Yes, I finally updated this story, can you believe it? I don't have my own computer, so I have to wait until my friend lets me use hers. Lovely. But it gets done sooner or later. And thanks for the reviews. I hear that it's unusual to get that many when you're a brand new writer and you don't have a following yet. Guess that means I'm a better writer than agent000, haha!

The girl stared at me for who knew how long. She seemed to be trying to grasp the entirety of what I had just said. Saying that all these bizarre things were the product of a dream made the most possible sense, didn't it? I certainly thought so. And if such was the case, then we would soon get out of this mess just as soon as we both woke up.

Both? Yes, I had included her in the context of having a dream. She seemed like a real person to me, and not just a figment of my imagination. She was probably just the figment of her own imagination, as was I, or the figment of God's, whatever she believed in. I didn't particularly care at the moment. Anything could exist in a dream world. What was the name of this world again? Oh right, New York. This world was named New York, whatever that meant. I gathered that there must have been a world called Old York somewhere as well. Maybe her people had invaded this world long ago or something. That's right, they were aliens in a dream world. It made perfect sense.

Now I was just being silly, but then, I enjoy being that way from time to time, especially when nothing around me makes much sense as it is. If only Al were here at this moment in time...space...whatever it was. He would enjoy trying to solve the mystery of my presence here with me. As it was, I was stuck in a dream world, and he was stuck in a book. I took out the book that I was still holding onto and stared at the cover once again, smiling slightly at the thought of my poor little brother being trapped inside of it. It knew that that wasn't possible, but the thought of the look on the boy's face when I told that to him would be worth all the gold in the world, whichever world one chose to take it from.

I looked back up at the girl who was still standing a bit of distance away, obviously frightened at what was going on. I could understand a bit. She wasn't used to having people invade her world. Was she from this dream world, or from another place? Ah, right, she was probably from Old York and came to New York in her sleep. That would make sense. Well then, in order to put her at ease, I would leave her alone so that her dream world could go back to normal.

"May I keep this?" I asked as I held up the book in my hand so she could see. I knew she obviously liked the book, judging by the expression she had had on her face while she'd been reading it. It was that expression that had gotten me curious enough to reach out for her in the first place. Surely she would understand why I'd want it though. After all, this was all just a dream, so she would go back to where she belonged soon enough and wouldn't miss her book, and it might be helpful for me to carry around the portal that I came through while I explored this place.

The girl slowly nodded, so I thanked her and made my way over to the window. I slipped the book into my pocket and climbed up onto the window's ledge to look out. I nearly stopped dead in my tracks. Was this seriously a building or some kind of low hovering spacecraft? There was no way scientifically one could build a building that tall without it crashing down upon itself. I knew very well that a building's own weight would cause it to cave in after only a few stories, so how was this even possible? I had to be at least fifty stories up from the ground, if not more. I had to be right. This had to be a dream.

I turned around again and smiled at the girl as I waved goodbye. She suddenly panicked as she seemed to realize what I was about to do and she lunged for me, but it was too late. I had already jumped through the window and was plummeting toward the ground. This was a dream, I knew, so nothing could hurt me. Falling off of a large structure such as this would very likely wake me up. It had always worked before, so I wasn't afraid, though I could definitely feel a large adrenaline surge coursing through my body at the feeling of dropping from such a huge height.

Any minute now, I would land. Any moment. Any second. I hoped it wouldn't hurt too much, if at all. Sometimes dreams actually convey physical feelings, contrary to popular belief. Al had the tendency to not realize when he was dreaming for that very reason. I had been so surprised to learn that he still had dreams, even in his armor form. He couldn't sleep, yet he still had dreams. It must simply be part of the human condition to dream, regardless of how much one sleeps.

A bright light suddenly darted across my vision and began swirling around in front of me. A multitude of colors seemed to swirl around and into the portal of light that had suddenly appeared in front of me, either that or they were spiraling out of it. I couldn't tell. I didn't care really. It had simply proved that I was right, and that I was indeed dreaming, though I had seriously expected to fall all the way to the ground. I guessed that this meant I wasn't going to be able to wake up anytime soon. Oh well.

I soon found myself completely consumed by the light as I fell into the midst of it. New York completely faded away from my vision and I found myself only able to see bright white light flashing in all directions around me. It sort of reminded me of the Gate, but not quite. Thankfully it wasn't quite the Gate. It wasn't quite like the portal I had passed through on the way to this strange world either, since that had been so dark. This one was very bright, yet it felt quite similar, all the same. It was a dream portal, after all. I supposed I shouldn't have been too surprised if the same thing manifested in different ways periodically throughout the dream.

The next thing I knew, I was opening up my eyes to a dark blue starry sky. I was lying on my back, not sure where I was, but it wasn't anywhere I could recall. Even the stars didn't look the same as I had remembered them back home. Was this the way they looked in New York? It had been daytime there, so there was really no way of telling in a case like that. All the same, I pushed myself up to a sitting position and began to dust myself off.

Loose pieces of rock and dirt fell off of me as I ran my hand over my coat. The rocks here seemed to be composed of some kind of red clay, judging by the way they looked and felt, but they weren't quite familiar, even to me. I carefully stood up and began walking. I didn't have any idea where I was going, but I had to get somewhere, didn't I?

