Explorer of Edregon

“This probably goes without saying, but your dream journey is going to be weird,” Fred told him as he directed Vin to lie down on a specialized cloth they had prepared for tall folk. Vin had offered to bring out his shimmerwing mattress instead, but his suggestion had been vehemently shut down. Apparently getting too comfortable for a dream journey was a problem in itself, as it could make traversing the dreamscape more sluggish and difficult than normal for those without experience. “I have no idea what we’re going to find in your dreams, but one thing remains constant throughout all dream journeys. You need to find a portal of some sort. A door or trapdoor or something along those lines. It will lead you from one dream to the next as we venture down toward your mana-core.”

“We’re not going to be reliving my memories, right?” Vin asked nervously from his position on the ground, only just then realizing that he might be forced to relive some of his less-than-pleasant memories he had of growing up with his parents. They hadn’t been physically abusive or anything, but his childhood certainly hadn’t been a loving one. There was a reason he’d dropped out of high school and run away from home at such a young age.

“No, that’s a common misconception,” Fred reassured him. “Dreams aren’t inherently memories. If anything, they’re more influenced by recent events or things you’re anticipating for the future. Granted, that doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to be fun. If you’re worried about stuff, or bad things have happened recently, we might be in for a rough journey.”

“So what happens if I die within the dream journey? You never actually explained that.”

“You’ll sort of just get flung from one dream to another. It’s a weird process and more than a little disorienting,” Fred admitted. “The bigger issue is it can throw off your progress and make you get lost. Dying within dreams is normally the main cause of dream journeys taking longer than they should have.”

“So avoid dying, got it,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Well, I’m ready when you are.”

“See you in a moment,” Fred grinned, hovering directly over his head. Twirling around, the pixie dropped a handful of that weird dust on his face that he still didn’t quite understand, before presumably casting a spell. Vin’s eyelids suddenly felt like they were a hundred pounds each, and while he got the sense he could probably fight off the drowsiness if he really wanted to thanks to Total Resistance, that somewhat defeated the purpose of what he was here to do. Letting the magic wash over him, he closed his eyes.

Before immediately reopening them, blinking at the forest he was lying in.

“Huh…” he said, looking around at all the trees. “Fred, I don’t think it worked!”

“Oh, it worked,” Fred said, appearing beside him with a laugh. “Trust me, we’re in your dream right now. The surface layer is often pretty straightforward and boring, a forest similar to the one you went to sleep in isn’t at all unusual.”

“Seriously? This is a dream?” Vin asked, glancing around. As far as he could tell, everything seemed pretty normal. By Edregon’s standards at least. Now that he was looking harder, he could tell the trees were all different shades of green, ranging from greens so dark they might as well have been black, to some so bright he could barely look at them. “What the hell, how did I miss these at first?” he asked, shielding his eyes from one that was practically growing a bright neon green.

“It’s hard for people to realize they’re in a dream,” Fred explained, peering at the bright tree curiously. “It’s the entire reason I’m here in the first place. Without a dream guide, you’d probably just sit around in this forest forever. I’m here to remind you to look for the portal heading deeper.”

“Where the hell do we find a door in the middle of a forest?” Vin asked.

“It’s different for everyone,” Fred shrugged. “You might find an abandoned cabin to walk into, or a grass-covered wagon sitting in a clearing. I once helped a mage who stumbled upon a chest tucked between a few trees, and he had to jump into it to continue down. Dreams don’t really follow any sort of logic, and they can take some real liberties with what they consider to be ‘portals.’”

“Guess we start walking then,” Vin decided, picking a direction at random and heading into the forest. Out of curiosity, he attempted to cast Sense Magic to see if he could find the magic door, only to discover he was completely cut off from his own mana. For the first time since studying that magical training aid from Sakis, he couldn’t sense his mana in the slightest. It was a terrible and horrifying sensation, and he swore he’d establish his connection again as soon as possible.

Though that wasn’t even the weirdest bit.

“Hey, what the hell?!” he asked, only realizing after they’d been walking for a few minutes that his left arm was missing from the elbow down. “Where’s my golem arm?!”

“I thought that was weird, but I didn’t want to bring it up in case it was a sensitive subject,” Fred admitted, flitting around his missing arm and peering at it with a frown. “Your dream-self should be a reflection of your real body. It’s no wonder you didn’t bring your prosthetic with you if you’ve only had it a few months, but you should still have all your limbs, if the injury is just as old. I’ve never seen something like this before.”

It has to be because of that freaky dimensional monster, Vin realized, shivering at the thought as he stared at the missing limb. The Goddess had informed him that the arm was gone for good, as the epic monster had consumed more than just the flesh and blood, but something about learning that it was even gone within his own dreams was a bit jarring.

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“Don’t worry, I’ve seen much weirder stuff than a missing limb,” Fred reassured him. “Just keep your eyes peeled for that portal! I didn’t mention this, but I can’t actually see the connecting portals from one dream to another. That’s all on you.”

“Good to know,” Vin said, trying to put the issue of his missing arm aside as he hunted for anything out of the ordinary. When he finally spotted the door, he couldn’t help but laugh.

