I drifted. In some unknown sea of thought and distant memory. In a world that was so obviously fake, yet so pleasant my mind tricked me into thinking it was real. The universe had lost its coherence; shapes, ideas, places, and all things twisted and morphed into and out of proper form. Concepts without physical form were born onto legs and walked, while places became as abstract as a state of being. The world had set me adrift in a river of incoherence and curiosity.

For whatever reason, I knew where and what I was. I was dreaming and the place I was in could only be the scrambled thoughts of the mind. I lay on a cloud of anxiety, fluffed into a pillow for me to float atop. I crossed the river made up of trees and stone. I climbed atop the waterbank constructed of exhaustion and ancient words. I stood in a field of strands of memory, blowing like an invisible breeze pushed them back and forth. An array of thousands of colors stretched out like a field ready to be harvested, strutting up as tall grass embroidered with powerful thoughts and malleable memories.

This field of thought, stretched out so vulnerable before me, seemed to almost beg me to pluck at the strings and harvest their memories. I walked out, a path growing before me as I stepped, and caressed the first memory in this vast field. Knowledge and images rushed into me, a sudden flood of information.

As the images flooded into my mind, I saw a world unravelling. Heat. Fear. Panic. Rage. Fire consuming around me, mud coating the ground and working its way onto my body. I look up, only to see the face of the devil I had almost begun to forget. Nefelair.

The memory was quick, only a few short impressions and a handful of blurry images. Yet the content was unmistakable. The devil I had faced in fire and chaos, the memory of some scene from that encounter. The memory was remarkably detailed, the sensation and feeling so overpowering. I had been so consumed with rage at the time, were there feelings such as these others that I hadn’t noticed in the middle of my battle?

I walked further, I plucked at another memory. Darkness filled my mind. Confused, cold, and dark. Strange sounds, cackling giggles, and the sound of scraping stone. I felt vulnerable and alone. I grasped forward into the dark, hoping there would be some kind of anything I could grab and feel. I stumbled forward, lost and confused. Some strange sense of fogginess was possessing me as I walked forward in my bewilderment. Another noise, a sense that something was nearby, and then I broke out into a sprint. The memory ended.

This last memory was strange, it felt so familiar. Like it had always been my memory, but it was slightly strange. I couldn’t place where it had come from. I could only conclude it was some new interpretation of when I had first awoken in the dark underground.

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I felt more cautious as I went further into the field. These memories, they felt like they were mine but they were different from what I thought they would feel. My mind was remarkably accurate, or so I thought, and these memories were filled with such vivid sensation and emotion that they didn’t feel like they could be mine. Yet they were so remarkably similar to what I thought they should be, I had no choice but to proceed further. My curiosity taking the reins away from any thought of caution.

I reached out, hesitant now, and grasped another memory. This one was different. This one couldn’t be me. I was standing on a balcony, a blue and clear sky stretching outward beyond the horizon. A sense of loneliness and grief was swelling in my chest. A dreadful anticipation of something soon-to-be wrong. As I watched the swelling sky, the billowing wind, and vast fields of green, a voice echoed behind me. “-but he has passed away…” the voice echoed, finishing a sentence I couldn’t know. But an overwhelming feeling of sadness and grief grasped my heart before I let this newest memory free.

The true strangeness of this dream place was made obvious. That memory couldn’t have been mine, I had spoken to so few people in my time that It was impossible that could have been me. The field of memories was shivering. Something was happening, and soon. I felt the dream place beginning to collapse. My mind was filled with questions after the latest memory. What were these thoughts? Were they mine, someone else’s, or a past life I had forgotten?

The dream place was collapsing around me. I fled back the way I had come, desperate not to leave yet. I knew that the next memory I touched could be my last. Before the dream place was fully destroyed, I reached and grasped another memory.

I was once again surrounded by heat, coated in mud, with blood dripping down my body. The fire and mud around me was familiar. I peaked out, covered in something warm and heavy, yet cold and still. As I escaped my confinement I looked out. Before me was a foul demon, one that inspired fear, despair, dread, sadness, and panic. Yet this winged creature, this demonic thing, faced off against an opponent. A figure stood, somehow it stood against all odds. A destroyed building was crumpled in front of it, and it stood despite its injuries and its fight against the foul monster.

The monster, the demonic thing, bellowed shouts and undecipherable words at its opponent. Yet the figure stood tall, revealing its form fully for me to see. What should have inspired terror or suspicion instead was my sole salvation. A skeletal body, covered in ragged and torn robes, stood wielding a metal staff against the monstrosity. There was no doubt what this was, it was my past self in my fight against Nefelair. Yet from a pair of eyes I was unfamiliar with. The monster, Nefelair, turned its back and began walking towards my new perspective. I became rigid and still, hoping to go unnoticed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my past self level the metal staff at Nefelair and gather green energy at the tip of the staff. Nefelair noticed too, and turned to brace himself against whatever might come, but the attack never came. I felt my hope disappear, my heart dropped, and my fate was all but assured. Yet only moments later would I witness the complete destruction of Nefelair, as a blight took hold and ate away at his body.

My past self standing tall against the creature, walking proudly to where the monster now lay. I killed it, and seeing that filled me with such a hope and relief it would be impossible for me to fully understand with my stunted emotions. The memory ended, I was left once again confused.

I felt the dream falling apart fully now. It was only a matter of time before I awoke. Yet how I had fallen asleep, what any of this was, or if any of it was real were questions I couldn’t answer. As I slowly came back to my senses, and unconsciousness fully began to fade away to my waking mind, I heard a voice calling out to me. Muffled and soft, a voice called me back to my senses. A noise, a firm grip on my shoulder, the touch of something soft against my skull. Then a gentle wish whispered close to where my ear might’ve been, “Please… Please don’t leave me too…”