Story III

It was dark.

Dark, but blessedly silent. I was alone in the place of my dream's birth.

Now, I'm not sure if you're personally aware of that place in the dark where dreams come from; Cool and crisp to those senses that still seem to work though no body is attached to which they might belong. At least, that is how it feels when it is not filled with voices of damned souls. This place in the cool dark of your mind is an embodiment of potential growth when your mind and soul are healthy and whole. When that place is peaceful, then you are at peace while there.

I lay there in that dark nowhere for a moment just enjoying the sanctity of the pure essence around me. I was lost in the joy of green growing things of the soul that soak in the the sun and rain of Heaven when I became aware of a sound. It was almost a voice, but somehow beyond my hearing. Though I could not repeat the words, for I know them not, when I listened only to that sweet sound that whispered in the corners of my mind I had the distinct impression that I was being called...

... but not knowing the language, nor the speaker, I could not reply. So I simply lay and listened. I knew the voice was speaking to me, and I knew somehow that it belonged to a lovely person. I was quite flattered as I lay there and listened to this comforting voice. I thought that perhaps I had somehow regained the power to dream, and that this was just the way that my subconscious was welcoming me back. I was quite pleased with myself.

Then the voice stopped.

Before I had the time to wonder at this I found myself no longer in the cool darkness of my mind, but instead under the shadow of a great cliff that loomed not twenty feet from where I lay. The cliff shot up at a straight angle from the ground, and climbed to what seemed like painfully sharp and unwelcoming points a vast distance above me.

This by itself most unsettling. The image these cliffs presented was awe filled; the combination of height and angular settings of rock made it seem as though it was all just a moment away from coming down upon me in all fury and haste to force my life from my body after scaring me out of my wits. (Strange as this may sound, I assure you that you would have thought something similar if you had been there alone and without any idea of what the place was and why you were there.)

I closed my eyes as soon as I had possession of my wits again. You see I was quite confused as well as frightened. This was not the sort of place I often found myself when I dreamed. I almost never was afraid while I dreamed, and as this was most definitely the state that I was in I was most disoriented.

I decided to try and leave this place for another, so I thought of a lovely scene filled with autumn leaves and a happy tinkling stream with butterflies flitting about above it. I then sat up with my eyes closed, prepared myself as best I could for whatever would come next, and opened them to see...

... butterflies! Lovely butterflies flitting about a beautiful little valley. A beautiful little valley with a happy tinkling stream flowing through it... as it sat at the foot of the monstrous cliff, now spotted here and there with clumps of moss resting on the rocks that still threatened to topple and crush me to bits.

I was quite confused.