Dreams of the Quill

by Flak

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It was so utterly ridiculous at the time to me, but I think what amazed me even more was my utter acceptance of it.

I mean, if someone who looked like they were an elf straight out of the Lord of the Rings movie walked up to you and acted all natural like, what would you do? Well, if I were to answer my own question here, I would not say what in fact I DID end up doing. Which was ask him in which direction town lay. All in very very crappy old school RPG dialogue, right.

“Where’s town? I need to sleep at the inn and recover my health and mana.”

“Go up five squares and then left.”

Man, even thinking about that hurts me. How could I have said such a thing? That’s definitely under the header of ‘Don’t know’. Well, this guy, who I’ll call Elrond for now (because he frickin’ looked liked Elrond!), told me he was a wandering wizard and he would join my group. I opened a book that all of a sudden was in my hand and it told me his ’stats’… as in, it spoke. I didn’t read it. It told me his ’stats’. Health, stamina, all that stuff.

I shook my head as I listened to the book speak to me. This was all impossible. It was as if I’d fallen into a late 80s computer game! It was as if none of the prior events had occurred- the knife fight in the chess club, my death, nothing. But still, the blood stains and rips in my clothing kept me wondering what the hell was going on.

As ‘Elrond’ and I were walking through one of the five squares up (or shall we say five square miles of field that lay between us and the town to the north?) I noticed the main reason why this place seemed different. It was hard to tell and at first I thought I was kidding myself because the difference was so slight. But… it was definitely dimmer here. The sky in the world I remember, in the world where there’s a normal chess club without knife fights, that sky is bright when the sun is out. Not that it was dark here, and indeed the sun seemed to shine with intensity, but everything was a tad less bright.

I commented on this to my companion and he told me that my fatigue bar was getting too full and my mind was overreacting due to being tired.

What a useful buddy he was.

Eventually we came to ‘town’. I soon found out that the place’s name was, in fact, town, and was comprised of two residences (that of ‘Elrond’ and that of ‘Plot-moving Character Who’s Sick And Thus Their Door Is Locked’), an inn, and shops. The only difference from a good old RPG town was that the shops were actually a strip mall, and that all the stores were fashion stores full of outfits based off the styles of Japanese idols. This disturbed me.

I went into the inn and broke every RPG law possible- drank booze (not potions! *gasp*), held up the inn keeper, gambled with the mysterious airship pilot, and then took a night for free.

When I woke, I was in a field. The sun beat down on me, but not as brightly as I remembered. Next to me amidst the tall grass was someone who I could feel was very dear to me. Someone who meant the world to me. Having experienced enough oddity, I took it into stride, ignoring the fact that the inn and my Lord of the Rings friend were both gone. I looked up at the sky, blinked a few times, confirmed something.

The sky here… was even darker. Not by much, maybe by a hair on a bar judging such things. Even though I hadn’t moved much since being stabbed to death, and even though I didn’t understand what the hell was going on, I knew for some reason I was on a journey of some kind, and that this person at my side was along for the ride because they cared about me as well.

I wrapped my arms around this person, held them tight. And even as I did, I heard a voice whisper to me.

“If a person dies, he must not seek to find the place of his death. He must not seek to return. For if he does, the endless cycle of rebirth will end with him.”

Whence came the voice from? I still wonder to this day. But I knew that this was a challenge. I understood perfectly- I HAD died, and I had been reborn somehow. In some other place. I understood that if I tried to go back, and find my home, I would not continue to live after death. Yet I knew that I had to go back, and find the place with the normal chess club, that place where the sky is brighter.

It was my turn to whisper. I gently woke the one in my arms, and asked them where we were going, as softly as I could manage.

“Home,” my dear one said.

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