Prologue
The Valley of the Dreamers, it was called once. Huge lonely mountains, in shapes of a half-moon, rose above the surrounding forest. Deep within their solitude a large meadow of flowers and grass grew beautifully, while birds' songs spread through the valley harmoniously. Basking in the rays of the warming star, body of a young man in his late twenties lied there soundlessly and defiled the harmony of the place. *chirp… chirp…* with each second, birds' sounds hammered young man's conscious back to its body.
"Why is there so much light on my closed eyes?", he thought.
"And why do I feel a sensation of grass tickling my skin? Am I in a lucid dream state again?"
He slowly opened his eyes and got stunned by the welcoming scene - blue sky with shades of grayish clouds flying separately from one another, as a distant circle of light warmed up his face.
"Quite a dream I found myself in…" he thought.
He lifted both of his hands, turned, waved, made fists and relaxed them again. While he was focused on the body parts, he reflected inwardly, "Well… strange… I feel that, this dream is too real… am I dead or something? Or has my skill in dream-walking gone so high that I failed to notice it before? Or have A.I taken over, and it's all just one new matrix now within my subconscious?"
Raising himself to a seated position, he looked around and said inwardly, "The landscape is nice but… somehow, it reminds me of a specific game which I used to play… I think… Yes... it's like the 'Rampart town' from Heroes of Might and Magic 3"
As soon as he finished the thought, a picture of that town still lingered in his mind. Before he could react, to his amazement, mountains and forest began to take shape of the said view.
"What's going on?", he exclaimed. He pushed the thought away and shook his head. Yet again, an amazing scene unraveled, everything returned to their original state.
"Such a... OK… this supposed to happen in a dream…very well then, let's check my pain senses. Maybe that will help me to wake up." he said and proceeded pinching his hands, body, slapping his cheeks and after it all seemed to fail, he bit hard on the skin until blood has started to drip.
"I don't feel any difference in my state of awareness… my body can sense pain the same as if I was in the real world," he said inwardly and continued to dwell on: "it's quite a situation, I've gotten myself into… this is... if I'm dead then… as theological view suggests, I should have been made sense of all this… alas, not today? well, anyways, through my short life, I've been accumulating more and more questions for that specific world view. For now, I think, I'll watch, learn and make sense of what this all means as it all unfolds before me. Very well then, Let's go with a flow, as some people tend to say. First, I need to try out this imaginary-thinking ability… let's make that tree over there disappear and reappear".
He stood up and felt his body obeying him the same way as always. He chose one of the distant growing trees and focused on it. Slowly and soundlessly, that tree's shape began to waver and after a moment completely disappeared. The young man noticed the change and with a smile on his face began to recall the tree. Shortly afterwards, it reappeared in the same place, as if it has never left that spot.
"Interesting… so both my thought and imagination make an impact on this 'reality', as if in a lucid dream, so it seems. Let's check something else… how about conjuring up anything from my memories," he thought inwardly and proceeded on imagining all kinds of stuff from cars, planes, small boats, to a massive aircraft carrier.
*…*
"Strange… let's try something else like guns, phones, computer and some other modern tech stuff," he said silently and continued with the plan.
*…*
As time went by, his tests have kept on giving nothing.
"Well, that's a bummer… the way it seems, no tech can be conjured up… wait… let's try something unrealistic to my world or do it differently…", he pondered inwardly.
He thought about all kinds of medieval and fantasy weaponry. Ranging from a small throwing ninja star to a long and heavy two-sided axe from one of the rpg games. Strangely enough, they all began to manifest in front of him.
*bah… bam... tzinnn…*
All weapons kept on appearing in mid-air and falling on the ground.
"That's great, so I CAN conjure up something after all!", he told himself, nodded and made all things disappear. As time went by, he slowly began to understand, to some degree, where his ability's limitations stood.
"I willed dragons!", he exclaimed.
