1 Just A Dream

'Oh god. My head…' He could feel a throbbing pain coming from deep in his brain the moment he started gaining consciousness and when he tried opening his eyes the bright light made the pain even worse. He used his hand to half cover his eyes as he used the other to lift himself up but quickly frowned when what he felt under his palm wasn't his mattress, it was dirt and grass!

'Did I pass out on the ground? Wait, but I don't even remember drinking last night? Actually I don't even drink at all! what happened?' As he started coming to and his brain started to turn faster he became even more confused.

After a minute when his eyes finally adapted to the light and were no longer as painful he slowly removed his hand that was covering them and with his eyes still squinting slightly he saw a scene that left him stunned in place.

"Where am I??!?" He couldn't help but shout out loud after processing his surroundings for a few seconds. In front of him he saw a thick river that had a large and deep green forest on the other side. The forest was so deep the sunlight couldn't even reach the forest floor. Turning his head to look around him he found that he was actually on a small island with a giant tree at the center and herb gardens filling in most of the space that was left, there was also an old wooden bridge covered in vines connecting the island to the forest on the other side.

"Am I still dreaming?" Even after feeling the sun on his skin and having touched the grass on the ground he still couldn't fully believe this was real. He had lived in a big city in a pretty cold place his whole life and there was nowhere even remotely close by that he could see a place like this.

The trees were freakishly huge and thick but now that he looked even closer he noticed there were giant mushrooms mixed in between the large trees of the forest.

He sighed in relief seeing this as it was proof that he was definitely still dreaming. He climbed up to his feet before slowly making his way to the river that surrounded the island he was on, separating it from the large forest.

"Since this is just a dream all I need to do is wake up! Yes just a dream, just a dre…" He constantly repeated to himself until he finally reached the side of the river. The water was so dark it was almost black which made it look bottomless. He could feel a light chill coming from it just by standing close by letting him know how freezing cold the water was.

"Ok, I can do this. It's just cold, cold imaginary dream water. It's not even real water! I probably won't even feel the cold before I wake up. Yes as soon as I touch it my body will realize something is wrong and wake up, yup that's definitely what's going to happen."

He started walking backwards while also taking several deep breaths and when he thought he was far enough he stopped in place facing the water as if it was his greatest enemy.

"Just a dream, not real cold water, not real freezing cold water, just a dream" He repeated a few more times while hopping in place before he suddenly started running towards the river.

"Not real, not real, not real" However the closer he got, the more the bottomless river started to look like a giant open maw ready to swallow him into the cold abyss and the more his confidence started to fade.

"Not real, not real, NOT REAL! NOT REAL!" He tried closing his eyes but as soon as he felt the temperature around him started dropping he quickly changed his mind and tried to stop. Too bad his speed was too fast and he started to slide on the grass. He even used his hands to grab onto the ground but it wasn't enough as both his legs fell into the freezing cold water.

"AAARRGGG!! SO COLLLDDD!" He felt as if he was zapped by a powerful electric volt as he jumped up back onto the riverbank and started to rub his legs. His whole body had broken out in goosebumps.

"FUCK! Why always cold water! Why not warm water or even room temperature water!" He Yelled out in frustration while he rubbed his legs when he suddenly came to a realization.

"Waitwaitwait, nononono" Getting on his knees he quickly crawled to the edge of the island and cupped a good amount of water before he splashed it on to his face. The freezing cold water now completely woke him up and removed any doubt he had left that this was a dream. Even still he still he tried rubbing his eyes a few times but the river was still in front of him and the giant forest was also still there and he was still on the little island.

Sighs 'Ok calm down and lets think for a second… What was the last thing I remember? … …. I was walking to a friend's house to play a new campaign he was going to DM for us in our Tabletop RPG… I had spent a whole week creating my character for it.' As he thought back he couldn't help but get a bit excited!

'I even ended up writing a 20 page backstory on him! Nadal the human druid. A very tall and beefy manly man with tanned skin and powerful muscles. His backstory was that he came from a hidden underground world that was full of prehistoric creatures which he had lived in since he was a child until he found a way out and learned of the outside world.' Thinking back to his amazing character he created he couldn't help but let out a smile as he forgot his situation for a second. He had worked for so long and so hard on this character he could even remember the face he made up for him, he remembered it even more clearly than his parents right now! Hmm maybe too clearly? Realizing something was wrong he stopped his thought process and realized that he wasn't imagining his character's face, he was seeing it in the reflection on the water!

"!!!"