The boy believed he was asleep. He must be; because surely he was seeing this. It felt as though he was floating in some sort of void; he could feel nothing. And in front of him hovered something indescribable, as he had never seen anything like it before. To be fair he had never seen anything; he had been born blind. If he had had words to describe what floated before him, he would have described it as a man, in his late teens, wearing clothing unlike anything in that time period and surrounded by a bright blue aura. He had fluffy brown hair, and a triangle pendant lay around his neck. There was a smile on his face, and his expression seemed kind, and warm.

The boy, looking down, suddenly realized he could also see himself, for the first time in his life. He had dark skin, and plain clothing, slightly worn. His hands were rough with the scars of work; and he was certainly underweight. Is this what he looked like?

"Yes." The boy looked up in astonishment; he had not thought he had said that aloud. The man laughed; it was a beautiful sound, like bells chiming as the wind blew through them. "You're in the mindscape; all this is taking place in your head. Or at least it should be; I never was very good at these spells." The man waved a hand in annoyance. "As Bill loves to remind me."

"I-I don't understand…"

"And for your safety, you probably shouldn't. Even me being here is threatening the time-space continuum, but it'll be fine, I'm sure. All you need to know is that I'm from the future."

"Really?" The boy stared at the stranger in a new light.

"Yeah, from your future actually. Just wanted to drop by and give you a warning. Things are gonna get strange soon, really strange. And hard. You're going to be tested, unlike anything you've come across before."

"Strange how?"

"It's… hard to explain. But you'll know it when it happens. It's not all bad though; you will end up happy. Or at least, I think you're happy. You seem to be. I know I am." The man fiddled with the pendant on his chest; the metal it was made of glinted brightly in the near darkness of their surroundings.

"Wait, so you know me then? In the future?"

"Yep."

"What… what am I like?"

The man laughed. "The better question is, what aren't you like? No, I can't tell you that info, could mess with the time stream. But you are fantastic, I can say that much." The man paused for a moment. "What's your name?"

The boy was confused. "Wait, you said you know me in the future, how can you not know my name?"

"Well I know a name you call yourself by; I just don't think it's your real name. But I've already said too much."

The boy was silent for a moment. "Leonis."

"Leonis?" The man let out a short laugh. "No wonder he didn't tell me… and he made fun of my name?"

Leonis felt the need to defend himself. "I like the name."

"I do too, it's a great name. We have something in common it seems."

"What's your name then?" Curiosity was presenting itself now, as Leonis finally grew used to his sight, limited as it was to the two of them.

"Hmm, I think it would be a little too dangerous to tell you that, you might remember…" The man thought for a moment. "You call me Pine Tree."

"Why? What does that even mean?"

"Oh right, you probably don't have pine trees in this corner of the world…" The man shrugged. "You'll get it eventually I guess." Suddenly his form flickered, and the world darkened for a moment. "Oh, that's my cue to go. The spell's about to fall apart, don't want to melt your mind or anything." He laughed, then turned suddenly serious. "Trust me though Leonis, you're going to pull through these next trials just fine."

"Wait! You haven't even told me what's going to happen, how am I supposed to prepare?" Leonis cried out, suddenly panicked by the loss of his sight once again.

"Don't worry, you'll be alright! Just keep being you, it worked just fine before!" The voice called out once more, before fading to silence. "Remember; reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold bye!" And Leonis fell back into a peaceful sleep; the dream soon forgotten in the darkness of the next day.