It was a stone frame set in the side of a tree, looking identical to one of the corridors that would lead him to the Underside.

“That’s got to be the portal,” he said, pointing it out as he walked over to it. It seemed Fred was capable of seeing them after all, but only after he recognized the portals for what they were first. “So I just walk in?”

“Pretty much. The transition can be instantaneous, or it might take some time. I once had to spend what felt like an eternity walking down a flight of stairs to get from one dream to another. That mage sucked.”

With a shrug, Vin stepped into the endless corridor, heading down it like he normally would. Though rather than stepping out into the familiar vast, empty room of the Underside, he found himself stepping out onto a battlefield.

One littered with familiar Earther corpses.

“Epic monster at three o-clock!” Spur shouted, the Commander looking all but dead on his feet as he slashed through yet another monster before spinning around to stare at him. Screams came from all corners of the battlefield as the sixth wave bombarded them from every angle, overwhelming them one warrior at a time and whittling them down faster than they’d ever imagined. “Don’t just stand there, Vin, do something!”

“Right!” Vin shouted, turning and gripping his staff in hand as he charged toward the big bad bear that had somehow grown ten times in size. The monster roared as it slashed through dozens of Earthers in a single strike, sending blood and body parts everywhere. Vin’s face paled as he realized he was out of mana and was going to have to tackle this thing without his spells, but there was nobody else left. If he didn’t—

“It’s a dream, it’s a dream!” Fred shouted, the pixie suddenly appearing directly in front of his face and grabbing him by the eyebrows. With a grunt, he tore a few hairs out of them, and Vin yelped in pain, swatting at his face to dislodge him as he stopped running.

“Ow, what the hell?!” he shouted, eyes watering from pain. But the pain acted like a bucket of cold water, and he started as he realized he’d fallen straight into the dream without even realizing it. “Oh my God…”

Vin looked around, his eyes wide as he took in the scene of carnage before him. He was clearly witnessing his subconscious put together the battle for wave six that would be arriving in a few weeks, and his stomach lurched as he spotted a few familiar faces lying within the field of corpses.

Theodore… Abby… even James for some reason, the friendly guard who was working on collecting signatures of all the members from the first wave, were lying dead on the ground. From how half of Terra’s outer wall had collapsed and the flames scattered across town, it would appear his dream version of the next wave was a total disaster.

“I don’t like this dream very much!” he shouted at Fred, wincing at the distant explosions and continued screams.

“Yeah, they really run the gauntlet! Bad luck to get one like this so early!” Fred shouted back, pointing toward the ruins of town. “There has to be a door nearby! Get going!”

Following the pixie’s instructions, Vin ignored Spur’s continued shouting and the monsters in the midst of killing everyone as he sprinted for the town wall. In that usual dream sense, despite running at full tilt, it felt like he was barely moving at all, and it took him ages to actually get through the battlefield and arrive in town. Thankfully, the battered remains of town hall were right in front of him, despite the fact that the town hall should have been in the center of town. Not wasting any time thinking about it, Vin threw open the front door and stepped inside, letting out a sigh of relief as the screams and cries of battle were silenced in an instant.

“Now where are we?” he muttered, squinting as he tried to make anything out in the darkness. Wherever they were, it was dark and musty, and he held out his hand before him as he stumbled forward. Again, he tried casting Light without even thinking about it, and again, he was hit with the unnerving sensation of being cut off from his mana.

“You’ll probably find some matches or something soon enough, few dreams are ever this dark,” Fred reassured him, fluttering right beside his head by the sound of things.

Rather than a box of matches, as he trailed his hand along the wall, Vin blinked as he felt a familiar sensation he hadn’t experienced in months now. “Oh wait, I found a light switch.”

“What the hell is a light—”

Fred let out a string of curses as Vin flicked the switch and light flooded the room, coming from seemingly nowhere and everywhere all at once. While the cursing pixie rubbed at his eyes, Vin took in their surroundings. They were in a cellar of some sort, that much was obvious. There were barrels all over the place, each with a particular smell coming out of them.

Curious, Vin popped one of them open after a few moments of struggling with only one hand, staring down at its contents. Reaching inside, he pulled out a perfectly wrapped wheel of cheese, looking at it in confusion.

“I think we’re in a cheese cellar?”

“This isn’t how cheese is made,” Fred said, glaring at him before pointing toward the different barrels. “That’s not how cheese is made at all!”

“Well sorry I don’t know how one makes cheese!” Vin snapped, tossing the cheese wheel back into the barrel and throwing up his hand. “I know it’s got something to do with milk! Don’t you just pour it into barrels and let it ferment, or something?”

“No! That’s not even close!” Fred argued. “Why the hell did your subconscious even bring us to a ‘cheese cellar’ in the first place?!”

“Ah. That was probably my fault.” The deep, booming voice startled the two of them out of their bickering, and Vin’s jaw dropped as he realized they weren’t alone. Sitting on the far end of the cellar, in a tiny throne made of cheese and wearing Scule's cape and a small crown, was Reginald. Tipping his crown toward them, Reginald cleared his throat, speaking in that same rich, booming voice as before.

“Care for some cheese?”