Chapter 1

The dreamer noticed something. It felt like being poked or maybe a light shining into a dark room. This was new. It couldn’t remember ever feeling anything like this before. It looked with countless eyes and found a light in the dark. A tiny crack in reality that seemed to be getting larger.

Curiosity overtook it and wanting to see what was on the other side, it moved the eye nearest to the crack. Looking through, “Ah. There are small dreams there,” it thought. It wanted to know more about them, so it memorized all there was to know about the dreams. They seemed so happy. Yet something was wrong. Some of the dreams were fading.

The dreamer was curious as to what was happening to them. It pressed the eye against the crack which seemed to be getting larger. The eye couldn’t go through the crack, so the dreamer watched as the dreams faded one by one, until only five remained.

Suddenly the eye pushed through, and it found itself in a strange world still looking at the dreams. It noticed that these were different from the others. “Ah, nightmares. That’s what happened to the good dreams,” the Dreamer thought. It pulled a multitude of tentacles through the crack, so many that the whole area was covered in them. They began to writhe and lash about destroying anything in the general vicinity. “There. The nightmares are gone,” it thought.

The dreamer looked around. “So many dreams are here. So many good dreams. I’ve never had dreams like these before,” It thought. It decided to create a form, a form of all the good dreams combined, to create the perfect form. The eye and tentacles dissolved into a sort of liquid shadow. The shadow stuff flowed to a spot below the crack and began to compress tighter into a form. More and more shadows flowed from the crack. It was pulled into the form, and the form compressed. Soon all the shadows were pulled in, a form lay motionless, and there was stillness in the night once more.

The woman opened her eyes and saw the stars. Looking at them for a moment, she almost seemed to remember looking at them before, but that couldn’t be the case. This was the first thing she could remember seeing.

She sat up and swung her feet over the edge of the stone she was sitting on. Looking around, she saw five tall stones that had symbols carved into them. She didn’t recognize any of them, but they seemed to sparkle.

Sliding off the stone, she turned to look at it. The ground was slick, covered in some kind of gooey substance. The stone she had been sitting on looked like an altar. “How do I know what that is?” she thought. Suddenly a flood of memories assailed her mind. She started to get dizzy and her chest warmed. The memories were disjointed. They didn’t seem to belong to the same person and weren’t in any order. After a moment, the feeling went away.

“I wonder what that was?” she thought. Suddenly she had the feeling she needed to leave this place. She headed towards a path that just felt right and started walking, leaving the altar, stones, and strange gooey stuff behind.

She had been on the path for half an hour when she noticed a rough trail that led off into the forest. “That looks familiar,” she thought. The memory of the place was different than what she currently saw at the moment. It was gray, but the memories were full of color. She wasn’t sure why. She walked down the rough path wanting to investigate it.

At the end, she found a cabin. It was different than the memory as well. Not only was it gray, but it also looked as if the front door had been knocked down.

She walked to the door and looked in. The place was a mess. The once carefully placed contents were either missing or broken. She had vague memories of men in black robes breaking the door and grabbing her, but it was all a blur, so she couldn’t be sure. She walked in and inspected the place looking for anything of use. She looked around for a while, but the place had been thoroughly ransacked, and nothing useful remained.

She left and went around back, remembering something about a line. The memories nagged at her. “I must need whatever it is,” she thought.

There was a line tied between two posts in the ground. A dress was hanging on the line slowly fluttering in the breeze. The memories had cleared some, and she had been correct. They were from multiple people, and all of them seemed to be the same basic shape as her. There were other people who were shaped differently. They wore clothing that was a different style. She wasn’t sure why. The memories were still too jumbled. She took the dress off the line and pulled it on, having to wiggle some to get it over her chest.

It was baggy on her, and the sleeves came to just above her wrists instead of just below her elbows. It reached to her ankles instead of mid-calf. The only part that was tight was around the chest. She looked down and noticed that the cloth seemed to be straining some in that area.

She looked around the area of the cabin a few times. Not finding anything of value, she headed back towards the road to the village having realized that was where the memories were leading her.

Many hours of walking later, she finally approached the village she had seen in the memories. It was morning now, and the world was filled with color. “That must have been the difference from the memories earlier,” she thought. Looking at the colors there was something the memories called darkness, but she hadn’t seen that yet.

She walked to the gate leading into the town. There was a stone wall built around the place and two guards relaxing. They were the different shaped people. “Men. That’s what they are called. I’m a woman then,” she thought. She waved at them, and they waved back. They stared at her as she walked into the village but didn’t say anything as she passed. There were more men than women on the roads right now, but not that many more. They all seemed to stare at her for a moment, mostly looking at her head and then her chest.

She looked down at her chest. “Wow, they are really big,” she thought. That part of her must have been three times the size of any of the other women in this town, maybe more. She couldn’t tell while everyone was wearing dresses. “I wonder why?” she thought.