Two totally different red dragons stood before him, silently like two big statues. They stood there with eyes wide open, looking absentmindedly into the void. The left one was in a shape of a western style dragon and was a copy of the main villain under the mountain, from one of the J.R.R. Tolkien's stories. The right one took shape of the Chinese styled dragon, as the summoner saw it being portrayed in their culture.
"So, my ability's limitations are quite difficult to fully grasp… but, what's certain, all fantasy like stuff can be made real from my memory! Maybe my memory is a limitation of some sort…. if I visualize something completely new from what I remember or know… will that appear?", he mused over and made both life like statures vanish.
"And now on with the show! … Wait…. I forgot to give myself some clothes… All that I have on, is my underpants, the same wardrobe, when I went to sleep," he said, sensing that something was off about his appearance. "Let me try envisioning myself in some cool looking fantasy combat suit, which has some elements of a trench coat to it".
Ending his monologue, he pictured having a light black leather pants strapped tight to the legs, which went inside the sneaker like coal black boots. Next, he pictured having a black-blueish shirt with a black vest covering it. In the end, he made some adjustment to the vest making it more like a trench coat and added same black-bluish color to the coat, while vest's collar being snow white in a 'v' shape manner.
"That's some make a devil cry and run for his money view!" he voiced his happy thought to an empty space, while thinking of the changes he could make to his body. "And now, let's think about giving myself a different look and after that an ability of some type… but before all that, let's create a pond for my tests", he said and focused on picturing a little waterfall, in the style of volcanic eruption, filling a wide crescent shaped pool.
*sssshhhh…*
As he expected, slowly the ground before him has started to take form of his vision and shortly afterwards a little waterfall came to life. He looked at his reflection in the water and imagined having his front hair shortened a bit and going backwards. Some of the hair stayed at the front and made a slight arc to the right side. On the sides, his hair grew a little longer and went back behind the ears fusing in a slight chaotic manner. Following hair's makeover, he thought about having its color turn brightly white. Afterwards, he watched his eyes and made their color become bright cyan-turquoise. When he was done with those changes, he began working on his face. He tinkered a bit until it became more symmetrical and ended his metamorphosis with his height adjusted to 1.85m. The finished product shocked him so much that it almost made him undo the makeover, but luckily, he immediately took control of his emotions.
"Amazing surgery… ha-ha! I'm totally different and my look is so unrealistic to my 'real world'... ha-ha", he shouted, while admiring his new self.
Looking back at the pond, he dwelt on what powers should he try giving himself.
"Well… let's start with water manipulation…", he said, raised his right hand at the water and spread his fingers. In reaction to his imagination, it began to rise, bit by bit, taking all kinds of forms and shapes.
"Very peculiar sight… I bet, I can do that with all other known to me elements… I have no idea what this place or world holds… as it seems to me that I'm pretty omnipotent here, but I wonder what's the catch or what's the side effect?", he thought and said - "No matter how absolute my power is, the weakness lies in its the user! So, I'll have to be careful about, what I do and what decisions I make!"
He made pond disappear and took another look around him.
"Let's head out and face my tribulations!", he said, as he began walking towards the forest which extended out into the gap between two huge mountains.
On his way towards it, he suddenly stopped and thought: "I should try giving myself a sensory ability, that way it'll be easier to navigate and maybe draw less attention, unlike by flying".
*kacha.. voosh..bah.. THrarh… chirp.. 'ahah' 'Le'theril des..' sigh… 'EEEHAHH' schlik.. schlik..*
Many strange loud noises kept on coming into young man's mind – metal on metal, some kind of conversation in unknown language, animal voices and cries of a baby. All these new sensations made him exclaim.
"Ahh… WOW so much information in one go, it's overwhelming! Let me limit it a little…"
Tinkering a bit more with his perception, eventually he managed to reduce its range down to about 5 km zone.
"Ok, that shall do it! It's time to roll out!"
He told himself inwardly and proceeded walking out of the valley. He's been walking for about an hour, but unfortunately one thought still plagued him – "traveling by foot is too slow! I have to speed up or it will take ages for me to get out of this huge forest."
