Not long after he hatched his little scheme, Blackthorne awoke within the dream. Curious, he scanned the area then nodded. "If anything popped up before this, it didn't bother me."

Completely healed and ready to be on his way, he put his plan into action. First, he shifted into his human form. Upon regaining that shape a small allotment of items fell to the ground. Jerin, food, simple clothing, and a few other things appeared before him.

"I'm poor as a church mouse on Earth now, but the transference was a success." Blackthorne looked as his glowing hands then set about gathering his stuff.

The transference fees for simple items, such as Earth food and clothing, amounted to roughly twenty dollars. It would be considerably more in jerin, but such was life.

Once he got dressed and adjusted his belt, he snatched up the backpack that he sent along. Jerin and food stuffed inside, he grinned. "Alright, that takes care of that. None of the stuff has stats to speak of, but it all still counts as regular food and gear."

He took out his flashlight then chuckled. The beam of light was bright, but the cavern was utterly dark. Useful in some ways when he would be in human form, but for now it was limited. Besides that, he did not have extra batteries and the ones that he did have were well-used at this point.

"Alright, technology works... Good." Blackthorne pointed his light upward and checked the ceiling of the cave. "Still pretty far, but I doubt I'll get any closer to it."

He shut off his light, and packed it away. A short while later, he was fed and hydrated. His dream body felt better by the moment though there was no bonus to his regeneration.

A few minutes later he drew in a deep breath then slowly released it. The time to enact his plan had come. If what he attempted to do worked, he would be free of this place.

Blackthorne began shifting forms, but part way through he stopped himself. Soon, he became a cloud of impenetrable darkness that somehow managed to be even blacker than the lightless depths of the cavern.

He rose up as quickly as he could, despite the darkness. In his Midnight Shadow form he was able to see with perfect clarity. It might as well have been a well-lit room.

Inching upward in small increments, he could not help but sigh as time flew by. He managed to reach the cavern ceiling and pushed through into the rock and dirt beyond. Up he flew, up and up again. Like some dark effluvia of a forgotten hell he rose from beneath the earth. Pain lanced throughout the core of his being. Though he had neither lungs nor throat, he screamed into the dirt. Desperate he flung himself upward with far more effort than he could manage before.

The morning sun touched down gently upon the barest hint of his mist as he broke through to the surface. The tiny fragment of his Midnight Shadow shrieked in agony as he continued to rise. Soon, enough of him existed in one place to allow his mind to be at peace. Despite the light of day, the darkness of oblivion took him.

When he awoke, it was night. The moon hung bright and full overhead. Every part of his little dragon body ached. "The hell was that?"

He checked his status then groaned. His body was wracked with stress damage. It would be quite some time before even he could heal the multitude of wounds.

"That nearly killed me, didn't it?" he asked thoughtfully. Had the dirt and rock been any thicker he would not have been able to find the strength to go on and push to the surface. His plan was reckless, but it seemed the best chance that he might have of ever getting out of that underground hell.

"Seriously, how do people sleep at night knowing all that shit is crawling around under them? They're one open sink hole away from hell." Blackthorne groused lightly for a time while he tried to regain the strength to sit up.

Strangely, nothing seemed to have bothered him throughout the day. One would think that an onion would have at least come along to nibble on his tail a bit.

Curious as to the reason why he was able to go unassailed during his forced slumber, he weakly turned his head and scanned the area. A laugh soon erupted from his reptilian lips. "You have got to be kidding me?"

The secret to his survival was an obvious truth. Monsters rarely went close to town. Practically a short jog away the outer wall of the town of Ardent beckoned him. His small body hidden in the tall grass nearby, no one could have known that he was there.

He sighed softly then closed his eyes. "Maybe I should go to Earth to heal?"

Thoughts on how he lost consciousness suddenly arose. Why was he even in the dream world in the first place? Didn't losing consciousness count as falling asleep?

Blackthorne remained uncertain for quite some time after that. Where there special rules for that sort of thing, or did he just find one of the bugs in the program?

"Now that I think about it... This happened before, right?" Blackthorne slowly opened his eyes and gazed up at the moon. "I overtaxed my Midnight Shadow form and lost consciousness on Earth, but woke up there as well."

Exhausted, badly injured, and thoroughly confused, there was little he could do but allow himself to drift off to sleep once more. When he awoke, he was on Earth in his bed.

"Damn, this is no better," he groused.

Unable to move his body much, Scott stared at the ceiling. Convalescing sucked. The worst part of it was that he soon felt sleepy once more. His body was simply too injured to remain awake for long.

