- James -

Cold. That was my first thought as the darkness of unconsciousness fled from my mind. Why was I so cold? My eyes tried to open but they felt so heavy. I was so tired. My eyes opened but was having trouble focusing. Everything was dark. Wherever I was it was only dimly lit. I could see some shapes across the room move slightly but I just couldn’t seem to focus. The only thing I could tell was I was lying on a cold hard stone. I guess that's why I’m cold.

I tried to move my arms but they felt heavier than they should, refusing to move far. Odd. I rolled my head to look down at my arms. I found them in heavy manacles attached to a chain in the wall. Ok that mystery is solved… My eyes fell shut. Just so tired.

…

…

I laid there for a long while before my brain fully booted up. My eyes shot open, any idea of sleep left. I tried to move, to sit up, to understand. Why was my entire body in pain? It was like the time I had been beaten by the shadow cats and left in an alley...I was beaten.

Why was I beaten?

…

…

Nothing. I can’t remember anything. The last thing I remember was the egg. We had received a new mission from the mayor to find a dreamer? No... Awaken the sleeper. Something like that. We had all gathered at the inn to wait for our final member of our team Aster. The mayor had said he was going to teach him a new skill so that he could actually be of help. I didn;t like the way the mayor went about it but if it could help him...then I was all for it. Aster had been a trainwreck so far. Dieing on our first mission, after a terrible showing against a normal drake. He fell all over himself during the fight with those shadow creatures. Not even able to hold his own against those ethereal creatures. One hit they would dissipate. No matter where they were struck. Then during the final day...He ran. He disappeared not letting anyone know where he went. He just left. I know he was scared, but he should have stayed to help. Did he think? Did he think for one second what might happen to us?

My anger was feuling me. I pulled my mind away from that incident to how we got here. We had taken the egg and were waiting for Aster after the next day of not showing up. We knew if he was really taught a skill he wouldn’t be back. It had already been too long; he should have already fallen asleep.

From there we would have headed out immediately but Bay had insisted on waiting saying Aster probably didn’t get a skill.

Bay didn’t trust the mayor, thinking it was all too convenient. Something out of a story, but the mayor had yet to do anything untrustworthy. He just didn’t like Aster. As for Violet and Rowan. Violet doesn’t seem to care either way. She is just going with the flow, like always, although she always made her opinion known. She was against Aster from the beginning, but not from any malice...I don’t think, just practicality. Rowan on the other hand...He doesn’t seem to trust Aster anymore. I think it must have to do with how he thinks Aster might be unstable.

My mind kept wandering. I had to fight back to the memory of how we got here. We spoke the words “Show us the Dreamer.” The egg began to pull forward towards our destination. The egg pulled us for 4 days past the gargantuan city walls, deep into the wilds, where outside communication was impossible. The wilds would inhibit communication due to the level of mana in the air. Cities work constantly to cull monsters, lowering the ambient mana allowing for the wireless communication in cities, and between cities, where giant underground cables connecting them together allow fast communication. There had been many attempts to set up towers in the wilds but monsters were attracted to the signal. Thus they would never last long, as they would alway be overrun, without a large dedicated army or adventurers to cull them.

FOCUS. Why can’t I keep focus? My mind keeps wandering everytime a stray thought enters my mind. I focused my mind hard on how I got here.

We followed the egg for 4 days, when the pulling became erratic.

We had realized we must be close. But the only thing around us were trees and more trees. An ocean of trees. We thought the egg must open a hidden path or something, when we didn't see anything. Then we reached a spot and the egg glowed. We all looked toward the egg and the blue screen appeared in front of it.

“Good Luck Dreamers.”

Then nothing. That was as far as I could remember. I was concentrating hard to remember what happened next but couldn’t. Nothing could pierce the veil on whatever happened next. I found myself sweating in the cold dungeon. Tired, Exhausted, yet fully awake.

I opened my eyes and they finally came into focus, adjusting to the dim light of the prison.

The first thing my eyes focused on was Rowan. He appeared to still be unconscious struggling to move. Looking over I could see he also had a set of manacles on his wrist, with a chain looped through a metal hoop on the wall. Seeing this I rolled my head, still not strong enough to lift it, to see that I was in the exact same setup.

Shit. I tried yelling over to Rowan but I couldn’t speak. My throat was raw. Why is my throat raw? Why would a beating make my...the realisation dawned on me must have been torture. What in the blighted earth is going on?

Something a lot more dangerous is going on and I can’t remember. I rolled my head to take in the rest of the room. As I did I noticed 2 more forms also attempting to move along the ground. It was hard for me to get an angle but when I did I could see Violet and Bay. Bay’s eyes were shut but I could see a rather intense glare from Violet. ‘I really hope this isn’t my fault.’ I shivered at what she would do if it was.

Other than all of us chained to the wall of the room. There was nothing. Just a big stone room, with a heavy steel door in it, and what looked to be an egg behind some glass.

