Gwin dreamt of a lonely island surrounded by a sea of red. The sun hung high in the sky illuminating the red ocean and reflecting off of its many waves like bloodstained glass.
The single island rose from the water with tall stone cliffs made of pillars of basalt. The surface of the island was flat and covered in ash except for the center where a large mound of ash broke the even surface.
The waves froze and then began flowing once again. The sun hung high in the sky and began falling the way it had just come. The sun set and the moon rose. The waves rose threatening to swallow the island but were unable to scale the basalt pillars.
The moon fell the wrong way picking up speed. The sun and moon began to spin and the ash on the island rose and materialized into decrepit trees.. The sea grew lighter. Time was reversing.
Gwin was left awestruck ashe watched the mesmerizing scene from above.
"What in the?"
He had forgotten his terror for just a moment. The sun and moon spun extremely fast. Hundreds of years passed in a moment. The sea became blue and the large emaciated trees became green and tropical.
The large mound of ash in the center of the island became a towering and magnificent tree that seemed physically impossible to exist. It was far too big. Gwin could see faint movement on the island below, before he could get a good look however.
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]
He was running. He didn't know why or where he was going but he did not want to stop no matter what.
"Crap, crap, crap,crap,!"
Gwin ran along a clearing that was too small to be a road but too big to be a path. Shredded foliage surrounded both sides of the path as if someone had taken a sword to it as they passed. The ground underneath his bare feet was loose and damp. He tore into the wet earth as he ran.
The edges of the path dipped into the ground forming a small crater. Strange patterns were carved into the wet earth but Gwin did not care to study them.The air burned in his lungs as he drew in each breath.
He was mortified.
He had never seen this much plantlife in his life. Instead of feeling awe or wistful though he remembered his fathers warning.
'Don't trust anything'
He repeated this mantra in his head as he dodged and ducked under any bushes or ferns making their way into the path. He had no idea why but he felt if he touched them he would die in an unspeakable way. Whether or not that was true was unknown though.
Gwin's ears suddenly picked up on a noise behind him. He heard a pack of footsteps behind him. They tore into the earth with bestial fervor. He had never run so fast before. His legs screamed in protest as he ran even faster fueled by his manic desire not to be eaten.
The jungle around him flew by in a blur of green and exotic colors.
Gwin felt sluggish and awkward running without his prosthesis after getting so accustomed to it. The spell always puts you into the body of someone similar to you in your first and second nightmare. So of course he was still missing his left arm.
He had been put into the body of a lanky boy who was, to Gwin's dismay, missing his left arm too. Judging from the scar Gwin had glimpsed, it seemed to have been torn off by some horrible beast and ended in a stump just under his shoulder.
He was running in a weird half-trot due to not having another arm to serve as a counterweight. He swung his left shoulder forward to make up for it. He looked quite silly.
Gwin's inability to adapt to his lack of high tech prosthesis caused him to make a fatal mistake. He tried to swing his nonexistent left arm forward to build momentum and instead ended up stepping too far with his right foot and tripping.
'They are coming!'
He panicked and looked around to face his pursuers.
Gwin had never felt more relieved when he saw that the steps belonged to people and not nightmarish abominations.
They were tall and had olive skin just like the boy whose body he was borrowing. Their hair was black and glossy. They wore long singular braids that dragged through the air behind them.
They looked just as scared as he was.
Unlike Gwin though, this group had weapons. Each held a different weapon. There were five of them. Three men, a woman and a girl who seemed to be around his younger sister's age, 14 or so.
"Son!"
Gwin had already picked himself from the ground and began running again. If these people had weapons and still didn't want to fight whatever nightmarish creature the spell had willed him to fight then he surely didn't want to face it without one. He froze as the largest of the men called out to him.
He wondered for a moment if his dad really had followed him into his nightmare. He then realized that he must be the father of the boy whose body he snatched. Strangely though, it still felt comforting.
Gwin's momentary confusion gave the group the chance to catch up with him. They did not stop however and kept running forcing Gwin to keep up and run with them.
The last thing he wanted was to be left behind.