A World Unknown, The Start of an Endless Journy.

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Silas was alone in his room, his laptop perched on his legs, and his headset in his ear.  He had just graduated high school this past spring, and nothing had really changed. His life revolved around fantasy, and no matter how many times he was told to do so, he could never just live his life in the here and now. He was currently playing a game online, "something about magic or something and another" his mother would call it. 'More than anything' He would tell himself, 'Why can't my life be like one of these games.' But he woke up the next day, to his mother still nagging him to get a job, his father telling him how disappointed he was, and Silas would start it all over again. Silas wasn't exactly unattractive, but he wasn't remarkable in any other way either. He was one of those people that if your eyes past over him in a sea of faces, you would never remember he was there. His brown eyes and brown hair were common, and his lanky frame and pale complexion was the same as any of the geeks that populated the world. Then one morning, everything changed. His life was turned on it's head and nothing would ever be the same.

Silas yawned warily and rubbed his eyes sleepily. "I feel like I've been asleep forever." He complained to himself, which happened frequently. Maybe not the complaining, but the talking in general. He reached for his glasses before he even opened his eyes, not quite awake enough to realize he wasn't even sitting on a mattress, nor was he awake enough to realize that he could feel the breeze against his skin. He was just worried about getting back on his game, getting lost once again in the fantasy and the mediocrity that had become his life. No his first clue that something was wrong was when he reached over for his glasses, and his hand touched not a night table, but grass. Real life grass. His eyes snapped open and he looked around. Once again there were many things he failed to notice, such as how he could see without his glasses, or how the trees looked like ones he had seen in his games but never in real life. No, Silas's mind was still trying to wrap around the fact that he had woken up, in the middle of nowhere. If one were to look around, they would see an extensive plain, bordered to one side by a forest, and to another by what looked like an old style village. There wasn't a concrete building in sight!

Once he had finally acclimated to the fact that he was no longer in his room. He started to actually look around. He noticed that the air was cleaner then he was used to, something noone ever notices until they are exposed to said clean air...,   he noticed the town and that the buildings were indeed not made of concrete, and then he noticed that his glasses weren't on. He blinked rapidly at that last statement, bringing his hands up to his face and feeling around. His glasses were gone, and he could see! He wanted to sing, and jump with joy. Once that last thought crossed his mind, he was oblivious to everything else going on around him, like the fact that there was movement at the edge of the forest, that if he were to have seen he would have sworn was an elf, or that he wasn't entirely alone anymore. He laid back down and sighed to himself, "This is a great dream. I wonder what I can do!" He said out loud, standing up, ready to test his limits in this dream world.

[Aislinn]

Isabella was bored.

As a young woman in 18th century France, her life was nothing more then one endless party...or so her parents would have her believe. She had never believed in much of anything except herself and life within the mindless court bored her to no end. It was fanciful and pretty, but a soulless existence. Sighing softly, she leaned against the window in her personal chamber and watched the action take place far below. Another party....one of a never-ending line. She had pleaded ill and pretended to take to bed but none of it was true. Well, perhaps not anything of it. One thing was most certainly true....she was sick and tired of pretending to be something she wasn't.

It was only in books where she could truly live. Through her imagination, she could be whatever she desired. While the stories gave her a place to start, her mind filled in the blanks. Isabella had been a pirate, a warrior....even a queen. But even with the thoughts of adventure and life, she always came crashing back to reality....a harsh one at that. She had been promised to another by her father and was being forced to live a life that she didn't feel she belonged in. Perhaps another would have been gushing with excitement...but she wasn't a simple girl that wanted to live a simple life. 

Leaving the window, she slipped across the cold marble floor and moved to her bed. Isabella's true escape from life lay within her dream. Dreams that could take her anywhere....and perhaps that particular night, she would find a place she truly belonged. Sliding her feet under the smooth silk of the bedding, she doused her bedside candle and went in search of her own personal utopia.

Oddly enough, her dreams that night had taken a different form. Lightening bolts and rain...driving wind that could knock one clean off their feet. She tossed and turned, long deep crimson tresses soaked with sweat as her dreams turned to nightmare. A nightmare with no faces but unyielding pain and torment. Try as she might, the lithe young woman could not break herself from the hellish visions.