On the edge of my vision, lit by the moon as a backdrop, I was able to see a forest of what looked like palm trees. That didn't make much sense to me, since it really seemed to be much too chilly here for palm trees to be able to grow, but as this was a dream, I supposed that anything could happen. Might as well go there as anyplace, so I changed my direction and began to head there. At least I could probably find some shelter there, or maybe some people to talk to. Then again, maybe not. The rules of dream worlds were so strange at times.

There was a spring in my step as I walked that I just could not understand. It seemed to be making me light-headed, or maybe that was just happening at the same time. I wasn't quite dizzy, but I did feel strange. It was like gravity was falling asleep and slowly letting go, though it was remaining consistent for the time being, even in its weakened state.

I arrived at the edge of the palm tree forest and quickly leaned against one of the trees to get myself some rest. I wasn't at all used to walking around in a place like this where I had to work constantly to keep my balance. It was much more tiring than one would have anticipated. I tilted my head back, closed my eyes, and sighed.

Suddenly a shiver ran up my spine as I felt something move behind me. I jerked away from the tree I had leaned against and looked up at it. My mouth dropped almost to the floor as I watched what I had thought was a normal tree squirm and bend as though writhing in pain from my touch. What was this thing? It looked just like a tree, yet it seemed like it was...not!

I wasn't about to stay in this creepy forest any longer. I may have only been dreaming, but I wasn't stupid enough to stick around a location I didn't understand, especially if it scared me. I jumped up and began running out of the forest.

Apparently, the trees had other ideas, however. The ground before me shook slightly, and out of it rose several large green roots before me. At that size, they should have turned brown and woody, but these weren't normal trees. Now that I paid attention, even the trunks of the trees themselves were green. How had I not noticed that before? There was definitely something odd about these trees.

I knew I couldn't run forward since these root-things were blocking my way, but I couldn't run backward either, so I took my only other choice and ran sideways. If I could just get around these roots and out of the forest, I would be safe. The roots weren't that long anyway.

Though, as it turned out, I was wrong about that last assumption. As soon as I made my choice as to which way to run, one of the roots nearest me whipped itself up out of the ground and coiled itself around my leg, instantly knocking me to the ground. I squirmed against its grip, but like a snake that has just caught its prey, my striving for freedom only made it squeeze even harder on my leg. What was I to do?

I threw myself over onto my back so that I could at least see what was going on, but regretted it instantly. What seemed like a million roots had suddenly come up out of nowhere and were making their way over to me. I already felt one entwining itself around my left arm before I'd had the chance to react. I tried to raise my auto-mail arm to swat it away, but I couldn't move it. Great, that one must have been caught too.

I gasped for breath all of a sudden, and realized for the first time that breathing had become very difficult. With some effort, I lifted up my head to look at my chest, and saw one of those strange green roots entwining itself around my chest and squeezing me very hard. I was dreaming, I had to be. I wasn't going to die here even though everything in my being seemed to say I was. I didn't truly need to breathe in a dream. Please, wake up, wake up!

I felt something tickle my neck. I knew what was about to happen, so I quickly dropped all that remained of my dignity and let out the loudest scream I possibly could. If there were any human beings around who could get me out of this mess, they needed to know I was here, and I didn't have much time to waste in trying to find words to say.

My scream was quickly cut off by the invading root that quickly wrapped itself around my throat. I gagged and sputtered, trying desperately to catch another breath, but I couldn't. I couldn't breathe at all. I so hoped that I was dreaming, or I was going to die. How would I get back to Al and get him back in his body if I died here amongst these strange plant things?

A gunshot rang through the air, and as if on signal, all the root things retreated immediately. I gasped for breath instinctively and clutched at my throat as I rasped whatever it was I was trying to say, if I was trying to say anything. I tried to pick myself up and get out of this creepy forest place, but found myself too dizzy to even move, and fell back into my previous helpless position. I hoped that whoever had fired that gunshot was on my side, because I had not yet regained enough energy to win in a fight, especially in a place like this where even the trees fought back.

It wasn't a moment later when a shadow appeared in my vision, and strong hands reached under my body and scooped me up in them. I had no urge to fight them. At least this person felt more normal than the trees I had almost lost my life to. No, I was dreaming, that was just silly. I had not just nearly died, I had simply had a very realistic dream experience. That had to be it.

The shadow figure, who I could tell was a big strong man, carried me deeper into the forest until we had arrived at some kind of enclosure. I was too tired to tell what it was exactly, as my little adventure had drained all the energy out of me, but it reminded me of a sort of log cabin, like one would expect in the woods. It was a strange place to want to build a log cabin though. I knew I wouldn't want to live here.

The man carried me inside and placed me down on a cot in front of the fire. He threw some kind of blanket over me, and I could feel myself drifting off into unconsciousness. I was falling asleep? Within a dream? I guessed that that could happen in a dream, but it was a little odd, especially if I knew that I was dreaming. I should be able to have a little control over my experience if I have that knowledge, so why was I suddenly losing control?

A gentle, yet strong, hand came to rest on my forehead and rubbed my hair a couple times before stopping in place. "I know you're confused, son," said the man, though I didn't open my eyes to look at him, nor did I respond. The fatigue was getting to me. "Rest here until you've recovered, and then I'll do my best to explain to you what just happened."

There was really nothing better for me to do, as the urge to sleep was taking such control of my mind at that moment. I lost the will to fight it, and slowly drifted off into unconsciousness. I still knew that I had to be dreaming, but if I was lucky, when I awoke, I would be back in the room with Al.

Sooooooooo...that's that! I will update as soon as I am able to arrest control of the computer again, so there!