LD: The world with orange flowers

I’m in my old bedroom, showering, when I notice the neighbors looking inside. Wait a second… I dream this all the time! I do a few reality checks, but everything seems normal. I pull the curtains down, but something still feels off. I pinch my nose—yep, I’m dreaming! 

Hold on, I’m still naked. I quickly find some underwear and leap right through the window. Once outside, it feels like I’m dressed again. Hmm. I try to remember the Quests for Icarus—(Quest 1, 2 and 3). Cool, I can remember them all! 

First, let's manifest an object. I’ll let the dream decide to see how accurate it can be. I close my palm and demand that ‘one of my favorite things’ appear. I open my hand and find four pieces of seaglass! (Accurate—I collect seaglass in real life.) 

I float up to the street and decide to use a well as a portal. The street looks different... old water features are everywhere, but they’re too small to use. At the end of the street, I find larger ones—stone chalices. Some have water in them, with orange fish swimming around! But the whole street is flooding, and soon the water covers everything. I search for a chalice without fish and jump in. And… I’m stuck halfway. I try again, this time with more certainty. I command the dream to turn the chalice into a well so I can ‘go down the rabbit hole’ like Alice in Wonderland. I really hope Wonderland is on the other side! I go down, down, down in a dark tunnel. 

Though I don’t feel any walls or see anything floating, I don’t see any colors either… This is different. I wait, and poof—I’m in the world down under. Everything looks… grim. Sure, it’s another world, so Quest completed, I guess, but it’s not what I expected. The vibe of this place feels all wrong. It looks like a poor neighborhood—no vibrant colors, buildings in disrepair… 

I spot a man and walk toward him, explaining where I’ve been and that I need to find another place to go. He thinks I’m nuts, and suddenly a woman steps between us. She wants to protect him and suspects I’m trying to scam them. 

 “I’m not here to sell you anything!” I assure her. I suggest we leave the man alone and talk instead, and she agrees. Later, a small child joins us. I tell the woman how I got here through an old stone chalice and how I need to find a way to go to another world instead. 

She looks thoughtful. 

 “Well sure, if you jump through something ugly, you end up in an ugly world. If you want to go to a nicer place, you need to find something pretty to jump through.” 

That’s genius! So I ask her where the nicest place is in this world. She can’t decide... Should we go left or right? Left or right? Feeling pressed for time, I apologize and decide to ask the kid instead. 

“I know the perfect place!” she says. 

 She leads me to an open playground. The playground is minimalistic and poor, just like the rest of this world. But in the center, there’s a patch of gorgeous orange flowers, buzzing with bees. 

 “This is my favorite place!” she says, proud to show it off. 

 I ask if she wants to come along, but she’s unsure how to respond. I understand—just ten minutes ago, people thought I was a lunatic. Maybe they still do. 

 “Well, I’m going now, but I’ll try to come back with proof from another world!” I tell her, not sure how I will be able to do that.

 I try to jump through the orange flowers but get stuck again, halfway. Darn it. I get up, but the dream is growing blurry. As it fades, I jump into the flowers again… 

And wake up.