"Whew, long day. Time to sleep," Lucius Devon said to himself and jumped into bed. When he shut his desk lamp off, the room darkened and matched the starry night sky outside. Lucius stared at the ceiling above him as his eyelids grew heavy, forcing them shut.

Sleep overtook him, sending him into a deep slumber.

Slowly, his vision cleared and he seemed to wake up. Instead of a white ceiling above him, there was a brilliant blue sky.

Where am I? Lucius thought. Is this a dream? After sitting up, he smoothly nodded.

Yeah, this must be a dream. This is a really clear dream though, and, Lucius touched a patch of grass that he was laying in. His hand came back damp from dew. He was wearing the same clothes he wore during the day, even his shoes.

My movements aren't sluggish at all. Lucius stood up and looked at his surroundings. He seemed to be in a forest, with trees surrounding him in every direction. A bird chirped as he flew past Lucius, the sound flowing into his ears as clear as if he was using a pair of headphones.

This is no ordinary dream, Lucius thought in amazement. This is cool. Let's look around to see what exist in this dream before I have to wake up.

He didn't think much of the situation. Dreams were dreams, right?

Lucius walked, his feet rustling the grass beneath his feet. Once in a while, he would stop and touch a tree. Everything felt and seemed real as if he was actually in this world.

Then a thought crossed his mind that threw him off balance.

What if I really am in a new world, or at least somewhere else on Earth? Lucius wondered. He pondered it for a bit, then shook it off. Nah, that's impossible. There's no such thing as magic. The only explanation for this is dreams.

Indeed, Lucius never believed in a god or magic. He relied on science to back things up. He believed that if there was no evidence to prove it, it didn't exist.

His entire outlook of reality crumbled when he saw the flower.

Lucius walked through the trees that seemed to be growing thicker and thicker the farther he went in. Soon, he was straining to see, often pausing to let his eyes refocus to the gloom so he won't crash into a tree.

There was a light that shown through the trees, so Lucius headed for it. He was getting sick of the dense layer of trees and wanted to get out of it as soon as possible.

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He weaved his way through the trees and ran for the clearing. It grew larger and larger, and when Lucius entered it, he was blinded by the light. He shut his eyes and waited for them to recover from the shock.

When he opened them, they widened even further.

In front of him was a flower that was Lucius could not recognize, which surprised him.

Lucius loved plants and even at a young age, he successfully grew them faster and better than what most people could do. At his current age, which was seventeen, he grew a full garden that housed anything from vegetables to rare medicine herbs. The mysterious flower in front of him made him curious in every way possible.

Lucius walked up to it and studied it. It was mainly orange with tinges of black. The stem was almost 2 inches wide and the leaves that grew from it were bigger than Lucius's hand put together.

Lucius raised his hand and gently touched the leaves of it. It had a rubbery, almost plastic feeling and felt smooth with no distinct bumps or ridges.

When Lucius tried to remove his hand, he found it was stuck. Perplexed, Lucius tried to remove it again with no luck. It didn't feel off in any way, but his hand was just stuck there.

When he thought the situation couldn't get any weirder, the flower began to glow red and shrink.

Well, not shrink. The entire flower seemed like it was stretching and liquefying into Lucius's finger. A warm sensation rushed through his finger and spread into the rest of his body.

Amazed, Lucius watched the flower get absorbed into his body. As the last of the flower disappeared, Lucius started to become drowsy and dozed off, laying in the grass.

A harsh, metallic sound broke out and jolted Lucius awake. He realized it was his alarm clock.

Grunting, Lucius dragged his body out of his bed and pulled his clothes on. Simple jeans and a blue short-sleeve, his favorite color, was what he decided to wear today. Nothing flashy and very comfy.

The feeling of warmth was still in his body and started to make Lucius confused.

The dream ended, so why do I still have this feeling? Lucius wondered. He thought about the dream the entire walk to school.

It bothered him more than he liked.

Lucius entered the school and went to his seat, just like every other day and time. Just the boring grind.

He spun a pencil in his left hand and read a book using his right. It amazed other people how Lucius could multitask without difficulty, but it was just normal to him. He never tried to be cocky, but it amazed him how other people couldn't multitask. It just seemed so normal to him, just like riding a bike or typing on a keyboard.

Class started and Lucius attempted to focus, but like always, his mind wandered somewhere else. This time, it wandered to the dream.

The dream was so clear. It seemed like Lucius was really there experiencing it all, breathing in the air and feeling the grass beneath his shoes. Lucius thought it would be nice to come back to that world again.

Soon, his mind wandered so far that he couldn't register what he was seeing or hearing. His thinking was overriding all of his other senses.

Then, he found something in his mind. He wasn't even sure how he knew it was there, just a feeling in his conscious. He "pulled it up" and gasped out loud.

In his mind, he was back. He was standing in the world of his dream.