The Lone Traveler's Diary and other Short Stories

Sky Log #25: A Strange Dream

It was in the middle of a warm and windy night when I awoke with a start and started to check myself with the reflection from a nearby stream. Still a little spooked by my dream, I decided to pick up my pen and write them down in this diary. Perhaps, sharing it here will give me some peace of mind.

It was a very curious dream that was unlike the ones I have.

Usually, I dreamt of the murals, the spirits of the Elders we met at their shrine, or the sky, where we originally came from. Sometimes, I have dreamless nights. Other times, it was just a good dream. Like eating a nice little pancake or teasing a little crab.

But this dream was unlike any other. I will try my best to describe it as detailed as possible here. However, there are many things that I have failed to understand from my dream, but even so, I will do my best to write them down.

I dreamt that I had a face. A face void of any mask. And everyone there didn't wear one. We were in different colours, which was rather strange. Plus, we couldn't change our faces or hair as we could in the changing rooms in Sky's closets.

That wasn't an entertaining world to live in.

We didn't have capes that helped us to fly. It was rather inconvenient, having to count on our tiny legs to get to where we needed. Instead, we have these strange things called vehicles that get us to places that couldn't be reached with our legs. If we wanted to go further, we even have transportations like ships or planes.

The world that "I" lived in was quite cramped. Tall, rectangular structures with many levels and boxes. The boxes (house) can be separated into tiny rooms where a family can live in. However, compared to the many other beings, "my" house was quite decent and comfortable.

It was surprising that the individuals there didn't grow up due to resizing potions. They... grow up in size because they... can. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around such a thing. Is it really possible for a person to grow without a resize potion? And they differentiate between each other, like "baby", "child", "adult", "girl", "boy", etc. What do these words mean? I'm still quite confused over these words.

Anyway, everything within the dream was worlds apart.

Including our currency. They use these strange pieces of rectangular paper coloured differently with numbers, and for small change, they have these metal pieces of different sizes. They call the metal pieces "coins". It was a complex system of currency from ours. We just use candles to trade. If we want more candles, we gather them by taking the lights from the red candles scattered around the world or burning dark plants.

Fortunately, there was one thing that I could understand from my dream. The dream world that I saw had people working in different jobs. They have librarians who work on books. They have people who sell things for a living, just like our traveling spirits or the sleepy merchant. They have warriors like those we see in Wasteland. However, they don't wield spears or shields. They have these odd-looking sticks that give a loud noise and spit fire. It was a dangerous-looking object because, with one loud boom, the person died.

Oh!

They have this concept of death. Like... like once they die for some reason, they don't come back. They don't get reborn in the same way. They are just... gone? I'm so confused. Is it like how some of our kids who don't return become stars in the sky? Is it the same?

And they have something called religion. What is that? There were so many practices, but they still called them "religion". They have so many beliefs. So many restrictions. So many idioms. They do things in a certain way, and they claim such actions pleases beings called "gods". They do rituals and sacrifices of animals. And then they pray that nature doesn't hurt them but gives them blessings. How odd!

It was like my dream was not a dream.

It was an entire world.

It was a world that was so complex and... old? Is it old? I'm not sure. They have archeologists like ours who unearth their people's ancient history, finding civilizations far older than theirs. They have systems and rules (so many regulations!) that keep their people in place.

Did I mention they have a lot of people? Maybe not. But they have sooooo many. It was hard to count. Like... millions? And. And they have creatures different from ours and of many varieties. They have fishes and birds (which is actually just like ours), but their mantas don't fly in the air. They stay in the ocean. They have beings called "cats" and "dogs" with four legs and walk on land. These two creatures are popular animals to be kept in people's homes.

How about crabs and krills?

They do have crabs. But they don't do headbutts. Instead, they have these nasty-looking hands that grab onto you (if they have a chance) and make you scream in pain. Fortunately, they don't have scary krills like those in our world. They seem to have a similar creature, but they were tiny, smaller than our fingers.

That dream world was pretty amazing.

And scary.

The more I write about my dream, the more I realize there were so many things to write about it, but it was hard to write them down or even say it out.

I wish I could show my... Wait. We have the lamps here in Vault. I wonder if...

No, it was not possible.

The lamps in the Vault can only record things that we can see but not what we dream of. What a pity...

Still, now that I have written so much, I realized that the secret area in Vault bears much resemblance with my dream. They do have the "cars" and the "computers". These things are not part of the world of Sky. And the secret area has these drawings of our world...

Maybe... my dream is not a dream?

Is there... really a world like my dream out there?

I'm not sure if I want an answer. Perhaps... it will be good to stop here and sleep some more. 

A/N: 12 Dec 2021

Thanks for the wait! I've been wanting to write this. Like how would a sky child view our world? It must be so confusing for them! Anyway, I will be doing weekly updates only for this December. There may even be a chance for a double posting. It's just a possibility but we will see how it goes.