The Reality of a Dream

Peace.

That was the first word that came to his mind, before he had even opened his eyes. He could tell, just by all the feelings and sensations he was experiencing, that this place was full of an impossible and indescribable peace.

Outside. That was the second word that came. He could feel the cool soft breeze streaming across his back as he lay on his stomach. He could feel a bed of soft grass under his body, tickling his chin and filling his nose with the sweet smell of nature. He felt the warmth of a brilliant sun radiating its heat across his face and back. Yes, there was no doubt that he was lying on the ground outdoors.

Pain. This was the third and final word that emerged through the intoxication of the pure bliss he felt. A dull ache, like some sort of heavy object had been set on his abdomen and had sat there for so many hours he had almost gotten used to it…almost. He pushed himself up to sit on his legs and opened his eyes, and immediately forgot the alleviated pain with the new rush of ecstasy his sense of sight allowed him.

This place looked more beautiful than any physical sensation could have possibly helped him predict it would. The first thing he took into account was the horizon; the solid divide that kept the ground below, and the sky above. Stretching from the horizon towards the place where he sat lay flat plains dominated by endless fields of grass, and rolling hills, some painted with the distinctive colors of certain flowering plants: reds, yellows, and even pinks. All of the color and life that populated the terrain seemed to move and sway like the churning waters of an ocean beneath the zephyr that blew across the fields.

Above the horizon the infinite sky served as a blue gateway to the heavens, and seemed to shelter this perfect and wonderful place from anything that could lie beyond. Bloated white clouds drifted lazily across the sky, but all steered clear of the magnificent sun; that giant celestial sphere of fire which hung at the zenith of the cloud-strewn sky. The heat of the sun and the cool of what was likely a midsummer’s breeze created the perfect balance in temperature.

Even the sounds, few as they were, intensified the phenomenal serenity of this paradise, this Garden of Eden. So few and diminutive were the sounds of this place that they could never hope to surpass, or even equal the incredible sensations brought by the sights and pure physical feelings, but all the same, these sounds were able to enhance the already extraordinary peacefulness. The most evident sound was of course the ever so simple yet intricate breeze that moved, unopposed, across the land, creating sound with every slight movement.

There may have been birds also, chirping and singing their songs to each other and the world, but the one sitting was too taken with the abundance of all other tranquility to register the presence of other life anywhere near him. For all he knew there could have been a great monster of a lion standing atop the nearest hill, roaring to the world around. This lion could have been charging at the sitting one with all the speed it could muster and all the strength its legs could find. The lion would bear down on him with teeth sharper than any sword and a stomach emptier than any bottomless pit, with only one thought on its mind: food…and he would have never felt the beast’s teeth around his throat.

But there was no lion. There was no hungry animal or dark violent creature that had crawled forth from the darkest regions of the world. There was no present danger of any sort to disturb the calm and perfection of this place. Certainly whatever force compelled this place to be so beautiful would never have allowed for any such curse to its flawless beauty to tread upon its sacred grounds.

The being that sat at the middle of nowhere in this paradise suddenly felt very unworthy to gaze upon its beauty for as long as he had. Truth be told, he had no idea how long he had been looking. He may not have even been aware that time itself was passing by. After this self-inflicted guilty feeling of unworthiness became too much to bear, a single desire pressed itself to the forefront of his mind: a desire to once again feel the initial pleasure he had experienced when first entering this vision. This may have been a chasing of the wind, but if his eyes were closed again, then perhaps the guilty feeling would subside.

Without a second thought, his eyelids moved slowly and gently across his eyes, eventually blocking out all sight of the haven that remained on the other side. He slowly leaned forward, taking the whole of his body’s weight off of his legs, leaning farther and farther until his torso hung just mere inches above the ground. It had started to put a strain on his muscles, lowering himself at this slow rate, but he continued to take his time stretching his arms out before him, eyes still closed, and let gravity do the rest of the work pulling his body into its original position.

It took him not even a moment to remember why he had sat up in the first place. He had originally pushed himself off the ground to relieve, and discover the source of the dull pain that had bothered his midsection. But the pain had been instantly forgotten as he opened his eyes to the world around. Now, however, the pain returned with a sharp jab that forced its victim to push himself upright again, quicker than the first time, and instinctively open his eyes in search for the cause of his distress.

With his eyes somewhat more immune to the allure of the fields before him, he was able to immediately look down to see what could have been plaguing him every time he tried to lie down. What he saw once again made him forget that he had ever been in pain, and also showed him perfection powerful enough to rival the world around him. Sitting in the grass, right where his stomach was just seconds ago lay a small cyan crystal. It glowed with a faint light the same color as the rock that produced it, and its surface looked almost transparent, as if it were a glass shell that held this light inside. The shape and dimensions of the tiny blue crystal resembled what might be a kite, longer than it was wide just by an inch or two.

The one who believed he must have been protecting this precious thing in his sleep felt a very strong and unknown desire to keep it safe. He reached out with both arms and scooped up the crystal in his—hooves? Why did that seem so unusual? What else had he expected to pick it up with, his mouth? Suddenly that seemed like a very natural and considerable idea. But if he did carry this small thing in his mouth he would not be able to admire its beauty properly, and the mouth just seemed such an unsanitary place to keep such a relic.

He let the crystal roll around on the bottoms of his front hooves, studying the way the light of the sun seemed to have no effect on the reflective surface of the crystal. His heart began to pound with wonder and excitement as the crystal seemed to melt in his hooves. He watched with amazement as the shifting mass of light lost its cyan glow and had it quickly replaced with white. The strange mass reshaped itself into a small sphere of pure white light that did not look solid to the eye at all, but to actually hold it was a different story entirely. Everywhere the sphere touched seemed to stimulate every individual cell in the holder’s hooves. Its texture felt what heated metal must feel like—not hot, but delightfully warm. Its magnificent warmth sent sparks of pure pleasure up his forelegs and directly into his spine. He either had never known, or had by some miraculous fluke forgotten how this thing had come to be in his possession, but surely if he had rested with it in such a seemingly defensive—

All his thoughts about the morphing crystal ceased. There was a sound, quieter than the soft breeze of this land less than inches behind him. This sound did not ring with the same beauty as all other sensations of this place, but instead it installed fear and anxiety into his mind. These negative thoughts and feelings were abolished just as quickly and suddenly as the thoughts of the crystal, only this time with an unfamiliar hoof that curved around from behind and crashed into the left side of his skull just under his ear. The momentum of the hit sent his limp body crumbling off to the right, and the sphere of light, which had returned to its former state as soon as it left his grasp, fell to the ground below.

This poor innocent creature’s attacker knelt down and scooped up the glowing cyan crystal with one hoof. They took no notice to how the crystal refused to change shape as it had for its previous wielder, nor did they pay much attention to how the light blue glow was quickly replaced with a black gleam that could rival the dead of night for pure darkness.

Without a single thought or care for the collapsed being that lay on the ground, the thief gingerly placed the black crystal in an open saddle bag, closed it, and went on their way as if nothing had ever happened.

They never noticed that the wind had stopped blowing.