Chapter 3: Chapter Two: Reality and Fantasy

As Valdus closed his eyes, he felt himself descend into that same feeling of insanity once more. He reopened his eyes to what he could only tell was a dream, or rather, a nightmare. He couldn’t – even for a moment – fathom the things he saw. Everything he knew from reality was twisted and distorted. Things that shouldn’t even be possible were occurring right before his eyes. Though, even without that, just being in this nightmare alone filled him with a strange, unnatural fear. His head screamed in pain as it tried to understand what was going on, and at this point he wanted to wake up – yet he couldn’t – petrified by this nightmare he had fallen into. Falling asleep was a terrible mistake. He was locked within this distortion which seemed to be his own dream. A hellish fantasy far from reality. Whispers began to cloud his mind again, driving him further toward madness.

“The hell is this?”
Valdus held his head and cried out in pain.
“Leave me the hell alone!!”

As the whispers fuelled that madness, the world around him began to distort even more, but what he couldn’t understand began to form into things he somewhat could. Shadowy figures which resembled hollow Humans formed, yet their bodies and faces were stretched out. They towered over and surrounded Valdus, glaring down at him. All he could hear now was what sounded like cries of pain and moaning from the disturbing figures. He wanted to run, but he felt cornered by these beings. Words started to crawl out from the various moans and cries which rang out from the shadows, bombarding Valdus with mockery of his past.

“The hell do you know about me? About my past! What would you know about the things I’ve done? The things I’ve been through!”
Valdus snapped with anger.

Though the figures caused his mind to run rampant, they weren’t what drew Valdus closer to breaking. It was what he saw soon after. Laughter rang out after Valdus’s retaliation, and a few of the figures began to stretch out even further. The noises they made changed to screams and howls as they were torn apart, ripped into shreds before vanishing into black flames, and what remained of them began to merge into another figure, much larger.

It was a dragon with dark, purple scales, almost as black as the night sky. Sharp claws and teeth; Valdus could only imagine how easily they could tear him apart. The dragon’s eyes were also a deep violet, slightly brighter than its scales. It had two metallic horns aiming backward, and metallic spikes – starting from the top of its head – running down its back, all aiming backward as well. From the bottom of its neck down to its underbelly, the scales were a slightly brighter purple than the rest, but still darker than its eyes. The membranes of its wings were the same shade of purple as its underbelly. It had a slim tail with a spear-like tip. The dragon’s wings were spread out, causing it to appear even more intimidating, and the front and far-end tips of the dragon’s two wings each had claw-like points.

The peculiarity then finally struck Valdus as he realised; the dragon before his very eyes resembled the emblem of the purple dragon in his room. It towered over him, taller than the figures from before, and glared down at where he stood. Any other Human-like figures that were left behind, the dragon stood on, crushing them without hesitation. Ghastly, sickening screams rang out from the figures as the dragon grinned sadistically, unfazed by the gory sounds of flesh being torn and crushed.

“Oh, the look on your face, Valdus... You see yourself with a simple life, yet everything you’ve known is a lie. What you’ve dreamt of is reality, not a fantasy, and the burdens you will carry are yet to come!”
The dragon snarled,
“Your resentment of your past – of yourself – will then be your undoing!”

A flood of questions rushed through Valdus’s mind, drowning him. He couldn’t handle any more of this madness, and what the dragon had said didn’t help at all either, simply leaving him confused and irritated. He shook his head, trying to comprehend what was happening. The dragon moved its head closer to Valdus, now glaring at him with a single eye.

“Perhaps you don’t understand, yet. Shall I repeat myself...? Everything you’ve known until now isn’t the truth, and everything you’ve dreamt of isn’t just a story! Those so-called fairy tales you’ve hoped to encounter are real. You aren’t insane for seeing what you’ve seen. You’ve got a keen eye. Embrace it!”
The dragon spoke again.

Valdus shook his head again and held it with both of his hands. He closed his eyes and stepped back, repeatedly telling himself to wake up. That’s all he just wanted by now; to wake up and leave whatever this nightmare was. All of it seemed far too real, yet none of it made any sense to him. The things that the dragon had told him began to ring inside his head, over and over. It grew ever so louder overtime, until it started to hurt his ears.

“Just let me go! Please! None of this could be real, it’s just a bad dream! Just...please...! Let me wake up, already!”
Valdus cried out.