Most of the people in this village had brown hair that was slightly curly. The men wore it closely cut, and the women wore it just past their shoulders. Her own hair was multicolored and was down to just above her butt. “It looks like a rainbow,” she thought, searching through the memories.

Not certain of where to go or what to do, she started walking. After spending several hours aimlessly wandering around the village, she found herself back at her starting point.

Not knowing what to do next, she asked a young woman carrying a basket of clothing if there was a place to stay around here? “The Inn has a few rooms for rent, but you’ll need coin. If you don’t have any, Ted may let you work there,” the woman said.

“Thank you,” she replied and set off to find the Inn.

She found the Inn soon after. It was near the water, a short walk from the piers. It was a large two-story building that was half stone and half wood. There was a sign that had a mug on it.

She walked in and was assailed with the smells of smoke, unwashed men, and overly spiced food. After taking a moment to overcome the powerful sensation, she walked toward the bar. It was filled with men, and they were all staring at her.

The man behind the bar was large and seemed to have spent his entire life carrying large objects around. He walked over and greeted her. “What can I do for you Miss?” he asked.

“I need a place to stay. I’ll work if you’ll have me,” she replied.

He looked her up and down again carefully inspecting her. “Name’s Ted and yes, I have a place for you. Several girls went missing a few weeks back, and I’ve been shorthanded ever since. We also have a small room open. You can stay there,” he said after sighing.

“I need a name,” she thought. “I’m Anna. When can I start?” she asked. Anna had been the name of the woman who lived in the cabin.

“You can start right now,” he said.

“What should I do?” Anna asked.

“Go into the storeroom and bring me a fresh ale barrel. These louts are drinking me dry tonight.” The last part seemed to be directed at the customers who simply hooted in response.

She walked into the back room seeing a kitchen to the right and the storeroom where the ale barrels are to the left. There was also a door that led outside. Looking around, she saw a small boy washing a huge pile of dishes in the kitchen. Nearby, a woman was stirring a large pot that hung over a fire. “That must be food,” Anna thought.

A lot of the memories had something to do with eating. She assumed it was important. The woman looked at her for a moment.

“Who might you be?” she asked.

“My name is Anna, and Ted hired me to help. He told me to get a barrel of ale and bring it to him.”

“I’m Elizabeth. The ale is in the storeroom,” Elizabeth replied.

Anna walked into the storeroom, lifted a barrel off the rack with one arm, and put it on her shoulder like the woman with the basket she had seen earlier in the day.

She left the storeroom and noticed that Elizabeth and the boy were staring with wide eyes. “I hope this is the right barrel,” she thought.

“Anna, is that full?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yes,” Anna replied.

“Gods, you’re as strong as a troll. Well, get that to Ted,” Elizabeth replied while shaking her head. Anna shrugged and walked back to the front of the inn carrying the barrel. Ted looked at her and almost tripped when he saw her but recovered quickly.

“Put it over here,” he said.

She placed the barrel on a rack nearby.

Ted tapped the barrel and began filling mugs, placing them on a tray. “Bring these to that table,” he said, pointing at one of the many tables. “Don’t spill any,” he added.

Easily picking up the tray, without so much as sloshing the drinks, she proceeded to carry it over to the table and placed it in front of the men sitting there. The men smiled at her and a few of them placed a coin on the tray. Turning around she felt a pinch on her butt, she looked back to see one of the men grinning at her. Not sure what to do she just looked at him, his grin faded and he looked away. She walked back over to the bar.

“Don’t let them do anything you don’t want them to, and if they get too handsy, let me know. I’ll knock some sense into them,” Ted said.

“I’ll be fine,” Anna replied.

She handed the coins to Ted and he shook his head. “Those are for you. They already paid to drink. Put them in this mug. I’ll keep them till the end of your shift,” he said.

She smiled and turned around with another tray to get back to work.

Hours passed, and other than a few pinches and gropes, the night went well, although she did have to squeeze that one man’s hand who tried to lift her dress. After that, all the other men seemed subdued.

After the last of the patrons left for the night, Anna sat at the bar listening to Ted and Elizabeth talk. “You’re a natural Anna,” the woman said.

Ted nodded. He handed her a key. “Up the stairs, you’ll have the last room on the left. It’s cold in that one. Grab an extra blanket from the closet at the end of the hall if you need it,” he said.

She took the key and the coins and headed up to her room. It was a small place with just a crude rope bed with a poorly stuffed straw mattress on it. She wrapped the coins in a small cloth she had found some time during the night and laid on the mattress falling asleep almost immediately.

She was in an empty field with a sky that went on forever. She could almost hear voices. They seemed like whispers. The whole place felt familiar, but she didn’t know why.