No Ends Dream

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“Hurry!”

“Get them out!”

“Come on!”

At first, we all thought it was all a dream.

“Hurry! Get him out of the pools!” A voice said as I lay face down in chilling water.

We were wrong.

 The next thing I knew I Was being hauled out of the water by two sets of arms.

“Hey mister, you alright?”

“Mister, you’re going to be ok!”

I heard the voices, somewhere in me, but I didn’t respond. I didn’t have the strength.

They set me on my back in the sunlight, and for a moment it felt good and warm. Then it began to burn. The burning grew and grew and it wouldn’t stop. Eventually the pain gave me the strength to turn on my side, the hood of my jacket flopping over my head as it did, blessing me with sweet relief.

That relief ended as water made its way out of my belly and lungs.

I don’t know how long I laid there, laying in my own vomit. It felt like hours, maybe days, before I managed to sit up, tugging my hood fully over my head. The area was littered with people. Many were like me, sitting in confusion or lying in vomit. The few who weren’t were running around, to and from the lakes we were surrounding, pulling more people out.

The pools themselves were a crystal blue that rivaled the sky, their surfaces were serene until a body floated out and more people rushed into fish them out and bring them to the side of the lakes.

“This… this is a dream… right?” A soft voice said next to me, and I jerked my head over to the sound. It came from a girl, dressed in white, red and brown. Her softened features and her lightly tapered ears showed her to be of the nymph race. Excellent healers, but they were also known as a party race.

However she didn’t seem interested in a party at the moment. She was drenched from head to foot and was shaking from a mixture of cold and fear. Her eyes were darting every where and her breath was coming out ragged.

“this… this has to be a dream.. it just has to be.” She said, holding herself as she shook.

“I… I don’t know.” I said, the sound of my voice drawing her attention. “I… I’m…. my name…. my name’s Nate.” I said, offering my hand after searching myself to make sure the name was true.  It took the girl a moment before accepting the hand.

“Re-Rena.” She said, nodding uncertainly. I nodded in return before slowly rising to my feet.

The task itself wasn’t difficult, and the rising seemed to give me some new strength. I pulled up Rena, who’s hand I still held, and yanked back my hood. I stood there feeling the heat and the burn from the direct sunlight upon my skin, enjoying the pain and sensation before pulling my hood back on.

No, this wasn’t a dream. There was too much to it to be a dream. It was too real, too solid.

I smiled at Rena as I dropped her hand, and she returned the gesture in unspoken understanding. We then began to examine ourselves, looking for anything that might explain what was going on.

I found it first. Tied against my side was a small leather pouch, and in it was a scroll, a book and a single gold coin.

I opened the scroll first. It glowed with a small light, and that light took shape and became a wooden staff. It was long, longer than me and curled over at the tip with a dark crystal hanging from it. The crystal was a dark purple color and emitted a shadowy light that felt gently against my skin.

“Wow,” Rena said, looking at it before pulling out a pouch of her own. She opened it and drew out a scroll and a coin of her own. “Hey, where’s my book?” she asked. I grinned and pointed a book pouch attached to her belt. “Oh.” She said blushing, putting the coin back into the pouch and opened the scroll. The same light as before shone and took shape, but instead of a staff this time a thin wand of a white wood or ivory appeared in her hand. “Cool.” She said. “guess this means we’re both magic users.”

“Yeah, like this is a giant video game.” I said, holding the staff in the crook of my arm, opening my book.

The first page read:

                                              Welcome to

                                           No Ends Dream

Then there was a table of contents and then an introduction page.

Welcome to the world of No ends Dream. You’ve come a long ways in a short time. A great trial has come before you, and the others like you. You will learn much and overcome many things. If you don’t you will die and so will this world.

“Well that’s not the least bit ominous.” I said, turning to the next page. “General command phrases?”

“this really is like a Role playing Game.” Rena said. “Command Word: Menu- Wha!” she yelped jumping back a step. She then raised her hand and started pointing at things in mid-air. “Oh wow. This is kind of cool.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Say the first command word there.” She said, “Just as I did.”

