The Story of Promiseum - Dream Walker

After a bit of experimentation, Danny realized that time seemed to pass slower while physically in the veil of dreams. In fact, the more time he spent there, the more flexible the concept of time seemed to be. Danny also learned about the medial barrier. Danny wasn't sure exactly what it was for yet, but he could feel it. All he knew was that it was where all this medial energy came from. Danny realized that time wasn't just flexible here, but the closer you get to it, the less time seemed to exist.

However, what he found most interesting was that there seemed to be a time dilation effect upon entering and then exiting someone else's dream. He could stay in Emily's dream with her all night until she had to wake up, then leave her dream to find that only an hour had passed. The dream would still be there, but he wasn't able to go back in. Oh well, he thought to himself, I have more time to do other things. I have a feeling that I have a lot to learn.

Between working and spending some extra time with Emily, Danny used his spare time to practice what Lance had told him. He made more doors in strategic places, just in case. He also met a couple more Essentials. There's Fred, who appears as a ferret. He's friendly but very sneaky. And then there's Max, who has multiple personalities. Sometimes he's a bear, sometimes he's a lion. Danny had the feeling that there were more personalities. He saw no reason to push the issue, so he went back home.

Less than a week later, on Friday after work, Danny found himself alone in his workshop. Maybe I should experiment more with these doors, he thought. Danny started with the door that he left in his office. First, Danny felt the energy from it and realized that there was a lot of medial energy. But there was also something else, a physical type of energy. Then, Danny realized that this must be medial and physical energy that was sort of woven together.

He could still feel it, even when he moved away from it. There was a kind of pattern in the flow of energy. It reminded him of something, but he couldn't quite remember what it was. He stepped into the dream veil. Outside of a dream, he could feel the energy flow. When the medial energy and physical energy came in contact, they didn't mix. They kind of displaced each other, creating currents.

He stepped back into his office and turned around. Then he put his hand up to feel for the door. That's strange, he thought to himself. It felt like the door moved. He felt the energy of the door and mentally pushed. The door moved! The door was now outside of his office. He could still feel it on the other side of the door. Out of curiosity, he made another door. There was that energy pattern again, only this time, it seemed to stretch and narrow a bit as the two doors connected. Part of the door's energy attracted the other door, while the rest of the energy repulsed it, kind of like two magnets. It wasn't a magnetic field, though. The energy flowed differently.

Then Danny remembered where he had seen this before, in one of his advanced physics classes. It was from a theoretical model of a wormhole. Danny heard Robert call his name, and without thinking about it, he stepped back through his dream doors. When Danny came out, Robert almost ran into him. Fortunately, they both stopped just in time to avoid a collision. Robert took two steps back.

"Whoa, bro!" Robert said. "That was close. When you told me that you go into dreams physically, I thought you were yanking my chain. But that was pretty cool."

"I wouldn't do that to you," Danny said. "I still don't know what to think about it myself. All I can do is continue like it's normal. What did it look like when I came out?"

"It just looked like the shadow got darker before you stepped out," Robert said. "I guess I should be more freaked out by it, but you're an exceptional guy. It just makes sense that you can do it."

"I'm glad you understand," Danny said. "I want to try another experiment."

Danny had Robert stand in front of the door as he opened the dream door, grabbed his arm, and stepped through. Robert came with him. They were now standing inside Danny's office.

"That was awesome!" Robert said. "I didn't even move!"

Now Danny opened the dream door, and he had Robert try to walk through on his own. It didn't work, so Danny wanted to see if he could give energy to other people, so he touched Robert's arm and transferred some energy. This time Robert walked through the door and came out the other side. Danny followed to make sure that he made it.

"Thanks for your help," Danny said. "Now I know that I can take people through dream doors. I also know that I can give them the energy to cross on their own. That could be useful."

"No problem Bro," Robert said. "Glad I could help."

“So, what was it that you needed?" asked Danny.

“I just wanted to let you know that Emily and I will leave for our family vacation in a few hours,” Robert said.

“Okay,” said Danny. “I hope you have a great time.”

“You know I will,” Robert said as he walked out the door.

Danny was excited about everything that he had just discovered. He knew, however, that there was a lot more to learn. At bedtime, Danny entered the dream veil physically. He wanted to observe this energy flow that he saw while experimenting with the dream doors. So, he didn’t enter any dreams. He just floated around in the dream veil between dreams.

Just as he saw before, the two different energies didn’t mix. They also didn’t repel each other. They just flowed around one another, making currents. Both energies passed through him without pulling or pushing him with the current. It was as if he was a conduit for the energy to flow through. He noticed that the energy near him would even change course to flow through him. He further realized that he could collect or release as much or as little energy as he wanted to.

Danny decided to follow the medial energy to its source. The closer he got, the stronger the flow was. So, it didn't take long for him to find it. This must be the medial barrier, he thought to himself. It wasn’t much to look at. In fact, if he couldn’t see medial energy, he wouldn’t be able to see it at all. He put his hand on the barrier. It felt smooth like glass, but unlike glass, it felt a little spongy on the surface. There was a little give when you first touched it, but pushing harder, was like pushing on polished marble. And if you hit it, it was like punching steel. This is a perfect example of Newton's third law, Danny thought.

So, there’s another world behind this barrier, he thought. Danny was a little disappointed that he couldn’t figure out how to get through. But he felt relieved at the same time. Danny was just learning about all of this, and it was a bit overwhelming. There was one more thing that he wanted to try. Since the medial energy could flow through him, he wanted to know if he could collect energy directly from the barrier.