When her eyes opened, she could have sworn she had simply left the window open. The smell of fresh air was all around, light wind tickling her nose. Stretching just a little bit, she slowly opened her eyes and blinked. The walls of her room were gone....as was any sign of structure whatsoever. Sitting up quickly, she noted her current state of dress was what she had worn to bed the night before. Was she still within her dream? It was hard to tell but she chose to believe so....a product of her wild imagination.

Everything felt real....very real.....but how absurd a notion is was that it could be anything but a vision. A lovely vision....but simply something to pass her hours with the sandman.

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Silas started looking around at the clearing, everything seemed so real, hell, everything felt so real! 'I've never had a dream that was so real.' He thought to himself. He could feel the grass, the wind, see the details in every little thing. It was like he really was on a different world. Silas started searching again, more like just waiting. "Come on already." He said out loud "Where is the exciting adventure that usually comes with a dream like this?" He sighed and sat back down again. "Okay then. Maybe I should go exploring. Why can't everything just come with a tutorial." He mumbled. Suddenly something flashed in the air around him. The rest of the world seemed to fade to black and white. Tutorial? A menu popped up. Silas blinked rapidly. "What?" He waved his hand through the word that was floating in midair, but his hand passed straight through it. "Okayyyy. Sure." He said, but nothing happened. "Ummm. Yes?" He asked it in a question, but still nothing happened. "What the hell does this thing even do?" He was frustrated and really wanted to access this 'tutorial' or what ever it was. "What are you?" He tried asking, but still the word wouldn't budge. "Ugh. Can you stop? Exit? quit?" At the last word the word vanished and the world swam back into view.

Silas started walking, deciding he was going to head towards the town to see if someone would know what was going on. Maybe even explain what that floating word was. He made sure to look where he was going, ever once and a while he would think he saw a word, but when he looked it seemed to disappear. He groaned and grabbed his head in his hands. "This has to be the weirdest dream I have ever had in my entire life." He complained to thin air again, not sure if there was anyone who could hear them in this weird dream. As he was looking around, he thought he saw a person a little ways away. Not seeing anything else he could do at this point, he made his way over to her general direction. Noticing that she was quite pretty, he bowed and introduced myself. "Hello there! My name is Silas"

[Aislinn]

Isabella continued to look around and take in the new scenery when a voice called out to her. She took note of the young man that approached her with a wary eye. She wasn't naive. Not all people in life had honorable intentions and she wasn't about to be caught off guard. Wishing she had her bow instead of...well, nothing....she turned around and watched as he closed the last few yards to her. His clothing was odd, to say the least, but then again....she was wearing a dressing gown with a silk nightgown beneath. Who was she to talk about odd clothing?

His words were familiar....something of the English language but much, much different. If her knowledge was correct, he was greeting her...possibly. Still keeping a good distance between them, just in case, she spoke. " Bonjour....Je m'appelle Iz'abella...." She caught herself speaking her own tongue and had to visiably catch herself and translate her words into something he perhaps would understand. " Salutations...My name 'ez Iz'abella....Where are we prez'ently?"

The young woman's voice had a magical quality to it. It was soft and refined, but musical and poetic. Something certainly not of his particular time. If her voice hadn't given him enough of a clue, her wardrobe would have. There was something about her eyes though that made him feel as though perhaps she was as clueless as he was about what had happened and the situation they currently found themselves in.

[xxmaxinitxx]

Silas raised his eyebrow when she started talking back in another language. She seemed to catch on quickly though, and her question startled him. He sighed and looked back at her. "So you can't help me then." He said before looking away. "Okay. So am I in France I guess?" He looked back at Isabella, noticing what she was wearing. "Sometime in the 19th century?" He looked back at the buildings in the distance, taking notice of the make up. "Hmmm. Sometime in the past at least." He finally looked back at the girl next to him. "And you are... a damsel in distress? My first quest or something?" At the word quest, the world went black and white again, as a message came up. "Complete the tutorial to access your quests" Before the screen vanished and the world came back into focus. "God dang it!" Silas was getting more frustrated. He turned back to the girl next to him. "Can you tell me how to do this tutorial thing?" The world tutorial popped up with a question mark next to it again. Once again fading the world into the background. He sighed "I don't like this dream. Can I wake up yet?" He pinched himself, "Ow that hurt dang it! I thought that was supposed to work..."