Sirius had expected himself to visit many places going forward, but a white dreamscape was not within his expectations.
When he came to once again, he was no longer in the forest to none of his surprises. Unless the soil had turned sliver gray overnight.
Sirius slowly stood up and thoroughly stretched his body. In the process, he'd noticed that his injuries had disappeared and his clothes had mended. In fact, all traces of the scuffle he'd encountered earlier were gone, from the cuts on his body to the blood on his clothes.
He stood there in mild confusion before automatically assuming that this was a dream. After all, it was the most logical response to his scenario, not that anything he'd experienced earlier was any less ludicrous.
His current location, however, begged to differ.
From the decrepit, gray-scaled surroundings, to the crumbling buildings, to the completely white background with no sign of celestial bodies, it was difficult to believe that such a place could exist naturally. Chunks of debris and rubble floated about the realm as if gravity were a concept that didn't apply to them. Above him, several elevated islands poured a mysterious, pure white liquid that flowed endlessly from its source. He took a few steps forward and peered off the ledge of his miniature floating island. There was no bottom to the place; it was pure white as far as the eye could see.
Sirius took a deep breath and sighed. First the forest, then the goblins, and now this whitewashed excuse of a dreamscape. He was beginning to wonder whether he'd really gone off the deep end after eating that Magic Missile lookalike of a berry.
He was trying to decide whether to promptly jump off the island or stay where he was when a familiar voice disrupted his train of thought.
"Took you long enough."
Sirius whipped his head around in alarm. Sitting cross-legged on an elevated ridge opposite where he stood was a relatively young person, about his age, he presumed. He had relatively long, black hair tapered towards the back of his head and cold, dark brown eyes that glinted like a marble. He continued to stare at Sirius with visible distaste before continuing his statement.
"You almost got yourself killed, genius. Anything to say about yourself?"
Sirius stared back at the man from the opposite side in confusion and mild annoyance. He had only met the guy for a good part of thirty seconds, yet he's already bordering on mild contempt towards him. Criticism from someone who hadn't even seen his situation was the last thing he needed. That irritating look of his didn't make things any better.
He fought down the temptation to immediately storm over and smack the guy upside the head before responding rashly.
"Yeah, I'd be dead either way if I hadn't done that, jackass. Did you have any better ideas? Who are you to be criticizing me anyway?"
The guy sat there, momentarily speechless, before breaking into laughter. His cold, raspy voice, eerily reminiscent of howling frigid winds, echoed throughout the realm. He stopped his laughter and sat back upright.
"Do you seriously not know?" he scoffed, "Why not take a closer look?"
Sirius stepped forward and examined him more closely. Black sneakers, navy blue pants, and a hooded zip-up sweater. He was certain he'd seen this outfit somewhere...
He took a longer look and immediately jumped back in alarm upon his belated realization.
"So, you finally realized?" the person asked with a laugh.
"Wha—How?" Sirius was at a loss for words. He didn't understand how to respond appropriately to the situation.
After all, sitting before him was none other than Sirius himself.
"Wow, quite the overreaction." his self remarked. "Was that necessary?"
Sirius regained his composure and retorted. "I think anyone'd be surprised to see their doppelganger."
"Doppelganger, huh. That's quite harsh."
"What, am I wrong?"
"Never mind, you don't seem to understand just yet. The amount of trouble you put the two of us in, that is." he sighed, then gestured for Sirius to sit down. "Take a seat. I'll try to explain everything."
"Hold up, what would you know that I wouldn't?" Sirius asked, "You are literally me, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I suppose that much is true," he admitted, "But that's not quite the case. Just sit down, and I'll explain."
Sirius stared at his double for a few seconds before reluctantly sitting down before him.
"Alright, now explain." Sirius demanded.
"Sure, we'll start with the basics." he said, "Just refer to me as whatever if you've questions."
Immediately after, his double, whom Sirius had decided to call Self, took a deep breath and began to explain what he knew, from who, or rather what, he was, to where they were, to what he knew. There were times when Self had to elaborate on a few subjects, but Sirius didn't have much trouble understanding his explanations for the most part. It didn't take long for him to understand the gist of their situation from the little amounts of information Self had to offer.
After hearing his explanation, Sirius took a moment to think things over.
"Okay, I think I get it." Sirius said with a nod, "In short, I screwed up, because I'm not supposed to be here."
"At least not at the moment." Self stated, "This place is inaccessible under most circumstances."
Sirius sighed. From what Self told him, this place was what he'd call his subconsciousness, or "Domain of Self" as Self had called it. According to him, this place is a bridge of sorts between his physical and spiritual self, and also what housed his soul, which in this case would be Self. He had also stated with visible disdain that it looked a whole lot nicer before Sirius recklessly destroyed a majority of the Domain.
Aside from general information about the Domain and what had likely happened to Sirius, Self didn't know much either. He begrudgingly admitted that Sirius wasn't completely wrong regarding his retort earlier; what Sirius did not know, Self didn't either. However, what Self did know had still amounted to more than what Sirius did. If he were to put it into comparison, it would be similar to the difference between one short paragraph of information and three short paragraphs of information; both were short, but three paragraphs was still longer than one nonetheless.
