I've started a new book, as many of you know. Granted, I'm having a bit of trouble working on it lately, but it's still going faster than Guardians did. >_>;' I know I've talked about it before. These are the first two chapters. What do you think?
Chapter 1: Finding the Door
A young man leapt swiftly through the forest, being as silent as possible. He moved with great speed, jumping over logs and ducking under branches, cleverly avoiding puddles of water and piles of leaves so he could avoid making noise. He wasn't running after anything. In this case, he was running from something, and something very dangerous.
A flash of lightning illuminated the entire forest, and as the young man looked behind him, he could see the massive form of the creature chasing him. Its shape wasn't definite, but it stood at least nine feet tall, had claws like razors, and teeth like small swords. Its one purpose was to kill, and on this particular stormy night, it had chosen Kai as its prey.
Despite the situation, Kai couldn't help but give a low chuckle as he continued his high-speed run through the trees. He wasn't in any danger. This was, in fact, a dream. He had realized partway through his walk that he was asleep and inside a dream. Remembering not to get too excited or else he might wake up, he played with his imagination a bit. The creature chasing him was a creation gone wrong, and although Kai knew he could imagine it gone at any moment, the chase was more fun.
However, when he came to the edge of the forest, he saw something he did not create. At the top of a small, grassy hill, basking in the single ray of powerful sunlight that broke through the storm clouds, was a magnificent golden door. The door stood by itself inside its frame, alone on top of the hill, looking completely out of place, but somehow inviting.
Hearing the roar of the creature behind him, Kai sprinted towards the door. It was a most curious creation. It appeared to be made of solid gold, intricate designs of silver and white metals curved and looped across the front of the door, and in the center of the door was a symbol of a hand. The thumb and first two fingers were outstretched, the middle finger crossed over the index finger, and the other two folded down into the palm.
Kai didn't have much more time to examine it, however. He flung the door open, and although it appeared to be simply a door - he could see the other side of the hill through the door frame - he walked through it anyway.
He was immediately overcome with the strangest sensation he had ever felt, even in a dream. It felt as though he were moving forward at a great speed, spinning slightly, and he thought he might be sick.
Or, in any case, my landing will not be fantastic, he thought to himself, and he was right. As though falling out of a high-speed vehicle, he came crashing down, hitting the ground at least four times before he came to a sudden halt against a wall.
He moaned as he got to his feet. While unhurt, he was still disoriented, and as he looked around, startled. He had definitely not landed on the other side of the hill.
Kai stood in a small, dark room, on the opposite end of the golden door that he had just been flung from. The room had one small, grimy window, and apart from the door, there was only a small cabinet crammed unceremoniously into a corner, almost unnoticeable. Near him was, he guessed, the room's exit: a old wooden door with a faded brass handle. As he stepped across the musty carpet however, he heard a sound close by. Whirling around, he saw someone else in the room with him, someone who looked quite amused.
A girl, one who looked no older than ten, stood not far from him, clapping her hands slowly as she looked at him with a smile on her face.
"Excellent entrance! Most newcomers go flying
through the wall. Looks like you have some sense of balance."
Kai stared. He knew lucid dreams were strange, but this was starting to get a bit creepy for his tastes. Attempting to compose himself, he imagined the girl away, but she only laughed, which confused him more.
"No, you can't do that here. I'm here to welcome you to the Dream Sanctum. My name is Kwin, by the way. I sensed someone new was coming, so I decided to come welcome them, and repair the wall if necessary."
Kai followed her gaze and saw that the wall he had crashed into at great speed looked as though it had been patched and re-patched countless times over. Before he could look long, the girl had taken his hand. She opened the door, and Kai was met with an amazing sight.
He was standing inside the doorway of a building that sat right on the side of a bustling stone walkway. People of all kinds walked up and down the street, dressed in all sorts of strange clothing, talking amongst each other and looking around the various street-side shops. It wasn't a large town, but compared to the empty room he had just come from, it was certainly a sight to see.
Kwin and Kai walked down the street in silence for a few moments. Kai looked back over his shoulder. The building he had just walked out of looked incredibly out of place, a shabby wooden hut squashed between two large stone buildings, but no one seemed to pay any attention to it. However, Kai himself seemed to be getting plenty of attention.
