Is this real life?

Summing up the situation: I fell asleep at my desk, unable to wake myself and my dream consists of me being on a field together with a slime from a videogame.

Another thought came to my mind. I once read that if you know that you are dreaming, you can control what’s happening since it is all just a product of your own imaginative powers.

So what if instead of being alone with a slime on an empty field, I would sit in a bar. Some food and drinks in front of me and accompanied by somebody who genuinely took interest in the stories I tell without having to make them artificially more interesting. I closed my eyes and imagined the scenery as vivid as possible. Then I waited a moment before opening my eyes again.

Instead of a bar, there was still the field and instead of some companion, there was still this slime.

So as it seemed this part of the dream couldn’t be changed or at least I lacked the ability to do so. But just hanging out on this field for the rest of the time seemed a little boring as well. There had to be a way to progress the story in one way or another. I looked around another time. The scenery hadn’t changed. Behind me, in a distance that could be reached by foot within less than an hour as I estimated, there began the outskirts of an forest, which seemed to be like the perfect hiding place for more monsters, if I remembered the game correctly.

After reevaluating my situation I was reminded of the slime’s presence by yet another wet thud next to me. The slime seemed to approach me now. I took a small step backwards since I didn’t feel the wish to touch it, but as I did so it made another leap, this time bigger than usual, and landed on my shoe. While I watched with utter disgust as the slime sank down more and more on my black leather shoe, which I was always wearing for work, along with my usual grey business suit, the slime began to dissolve it. He began with the tips of my shoelaces. Horror and disgust made me kick out and hurl it away. The impact on the floor must have killed it, since suddenly a half-translucent window popped up in front of my eyes, saying I just reached level two.

“I really must have missed this game.”, I thought to myself and then decided to finally start moving somewhere else.

My possibilities were basically unlimited. But not every possibility seemed useful. Of course it would be possible to walk the spacious grassland or approach the distant mountains just to then decide not to climb them.

What was it that I wanted to do in my dream?

Even if I always tried to talk myself into believing that I felt uncomfortable around people I felt a little lost as I stood there in the middle of nowhere.

With a shrug I made my first step into the direction that seemed the most promising to me. My way would lead me somewhere closer to a place in the distance where the mountains seem to flatten out into a series of moderately high hills that still seemed to be part of the grassland, I was now walking in. The grass was growing quite high. The younger leaves only covered my feet, while some occasional spots of grass, that seemed to have been favored by the soil they grew in and the animals that apparently didn’t eat them yet, grew taller than me. Usually these spots of grass measured only a few steps in diameter, which enabled me to avoid fighting my way in and out of them during my passage through the green.

When I started my way into the unknown the grassland seemed endless but not particularly difficult to navigate. Now a few hours later I couldn’t tell if the direction I was walking in, was still the same like before. The pillars of grass gradually appeared more often, until they started to form something like a labyrinth. A Labyrinth where every Spot looked kind of the same, where following the walls meant walking in circles and every corner could hide the possibility to get eaten by something I didn’t encounter before.

So far everything seemed to work out quite well given the circumstances. The sun just had passed its highest point, which still gave me some additional time until nightfall and so far, I didn’t encounter any monsters except for two or three slimes, which I, as I have to admit, didn’t kill out of self-defense but to create a landmark for myself. Of course I also gained some additional XP by doing so, but this whole game setting just seemed like an annoying extra to an otherwise already way too long dream. By now I even started to doubt if it was one. It seemed way too long, detailed and consistent compared to the few dreams I remembered. Also those usually granted me the soothing company of whoever I felt like I wanted to spend time with the most at the moment. Just to make it clear: slimy monsters were never even remotely on this list. I already had to deal with way too many real slimy monsters back at work, so I didn’t need them to haunt me in my dream as well.

But all of this really raised the question in me: Is this really just a dream?

My last memories of before I woke up here seemed to fit. I suddenly felt this unbearable tiredness, like I never felt it before, not even on the worst days and then….

I mean that’s when I fell asleep right? Because the only other Option would be….

No. Impossible. I am here, walking through a grassland full of slimes. If this is heaven, I want my money back.

I continued my way to somewhere where I believed to walk straight forward but it could have been basically every other direction as well.

Time seemed to stretch endlessly and the landscape didn’t seem to change at all. Every time I looked around, all I could see were these strange pillars of grass.

Would it be helpful to shout? Would somebody hear me or would shouting only attract curious predators who either lived in this grassland or were lost here just like me?

“Hello? Is anybody here?”, I cautiously shouted into the green void.

I listened into the silence to hear any sound. Nothing. It even felt like the grass pillars were actively swallowing the sounds I made, which covered the area in an almost unbearable silence that as soon as I recognized its existence, started to press down on me.

Of course nobody was there. This was no place for people. Maybe this was no place for people because I subconsciously made it one but this thought seemed all too philosophical for me to follow at that point.

I started to silently sing a random song that came to my mind to distract myself a little during my hike.

The melody seemed to reach a little further through the leaves than my shouting did.

Yet another eternity seemed to pass and the sun now slowly but surely approached the horizon when I suddenly heard something. The Sound kind of resembled the sound of something large breaking through a series of huge waves, although I didn’t recognize any water so far. It seemed to approach rather quickly. If it didn’t change its Route, it would probably reach me within a few minutes according to how fast the sound increased in intensity and clarity.

Should I stay and see what it was, since I wouldn’t be able to escape it anyways or should I try to hide?

I tried to listen more closely to the sound.

The sound consisted of a rumbling that didn’t seem to come from a biped. There were at least four, maybe even six or more feet that were stomping the ground beneath them with a velocity, that just so allowed to distinguish between the single stomping sounds. The good news, I at least wouldn’t be eaten by a T-Rex. That didn’t  narrow it down too much but at least a little. On the other hand I still didn’t know what was approaching me. Assuming that I had seen the thing already while I was awake, I really started to hope that it wouldn’t have more than four legs. If I now met a cockroach four times my own size, I would likely never recover from this encounter.

I finally turned around and tried to hide inside one of the grass pillars. It was still easy when I began pushing the leaves aside but soon increased in terms of required strength. My attempts to push away the leaves usually were followed by more leaves pushing back at me.

The rumbling was close now, so I decided to turn, so I could have a look at what was coming towards me and hid in the grass pillar like this. Anybody who would take a closer look would Spot me, but somebody just passing by might not see me. At least the chance was a little higher than if I stood in plain sight.

I spent the next few minutes keeping absolute silence. Meanwhile whatever was approaching me spend the time doing the exactly opposite. The noise increased until it was almost unbearable. The minutes seemed to stretch to hours, the seconds to minutes. My heart was beating to my throat and even drowned out the stomp of the approaching feet.

Then it finally came in sight.

The thing, whatever it was, surprised me so much, that it made me leave behind All caution and jump out of the grass.

It seemed like a machine. It indeed had six legs on the sides of its long body and kind of looked like a giant Bug due to this fact. The feet were equipped with something like horseshoes, the rest of the construction was mostly made out of wood. Even if it was walking on its feet right now, I couldn’t stop thinking that it seemed like some kind of ship, like it was originally intended to be used on water but only later equipped with legs.

“Hello!”, I shouted.