The Nomad Chronicles

[I]abridged[/I]

Deep Dream State

I am at Hanauma Bay again.

CYGNUS. MY MAN CYGNUS. [IMG]http://www.dafni.com/gulfsave/hanauma_bay.jpg[/IMG] Where are you?

Cygnus bodysurfs in on a wave, and stands up.

Nomad? Nomad? Hey! What's up man!

Immediately the sun drops, and the moon rises.

Cygnus: hmm... I should build a fire...

Ok.

He gathers firewood, and lights it with his thumb.

We sit in front of the fire.

Hmm... Why am I here... I was supposed to...?

I hear Raven calling me.

I open a portal and help her fight some Templars in a forest.

I come back.

I see the totem pole. right!

There is an owl at the top.

Sitting on top of the totem pole, more like crouching, is the strange big-headed blue man with stars in his beard from my dream with YAD (Ian).

Ok... Who are you?

The blue man jumps down from the totem pole and stares me in the eye. "I, my friend, am +-, Ian's Dream Guide. And who might you be?"

"I'm Nomad, sir. I am Koomo's spirit guide."

"I have heard of such a person. Well, we are all spirit guides, dream guides whatever in different dimensions our planes. Anyway... that guy was supposed to meet me here."

Ian tumbles out of a portal. He is fighting off three little shadowy imps. He rips them off his body and tosses them into the portal, then seals it. He wipes his hands off, smiles, then collapses. He is covered in lacerations with dark streaks in them.

PlusMinus, Cygnus and I take Ian to the water, and float him in it to cleanse his wounds. PlusMinus does some strange type of throat singing, and the wounds seal up. We carry him back to the beach.

Ian coughs, and wakes up. He vomits black and red stuff.

PlusMinus gives him a glass of water.

Ian: Thanks. Those creatures... they're after me. Little fuckers chasing me through many dimensions. They want my Crystal Soul.

What's that?

The Crystal Soul is what houses our spark of life. All Crystal Souls give off a certain vibrational frequency. Mine attracts all sorts of weird entities, "good" and "bad."

Interesting. Well, I am supposed to meet... Mancon here!

The wooden owl flies down and stands in front of me. He is the size of a man.

Mancon: You rang?

You are his dream guide. Not the actual Mancon.

Well, don't blame me for naming his screenname after me!

I open a portal to Mancon. I see him playing a strange game by himself similar to Jenga, but it's full of glass, lights, and wires. Is he defusing a bomb?

Mancon! Mancon! Stop it! This is a dream!

Oh. Call me Jeff!

So that's your real name?

No, I just like the name Jeff. I hate my name.

Ok.. uh... Jeff. Come through the portal.

I have to complete my mission here.

No, you don't.

Sh... I have to concentrate.

I close the portal in frustration.

PlusMinus: Try again!

Ian looks at PlusMinus in fascination and bewilderment.

I open the Portal.

Jeff! Jeff! This is a dream. Come through!

I'm busy. I just need to...

I fly through the wormhole, and ignore the Wyrm battle going on.

I grab Jeff. C'mon, let's go!

His dream body starts to come out of his astral body, but, I can't grasp the astral body.

I pull and pull at Jeff.

I HAVE TO FIX MY COMPUTER. I HAVE TO DEFUSE THE BOMB. THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD RESTS ON MY SHOULDERS!

Don't you mean "fate of the world?"

Whatever! Just let me finish.

Fine!

I go back through the portal, and sit on the beach and sulk. I sit by the fire.

Cygnus hands me a stick with a marshmallow on it.

SWEET!

A mist forms around us.

Mosh, Tigress, Raven, Loaf ride out of the mist on horses. I see Walms on a crazy beast like an alligator, but with a little longer legs. Mowglycdb is a non-lucid fox.

We fly into the sky, and battle against strange Templar-demons.

They grab Loaf, and take him captive.

We chase them, but they keep jumping through dimensions.

I turn into a Hellhound. Next time I see them, I shoot a chain hook out of my mouth and stick it into one of them. I shove my feet into the ground, and pull with my mouth. The chain grows taut.

I see MoSh, Raven, Tigress, and Mowglycdb running down the chain. Walms says he knows a shortcut: he is going to outflank them from the front.

There are portals everywhere. I focus on perceiving Loaf and the two Dark Templars which have kidnapped him. My chain-tongue is going through many dimensions. It feels like eating dirt, ice cream, saltwater and shit all at the same time.

I turn into a ten-ton winch, and wind back.

Raven comes back on horseback, holding Loaf under her arm. He is a loaf of bread with a face on it. He is grinning at me.

Tigress and MoSh are covering the rear, shooting orange and green fireballs at the Templars.

Walms is at the Templars' backs now. He turns into a 2D giant mouth, and sucks them in like a black hole.

[I]Delicioso.[/I] Good dark energy. Thank you. HAHA

We go back to the Biodome to regroup.

There is a welcome home parade for us in the Biodome City. They put us on a float. I throw up a clock, and turn time forward, due to the fact I am exhausted.

We are now sitting in the grass on the plateau on The Mountain, near a clear pool.

Ian joins us.

"Ah, so this is your Shared Dream Spot, my friends?"

Well, actually, it's the whole moon!

"Fascinating, I must look into this further."

We have a picnic on the Mountain.

Dozens of people join us.

We lay on our backs, and stare up at the stars.

I fall asleep with Angel in my arms.