Dreamers: Prologue
#1 of Dreamers
Note: Although I have never read it, I think this concept is loosely based off of a book by Eric Nylund called, "A Pawn's Dream."
Dreamers: Prologue
For as long as I can remember I have had very vivid dreams. Some call it lucid dreaming but I think it is something far different. For one, I have dreamed of the same thing all of my life and as I have aged in my waking world, so have I in the dream one. I also don't think anyone has as detailed dreams as I. I know my own fictitious language thanks to that dream world as well as odd skills, such as hunting, farming, and the like. I suppose I neglected to mention that my dreams take place in a time period that seems ripped right out of one of those fantasy novels I have read. I would even hazard a guess that having an overactive imagination is what initiated my odd dreams but considering I have been doing it since I was a baby this is unlikely. At any rate, although it has its pluses, this 'psychosis' has ruined my chance at the normal life I always wanted.
I have been to countless sleep experts who claim that nothing is wrong with me and it is all in my head. I would agree with them if they hadn't failed every time to come up with an explanation for it. Due to the visceral nature of the dreams I sleep for 12 hours and am awake for 12 hours. This is due to the fact that I have a 'life' in that other realm and that the dreams get disturbing if I am awake too long. That plus the fact that the "time zones" don't lineup has left me a virtual zombie when I tried to work and go to university. I now have to work the 3rd-shift at a shitty gas station and take online night classes during the rest of my waking nightmare. I have no friends, no girlfriend, and no life, and that is not looking likely to change anytime soon.
My odd schedule hasn't left me without a brain though, I have loved learning for what seems like forever and I bet I could trump any valedictorian at any subject. That is if they could stop laughing long enough to take me seriously. I have spent my entire life surrounded by books and they are one of the only pleasures in my life as they don't have a life of their own when I am asleep. My 'other self' if you call it that is nearly the complete opposite. In my dreams I am quite successful in my own way. A psychologist just told me it was my repressed desires which have shaped my dreams and that may be true, at least to some extent. No amount of medication prescribed though, succeeded in ridding me of my problem. Later, I found out it never would, there are some things medication cannot cure, existence is one of them.
Allow me to introduce myself, I am Anthony Taylor. The son of Mary and John Taylor and possessing a legacy of nothing remarkable at all. Both of them thought I was mentally disabled for my sleep problems and summarily were absolutely unforgiving about my condition. The instead doted all their time and effort to my sister in the hopes that I would "snap out of it" and become normal. It bothered me greatly but I had learned to deal with it a long time ago, I was used to being a disappointment. If I couldn't have a decent life in my waking world, I seemed determined to make up for it in my dreams.
In my dreams I was Rezeth Gardin, the 2nd son of the mayor of Deran in the state of Forzan. I was in this life all that I was not in my waking one. I was strong, fast, and well liked. I was in training to become a Blademaster with the provincial army and was trying to bolster the village's defenses and resources before I left to fight. For some reason I could never understand, my fantasy world was at war, considering it was a dream I should have been able to change this but it didn't seem to work that way. This was so real that I could almost imagine actually living there; the only thing that kept me from completely losing it was that I could remember everything about my waking life. It had troubled some of the villagers and my father that I 'knew' such foreign concepts as Calculus, and could speak a language none of them had ever heard of. They had finally learned to accept it after 19 years and I tried hard not to make it obvious. I had even researched medieval advancements just so I could help more in my dreams. If only I knew then, what I know now, some dreamers hold fate in their hands.
Forzan was located in the south of the continent of Loardis and was the neighbor to the elfish home of Dalack in the East and Imperial Vostant to the North. Vostant and Dalack were Forzan's allies at present and King Izariel intended to keep it that way. It would have been a fantastic setup but the mage state of Ordan had managed to nearly wipe themselves out during a massive magical ritual and now there were corrupted magi and Broken swarming to the west and threatening to overwhelm us. Vostant had been hit the hardest but Forzan was still reeling from the brutal onslaught, in just a few weeks most of the border cities had been wiped out but a defensive line was now in place. I spent my waking time as Anthony studying fighting techniques, leadership, etc, all things I thought would help my dream self. I didn't know why I was trying so hard for just a silly fantasy but I couldn't help it. Rezeth was going to be joining the offensive push in the next two weeks and I wouldn't be alone, Vostant Elites and Dalack druids would be assisting our effort to retake critical defensive position lost in the initial attack. What would happen from there I couldn't say, only that I was going to be sleeping a hell of a lot more.
After it was all over I would look back on those times and laugh at my own naivete. I had foolishly believed so many things I had been told and had never thought to question them. My condition wasn't psychosis or some rare sleep disorder. Nor was it unique to just myself. There are those of us who are tied to different planes of existence, whether this is 'magic' or a single soul being shared between two people I still don't know. But, we hold lives in our hands and we are vital, no matter what anyone says. We are the Dreamers.
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Bah, this is one of three different ideas I came up with for a story series. This is just the prologue setting things up, but if there is interest in it I will continue it as well as any of the other series that people seem interested in.