Min Li was moving. And she was rejoicing that she seemed to be in control of her movement.

When she asked her body to go right, it was nice and compliant and when to the right.

When she asked her legs to walk towards the left, it had no problems obeying authority and happily moved her towards the left.

Min Li could run in a straight line; she could jump, and she could completely come to a halt when she wanted to.

She had missed being in control of her body, so she was having the time of her life.

Everything she was experiencing felt absolutely amazing. The colours she was seeing seemed more vibrant. The chirping of birds around her sounded crystal clear. The wind flowing through her hair felt refreshing.

She was walking through a beautiful field filled with flowers of all sorts of different colours.

Tulips, sunflowers, roses, daffodils and lilies. All had its own invigorating scent, and made her smile even wider.

All that surrounded Min Li seemed thriving with life. Min Li’s cells were celebrating life in her body.

There was only one thing around Min Li that didn’t seem to fit in with the scene.

Looking to the left she saw a table made of fine wood. Most of the table was enveloped with colourful vines.

The table looked like somewhere Min Li would happily lay on to get some well-deserved rest.

Min Li decided to do just that. She waked towards the table, her body easily complying and laid down on it surprised to find that the table was as comfortable as a bed fit for a king.

The vines of flowers provided cushion for her body and made her feel weightless.

Min Li allowed herself to have rest. She closed her eyes for just a second, but already she felt invigorated ready to run around the field of flowers again.

She felt powerful. She felt energetic. She felt like she could go against the world and expend nearly no energy to win.

Unlocked, was the correct word to describe it. She felt unlocked. The real her felt unleashed.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Suddenly lines of red, lines of white and lines of blue seemed to embrace her. It felt glorious, she felt weightless like nothing could destroy her.

She felt relieved. Like there had been a much needed shift inside of her. A shift that was long past its due.

There was a pink hue mixed in with the lines of red, white and blue.

Min Li’s mark on the nape of her neck had come out to play.

Min Li’s mark was glowing and glowing brighter than it ever had before. In celebration, she was sure. Recently her mark had only been a party to the emotions she was feeling, but for the first time in a long time it was glowing.

Min Li realised that some of the attributes of where she was felt familiar. A table, lines of red, white and blue, and the pink glow of her mark.

Then it finally hit her, her reoccurring nightmare had turned into a beautiful dream.

It turned out that there had been nothing to fear at the end of it all. She could break out of the cave and find herself in a field full of flowers.

Min Li allowed herself to enjoy the moment. She thought that this dream was well deserved after years of nightmares that had left her in agony.

But her peaceful time to herself was short lived.

“COME TO ME,” a rich, resounding voice rang out.

Min Li fell off the table, startled.

She looked around but there was no one there but her. Am I going crazy? But it is a dream, of course such things can occur.

Min Li climbed back on the table and shut her eyes quickly reprimanding her brain for not sticking to the theme of the dream.

“YOU WERE SO CLOSE ONCE. COME TO ME AGAIN.”

Shocked, Min Li rolled off the table again and found herself on the floor with a cluster of tulips in her mouth. Hmm... these don’t taste as good as they smell.

Min Li climbed back on the table annoyed that she had fallen off in the first place.

She closed her eyes and again she felt comfort.

She was dreaming within the dream. In the dream Min Li was able to wield the power of water. She used her power to save a little girl falling off the roof of a house. How the girl had got up there, Min Li had no clue. Weirdly, in the dream she also happened to be the wife of the crown prince. Can he not do anything without me?

“COME TO ME ONCE MORE. THIS TIME YOU WILL FIND WHAT YOU NEED!”

This time the voice thundered loudly that Min Li didn’t even blame herself when she was so astonished that she fell to the ground.

Min Li was finally going to succumb to her curiosity and ask the voice who it was and what it meant, mostly because of her curiosity and a little bit because she was fed up with falling off the table.

She climbed up on the table again ready to have a comfortable conversation with whoever the voice belonged to. When she opened her mouth to speak, she suddenly noticed something.

The colours no longer seemed as vibrant. The birds were no longer chirping so clearly. The wind was no longer strong enough to move her hair.

Not without my permission. Why when I like a dream can I not stay in it, but when I hate a nightmare it takes me all my strength to pull myself out of it?

The longer she waited the more everything around her seemed to fade.

“WAIT, WHO ARE YOU?” she cried aloud but to no avail.

Everything around her had dissipated. The dream had come to the end of the road.

Instead, she was now wide awake looking at the ceiling of her room.