This is a story about a man who dreams of worlds within dreams.
A boring yet interesting tale told between the real world and the worlds within dreams.
A tale that tells of a dreamer, a niche yet overused plot.
Someone who dreams of a dream world, explores it, and wakes up, oftentimes remembering, but sometimes not.
At this point, wouldn't someone be bored of this kind of plot already?
Yes… surely, they would.
But, I assure you, this one is different, yet familiar.
It all first began…
***
Whoosh~ Whoosh~
Swoosh~
The sound of grass going against the wind could be heard.
In the distance, a person can be seen lying down on the grass with his eyes closed, seemingly unaware of his surroundings.
After a few moments had passed, the man opened his eyes, slowly. He stared blankly at the sky—still quite half-awake. After staring blankly at nothing for a while, his eyes slowly turned to bewilderment, to confusion, and then to realization.
Yes… He was yet in another dream once again.
***
"Sigh…" He was yet again in another dream. But fortunately, this time, it wasn't that 'bad'.
"Or so, this time at least… I think." He slowly raised his upper body to a sitting position.
He looked around at his surroundings.
It was a plain. An infinitely stretching plain with no end to be seen. No monsters, no animals, nor any kind of creatures could be seen either. At least, from his point of view, there weren't any yet. Or perhaps, there really were no creatures in this dream, but himself.
However, if there is one thing that he had learned in these dreams, it would be to never assume anything.
The last time he did assume though… He died a gruesome death.
…That was not a good memory whatsoever.
That's why, right now, he was skeptical about it.
He did not truly believe that was the case, in fact, he doubted it even more.
"Hpmh, there is absolutely no way there are no creatures in here. I've been tricked too many times, I'm not gonna fall for it this time. For sure." He was determined. A sight all too familiar as if it was replayed multiple times.
"Sigh…" He sighed again as he stood up and patted his clothes.
"Mhm?"
As he looked around at his surroundings once more, he realized that he seemed to be in a shaded area, so he turned around and looked behind his back.
And there, he saw a single huge tree.
A tree that stretches up into the sky, covering the lands underneath it with its leaves and branches, and with a width as thick as a mountain.
The tree had an aura that seemed to say that it was sacred and grand, granted because of the magnitude of its size.
His eyes grew wide.
"Woah…"
It was the first time he had ever seen a tree of such size, it was that incredibly huge.
"...Wait, I recognize this tree."
"...Narra?"
It was a Narra tree.
It was a single sturdy and huge-mountain-like Narra tree.
At first, he couldn't tell what type of tree it was because of its sheer size and because of his shock as well, but upon closer inspection, he could tell it was indeed a Narra tree.
It was the first time he saw such a huge Narra tree. Its size alone could almost be compared to a world tree. It could be said that it was just slightly shorter than it.
Although he had never seen a world tree before, he could somehow intuitively tell that it was indeed slightly shorter.
As for the reason why?
He did not know nor could he know.
He could just tell.
"What the…" He was astonished.
Shortly after he saw that though, his vision blackout.
***
Chirp… chirp…
tweet~
It was the sound of morning.
He was awake.
In his eyes was now the all-familiar ceiling. A sight he had seen too many times every time after waking up.
But, that's not the issue right now.
Right now, he got out of his strange dream once again. But this time, it was weird. He got out too suddenly, and what's more, he got out of it safely.
"Wait… safely?!" He jumped out of his bed.
Still shocked by what happened, he quickly examined his body.
"Huh…?" He was just fine.
"Huh…" He said it again, but this time, to indicate realization and relief.
Even though nothing ever happened to him in reality every time he encountered a horrifying monster or died in a dream, it was always better to be cautious than be careless about it. After all, better be safe than sorry.
What's more, this was the first time he had ever gotten out of a dream unscathed, so he was quite surprised.
After confirming that he was safe, he looked for his phone, grabbed it, then turned it on to look at the time.
It was still 5:17 AM in the morning. Just thirteen minutes left until it became 5:30 AM, which was his wake up time.
Seeing that it was still 5:17 AM, he laid down on his bed again.
"Haa…" He placed his arm on his forehead.
"…When will these dreams stop?" He muttered while staring at the ceiling.
While having such dreams might be nice to others, it was, for him, quite terrifying and unnerving to say the least.
"No, everyone would at least get scared of such things happening to themselves right?" He said to himself reassuringly.
"Sigh…"
After talking to himself for a bit, he looked at the time again.
It was still a bit far from his wake up time, about eleven minutes left till it hit 5:30 AM. Nonetheless, he decided to prepare himself a bit earlier than usual.
He got up, put on his slippers, and headed to the bathroom.
A few minutes later…
He got out of the bathroom, as fresh as new.
Afterwards, he walked out of his room, and started preparing for breakfast.
Ring, ring!
Ring, ring!
As he was preparing for his breakfast, his cellphone rang. He postponed what he was doing for a while, and picked it up from his room.
It was his alarm clock.
It indicated that it was now 6:00 AM. And by the looks of it, it was already ringing earlier for quite some time while he was still in the bathroom taking a shower.
Anyways, seeing that it was not a call, he turned it off and returned to the kitchen to prepare his breakfast.
A few minutes later, his breakfast was ready.
His breakfast just consisted of an egg omelette, hotdog, and rice. And also, a simple coffee for the morning.
Ring ring~
Just as he was enjoying his breakfast, somewhere midway, his cellphone rang again. But, this time, it was a call from someone.
'Who's calling so early in the morning?' He frowned.
He grabbed his phone and looked at the caller's ID.
Caller's ID: [Reynold Diego]
It was someone he knew.
