The Chronicles of Oneiria

It began near the edge of the known world. I, together with Brother James and Brother John, travelled for many miles through a frozen labyrinth, skirting between packs of ice and navigating meltwater channels. In places we were forced to bring the boat ashore, and haul it on wheels across the icy desert.


We eventually reached clear water, and put the boat to sea again. The ice began to thin, and soon there were a multitude of available routes through the ice. Then we spotted a ship moving across our projected course. As we came closer, we could see it was a sort of crude longboat, with some kind of skin-sail and oars. Soon we were able to make out the crew - shrewd looking reptilian dinosaurs, clad in hide, bone and tooth. We hailed them, but they bared tooth and claw and increased their speed, clearly intent on keeping us at a distance.


John and I wanted to follow them, but James seemed to think it was a bad idea, and on reflection we in fact agreed. Then in a strange rush (common with such experiences), came jungle streams bordering desert, nomadic tribes herding larger herbivores, and finally an island-palace of bone, situated on a lake that fed into the waters on which we had journeyed.

I stood at the edge of the cliff, staring into the dense fog that came up from the sea. Suddenly I felt the wind change, and a gentle breeze began to clear the air. Soon I could see the rest of the cliffs to my left, and then the sea stacks, and finally the waves themselves, crashing against the rocks below.


Then all at once the Sun pierced the gloom, and the vapour vanished. I could see far and true, all the way to the horizon. Yet something was amiss, for all manner of visual phenomena presented themselves to me. I watched as the sea flexed and contracted, and saw the Sun distorted in position and shape. One moment the stars were visible, the next dissolved in a deep blue sky.


Then my vision focused, and I could make out the aether itself, flowing and swirling in eddies and waves, presenting me first with the deepest of oceans, next with the farthest of stars. And I began to grasp it, to read into it, to know its nature and discern its current, its true course. All that could be seen was mine to see, and I observed the cosmos in its totality as time flowed over me, the cliff eroding beneath my feet.

The ground below the castle is enveloped in mist, and the nautical dawn is approaching. The guards stride along the parapets, their halberds dull and indistinct. She walks inside from the balcony, places her equipment inside her bag, and heads down the main stairs.


She exits the palace, walks briskly toward the Well of Ascension, and begins the slow climb upward through the seven levels. The sky above grows ever brighter. When she finally reaches the top, her sins are behind her, and her body, mind and soul are purified. She can see that the Sun will soon appear above the horizon, so she hurries to climb the tower above the well. From there the whole valley is spread out before her, and the clinging mist can be seen receding into the foothills and lake lands.


She arranges her instruments, including her telescope, gyroscope, ambix, cucurbit and retort. She fixes the telescope in place, connects it to the alembic, and waits for daybreak. Then all of a sudden she hears the clash of steel, and shouts from the gatehouse below. She points the telescope in the direction of the noise, but cannot make out what is happening. Then she sees the guards retreating, and from the vanishing mist emerges a vast column of soldiers, driving at the guards with scimitars, ghutrahs masking their faces. They storm the gatehouse, and soon the outward defences are completely overrun.


As they begin their ascent to the castle through the Long Garden, the Princess reaches for a vial in her satchel, and draws her dagger.

Brother John gave me a meaningful look. We could see that from here the tunnel opened up into a cavern; a huge chasm of darkness lay below.

I grabbed my pocket-flashlight, and pressed once for the maximum setting. Still could see nothing. I then reached back and unclipped my main torch from my bag. I pointed it downward, turned it on, and waited for darkness to recede.

The strangest effect was produced. For though the light eventually penetrated the enveloping darkness, the ground beneath us seemed much closer than it should given the degree of illumination. It was as if some physical darkness enveloped the space beneath us; not a mere absence of light, but a genuine presence of dark.

Slowly we lowered ourselves into the cavernous space below. When we had unhitched ourselves, Brother John took a reading. The vault was approximately one mile across, but only a few hundred metres high. We struggled to think what could have caused such a strange geological formation. According to the scanner it had a geometrical symmetry that we could not reconcile with the effects of water, gas, or magma. Though impossible this far within the crust, no such octagonal forms seemed plausible without the interference of men.

Suddenly we heard the quick patter of feet. As we swung our lights upon the sound, we illuminated two pale, reptilian beasts, long, low and lean, racing toward us on their hind legs. These leftover relics of time forgotten quickly drew apart before homing in on us. In unison we drew our revolvers.

Brother John rolled and fired at one, wounding it, but alas I was too slow in aiming, and though I killed the second creature outright at the last, in its death throes it dealt me a terrible wound upon my arm. Brother John examined and treated the wound, and we knew it was nothing serious, but all the same the wound would slow me down. Worse still, we now knew that we had every need of fleet feet in this place, for surely we had not stumbled on the only two beasts in this darkest of worlds. No, many more there would be, and perhaps worse things still. And with my shooting arm slung, we were at best one and a half guns strong.