The steel door had bars at the top that would allow for guards to look in and a slot at the bottom that looked to be for food. How long are we going to be here? Then another terrifying thought ‘How long have we been here?’

That was my last thought before the last of my energy went out of me and I faded to black.

Time passed as I lay unconscious for...I don’t know how long. *Cling* The sound of chain rattling brought me out of the darkness fading out of my dreamless sleep. My body was still sore but almost healed, and I could actually move. I sat up to find I was still in the same room, chained to the wall along with my team.

“Finally, Someone else woke up.” It was Violet, she must have awoken before me. I looked over to her, she was glaring, this time she just looked and sounded tired.

“Where are we.” I asked seeing if she knew something I didn’t

Ah there is the glare. “Don’t remember. But seeing as we are chained to a wall...I’d say we are in a dungeon. Do you remember anything? Like hitting on someone you shouldn’t have?”

Wait really is what she thinks of me? I am a man of discerning tastes who is very respectful of the opposite sex. “No. I did not.” I hesitated for a second. “At least I don’t think so.”

Violet rolled her eyes, sighing. “Yeah even you probably wouldn’t do that. What is the last thing you remember?”

“Following the egg and activating it.”

“Yeah. That's as far as I remember. No idea how we got here.”

“What does it mean?”

*clang clang* The sound of chains rumbled as Bay sat up. “It means we must be in the dream.”

Violet dropped her head into her hands. “Of course. This must be part of the stupid quest.”

What do they mean, in the dream? We are all clearly awake. “Explain, how is this a dream.”

*clang* Bay got into a comfortable position sitting back against the wall. “What was the last thing we all saw before this?”

“Welcome Dreamers?”

“Correct.” Bay gave me a small condescending smile. “Now what would that imply?”

“We are the dreamers.”

“Now what were we supposed to do for the quest itself?”

I had to think that it was hard to remember. A lot was really foggy for me, but I could just remember. “Wake the dreamers?”

“Yup. So that means we need to wake up.”

I was following her but didn’t understand what she was trying to get at. “That still doesn’t make sense. We aren’t asleep.”

“It’s probably metaphorical.” Violet spoke, seeming to make her own connections. “We need to wake up our sleeping potential. Or something as such.”

*Clang* “That might explain why we woke up in a dungeon.” Rowan had awoken, he appeared disconcerted. “But that doesn’t explain why the world here is so...quiet like there’s nothing.”

Bay looked curious over at Rowan. “What do you mean quiet?”

“I’ve explained I can kinda feel people's and other things emotions, like and extreme empathy. The thing is I can only feel you 3. Everything else is just...gone.”

Violet tilted her head asking. “Well, we are alone in this cell. Why would that be different then say alone in the woods.”

Rowan shook his head looking for words. “I feel everything. Even if there is no life you can see in the woods it's all around you teaming with life. From the ants to the worms in the dirt. Even the trees. It's like the low constant hum of the world. Here it's like that hum is gone.”

I could see an idea stirring in the back of Bay’s mind as Rowan spoke. I see in your face you have an idea Bay. What is it?”

Bay jumped slightly at being called out but smiled after. “I think this might be a literal shared dream. Not something real and physical.”

“Is that even possible?”

“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “They keep everything away from us until we are stronger. So until proven otherwise I am going to think this is some type of dream we need to wake up from.”

She does make a good point. “How would we go about doing that?”

“We need to escape. It’s fairly straightforward. But if this is a dream we’ll need to worry about the absurd world of dreams.”

“Oh Great! We are dealing with dream logic.” Violet looked exasperated and annoyed.

Rowan looked back towards his chain, asking. “Where should we start?”

The room grew silent only broken by the sound of chains rattling as we moved.

Time passed until Bay asked a simple question. “Can anyone use your mana? I seem to be blocked from drawing anything in.”

After hearing what Bay said I focused inward to find my Mana. I found it quickly still there full and whole. I attempted to move it through me to see if I could. I found it moved slower than usual like it was just waking up. After a moment or 2 of pushing whatever was slowing it down dissipated waking up my mana the rest of the way. “I appear to be fine, but it took some time to get it moving back to normal.”

“What about you guys?”

Rowan spoke first “My internal is the same as what James said, but my external just feels like it's slowly leaking. I can’t control it.”

“Same.” Violet held out her hand. “I can move it inside but can move anything outside my body.”

“Ok. So the manacles are probably blocking external mana.” Bay said while she was attempting to stand.

“What makes you think it's the cuffs?” I asked

“Guess.” Bay shrugged

Really? Well it’s better than any Idea I had. Speaking of ideas. I concentrated; focusing on moving my energy through my muscles empowering them to beyond human limits. Once I felt ready, I gripped my chain and pulled hard. *Ching* the chains straightened out. At the noise everyone's heads snapped up staring at me. Everyone was quiet waiting to see if I could do it.