The young man walked through the density of giant-sized trees, watching as they marched off into the sky and making the light struggle to shine through their vegetation.
"Wow! They're SOOO tall! Their height must be something like a three or maybe even a ten-story building!"
He exclaimed, while appreciating the view. Another hour passed, before he began to pick up some distant roaring sounds that came from behind the mountains on his right.
"What are those strange noises?! I've never heard anything so bizarre and load in my life!", he said and gazed at the direction of the sound.
"Before making a stupid move… it'd be wise and handy to have a vision which can allow me to see through the terrain… as my perception can't give me a full picture of the scene."
He kept his eyes open, while focusing on the said direction with one thought – to visually pierce through the mountains with his eyes without harming the terrain.
*Agh! Raghh! Voosh… *
"Dragons! Real, DAMN DRAGONS!", he exclaimed with a stunned expression on his face. To his originally obstructed vision, a new large valley with huge sword-shaped mountains manifested in all its beauty. To him, it looked like there was a hole in front of him which moved according to the eye movement.
*Sh..voom.. ahrahhh*
Here and there, he could see lots of nests and caves carved into the solid terrain of the rocky cliffs. The young man watched as some of them took flight and shook the nearby overgrowth, others tackled with each other or as it seemed to him danced in an aggressive manner. He also noticed that there was a small group of these majestic beasts fighting each other, as if trying to determine which one is the leader and the dominant one. His eyes danced around trying to count them.
"Fifty dragons! And they all have a western style look! I see… some bronze… couple of golden… two emeralds… and rest are deep brown… what a captivating scene this is! Now, I have something extraordinary to tell, when I wake up!"
The man commented excitedly at the rare sight after a long pause. A while later, he smiled and as his eyes carved the scenery deep into his memory, he averted them back on the path and continued to move on. While walking through the deep forest, the young man has started to notice an increasing amount of strain on his eyes, as more and more signs of light began to sneak through the trees' green ceiling and began to slowly blind him. His imaginary ability managed to solve the light issue and comfort him a little, but not matter how hard he tried, he couldn't solve his hunger.
*Uhhrrh…*
"With each passing minute, I'm starting to feel more and more hungry and a little thirsty… moreover I can't do anything about it… not good… "
He brooded on the plan, but belly's sounds kept meddling with his ideas.
"Well, that's strange… so, I can will things to be, but I can't make myself feel full?! THIS…! IT CAN'T BE?! This might NOT be a dream anymore! OK…then, panicking won't make it better. I must stay calm and analyze the situation rationally. Let's try summoning food and water… the 'old way', eh?! Talk about being almighty..."
First, he pictured a wooden table with build-in long wooden bench. Next, he envisioned a cover over it and produced plates with his all-time favorite grilled and crunchy dishes – salmon fillets, chicken breasts and very thin beef steaks like carpaccio. Following those delicacies, he imagined different salads – some with thin sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, round sliced leek, shallot and some salt, while others were filled with roundly chopped radish, thin sliced basil and lettuce. In addition, he willed a plate full of boiled potatoes sliced into small chunks and covered with fennel, parsley and garlic. After that, he conjured up two goblets and two carafes - one with water and one with a black muscat wine from his favorite Winery called Massandra(*).
"Now this is a scene to remember… I'm sitting below magnificent trees, eating like at home and listening to the nature", he said excitedly and dug into the food. Not even fifteen minutes have passed, before he managed to gulp all the food and said, "Ah… It really is, as I heard some say, 'food tastes the best in the wild!'"
Finishing both the dinner and admiring the peaceful scenery, he made his comfortable place vanish, stood up and pondered on how he should speed himself up.
"Walking is too slow; I should come up with some kind of a fast movement technique…"
Unbelievable, but envisioning a non-teleporting movement was quite a challenge for him. As he tried to visualize moving forward, he tended to vanish from his spot and immediately reappear at the place where he laid his eyes on. Mumbling something to himself, he continued to experiment.
