Later that Day after having worked on the assignment for a few hours and having thoroughly scrutinized the jade dragon for every detail, it was already late and time to go to bed. As he climbed the bed he picked up his other acquisition of the day, the cane. It didn’t look anything special, not the whole cane but the orb looked so black that if it broke it could cover the whole world in an eternal night.

After inspecting the cane for a bit Alex was too tired to notice that for some reason he didn’t have the usual dread towards going to sleep, as he lay in bed he drifted off to his first dreamless sleep in eight years. The next morning when he woke up way past his alarm he realized that he didn’t have the usual nightmare. And he felt like he had slept for years, he couldn’t believe it as he sat up in bed he saw the cane leaning against the side of his bed he decided that this cane was his lucky charm and that going forward from this day on this cane shall be a treasured item to him and he thought that it will be funny to pass this down as a family heirloom.

As the Christmas break had just started he was the only student left within his dormitory and he decided that he will commit his full time to the assignment, days passed and he didn’t have the nightmare even once. At first like anybody who might have bought something new he treated the cane with utmost care and respect but after a few days of getting used to it he started to treat it like the rest of his possession.

After one week of owning the cane he had a dream for the first time. “why does it have to be water” he thought as he woke up wondering if his lucky item was losing its effect. Last night he had dreamed that he was standing in a lake that was rising slowly and he realized that he prefers dreamless sleep.

Unsure of what to think as he got up to get out of bed and he accidentally knocked over the cane that was leaning on the side of his bed and it falls on to his other foot with a bang and an excruciating pain flares in his foot.

“Fuck” swore Alex as he held on to his foot and tried to rub his foot to alleviate the pain he was feeling, he was a bit surprised as at the moment of impact he felt that the skin on his feet had broken and there should have been blood everywhere and yet all that was on his foot was big red circle to show that the orb had made clean contact.

Alex rushed into the bathroom and filled a small tub that he had with cold water and put his foot in, in hope that he could avoid his foot swelling. And after the unlucky start to the day he carried on with the plan for this Christmas break which was to finish the assignment before Aiden was back.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

To avoid another accident he decided to wedge the cane between the night stand and his bed so that it would be more secure than it was when it was leaning on his bed. Hoping that the nightmare wasn’t back he climbed into the bed.

As he drifted off this night he didn’t know that his life as he knew it was about to change forever. This night his dream was different there wasn’t any water, he was standing on a flight of stairs leading up to a huge building with the exterior full of pillars and an imposing red double doors that was almost as tall as the building itself.

Alex being a university student whose major is Heritage and Archaeology thought that this is probably the best dream he has ever had, everything is so vivid full of details and he was looking around to burn this sight to into his mind he spotted markings next to the doors that were up ahead. He climbed the stairs 2 at a time to reach the top so he can see the markings more clearly.

“This is an ancient language” thought Alex Lamenting that they hadn’t covered ancient languages yet so he was unfamiliar with the region or time period the writings might be from and there fore he couldn’t be sure where or when this palace might have been from. His curiosity got the better of him as he walked up to the door to and tried to push it open but it wasn’t going to open.

As he pulled away from the door Alex turned around to see what else is around as he thought “I can’t push it open”. As soon as the word open entered his mind the scraping sound of a heavy door being dragged on the floor entered his ears so with a bit of doubt he turned to see that one side of the red doors opening just enough for him to be able to squeeze into this grand palace looking building.

After thinking through all the possible outcomes Alex decided to enter the building after all this was his dream and the worst thing that could happen in ones dream is to die and most the time when that happens one wakes up. So having made the resolution to enter he didn’t dilly dally any longer and entered.

The inside of the hall looked simple with red banners hanging from the walls that depicted a bird drawn in yellow, having made a note of this Alex decided to look for anything else that might be of interest and all he could find was another much smaller red door on the opposite end from where he had entered the hall.

With nothing else to do he made his way to the smaller red door to carry on as he wanted to explore as much as he could before he inevitably wake up from this wonderful dream of exploring an ancient palace.

As he reached the door Alex turned to take one final look at the hall to burn the sight and details into his mind and all he could think about was “I really hope this is not one of those dreams that you can’t remember when you wake up”.