The dragon began to laugh, enjoying the torment Valdus was battling as it tortured him with madness. They enjoyed how it all drove Valdus to the brink of insanity, and how he was so close to completely losing his mind. It was then, just before Valdus truly lost it all, the dragon suddenly stopped. Valdus heard the laughing seize, and looked up at the dragon in confusion, surprised to see the change in its expression. The dragon appeared to be on-edge. The noises which filled his mind soon began to fade away, and the dragon snarled and roared, beginning to back away from Valdus. Anger shot through its eyes, and the dragon’s right eye lit up with purple fire. Those same flames seeped from between its teeth too.

“You persistent brat! If you had just given up when-...! Forget it... I’ll find you again, and when I do, you’ll understand what’s bound to arrive! I’ll make sure of this, Valdus!”
The dragon roared, before fading into purple fire and fading away.

A bright light then rushed through Valdus’s dream, before it all fell into what was just a plain, white realm. Nothing was to be seen, nothing was to be heard, and Valdus’s surroundings were cold and still. All was colourless, and empty. Even then, it seemed calming, and he was relieved of the pain he felt when in the dragon’s gaze. A new sound soon changed his dream, creating a wave of comforting warmth. A voice Valdus was happy to hear. His mother’s voice, calling his name. Before Valdus woke up from his dream, the same, bright light from before shone ahead of him once again. He shielded his eyes, before returning to his senses and finally waking up. He reopened his eyes to see his mother with a concerned expression.

“M-mum...? What is it?”
Valdus asked.

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“I thought something was wrong. I thought I could hear you mumbling, so I came into your room to check. Don’t go scaring me like that.”
His mother replied.

Valdus remembered the nightmare, and what had occurred within it. He decided to shrug it off once again, informing his mother that he was safe and sound, hoping she’d not notice the fact that he was lying.

“It- It was just a nightmare, mum. I’ll be all right...”
Valdus muttered.

His mother sighed and went over to his room’s door. She then closed the door quietly, and Valdus turned to look at the emblem of the purple dragon once again. He suddenly shuffled back from it in shock, almost falling off his bed. Its eye had moved again, and it was grinning directly at him. The scratches near the flag were much more readable now, but Valdus couldn’t understand what it meant. All he could read was the word Eldoria. He shook his head, rubbed his eyes, and took another look, but nothing of the emblem and scratches on the wall had changed.

This doesn’t make any sense...! It was only a dream, and I never drew any of this...so why is it grinning? How’d my mother not even notice this!
Valdus stood up from his bed and watched the dragon.

Instinctively, before trying to comprehend what he was seeing before his eyes, Valdus took his phone from his pocket and aimed the camera at the emblem and the scratches on the wall. Nothing seemed different from what the phone was capturing, which both relieved and further confused him at the same time.

That...probably confirms it isn’t some evil spirit...
Valdus thought to himself,
...not that I believe in them... If the chance were possible... Those games just get on my nerves, though.

Now turning the phone off and placing it on his bed, he tried to understand what the dragon had said earlier in his dream.

A simple life...yet everything I’ve known is a lie...
Valdus recounted what the dragon had said.
The hell is that supposed to mean...!

Valdus then remembered what it had roared before it vanished. That it’d find him again, and that Valdus would understand what was bound to arrive.

Maybe I’m just imagining things after all...but... All of this... It was far too real to think of it as just a dream...! And as much as I had wished for it, dragons aren’t real. They can’t be...and even if they are, I had hoped they wouldn’t want me dead!
He questioned the thoughts planted in his mind.
N-no...I should question my sanity, first. This is recent, maybe I’m stressing over something...or...

“What is it you want from me? Why me of all people, for this?”
Valdus asked the dragon, expecting a response.

He even at least expected a few of those eerie whispers, but he got nothing. Nothing came from speaking to the emblem, and his room soon fell dead silent. He then asked himself the same questions in hope that he’d come to some sort of conclusion, though, even sitting there quietly, and thinking it through, it all remained senseless to him.

It isn’t just that dragon, either... There’s the scratches on my wall, as well now. What is Eldoria...?
Frustrated, but not wanting to give up, Valdus continued to try and think of an answer.

He wanted to get to the bottom of this more than anything by now. He began to imagine how things would be if everything the dragon had said about reality were true. Still, it all seemed far too impossible, all of it defying the natural laws of existence itself in the world he’d known. Strangely, the scratches intrigued him more than anything else. Whatever Eldoria meant, Valdus needed to know first.

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