"So, is there anything else I should know?" Sirius asked, "Maybe about where my body is, or perhaps how to get out of here?"
Sirius wasn't expecting an answer, but to his surprise, Self had pulled up a clear response.
"Oh yeah, that." he said as if he'd forgotten to mention the subject earlier. "You should be on the move right now..."
That was not something he wanted to hear.
"Wait, why am I moving? Where is my body going?!"
Self shook his head. "I don't know, man. I can feel a bit of shaking, so you're probably on a wagon, I presume."
Sirius breathed a sigh of relief. He felt somewhat safer knowing that his body may be in safe hands.
"So, what about where I am, or when I'm gonna wake up?"
Self closed his eyes momentarily, like he was sensing for something, and frowned.
"Hmm... I don't know where you are either." he admitted, "But you should be able to leave once our body regains consciousness. Anything else?"
Sirius searched for any remaining questions and was about to draw a blank but quickly remembered one of his primary concerns. "Yeah, what's this world's language?"
If his concerns were categorized by priority, which it was quickly beginning to, language barriers would definitely take a first. He didn't know nor want to explain how he came from another world and ended up almost dead in a scuffle with three generic-fantasy lowland mobs.
"Glad you asked." Self reached behind his back and pulled a textbook seemingly out of nowhere. He dusted it off and handed it to Sirius. "This should be what you're looking for."
Sirius took a quick glance at the title and was immediately hit with a wave of confusion. He looked back at Self with one brow raised.
"...Are you serious?"
"Yes. Yes, I am." Self confirmed with a smile.
Sirius was at a loss for words. He stared back and forth between Self's smug expression and the textbook on his lap. The textbook had evidently seen better days, but it was still readable. Sirius could just barely make out the capital D in the title.
He didn't know what exactly he was expecting, but a ten-pound dictionary was not it, especially not a dictionary with content spanning over tens of thousands of pages. Sirius could already feel the headaches arriving upon just seeing the book.
"Do you, like, have an easier way about this?" He really didn't want to be stuck learning how to become multilingual for the good part of possibly a year.
Self, as he had expected, simply shook his head for the n-th time during their session. "As atrocious as that textbook looks, it's all I have." and perhaps as a consolation, he added, "Truthfully speaking, I have yet to crack it open myself, or rather, I can't open it, so it might be better than it seems."
Or perhaps it wasn't intended to be a consolation because it sure as hell didn't sound like one.
Seeing that there wasn't any more purpose in asking, Sirius reluctantly opened up the textbook and was immediately greeted with the longest table of contents he had seen in his life. If his headache had been considered "on the way" earlier, then right now, it should be pounding on the door that is his cerebrum. He sighed and scanned through the list but slowed down halfway.
"Hold up..."
He read over the list a second time, this time with more caution, and sighed. Turns out his situation wasn't nearly as bad as he had thought.
What Self had handed him wasn't merely a bilingual English-to-whatever dictionary, but a multilingual dictionary that contained multiple sections from generic fantasy languages like Elvish and Dwarvish to languages that are somewhat self-explanatory languages like Lightspeak and Manatongue to other vaguer languages line Moldorian and Arhanese. With the way things were going, he was hoping that whatever section that had a language considered "general human" would be no more than two thousand pages long.
"See?" Self said, "It's not that bad, right?"
"Like hell it isn't. Do you have any idea how long it takes to learn a language?" Sirius asked, "Where the hell did you even get this anyway?"
He shrugged, "How would I know if you don't?"
"Then how did you get this damn book?!" Sirius snapped, "I never knew it existed, so how are you supposed to have it?"
Sirius let out a tired sigh. "You know how innate talents work, right?" he asked.
"Yeah, but how's that relate to jack shit?"
"Well, you see, this textbook here is similar to innate talent, in the sense that it exists within you, without your knowledge." Self explained. "However, what differs is that unlike innate talent, which exists within a person from birth, this book just suddenly appeared one day."
"Yeah alright, I see."
Sirius didn't exactly find it logical, so to speak, but begrudgingly acknowledged that Self's statement had made some sense. After all, he and Self were essentially the same person; doubting Self would be no different from doubting himself.
Sirius wanted to ask him a few more questions, but just as he opened his mouth, his body began to glow white. Pieces of himself slowly turned into white particles and began drifting upwards.
"W-wait, what's happening to me now?" he questioned in alarm.
Self simply waved his hand as if the question was redundant, "You asked when you'd be able to leave earlier. Well, here's your answer."
Sirius's expression became panicked. He wasn't expecting himself to be leaving this soon. He still needed time to prepare, time to actually read the dictionary.
"Oh, shi—the dictionary!" he stammered, flipping through the pages as he attempted to remember what he can. "Can I take this with me?"
"What? No." Self scoffed, "How are you supposed to take something that only exists in your mind?"
"Then what the hell am I supposed to do? I don't know the native language!"
"Well, too bad," Self stated bluntly. "I'll hand it back once you return. I'll be seeing you."
Before Sirius could say anything else, his body completely disintegrated in white particles. He felt his consciousness drifting upwards, further and further into the light, dragging him out of the Domain and back to his real body.