way the rings interlinked reminded him of medieval armor. He once tried to make a shirt of chainmail when he was a child, but it ended as more of an oddly shaped blanket.

Scott wondered what sort of tools existed in the dream world when it came to jewelry crafting, and how much they would cost. He would need a mandrel and wire shaping tools at the least. Actually, there were many simple types of jewelry that he could make if that world made and sold wire. Otherwise he would have to learn to craft his own, or adapt grass and reeds into the process.

He looked through a few tutorials then nodded. There was no point in trying any of those things with materials other than grass the dream world until he regained the knowledge and some of his lost skill in this world. Crafting materials were easy to come by on Earth, so whatever time he could not spend sleeping or had to spend working, could be spent on studying the art of the jewelry crafter.

“Maybe I should learn to do other things as well.” There were no fencing classes in town, but he might be able to take up boxing at the local gym. It seemed like that would be more useful than any of the watered down martial arts taught in the area.

Keep it simple and you might easily master an art. That was the key.

Unlike stories and popular entertainment, the people who usually won tournaments and fights did not master every possible style and learn dozens of skills. They often focused on a small number of core skills and became absolute masters of using them. At least, that was what he was led to believe whenever he watched mixed martial arts on television.

Most people learned to strike, sweep, grapple, and choke. They kept it simple and energy efficient. This allowed them to fight for long periods of time in the ring. There were occasional people who used flashier arts such as a tight aerial cartwheel, but those people studied arts that emphasized agile movements and distraction. Their attacks came from odd directions, but despite the flashier style of movement even they seemed to favor specific attack and counter skills from their preferred combat discipline.

Scott thought about what little he knew regarding real combat then decided that he would look into mixed martial arts trainers in the area. Swordsmanship was off the table for now, but even if he did not have an actual skill in the dream world, his knowledge would go with him.

General unarmed combat knowledge was better than none. He suspected that it would be a lot easier to stab someone with a sword if he were to knock them off their feet first. Besides that, it would give him a reason to exercise. His greatest problem in the waking world was his lack of motivation when it came to maintaining his body. If he could convince himself that he was training to be better in the dream, he could sort of grind in real life as well.

His eyelids started to droop and a tired smile crossed his lips. It was time to head to bed. Even if he could not know for certain, he believed that roughly two days had passed in the dream world. If that was the case, he should be fine when he arrived.

Scott went to the bathroom to make certain that he had taken complete care of that sort of business. He did not want to be disturbed during his nocturnal adventure, and especially did not want to deal with a bathroom break.

He crawled into bed. It did not take long to fall asleep. Between his cold medicine and his recent work shift, he was more than ready for some rest.

Blackthorne awoke in his room at the inn. He looked around then nodded. "They did not toss me out like a freeloader, so it can't have been that long..."

A sudden disquiet in his intestines caused him to rise up. "Yeah, better go handle that bit of business."

His body at rest for what might have amounted to days, he had certain needs in which to attend. Blackthorne quickly went off to seek the restroom once more. Soon, his nocturnal training would begin!