Klonoa knew nothing but dreams.
How long he had been a dream traveller, he did not know. Had he chosen to become one, or had the role been thrust upon him without his knowledge. He did not know. It felt like so long ago, like a dream that faded away when he tried to grasp it…
Klonoa knew not what it meant to be truly awake. Even when he seemed awake, it was just another state of sleep. All the people he met, the friends he made, the adventures he had… were they even real? Was it true, that he was destined to forever roam the collective dreams of the unconscious? Or was it just a figment of his dreams, tricking him into thinking that there were others around him that he could talk to.
He did not know. But he wanted to find out.
He had heard it as a passing reference. A fearful acknowledgment under bated breath. The lucid dreamers in the realms he roamed knew of it and were reluctant to divulge what they knew to the Cabbit. But soon, someone spoke, and he knew what they were so fearful of.
A sort of dream singularity existed somewhere in the collective unconscious between dream worlds. Some said it was created when a truly powerful deity had passed away in their sleep. Others feared it was a contagion, like sleeping sickness, which would smite anyone whose dreams encountered it. The theories were diverse and interchanging, but Klonoa knew one thing:
He had to find it, if nothing else but to try and destroy it. He was a dream traveller after all, it was his role to protect those dreams.
He travelled for what felt like eons. Meeting people, tracing a path to a destination that felt unattainable. Time lost meaning as he did not age. After all, as a dream traveller, he couldn't. So, he kept going, searching, looking for this singularity that people became increasingly hysterical about. They feared it, revered it as a deity, but none had seen it with their own eyes. It appeared their only belief as to the existence of this eldritch place was a horrible gut feeling that it was out there, somewhere.
And Klonoa believed them. This wasn't just a collective hysteria or false belief. He didn't know how he knew, but it was out there. Which meant he could find it.
But could he? No matter how many dreams he travelled through, allies he teamed up with, evildoers he defeated and peace he bestowed on the inhabitants, it never really felt like he was making progress. No matter how many dreams he travelled through, it seemed like it was staying impossibly far away, unattainable, unknowable.
But he didn't give up. That gut feeling was telling him that he was getting closer, even if it didn't seem that way. He just needed to keep going, just a bit further, not much longer now…
He could barely remember many of the friends he had left behind an impossibly long time ago. Phantomile barely registered as a faint memory in the back of his mind as he practically drifted through his journey. His grandpa… he had been killed, hadn't he? His best friend… had betrayed him, he was sure. But the details, the others… a place called Lunatea vaguely faded into his head but was gone before he could grasp it. He felt like he had known it so well once upon a time, had an emotional connection to it and the people he had met…
…and yet it was just gone. And that terrified him. What was the point in being a dream traveller forever if he couldn't even count on his memories to keep track of his adventures? Was there even a beginning? How much could he not remember?
Before he knew it though, Klonoa had arrived in an empty and grey dream realm. There was no one around, the houses were dilapidated and ruined. Like it had all been abandoned in a hurry.
The gut feeling was stronger. He was close. He could feel it.
He attempted to move on to the next realm using his wind ring, but found himself on a barren moon, surrounded by freefalling asteroids and remnants of some larger planet.
And in the space far ahead of him was a bottomless hole, the light around it dilated and magnified in an immense accretion disc. Different clouds and nebulae representing dreams were visibly being pulled in, disappearing into the eternal blackness before him.
This was it. The singularity. Now he had a chance to try and destroy it before it destroyed any more dreams.
He stopped for a moment as he considered his options. Could he truly destroy it? Did he possess enough power to do so?
Finally, the Cabbit shook his head. He had to try. He had to.
It was his job.
Slowly, he began to build up the energy in his wind ring, more so than he had ever dared to dabble with, until it felt like the gem atop it would explode from the energy. Would it be enough? He didn't know, but he had to try. He had to.
Blocking out his rational thought screaming at him to reconsider, he flung himself off the planetoid, flying at high speed towards the singularity, aiming his energy…
Letting it loose…
As he fell into the eternal nothing ness, he could see the accretion disc seem to shrink and become unstable, the dreams that had been grabbed shaking loose and escaping its grip.
He saw everything and nothing, everything he did not and could not know flashed before his eyes as the singularity compacted as he fell towards it…
…they were one and the same…
He felt his energy and that of the singularity tearing his body apart, dispersing across the vast unconscious cosmos…
Was it all over? Had he finally fulfilled his role…
All was white…
He knew all…
He saw all…
He was all…
…
…
He woke up.