Park Chung-Ho was in the safe place, but there was no light.
"Aislinn?"
His voice echoed, but it was the only answer he got. He was alone.
"She told me that she wouldn't always be there for a reason. She knew she wouldn't be here today, I guess."
He shrugged his shoulders and said to himself :
"She gifted me with a nightmare, let's make good use of it!"
He smiled and pictured all the details of the nightmare. He was trying to make sure he didn't miss anything, but he saw his environment blurring in green and blue. And suddenly, he was there. In this field, under this blue sky, under this big shadow of a Dragon.
THE DRAGON!
Park Chung-ho watched over his shoulder and saw the beast far above him. But he wasn't sure it was far enough. Even 100km further, he would have thought it to be too close already. Aislinn told him he'll have to train here. But now that he created this nightmare, he wasn't sure about what to do.
"I'd better RUN!" he yelled while rushing to the nearest trees.
But one tree wasn't gonna stop the dragon. He rushed through the trees and shrubs, cutting himself on the brambles, but he needed to hide. He heard a roaring sound. He looked over his shoulder and saw a wave of fire that was coming straight to him. He jumped into a ditch but still got hurt by the fire above him. He ran in the ditch to get out of the fire trail.
"What can I do?" he thought.
He had to find a solution, to imagine something. There was no door in here. So it was hard to imagine a way out. Tilting the place wouldn't change a thing; the dragon was flying. What could he modify in here to help him? He heard the wings of the dragon; it was coming back. He was in a forest, which was a very natural place. There could be a river. Well, he thought, there WILL be a river. He pictured it; it was two hundred meters away, behind a mound. He ran as fast as possible. He could hear the river flowing; it was there. It could be his way out. He saw the water and plunged. He felt the shadow of the dragon flying above him. Park Chung-Ho came out of the water to check where the beast was going.
"Aislinn, I appreciate your gift, really, but I'm not sure what I'm gonna do now," he murmured to himself.
She told him to fix his nightmare, and he removed the fire, but what was he supposed to do here? Remove the dragon? The beast was charging back at him with full fire. He plunged again, but could see that the dragon was staying stationary and spitting fire continuously.
"Ok, I got caught by my own idea. Unless..." the young man thought. "I've got an idea."
It was a river, and there was a current in this river. He just needed a stronger current so that he would be carried away. But he also needed a place to land. This river could totally go underground in a cave. He felt the water pushing him more strongly suddenly.
"It's working !" he thought.
He checked above him, through the water, and he could see there was no fire anymore. It was time to breathe again. He caught all the air he could and looked around him. There, the cavern wasn't far away. The dragon was still flying in his direction, though.
"Why is it going this way? The cavern is too small for him." Park Chung-Ho thought. "Wait, this is too short for him, but it still can spit fire in it. It's not a hideout, it's a hoven I just created for him!"
He thought as fast as he could, and there it was. The solution was simple now. Jean Dupont explained it clearly this morning. This cavern was just a passage. All was dark in it. It could also lead to somewhere else. Somewhere where the dragon wouldn't be able to catch him. He entered the cavern while the dragon was launching a huge blast of fire right behind him. The fire, smoke, and heat were all there, in his burning room. It could have been the dragon's breath result or not. Behind him was only the corridor he already explored in the past. He did like the day before and restored the room to a normal state, with no fire, no smoke.
"Ok, I got out. Let's rest for a bit and go back; there must be other things to do."
It had only been a dream, but he was exhausted. He closed his eyes and went back to the safe place. It was bright, and Aislinn was there, clapping her hands.
"That was great!"
"Wait... You were here the whole time?"
"Of course! It was a lot of fun! But you showed some really great ideas!"
"So... You wanted to see how I would act alone. Why didn't you just said it!"
"It would have been less fun, right?"
Park Chung-Ho was still catching his breath after everything that happened in this nightmare. Aislinn had a curious smile on her face when she asked him :
"Aren't you surprised you can have nightmares in this room with all the protections?"
"You're right, but I thought this was because we are in a special Realm here. Am I right?"
"This special Realm of mine, everyone has their own. I invited you to mine. But it's still the Dream Realm. The thing is... those are not real nightmares. Those are projections. It works almost the same as a nightmare, though."
"That means that I wasn't at risk there, right?"
"You weren't, indeed. If this had been a real nightmare, you would have been pulled out very fast by the runes you described yesterday. Those runes can work on small nightmares. For bigger ones... It wouldn't be this useful, sadly."
"Aislinn..." The young man started with a serious look on his face. "I think they're gonna try something tonight."
"What do you mean?"
"There seemed to be some tension in the day. The kind of tension you get when you prepare for something where there is a risk."
The girl remained silent. She seemed really concerned now.
"If they really risk something today, I hope they will only set up a waypoint and not go too deep too recklessly."
"A waypoint?"
"Yes. Have you heard about the elevator kind of places?"
"I did today."
"It's a bit the same. It's a place you can create in different layers and use it to go down faster."
"I see."
"Maybe hiding this safe place from my mom was a mistake. You should tell her tomorrow about this. She'll ask a lot of things, but as you don't know where I am, it's gonna be alright."
"Why not tell them where you are? I'm pretty sure they would like to know."
"Of course, they would like to know. But as I said yesterday, this place is too dangerous for those who are not from this Realm. Escaping this place would mean..."
"It would mean to sacrifice something, right?"
Aislinn asked with a shock :
"Where have you heard about this?"
"It was in a book in the library."
"What did it say exactly?"
"It only said that if you're stuck on a layer from which you can't escape, the only way out is a sacrifice that is way too costly."
"Let me be clear with this." Her tone and her face were the most serious he ever seen in his life. "I think you need to know why this is not an option. Sacrificing something in the Dream Realm is like a pact with a demon. Well... It's probably the reality behind the legends of pacts with demons afterall. You can get something, but the cost is much higher than you would think. The books in the section you were in won't tell you this, but I think you need more serious threats to really get the idea. This is how dreams and nightmares enter the physical world. Through sacrifices."
"I see. That's not an option then."
"It never is. I think that, now, you understand why it's forbidden."
"I get it."
"This is probably what Albormare was after when he came for you. Make you sacrifice something so that he could enter the Physical Realm."
"But why me?"
"This..." she shook her head, "I can't tell you..."
Park Chung-Ho saw that the young woman was sad. The mood from the nightmare training was out.
"At least... I fought a Dragon."
"You ran away from it. And by the way, it's coming back."
The plain and the forest started to appear once again.