Scott fell asleep and awoke in the dream. Little time had passed. For a while, Blackthorne remained alert and ready but then sleep claimed him. A disturbing series of events took place. He ping-ponged back and forth between realities while his body tried to heal. Only capable of remaining awake for a short time with each transition, he soon stopped bothering to open his eyes altogether.

After a considerable amount of time passed a strange sensation overtook him. He opened his eyes quickly and found himself inside a beautiful garden. "The hell is this?"

His wounds no longer a concern for some reason, he sat up. What's going on here?

Scott looked around at the gorgeous floral display for a moment then stood up. There was something oddly familiar about the little garden, and even more familiar about its one created decoration. At the center of the garden stood a statue. Strangely, it was a jet black statue that shifted its design periodically. Each shift showed one of his three aspects. Though, the Midnight Shadow aspect looked sort of like a floating potato.

Drawn toward the statue, his feet carried him forward. Upon arrival at its base he reached out at touched it. A message screen appeared.

Welcome to your world-lobby, Scott Blackthorne.

You have violated an important social protocol. This may reflect poorly on your record during your performance review and recent legal issues.

It has come to our attention that you have utilized more than your allotted transitions between worlds for one day. This time you will receive a warning. However, in the future it would behoove you not to play with the transfer protocol. It is there for everyone, not just you. Your actions have caused minor issues within the local network.

Violators of this protocol pay [1] Gold Token for further access to both worlds. You currently have [3] Gold Tokens. After this warning, you will have to pay the fine with each future violation of the protocol.

Notice: The most likely cause for this warning to be granted is that the offender has received grave injuries while utilizing a self-created skill or ability. If the ability is not found in the system, and it generates an injury significant enough to cause the user to lose consciousness, they may bounce back and forth between worlds. We take no responsibility for that eventuality.

Typically, when rendered unconscious through injurious means the soul of the dreamer is held in stasis between worlds. When they awaken it will normally be in the most rested body to ensure mental stability. This safety measure may be thwarted when the situation is caused by unforeseen circumstances.

In the event that this situation applies to you, consider changing your log-in mode to [manual]. This change will prevent the situation from occurring again in most cases, though it is considered an immersion breaking method of world transfer. We do apologize if this lessens your experience in the future.

Manual Log-in: Mentally declare the term [World Transfer Menu Open]. A menu only you can see will open inside your mind. When prompted choose to log-in when you want to go to the dream world. Choose to [log-out] to go Earth. Your soul will immediately awaken in the opposite body, while your former body will fall asleep. Please note, it would be best to use this method in a safe location and while lying down.

You may change methods at any time, provided you are in your world-lobby.

Warning: Your body will no longer automatically awaken you to danger in the opposing world when log-in is set to manual mode. Further, when you fall asleep in either world you will not transfer to the other world unless you specifically state your intention to log-in or log-out while the world transfer menu is open.

Change to manual log-in mode?

[Yes | No]

The little dragon stared at the message screen for a moment, his body perfectly still. Soon, however, his eyes widened to a comical degree and he began to drool a little. "Oh, yes!"

Scott, Blackthorne, whatever he was supposed to think to call himself at the moment did not matter. The oddness of his situation led to a wonderful discovery! Though, it did seem to have its drawbacks as well.

"If I wasn't going back to a body riddled with injuries I'd throw a little dance party right now," said Scott with a chuckle. He stood still for a moment then approximated a shrug. The little dragon stood up on his hind legs, curled his forepaws into fists, then struck his arms at and swung them in a tight circle similar to churning butter. Yes, indeed. This moment was a cause for celebration, as per the 'cabbage patch dance protocol' practiced by trendy people in the late 1980s through the early 1990s.

He threw one paw behind his head and pointed outward with the other. His hips rocked forward as he cried out a nonsense noise, "Oeheet, Oeheet!"

Not long after he made his choice, and showed-off his super sweet dance moves, he awoke back on Earth. His body was indeed still heavily injured. However, he had recovered enough to move a little. Scott glanced at his alarm clock then grinned. "That didn't take very long at all! Back to the dream with me!"

"Log-in," he decreed. A split-second later his eyes closed. A rhythmic snoring sound echoed from his tiny nostrils as the system took over his vital functions. Had he the strength to check his phone, or even the inclination, he might have discovered what the current date was before he made his decision.

While the dragon slept, a certain store manager chose to send him yet another text message, this time for a different reason entirely. Poor Ashton. Where was Scott indeed?