"Now, that won't do! Teleporting seems easy for me, unlike just literally moving fast by foot. Let me change how I view this. It looks like coming up with a completely new stuff and giving myself superpowers isn't as easy as I imagined. Let's try willing a technique from my memories of games, tv series, anime or fantasy stories. So far, those ideas came into fruition."
First, he thought about DC Universe's hero and his ability but somehow, he put that thought a side and went on other techniques from stories, novels, etc.
"Alright, I've remembered some cool stuff from animes, but first, I have to give my body a chi, a chakra or some sort of an energy to power it."
He spoke inwardly, and while standing still, he closed his eyes and focused hard on the endeavor. Little by little, his body has started filling up with ethereal and powerful force. Sensing the change, he focused and pictured his whole body becoming a reservoir for it. While he was doing so, he created an inner world inside his body, and it began to grow into a large and bottomless pit, slowly resembling a galaxy, no! a universe.
"Now, I should prepare for anything, as much as possible. I'll have to visualize a stable and autonomous protective field around my body – nullifying all physical contacts and all elemental or energy-based threats to my body. Next, I'll conceal my energy from being sensed by anyone! Because I don't want to be feared and called by ignorant people either as 'The Freak', 'The Monster or '… Strange…'. Wait… actually…the last choice would be nice, if there was a doctor occupation," he spoke silently and finished with a regrettable tone in his voice.
As he made his plans a reality, silently a dim light shined once while covering his whole body before fading. He felt like he could do anything with his new body. The new source of energy gave him a feeling of a boundless strength and that everything was easy and powerless before him. He's spent an hour perfecting the aspects of his energy - flow, defensive fields and capacity.
"And now for some fun stuff! As of now, I have an energy flowing through my body, so surely, I can use it to enhance my physical strength and speed. Ok... I remember having a thought about certain set of techniques. Hm... right... there was a fast movement one for a close combat and another one for a closing gaps and distance traveling. I think... I'd be better to combine them and only make adjustments according to the situation at hand."
The young man pondered and began to visualize. Soon enough, he ended his meditative state and rose up to test it.
*boom boom*
The second he used his energy and moved forward, a sonic boom echoed throughout the forest and surrounding mountains.
*vooshh… katcha…*
Each of his steps kept on producing winds, cutting and slicing sounds that made large sturdy trees shake from these after effects.
*kheieh…*
An army of men with their inventor stopped abruptly and unlike their leader dispersed after a brief moment. The almighty leader turned at the opposite direction and watched his creation unfold - previously perfectly fine forest, here and there being torn and blown apart.
"Did I do all these? And JUST from moving at such a high speed? So… physics does apply here as well, that's good to know… I guess, I must adopt that fast-moving hero's anti-destructive protection on my movement, if I intend to walk that fast…"
He mumbled, undid all his cruelty to the nature and altered his skill. Afterwards, he checked all he made, and it was good. In the midst of all his progress, he lost his sense of time. Forest's illumination has started to diminish, while a particular star began to set. Looking at the direction he was going to take, he willed his energy to stream through the body and applied the new developed ability. The movement was so fast, he thought he was flying! Only blurs from his silhouette could be seen from a side point of view. The darkness has started to fall and consume the forest, which made trees less visible with each passing minute. Noticing the change, the young man pondered and came up with a clear night-vision, before adding it to his eyes. Reclaiming a clear sight of his surroundings, he continued to move further into the distance, where a small shimmering light began to grow. The fiery dot has kept getting bigger and bigger, and as the young man neared, it finally took shape of a flame. He sensed total of six people, while only five of them were present and scattered around the fire.
"At last! There are people inside these woods whom I can question! So, how should I proceed? What a tricky situation… a stranger popping out, not to mention in a dark forest… just to say – Hello? Can you help me with directions? It's certain, they'll think that I'm an enemy!", he thought worriedly.
(*)Massandra – Winery located at urban-type settlement in the Yalta Municipality in Crimea, its known for its viniculture and production of dessert/more of a sweet type ones and fortified wines.