Year - 5687 AK - First Winter

I don't really know how to keep a diary, so I'll just keep to what I know and what I've seen. Perhaps these writings will be of benefit to those that find them after I've passed.

My name is Brand Iron Blacksmith of the Iron Blacksmith House. As you may have guessed, I am a noble, son of Edge Iron Blacksmith, so I won't go into detail.

What prompted me to keep a diary of these happenings occurred just a week ago. While dreaming the same dream as always, I couldn't help but notice an odd set of stairs that descended into the ground. I've dreamed ---------- many times, and I know for sure they hadn't been there before... So startling was the revelation that something was different, it almost woke me up then and there. Spurred on, I sought to see what was below.

So I descended. I mean two queer bird-like men. They said they were brothers... Twins actually. They even started and finished each other's sentences much like the Carpenter's daughters. Strange was that this hall that led to them had strange markings and words I've never seen. So queer was the entire ordeal, I asked these bird men, that didn't seem to be harmful, how could I dream of things that I didn't know about.

It was then that these creatures, who names I can't for the life of me remember told me... I was at the entrance of the Dreamlands!

What and where were these lands they spoke of, but I couldn't understand a word of it. It wasn't that they didn't speak common. I knew the words they were saying, but not the way the strung them together... I must ponder this later. All in all, they said I passed whatever test there was to enter the Dreamlands. Thus the doors behind them opened. They gave me several words of advice and then left me to my devices as the door closed behind me.

A room of supplies was left and I was to pick and pack as much as I could. Granted I haven't set course beyond my camping trips with father for most of my life, but what bits I could gather from memories I made do.

It was as if the room knew I was done when I finished packing my knapsack, and thus I was dumped into some spiraling forest.

The nightmarish creatures that I witness stalked me in that dark woods. The gatekeepers told me if I die, I wouldn't really die, I would only wake up... But it meant I could never return. So, to me, that felt trapped in my awakened life... felt to preserve my life in the Dreamlands at all cost.

Thus I escaped those wretched woods and those cat-like monsters. Walked on two-legs they did... Hissing in chase, and even meow in distances as if to lure me. I'm not moron, so I left like a coward... If the Gatekeepers were correct. Once I get more power in these lands, I'll return to show these cat things what's what...! Nearly shat myself when one of the buggers knicked my crouch, exposing my little john to the cold air...

Far away from those woods and in the morn of the following day, which I presumed was the previous night, I stitched up my trousers... Embarrassing to be seen with your willy hanging about, even if the gatekeepers said that there were other creatures out there... Just doesn't sit right with me to trying and greet someone and there you are exposed... Well, I dwelled on this topic a bit too long. It wasn't long after the sun in Dreamlands rose did I wake up.

My waking life moved as usual, and at night it seemed that myself... whatever I am in those lands came back to the same spot. I can only wonder if I sleep in that world, as I am awake in this one... But... Surely something would have ate me on the shores of that strangely colored river than I laid next.