Danny touched the barrier again, and what he felt was unimaginable. He could feel the energy flowing through the barrier. There was more energy there than he could fathom. He realized that the energy was most likely infinite. But it was more than that. It felt like this infinite energy was alive. The pattern of the energy flow was too regular and controlled to be random. To Danny, this seemed more like a thought process than random energy flow. I guess that’s enough for now, Danny thought.

He moved away from the barrier and went to find Emily’s dream. When he found her, she was having a nightmare! She was at school wandering the halls lost. She was late for class, and she couldn’t find the room. And if that weren’t bad enough, she couldn’t find her shoes that morning. Instead of being barefoot, however, she was wearing clown shoes. Danny thought that it was funny the way she waddled down the hall in her oversized shoes. But he wasn’t about to tell her that.

When he fully entered her dream, her shoes went back to normal. She realized that Danny was there, and the dream changed. They were now outside of the school in the playground. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the trees gently swayed in the breeze. She walked over and sat on a swing. Danny walked behind her and pushed her on the swing.

“Thank you,” Emily said, “I hate that dream.”

“You’re welcome,” said Danny. “How’s your vacation going?”

“It’s great,” she said. “I almost forgot how beautiful it is here.”

The dream changed, and she was now standing in front of the lake. Danny was still behind her, so he moved closer and put his arms around her. They took a moment to enjoy the scenery. The lake was in the middle of a dense forest, and the only clearing was around the cabin. There was a long narrow road leading from the highway, and there were nature trails everywhere. About ten minutes later, they decided to take a walk. They walked down Emily’s favorite nature trail.

Danny loved these nature trails too. Every year, since meeting Emily, he would come here with the James family. This is the first year that Danny stayed behind. He decided to stay and let Emily and Robert spend time with their parents alone with everything going on. Also, he felt like it would be awkward, given his new relationship with Emily. Besides, they were just as happy being together in a dream as they were in real life.

Danny took her hand as they walked. Looking around, Emily couldn’t believe how real everything looked. This wasn’t like normal dreams. This wasn’t even like a typical dream with Danny in it. She could smell the forest, feel the sun shining through the trees, and she could even hear the leaves crunching beneath their feet. It seemed like Danny was gaining more control over dreams. When they walked around the next bend in the trail, Emily could tell that this was still a dream. Instead of the bridge that she was used to, there was a giant log, and the creek was twice as deep as it should be.

"Did you do that?" Emily asked.

"Yes," Danny said, "I thought it would be more interesting. Besides, this is a dream."

"You're right; this is a dream," she "Let's have an adventure."

"What kind of adventure?"

"I don't know, you pick."

"Okay, follow me."

Suddenly, the creek became a deep gorge with a raging river far below. About fifteen yards left of the log, a cliff rose twenty feet into the air. Then there was a waterfall flowing from the top, spilling into the gorge. On the other side of the log bridge, the path continued straight for five yards, then curved right and disappeared behind some thick foliage.

Emily and Danny stepped onto the log bridge and crossed to the other side. It felt more humid on this side as they continued down the trail and around the bend. After making their way through the dense foliage, Danny and Emily climbed the bank of a hill. Upon reaching the top, they paused to survey the route ahead. What they saw took Emily's breath away.

This was a huge forest with giant trees. There were also flowers and colorful plants everywhere. But the things that really caught Emily's attention were the giant mushrooms. There were all varieties in a wide range of sizes. The most enormous mushrooms were the size of a large gazebo. As they continued down the trail, they tried to name the different mushrooms that they saw. There were toadstools, white button mushrooms, portabella mushrooms, and a large variety of Amanita mushrooms.

“The Amanita mushrooms are the poisonous ones,” Danny pointed out. “That’s a death cap, there’s a Panther cap, and that’s one of the worst, the destroying angel.”

“That sounds scary,” Emily said, “but they’re so pretty.”

“Pretty, but dangerous,” Danny said. "Most of the others are edible. That includes the oyster and the wood ear mushrooms.”

"You know a lot about mushrooms," Emily said.

"I did a project in school," he said.

As they continued down the path, Emily almost ran into a giant spider web. Danny warned her, and she stopped just in time. When Emily looked up, there was a spider the size of a small car coming down the web. She got scared and was about to run away, but Danny reminded her that it was just a dream.

When the spider made it to the ground, she stopped in front of

Them and lowered her body. Danny climbed on and held his hand out to help Emily. Emily climbed on in front of Danny, and the spider stood up. Danny put his arms around Emily, and she leaned back into him. Then the spider started walking down the trail. This particular trail led to the other side of the lake. It was nice to just enjoy the scenery while they rode, even if it was a spider. Before they knew it, they had come to the end of the trail. Emily was going to climb down, but the spider kept walking.

She was headed for the lake. When the spider started to walk into the water, Emily almost panicked. Danny noticed and reminded her that this was just a dream. In this dream, they could breathe underwater. When they were fully submerged, the spider proceeded to walk along the bottom of the lake. Emily finally relaxed when she realized that she could indeed breathe underwater. The spider then walked all the way across the lake and out the other side.

Unfortunately, it was now time for Emily to wake up. After saying their goodbyes, Danny went back to his office. He cleaned up his workshop and went upstairs. Realizing that he missed dinner, Danny grabbed a midnight snack from the kitchen. Then, he went to his room to decide what to do next.