I pulled with all my strength, keeping constant pressure wiggling the chain back and forth. For the first few seconds nothing happened. Then I saw it. The loop moved. I could feel my energy draining, and muscles tearing, as I pulled. I focused ignoring the pain and just pulled. I couldn’t stop before I was free. It would take time to heal if I did, but if I could free myself Violet could heal me. Then we could work together to free ourselves from the wall. We would deal with the room later.

I Pulled and pulled until all of a sudden I was flying backwards towards Rowan. Shit I must have popped it out. I was flying with no control. “Look out!” I couldn’t see Rowan's face but I bet it was surprised when my body slammed into the wall right next to him. “Ow.”

“That looked like it hurt.” Rowan said with an uncertain voice.

Annoyed I was rubbing my back where I had impacted. “No Shit.” I looked over towards Violet.

“You think you can heal me?”

“Not from here.” Violet held her hands out displaying her manacles.

“You know what I mean.” I could see Bay holding in laughter at our banter.

“I do.” Violet went quiet for a few minutes doing...Something. Looked like something with mana. Frustrated she spoke. “I don’t know if I can or not. This is completely blocking any external mana. But if I’m touching you it might work since I wouldn’t be expelling out but through.”

“So you're going to have to touch him huh?” Bay waggled her eyebrows.

“Yes. The closer to the injury the better.” Violet ignored Bay’s comment.

Keepers I hope she can do it. I stumbled onto my feet, still unsteady from flying across the room. With my torn muscles I couldn't even lift my arms, causing my chains to drag, shuffling towards Violet.

I dropped to the ground next to Violet in reach of her hands and pulled off my shirt. I never knew how painful taking a shirt off could be till I tried with torn biceps, and pectorals.

“Ok James, where is the worst of it?”

I vaguely nodded to my chest. “Chest is probably worse but the rest of my upper body is not doing much better.”

I felt a small cold hand on my back. The suddenness of it almost made me jump. “Lets see how bad.”

From the cold hand I felt a warm pulse through my entire body, with little electric shocks in my damaged muscles. “Wow that is some bad damage. You also damaged your joints and slightly fractured your wrists.” Violet paused then in an uncharacteristically cautious voice. “This is going to hurt. A lot.”

I would have said some kind of snappy line if not for the concern in her voice. “Let’s just do this.”

“This will take a few minutes. Everyone you might want to cover your ears, he’s going to scream.”

“Hey what makes you think…” She started to heal me and she was right. I screamed.

It felt like molten fire encircling each individual muscle, and bone. It was agonizing. I never understood why healing hurt was so painful. I had the ability to heal myself but that would take a lot of time before I could move. Violet specialized in healing and could get me back to 100% quick even dulling the pain some...if she was at 100%. I don’t think she had the energy to dull the pain and heal. But why did it have to feel like I was melting from the inside out? Why did I have to tear my muscles?

I’ll need to be much more careful when pulling the others.

The pain passed just as fast as it appeared, and it took a moment for me to realize the pain was gone, and I stopped screaming.

“How do you feel.”

I was riding the high of not feeling anything and answered in a daze. “Good.”

“Great! Now free the rest of us.”

That brought me back. “Rowan lets get you first.”

“...” Rowan stayed silent and just nodded.

I reached his side and we both grabbed the chains and wiggled it out. Rowan's chain actually seemed to pop out much easier than mine. “That was a lot easier.”

Rowan looked over his chain shrugging. “A lot easier with more people.”

We repeated the process for Violet and Bay.

We were all free but still had the manacles. They were too thick for me to break and violet wasn’t able to use her mana to cut through. We were stuck with them… for now.

“The blight is this?” At the sound of Bay’s voice we all looked toward her. She was standing next to the door looking through the glass at what appeared to be an egg.

“What is it?” Violet asked.

“You all come here and take a look.”

“Can’t you just tell us.”

“No, just read it.”

Read it? Is the screen open? I thought you had to touch it to see the screen? Now curious we all walked over to the glass. When we got within a foot a blue screen appeared in front of it.

Mission Rank ?? Type: Escape

Mission Status: Completed Time Remaining: N/A

Details:

Free the entire party from the wall. Use whatever method necessary.

Completion Details:

Ripped chains from walls using internal energy. Healed team member. Worked together to free the rest.

“WHAT IN THE BLIGHTED LANDS!!!” All three of us said in unison.

“It was some kind of test. ” Bay said, annoyed.

“Why would they do this?” I was very confused.

“Who knows, but the thing is. The egg says we completed it.”

“Yeah, because we did.” What was her point?

Bay could see none of us was following her. “When did we accept the mission?”

Dawning realization. Normally, you have to accept the mission for the egg to say complete. None of us had accepted it then…

“We must have all accepted, before joining whatever this is.” Bay finished my thoughts.

Why would we all agree to this? It did not start pleasant. We all woke up almost dead. What did we get ourselves into.

“He guys.” We all looked over to Rowan. Now what? “Doors open.” Rowan slid the door open slightly with just a small pull.

Violet walked over to the door to look out.“I guess we move onto the next test then?”

We all gather by the door. “Let’s go.” And pulled the door fully open.