“Uh… Ok.” I said, looking at the book and reciting, “Command word: Menu.” Then in front of my eyes a block of blue light and text appeared. I jumped back in surprise. I then blinked and focused my eyes on the block. From the top it read:

Menu: Adventurer Info Bank Friend List Clan Info Reputation Spells & Skills Display Options Exit Menu

“Wow.” I said, closing the book and tapping Adventurer info. The Menu bar moved to the left of my vision and in its stead showed a miniature image of myself holding my rod, and to the right of my vision appeared a box with different statistics. At my image, lines were drawn from each article of visible clothing, as well as my staff and next to the ends of those lines were words give the names of the items. “What the hell is this?” I asked, “Some kind of Virtual Reality Game?”

“I don’t know.” She said, “But if this was a game… wouldn’t there be a log out button here?” She then blushed bright and exclaimed. “HOW THE HELL DOES IT KNOW THAT!?”

“What?” I asked, taking a step away from her as other people turned to look at her.

“N-n-nothing!” she said still blushing bright red.

“Alright then.” I said, bringing my hand towards my status bar, which moved my equipment to the left and the menu bar appeared in the right. I scrolled over it, before stopping and blushing bright red as I found what had caused Rina’s outburst. I quickly gestured to the menu bar and exited out of it.

“S-so what else is in this book?” I asked, turning back to the page about Command words. “Um… Command Word: Display.” I said, blinking as everyone around me had what looked unmistakably like health and energy bars above their heads. “… What has happened to us?” I asked, looking around.

“Alright!” a loud voice bellowed, “That looks like all of them for now. Let’s keep an eye out but for now everyone who can gather up.” I looked at the direction of the voice and saw a Nephilim, one of the winged half-children of the Sepherri, supposedly the non-corporeal creators of the world, be slowly surrounded by the others.

I looked towards Rena and she nodded to me before we walked to join the crowd.

“Alright, everyone, my name is Ras, and right now what we all need is information.” The Nephilim said, before pulling out the same book Rena and I had discovered. “This is a basic guide book and so far everyone has either found one or still has it on them.

“Now, many of the commands and techniques listed in here are similar to those in video games, specifically Massively Multiplayer Online games. As such we have to assume that there is also a log off command as well, and that we can find it!

“Thirdly, again a lot of this so far resembles a MMO, this is reflected in the fact we have spell and command activated skills. However none of us have any, except for walking, running and a few others which have to do with basic needs as well as two teleport spells.

“Beyond that we don’t have any information about this world or what happened to us. As such Id like to ask that anyone who has information to please share it now.” The Nepihlim finished, looking around everyone.

For several minutes there was nothing but nervous silence as we waited, waited for anyone to com foreword. Ras, the Nephilim sighed and started to speak again.

It was then, as I glanced around it came to me. “The Dark Coats.”

Ras stumbled over his words at the interruption, and everyone looked at me.

“The Dark Coats.” I gulped, “we all had our choose of 12 races. I only see 11: the the basic humans, the bearded dwarves, the elegant elves, the fun loving nymphs, the winged Nephilim, the horned Hellions, the light loving Lightsken, The powerful Dragonsken, the darkness touched shadosken, the soul-bound, and the outcasted Artisans. But not a single Dark Coat.”

The atmosphere in the air grew intense as everyone looked around confirming it for themselves.

“Some how, while I don’t think its impossible, I find it hard to believe that no one choose them.” I said. “Or that what ever brought us here would have it so only eleven of the races appeared.”

“The where are they?” A voice from the crowd asked.

“I don’t know.” I reapplied.

“Which goes back to what I was saying.” Ras interjected before the crowd could uproar, turning their attention back to him. “We need to select some people to try out the teleport spells. Two from each race, should do it.”

“Why two?” Rena asked.

“Cause that is the number of teleport spells we have.” Ras said, “a spell labeled teleport:home and one labeled teleport:pools.”

“oh… So how will we know what happens?” She asked.

“The pools probably refers to here.” I said, looking at the lakes around us.