"Welcome, newcomer!" a middle-aged man shouted from a doorstep not far away, and a few others waved at him. A few others waved at Kwin and greeted her enthusiastically, to which Kwin responded by completely ignoring them. She led Kai to the end of the street, and into a bell tower. They climbed a few sets of stairs, Kai now thoroughly confused. From their higher vantage point, Kwin gestured out at the street below, and Kai couldn't help but think that, despite her age, she had an air of authority about her, whoever she was.
"This is the town of Anathor. It's where most of the newcomers land. The Creators imagined it would be better for new dreamers to land in a small town. No doubt getting used to the Sanctum in a large city would be... unnerving."
"Right," Kai said, and he concentrated hard, imagining the girl vanishing into thin air. She gave him another knowing look.
"I told you, you can't do that here," she said, and at Kai's look, continued, "You don't have any idea what I'm talking about, do you?"
Kai shook his head.
Am I even lucid anymore?"This is the Dream Sanctum. It's like a separate dimension of sorts. People enter this world through that golden door you came through. This is like a giant dream world that everyone can enter together. For example, in the real world, I'm lying in bed right now somewhere in the suburbs. There are people from all over the world in here. Anyway, the reason you can't imagine me away is because I'm a real person, and in this world we can't do anything that affects another person directly."
Kai laughed, and Kwin looked at him, awaiting an explanation.
"This is such a strange dream," he said. "I knew I had a strange imagination, but this takes the cake. I didn't think I'd still be surprised while lucid, though."
"I don't expect you to believe me right away," Kwin said matter-of-factly, as though his response didn't surprise her at all. "Most people don't get it until they've been here a few times. Once you get it, though, you'll come to enjoy it here."
"I wish I could come back," Kai replied. "I never get to finish my dreams. Though now I'm lucid and talking about dreams inside a dream with a figment of my imagination. Lucky me, I think I get to do a creative writing assignment in class tomorrow, and I think I know exactly what I'm going to write about."
"No doubt Professor Kawamari will be pleased with your paper," Kwin said absently, and Kai looked at her in surprise.
Ah, of course. She would know my professor. She's part of my imagination after all."Maybe next time you're here, you'll see him," she continued, looking at the people below as though searching for someone. "He's quite a strange man. He goes by Sakaimu here, and he's... quite eccentric."
Kai had decided enough was enough. A dream or not, he didn't want to be too confused before he woke up for school the next day.
"It's been wonderful talking to you, but I really need to head out," Kai chuckled, and started back down the stairs.
"If you want to leave, just tell yourself to wake up," Kwin called down the stairs after him. "Also, now that you've been here once, you need only think about entering the Sanctum to come again!"
Kai didn't respond, but he was lost in thought as he walked through the streets, getting more waves and greetings from various passerby. As a test, he imagined the people gone, the buildings gone, the weather changed, anything he could normally do, but nothing happened. Remembering the girl's words, he imagined himself waking up.
The strange sensation of moving very fast hit him again, and within a few seconds, he found himself lying awake in bed. Unlike most other dreams, he remembered this one vividly, and despite finding himself in the real world again, couldn't shake the feeling of the looks of the other people in his dream, almost too real, too inquisitive. And, of course, that girl. Young, but seemingly intelligent beyond her years, unlike anything he had ever thought of before.
Kai rolled over and looked at the clock on his bedside table, groaning in disappointment. He still had three hours before he had to be awake for school. Sighing, he closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep.
What a curious dream.Chapter 2: The Writer's Realization
A week later, Kai found himself sitting in Professor Kawamari's classroom. From his seat at the window, he could see the sky darkened by clouds threatening to douse them the moment they all left the room. It had been stormy all week, and as far as anyone could tell, it didn't look like it was going to let up any time soon.
Ever since his strange dream the week before, Kai had thought about it every day. As completely ridiculous as the concept had seemed, he couldn't help but feel an ever-so-slight glimmer of hope that something so amazing could exist. The next day he had enthusiastically written his creative writing essay on the Dream Sanctum, confident that it was his best idea yet, but when he got home that night and gone to bed, he considered attempting to enter the Sanctum again, if indeed it was real. However, every morning he awoke with disappointment, having been unable to attain lucidity.