He looked at it for a moment, hesitating whether to pick it up or not, but then decided to pick it up anyway.
"Yo Sein, what's up! You still asleep?"
"No, I'm up. So, why did you call me?"
"Oh, just nothing~ Why? Can't I call you for nothing? HAHAHA" The guy on the other side of the phone laughed, seemingly amused.
"..."
"I'm hanging up." He was about to end the call.
"Wait, wait!! Geez… alright, actually, I have a favor to ask you."
"What sort of favor?" He asked.
"It's about—" The guy on the other side of the phone was about to tell him what favor it was, but, unfortunately, he was cut off by someone.
"Hm?"
"Ah, nevermind! I'll talk about this to you later! See you in the office." Then, the guy on the other side of the phone hung up.
"..."
He continued to eat his breakfast in peace.
***
Carp Literature Headquarters office, Davao City.
Tap tap tap tap…
Sounds of typing could be heard anywhere in the office.
A door opened, and a person stepped inside.
It was Sein. He had arrived at his workplace.
"Ah, Sein! You're here now!" A coworker of his called him.
"What's up?" Sein asked.
"The department head is looking for you."
Sein blinked and nodded, "Is that so? Thanks."
"No problem." The coworker responded in turn.
After hearing that, Sein proceeded to go to the department head's office.
Knock knock.
"Come on in."
After hearing that, Sein opened the door.
"Yo Sein, I've been waiting for you."
"Reynold." Sein nodded as he closed the door.
It was Reynold Diego, the one who called him earlier in the morning.
"Sooo… about the favor I was about to ask you earlier. I have a certain client that I would like you to handle."
"Is that so?" Sein replied casually.
"Yeah, and—Ah, before I forget though, I have something interesting to give you." Reynold grabbed something from a cabinet under his desk and then placed it on top of the desk.
Reynold grinned, "How about it, looks interesting right?"
Sein slightly frowned and was silent for a while before saying, "...What's this?"
At first glance, it looks just like an ordinary gray cube. But, at closer inspection, it looked something like a rubik's cube, but at the same time, it felt off.
Although, Sein couldn't quite put a feel on why it felt off though.
"Ahem, actually, I got this from a fortune teller last month. They gave this to me after a fortune telling session and told me to pass it to you." Reynold explained.
"What? That's weird. I don't know any fortune tellers." Sein was perplexed.
Reynold shrugged, "Is that so? Meh, it's not my problem though. I don't know either! so don't ask me too~"
"..." Sein was dumbfounded.
"Anyways, take it. It's yours now." Reynold picked it up and reached his hand to him.
"Here. Come on, take it."
"...I don't want to." Sein adamantly refused.
"Just take it. Whether you throw it or not is your business now. So, just do what you want with it." Reynold grinned, stood up, walked up to him, and directly put it on Sein's right hand.
Sein's face looked like he wanted to beat him up.
And just as he was about to complain, he was suddenly interrupted by Reynold.
"Anyways, go on now, you still have work to do~" Reynold said as he pushed Sein to the door.
"Wait a min—"
"I'll be sending you your exact assignment later in your email, so don't forget it too~"
"Now, shoo shoo!"
"I– I..."
Thud!
The door closed behind him.
He was kicked out without even a word of resistance…
"Sigh." Sein shook his head helplessly.
…Someday, he might just really beat that guy all of a sudden.
He looked at the strange gray cube in his hand.
Upon closer inspection, it had faint lines in a pattern that closely resembled that of a rubik's cube, but it didn't feel like a rubik's cube at all in his hand. It felt too smooth. It also gleamed with a strange faint light that is almost indiscernible to the naked eye.
He couldn't see it earlier, but now that it was in his hand, he could faintly see it if he squinted his eyes enough.
'Just what am I supposed to do with it?' He thought, perplexed about it. "Ah, whatever, I'll think about it later." He sighed internally.
Though, he did fiddled the cube for a bit, and after seeing it didn't even budge even though it looked like a rubik's cube up close, he gave up examining it.
He returned back to work.
A few hours of working later…
"Ahh, finally done." Sein stretched his arms.
"Good work." Someone patted his shoulder.
He turned around to see who it was.
It was Reyn, his fellow coworker.
"Ah, Reyn, good work to you too." Sein complimented her as well.
"Mhm-mh."
Reyn pondered for a moment before asking, "By the way, what did the department head tell you? He seemed to have called you into his office earlier for some reason."
"Ah, it's nothing. Just the usual stuff, I guess." Sein shrugged.
"Really? Then what's that cube over there?" Reyn pointed her finger at the cube lying at his desk.
He turned his head and looked over, "That? Oh, it's just some cube that somewhat looks like a rubik's cube if you look closely at it."
"Oh, really?" Reyn slightly widened her eyes.
"Yeah." Sein nodded.
"Huh."
"..."
"Well, anyways, wanna eat dinner with me? My treat!" Reyn smoothly changed the topic and offered with a smile.
Sein thought it over for a while before agreeing.
"Sure, why not?" Sein nodded with a smile.
"Ok then, let's go! I've been wanting to eat at this restaurant in the Matina area lately." Reyn said while laughing.
"Mhm." Sein nodded.
Just as they were about to go out and grab some dinner, he suddenly felt a piercing headache.
It was not just any ordinary headache. It was literally like his brain was being stabbed and compressing at the same time.
He staggered and grabbed onto an office chair.
"Argh…"
It happened all of a sudden without any warning whatsoever.
"Huh? Sein, what's wrong?... Ah! Hey!!"
'No… my vision…'
Sein clutched his head with his right hand, staggered around, and then collapsed.
Ka-thud!