“Then those volunteers will go first.” Ras said. “AnAnf d If they can they’ll return in fifteen minutes. If they can’t we’ll have someone waiting here for them to return… Do we have any volunteers?”

At first no one did anything other than look at each other, trying to see who would be first and how they would volunteer.

I sighed and started to raise my hand but Rena beat me too it. Her hand shot to the sky, shaking as she shouted, “I volunteer! I-I volunteer for the Nymphs.”

Ras nodded as the crowd parted for her to pass. “And I will volunteer for the Nephilim.”

Nine more hands shot into the air. Once gathered together Ras instructed them on how to open their menu and how to use the interface. He then showed them where the spells were located. They then one by one vanished a flash of silver light.

The crowd and I waited for them to return, and for what seemed like hours nothing happened.

Then the first body floated into the water.

The body turned out to be Ras, who coughed and sputtered back to life as we got him out of the water. By then more bodies had floated up and were being pulled out, and eventually all eleven people where back on the shore. We all crowded around them, waiting to see what would happen.

“… Well?” I asked. “What happened?”

“Nothing.” Ras said, “We were enveloped by light and were floating to the surface.”

At first, we all thought it was a dream.

It felt like falling, falling through snow and clouds. Cold and soft.

Then came the voice. We all heard it, but it always sounded different. To me it was the sound of a soft female with a mothers care as she spoke.

“Welcome. You have been chosen. Chosen for a wondrous world and a whole new life. How will you choose to identify yourself?” The voice whispered in my ears, and slowly my tired eyes opened to darkness, lit by soft flickering orbs of light. In front of me, too my surprise and confusion were two of me. .One of which was exactly like me. The other, distinctly not. The other was female.

I pointed a finger at the male version of myself.

“Very well.” The voice said, as the two versions faded into two of the small light orbs. Then several of the orbs moved to surround me, expelling light in the form of a human shapes. These shapes hardened and grew color, and I soon recognized them. Once again, before me were different versions of myself. Directly in front of me was again an exact replica.

To the right, was a taller version of myself, the face more angler and the ears were tapered to a point.

To the left, was a shorter stocker version of myself, a beard draping down my body.

“How will you choose to identify yourself?” The voice asked.

I spun around and looked at all the different versions. “So this is like a game then?” I asked. “Like an MMO, where I have to choose an avatar to represent who I am?”

“… After a fashion.” The voice replied.

“Do I get a description of each of these… uh… races?” I asked.

“Human.” The Exact lookalike said, “But you already knew that. Tenacious and resilient, Humans have survived and thrived in the harshest of environments. We breed quickly compared to the other races and as such are often considered pests despite our ability to create vast cities and kingdoms.”

“Elf.” The one to the right said, as I turned to him. “A Fae lord and master of Winter or Summer, depending on the path I choose. Like the rest of my kind Iron and steel burn my flesh and sap my strength. Proud and elegant the other Races kneel and often grant us homage and hospitality when we pass.”

And so it went, each race by each race till I stopped at one. He looked human in every feature, His clothes drew more attention than the rest of him. He was dressed in all black and wore a dark duster. He stared at me wordlessly, his eyes cold and cruel. Once ours eyes met it was nearly impossible to tear them away as a cold fear crept through my soul. I yanked my eyes away and stared at the next version of myself.

“Shadowsken.” He said, his face covered in dark tattoos that were more scars than images. A dark hooded jacket hung from his body and shadows floated up like dark orbs of light from around his feet. “Our race made a contract with Sephirri of living darkness more than a millennia ago. Too much light and we burn, and must wear a hood in the daylight. In exchange we see through the night, and the shadows bend to our way and grant us power.”

“You.” I said to the Shadowsken. “IT’s a dream right? Might as well go with the coolest guy here.”

A mischievous grin covered the Shadowskin’s face as he extended his hands, taking my own as one of the small orbs touched him. He then to became an orb of light and the two orbs of light flew into me.

I gasped as I felt a brilliance fill me and my body change to the forms I had chosen.

“Dark. Coat.” Said the Darkly dressed version of me. “And I am Born.”