“The world lost its colors,” I finally finished retelling my story to Henry Strider, the absent student. The two of us were stranded in the void, where I found myself after being struck by the giant’s hand, occasionally disrupting the silence that reigned in that place with our conversation. He frowned and muttered absent-mindedly in passing, as if the content of what he was saying wasn’t really important to him, “The pulling force is getting stronger. It feels like it’s trying to drag me out of here and erase my very existence. My consciousness has already started to fade. It’s a shame, but you are on your own from now on.”

With this, his previously solid form became smoky and started to merge with the darkness that was everywhere around. “Will I be the next?” such a disturbing thought tormented me, making me feel that the void was even more eerie and macabre than I initially thought.

Regardless of how positively I tried to think about my current situation, no matter how tough my wooden body was – I knew that by now it was utterly destroyed after coming in contact with that abomination. Was this dreamscape my last haven before disappearing forever?

I felt that my condition had started to change. “So my time has finally come,” I had mixed feelings about that. I closed my eyes, anticipating the inevitable. The dreamworld shattered.

I didn’t feel any pain. I just felt that my condition stabilized. So far, I hadn’t opened my eyes. I reached out my hand, and it fell heavily on something damp and hard. I longed, yet dared not to employ my vision. It wasn’t that I feared to look upon something horrible, but rather that I grew terrified at the thought that there would be nothing I could see. That the tactile feedback I received was just a phantom feeling, a flimsy ghost of the past, ready to fall apart as soon as I tried anything.

At last, I mustered up my courage and opened my eyes slightly. The faintly glowing ceiling looked rather familiar. I turned my head only to notice that the floor was strewn with blue flowers’ petals which had already started to wither. I deeply inhaled and finally pointed my attention to what mattered the most at that moment – my body. It wasn’t green. Not anymore.

Even though my body kept sending signals like temperature and texture of the environment it came in contact with, I couldn’t call it a body in the full sense of the word. My whole form consisted of a smoky gaseous substance of a dark gray color.

A thought appeared. I have already encountered such a substance. A realization came next. I became what I once fought against. My mind was still hectic trying to process everything that happened. My body however started to move. There was only so much I could discover sitting on the same spot. The best way to learn has always been the same: to move onward.

I halted my movements: the tunnel in front of me was too narrow to proceed. Through a small opening I saw a place with lush verdant green grass and occasional trees striving towards the ceiling. I recognized the garden I once picked fruits in. I didn’t linger in my memories for long though – understanding dawned on me: my former classmates could be right ahead.

But no matter how much effort I put into, my cumbersome body was just too big to fit in the narrow tunnel. And suddenly obeying my will, satisfying my desire, changes came. From off my big smoky body a few smaller forms separated. Little hazy shades, similar to the ones who attempted to kidnap doll Reina.

Little ones followed my wish and scurried over towards the village, their vision shared with mine. My agitation, which flared up at understanding that I would meet my classmates again and hopefully they would help to shed some light over the situation I was in, was extinguished. Not a single living being was present in the village.

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Even dragon Isabella who should have been hibernating had somehow disappeared. What made her wake up from her slumber and move somewhere? The only evidence that my classmates once resided there was a few motionless furballs lying around the village and a single card lying on the bed of clown Otto’s house.

The furballs didn’t have any external damage on them, no apparent wounds whatsoever, reason for their deaths remained unknown. The card found on Otto’s bed had a metal texture. It seems something was drawn on it? Unfortunately the image faded too much for me to discern what it once was.

This situation was clearly wrong. I remember just how big dragon Isabella was. There’s no way she could have squeezed through any of the tunnels. Then, what happened to her?..

Seconds trickled into minutes, precious time slowly waning. In the end, unable to find anything worthy of attention, I changed my approach. It was the time for me to discover what my predecessor – giant hazy shade – was guarding.

Nothing. There was nothing behind the place where a giant hazy shade once stood. It was an enormous faintly glowing cave, so big, my eyes couldn’t see the end of it. Alas, I didn’t have the luxury of a choice. Hunger and fatigue haven’t caught up to me yet but that doesn't mean they will never appear. At last, I was on the move once again. The hope that I would find something among nothingness was kindling my spirit.

My expectations were realized. Finally, I saw two living beings. I wasn’t sure whether they were humans as my current perception of size was slightly distorted because of my own bulkiness and light was too dim to clearly make it out from the distance which separated us, but their frames were undoubtedly humanlike.

Aware of my current appearance I didn’t rush towards them. I decided to approach slowly and stopped at a decent distance from them. They stopped in their tracks as well. Will we be able to reach a mutual understanding? How could I convince them that it’s me and not the thing from before?

While I was contemplating what to do next, a bright flash appeared in front of my eyes, accompanied by sharp pain. The void welcomed me once again.

This time I wasn’t alone in the dreamworld. Unexpected company was floating in front of me. Painfully familiar smoky existence was gazing at me silently. Just like absent student Henry from before, hazy shade dissolved. And then the dreamworld shattered once again.

I was lying on a stone floor which didn’t feel all that relaxing to me. This time I didn’t hesitate and opened my eyes at once. But then I saw what I had lacked since coming to this place. I had a pair of human hands. I looked around. I still was in the empty cave. On the stone floor close to where I woke up an arrow pointing in a certain direction was inscribed.

My appearance wasn’t the only subject to change. There were even more major changes somewhere within me. But I couldn’t tell apart what exactly changed. At least, not yet.

I glanced at the arrow. Would I get my answers after reaching the destination? Once again I was on the move. However, now I knew where to go.

Imagine a town. Then draw a line randomly, dividing it into two halves. Throw away one of them and piece the remaining one together with an empty cave. And don’t forget to encompass that town with a stone ceiling. This is the impression I received after seeing that quaint town in the middle of the wastelands, the place the arrow pointed at.

I hurried over and entered it. Immediately I perceived a change. The ceiling above my head disappeared, replaced by sky with a sun shining down brightly. Behind my back I noticed the second half, the town was lacking, appear. Surprised, I reached out my hand to touch a building that suddenly sprouted out of nowhere but my hand went through. It was just an illusion. The town ahead, however, was pretty much physical. And maybe, just maybe, soon I would dream for them to remain as that - an illusion. But dreams don’t always come to be.

I encountered a living human being.