Ye Chen*

In the dense forest that covered the wastelands.

There was the Dark Forest, it spanned more than half of the Western Division.

Ye Chen and Ye Ling, two twins, inseparable from birth, their fates intertwined.

Hunger had driven them to the woods to look for something to eat. Their father had gone out and was not back for a week.

Ye Chen's breath was ragged as he gasped for air, blood was seeping out of a gash on his leg.

His sister, Ye Ling, bore his weight on her frail thin arms that were trembling already as she carried him on her tiny back.

Her heart was racing not just from exertion, but from the fear that threatened to consume her.

"Brother, we are almost there, hang on!" Her voice was barely audible above the rustling of leaves.

Ye Chen could only groan, his face pale from the loss of blood with eyes half closed.

The pain etched lines on his forehead but he clung to his consciousness.

---

They had been unlucky this morning to meet with danger.

They met a mammoth beast but with caution, they managed to get away, not safely though.

A sharp protruding root had grazed Ye Chen's leg bringing out a gash of blood.

They stumbled upon an empty opening, where sunlight sunlight filtered through the canopy.

Ye Ling eased her brother down before cradling his head in her lap.

She tore a strip of clothe from her tattered dress and bound his wound before taking him in her back again.

"See that light ahead?" She said. "That's the village, we are almost there."

As they stumbled into the village, the villages quickly surrounded them before helping her carry Ye Chen to the healer's hut that was just across them.

"What happened?" The old lady asked with concern.

"He is hurt badly! Can you do something about it?" Her voice cracked as she tried to support him to a small bed across the room.

The lady examined Ye Chen's wound, her expression a grave one.

"He'll live, but it will take time."

---

Ye Chen and Ye Ling. They were one of the few children in the River village.

No one knew their parents as they had been found in the forest ten years ago by a young hunter when they were just five.

Looking at the cute little children that he was not accustomed to seeing, the young hunter, Don Giovanni took them in as his own.

He was now a thirty-year-old man but was too accustomed to hunting that he would go out for months only to return with his spoils and then share them with the few villagers.

The two's names were given by a fortune teller, Master Trigram, who was staying at the village at the time they were found.

They had no recollection of the five years and only recalled finding themselves in this vast strange forest that they were not aware of.

River Village was one of the smaller villages located on the outskirts of Dark Forest, a river passed by here and this people took the opportunity to establish residences here.

---

Ye Ling left for home to wait for her brother's healing.

Meanwhile, this guy was in his own world of dreams, a domain of his own.

Ye Chen's nightmares began when he was still five, nightmares woven by darkness itself.

Each night, he would awaken, his heart pounding, sweat-socked sheets clinging to his skin.

The room would be silent, except for the echo of his ragged breaths.

The recurring dreams were relentless- a spectral noose tightening around his throat, its cold fibers digging into his flesh.

He'd gasp for air, clawing at the invisible hands that strangled him.

Nightmares of ghosts and monsters gnawing at his bones, demons beating him up, being stabbed and pierced. Scary scenes of being skinned, burnt to crisps, or being chased endlessly by strange beings.

But today was unusual.

The dream was serene.

Ye Chen stood inside a small cubic room with walls so shiny that they could double as mirrors for the galaxy's most fashionable aliens.

The room was sealed in all directions, like a cosmic Tupperware container.

It gave him a surreal feeling, akin to being trapped inside a disco ball during a zero-gravity dance-off.

It brought him a sense of deja vu but he could not grasp it at all.

He scratched his head to try and remember where he had seen this.

It was at this moment that it struck him.

'Am I just thinking in a dream, who does that? Wait! How did I know it was a dream?'

This was clearly not your run-of-the-mill lucid dream; it was more like a cosmic sandbox game.

He thought of wiggling his fingers to suddenly turn the walls into giant Jenga blocks.

Stack them up to create a staircase to the ceiling. Why? Because why not?

Dreams were like that- full of whimsical possibilities and questionable architectural choices.

But his heart raced faster and faster, this was not a dream at all. It was real.

He tried to pinch himself, but instead of waking up, he just glitched like a pixelated character in some old video game.

Panic immediately stepped in. Had he accidentally stumbled into the Matrix? Was Keanu Reeves lurking around the corner, offering him a red pill?

'Is this death or what? Why am I here all alone?' His thoughts raced.

Ye Chen pondered existential questions.

Was this the afterlife? If so why was he all alone? Maybe the cosmic receptionist was on a coffee break, or perhaps the universe had forgotten to send him an invitation to the celestial party.

Or was this a dream within a dream?

He squinted at the walls. Were they inception walls? Was Leonardo DiCaprio about to burst in, spinning atop and yelling, "Ye Chen, you are still dreaming!"?

Nah, Leo was probably busy filming another Oscar-worthy movie.

Ye Chen sighed. Dreams were confusing sometimes.

I would suggest he take some classes in cosmic dream interpretation, you too should.

Hopefully, his thinking was cut short by the sound of a flicker.