Imperceptibly, from the darkness, several faint green glows appeared. We clasped our revolvers, and stood back to back. Then, from the shadows, they emerged. Tall as no man I had seen, near eight-foot high, five pallid man-like beings emerged, black of eye and bald of head, and extended their ethereal, webbed palms. They were armed with a kind of halberd made of bone, edged with a mineral we did not know. Dimly we could see the outlines of others, holding a defensive line beyond this inner circle, lit by strange, bobbing green lights. All remained absolutely silent, seeming to talk by looks and gestures.

“What are they?” asked John.

“They must have heard the gunfire” I replied.

“That’s not what I asked you! What the hell do you think they are?”

I took a deep breath before speaking. “I think they are very much in control, both of us, and this environment. Their guards are cautious but not fearful, and they were upon us within minutes of the gunfire. To be frank, I feel safer with them than with those beasts in the black.”

“And what if they mean us harm?”

Before I could respond, the largest of the beings first crossed his arms in an X, before raising his finger. Then he pointed to the smallest, and oldest-looking among them. The being opened his mouth, and uttered the first sound we had heard from them. It was deep and rumbling, more feeling than noise. As it ran through us our muscles slackened, our heads dizzied, and we fell to the floor. The last thing I saw was the strange floating lights going out, one by one, until darkness and sleep enveloped me.

A marble tower burning forever.

The four rats made their vows, and gathered their belongings. The packs re-matted the fur on their backs, which had been so briefly free of strain and weight. They knew that the Last Hall was at least a day's travel away, and that was if the snow drifts did not unduly hinder them. Even to those who knew it well, this trail was harsh. The warm hearth of Muridae was all too tempting a destination, but here haste would be foolish. So they moved cautiously, aware of ground, wind, and prowlers.

Out of vanity, I eat a spider. Later I pull one of its legs from between my teeth. I in turn am consumed by regret and self-doubt.


I drop my phone, and suddenly I realise I am between the cogs of a giant clock. They are closing in, but I nevertheless reach for the phone.


Smoke from chimney stacks turns into mushroom clouds. The desert is covered with patches of bone and glass.

I woke this morning, and again it was there. A tall black sail, stark with the golden sky, ephemeral, melting into the horizon of gulls and waves, alomst lifting from the water. Strange, and impossible, this view is either a product of dreams or insanity. The sky darkens.


I wake from the dream into another, walking across a silver-sand beach, wading into the strand. Luna herself descends into the sea, and swims with her water twin, and I swim and entwine myself with them, pale and violet, until I realise that the shore has disappeared. Panicked, I begin thrashing wildly in whatever direction I believe the shore to be, but soon find myself lost, conquered and subdued by the waves. Just as both dawn and I are about to break, a black sail breaches the crimson sky, and I succumb to the water.


What seems like months or seconds later, I awake on the deck of a ship, tossing and turning in the same waves in which I toiled the previous night, far beyond land or island or gull. Bar the slight and irrepressible murmurs of the sea, total silence engulfs me, as though whatever my hopes and dreams, they are naught before this sleeping beast. The sail is lank and the ropes flacid. I try to raise myself, but my body fails me. Only then do I realise I lie in a bed of pure-white cloth. Someone has rescued me from death. I collapse into my pillow, and stare at the clay-coloured sky, fading into a slumber of pure exhastion.


Strange rustling sounds, and the sense of wind upon my cheeks. I awake bleary-eyed to a tumultuous sky, full of white and grey clouds, speeding furiously toward the ship. The rustling gives way to a ghostly howl, and the white clouds become greyer, the grey clouds blacker, as though the heavens themselves were taken with anger and fury.


At last, with some sense of energy and self-preservation, I begin to search the decks, prow, and finally stern, for some sign of human life. The faintest glimpse of a man at the bridge, grasping the wheel, wrestling with it, bringing the ship about toward the storm, to face it and break it; a face like mine but not mine, a face I will never know and will never be, held fast to the wheel as the waves break through the glass and wash over him.

I just had a dream I ate some expired bread and used reddit to realize it expired 1.5 years ago then I went to a fast food where a man used a raccoon to order kid sized tacos, telling the waiter they are for the racoon

So I went and said loudly that the man is just using his raccoon as an excuse. Then the raccoon ran off with a iPad

Anyways I just woke up from this nap and am really relieved because I did not actually eat spoiled bread

I am in my room, and the window is wide open, moonlight pouring in onto the floor. I know that a spider has got into the room, and I am looking for it. The spider runs out from under my bed. It is large but thin, without visible hairs, appearing scaly. Its exoskeleton is covered in luminous green striations, and they seem to grow and pulse when it crosses the moonlit sections of the floor.

I try to kill the spider with my shoe, but it survives. Now all the green striations appear to be draining into its abdomen, which is growing and pulsing and becoming large and green. The spider appears to be dying, but the bulging sac is feeding on the moonlight. It appears ready to burst.