He sighed and turned his head back to the front of the class, absently pushing a stray bit of black hair out of his dark blue eyes. The end of class always seemed to take forever, especially when the class wasn't even doing anything. They sat in silence, a few students hurriedly finishing up an assignment, leaving the rest to amuse themselves however they could until class was over.
It was almost noon, and since Kai was a student in his last year at the school, this was his last class session before he could leave. With only a minute left on the clock, the class was anxious to go, and had already begun packing their things.
"Before you put your binders away, just a moment! I have your creative writing papers here!" the professor called out, coming out from behind his desk with a stack of papers in his arms. The class groaned. Handing out graded assignments always held them back.
"I know, I know," he continued, moving a wooden stool to the center of the classroom. "Here, you can all find them yourselves if that makes things go faster."
It usually did. The bell rang across the campus, and the class stood up together, hurrying to the stool in the center of the room. Kai held back. He wasn't in any hurry, and he would let the other students take their papers instead of fighting through the crowd just to get his. However, the teacher beckoned him over to his desk, and Kai walked over to him, shouldering his backpack.
"I would like to discuss your assignment with you," Kawamari said, and though Kai couldn't read his expression, he felt the usual nervous feeling he always got when a teacher wanted to see him about his work. Usually it wasn't anything bad... usually.
The professor was only forty years old, but he looked at least ten years older than that. A kind, bespectacled face was shadowed by long graying hair. He was a tall man and rather well-built, but he walked with a barely-noticeable limp, slightly hunched over due to back trouble. His hands shook slightly whenever he wrote, but despite these frailties, had a strong voice that easily carried across the classroom.
Kawamari packed his things into his suitcase and waited for the rest of the students to leave, checking the contents of his desk for anything he might have missed. The silence only furthered Kai's discomfort, and he finally spoke up.
"You wanted to talk about my assignment, sir?"
"Ah, that I did," Kawamari confirmed, and from his desk he pulled the paper Kai had written for the creative writing assignment. At the time it had seemed to Kai like a marvelous idea, but ever since then he had started to wonder whether he had been a little
too creative. Now that he saw his paper on Kawamari's desk with nothing but a single comment written in red at the bottom, he started to think he may have been right.
"I recognize that this is a creative writing class, and our exercise was to write a short, five page story about a fictional setting. However, every year I get at least one paper that goes beyond the bounds of simple fiction - a paper that shows incredible attention to the powers of the imagination, but not so incredible attention to the actual requirements of the assignment."
Kawamari toyed with the paper on his desk, and Kai strained to see the comment written on the bottom, but it was too small to read. His only experience with a paper with little or no comments on it was when a fellow student had been caught plagiarizing a story from the Internet, and had been told to redo his assignment. But I haven't plagiarized anything, Kai thought to himself, starting to worry more.
Kawamari stood up and beckoned Kai to follow him. They walked through the now-empty halls of the school towards the parking lot, Kawamari holding Kai's paper the whole way.
"You do have an incredible eye for detail, and you excel in writing descriptions and painting a vivid image for readers," the professor continued as they walked closer to the professor's car. "Usually, because of your talents and the ambiguity of the assignments, I let things like this slide. However, this time I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to re-write the assignment."
Kai's heart sank, but he spoke up quickly, anxious to prove he hadn't copied anything.
"Sir, I haven't copied any work. What I wrote was completely my own idea and concept and everything!"
Kawamari nodded, adding to Kai's confusion.
"I am not at all accusing you of plagiarizing anything, only of missing one of the key points to the assignment."
The professor got into his car, rolling down the window to hand Kai his paper.
"I need you to re-write this, and this time, pay close attention to the details. The concept of the Dream Sanctum is interesting, but see my comment at the top of the page to tell you what you need to work on. Otherwise, it was a very well-written paper, and I do feel sorry that I cannot give you credit for it."
Kai nodded, and Kawamari drove off. Slightly exasperated and wondering what he could have possibly missed, he put the assignment in his backpack and headed to the corner of the street.
A dark-haired girl waved at him from the corner, and Kai grinned. There was a face that could always cheer him up.
The girl hurried over to him and placed a plastic bag into his hands.
"Mum made some brownies last night for a meeting and she had some leftover. She said to make sure you get at least one!" the girl said cheerfully. She was a few inches shorter than Kai, with the same straight dark hair, but with brilliant green eyes. Her name was Lindsay, and she and Kai had been good friends since they had met in the third grade. She was one year younger than him, but very intelligent, and had skipped the second grade before moving to Kai's school.
The pair met at the corner since their classes got out at slightly different times, and finished the walk home together since they lived right across from each other on the same street. The walk itself took about half an hour, usually because they took the long way home, walking through a large park and along the side of a river on their way back.
"You should come over to my place today to work on homework," Lindsay exclaimed, but Kai gave her a suspicious look.
"Right, what is it you need help with this time?" he asked, and she gave a guilty smile.
"It's a short story assignment I got from my professor. Usually we have compare and contrast essays, and those I can do, but I'm horrible at writing stories. You're the guy with the imagination, so I need some help!"
Whether it was her pleading look that he could never resist, or the sheer coincidence of her assignment compared to his own, he nodded, and they walked into Lindsay's house, trudging up the stairs to her room. Even though it was only about one in the afternoon, Kai felt exhausted. It was a Friday, and the school week had tired him out.
"Okay, what do you need to do?" Kai asked as they set their backpacks down.
"I need to write a short story, about one page long, and put myself in the middle of a city road. I'm supposed to write about what I see, but it has to be made up, and I have to write about myself doing something."
"What, is that it?" Kai snickered, and Lindsay gave him an exasperated look.
"Just because you're a genius!" she sighed, and tossed her assignment sheet at him. He glanced over it for a few moments before looking up at her.
"This will be simple. Don't think about specifics or try to see the whole place at once. Close your eyes and picture yourself standing on a street, just a street. Then picture a single building there. Figure out exactly what it is. Then imagine another, then another, until the street is full. Then imagine what the weather is like. Then the people. If you were there, what would you do? Walk into a store, talk to someone, explore? Would you shop your heart out or struggle to be frugal?"
Lindsay nodded, concentrating hard. Kai smiled. Lindsay was intelligent when it came to book smarts in just about any category, but fictional writing was not her strength. She scribbled a few things down on her notepad for later, then set it on her desk.
"What about you, mister genius? How did that paper for your creative class go?"
"Actually, it..." he paused, thinking that he would never hear the end of it if he told her that he had to rewrite his paper. "It went great. Top marks as usual," Kai finished, and though he knew he didn't appear very confident, Lindsay didn't doubt him for a second. His record had more than proved he was a good writer.
They spent the rest of the day pretending to study, talking and playing games. When the sun started to go down, Kai stood up and began to pack his things. Lindsay looked at him with disappointment.
"It's Friday, you know! You can stay longer!"
"I know, but I'm tired," Kai replied, and it was true. "Tomorrow we can hang out, all right? We'll head to the movies."
Instantly satisfied, Lindsay walked Kai over to his own house. Kai's mother had arrived home, and whatever she was making smelled delicious.
"Lindsay, dear!" she called from the kitchen entrance not far inside the front doorway. "Would you like something to eat? I know you two have been working hard lately."
Lindsay nodded eagerly, and with two plates shoved into their hands, they walked up to Kai's room. Kai hadn't planned on going to bed just yet, and it was a Friday tradition of sorts to share a meal.
As Lindsay claimed the bed, Kai sat in his desk chair, setting his backpack down. As he did so, his school binder slid partway out, his creative writing assignment slipping into view. He picked it up and and set it on his desk out of Lindsay's view.
After another hour, it was finally time to say goodnight. Lindsay skipped across the street to her house, and Kai sat reading in his room. His eyes kept drifting to the paper on his desk, and finally, when he could take it no longer, he picked it up to read Kawamari's comment.
"Rule 3: Paper must be completely fictional, not based on or about any existing ideas."
Any existing ideas, huh? Kai thought, and sighed. That rule was just vague enough to encompass just about every idea currently imaginable. He wondered what already existed that was close enough to the concept of the Dream Sanctum to make his paper unworthy.
He tossed the paper back onto his desk where it landed upside down, and he saw another comment written in red on the blank back sheet he hadn't seen before. As Kai picked up the paper to read it, he felt his blood run cold.
"Kwin told me you'd be writing about this. Welcome to the Sanctum! See you soon. Sakaimu."
