Yeah, I passed out a lot in my adventures. Most of the times I passed out were pure unconsciousness, but as I look back to my short time in Camp Rock, I can remember some things. When I fell unconscious after checking my wounds, I had Dreams. Dreams with a capital D. Sometimes someone or something can use dreams to communicate with you, making a dream a Dream. Some of the dreams that I had then were just normal unconsciousness induced dreams, like the one I had just before I met Nora, but one was different. However, it would be a long time from then before I realized that I had met a God in a Dream.

{}>}>}

Running. I was running through the trees. Branches slapped past my face. My breath ragged and my mouth tasted of blood. Running.

I have to get away! I thought, leaping over a bush. I kept running, and dashed around a tree. My arms felt like lead. My legs burned. My heart a jackhammer.

It’s gonna get me! My mind churned and screamed in fear... Fear of what?

The thought struck me like a fist and I staggered. My foot caught on something, sending me sprawling. Panicked, I jumped to my feet and swung my spear around. Eyes sweeping the trees for anything.

Nothing but empty forest.

Why was I running?

I looked down at the wooden spear in my hands, confused.

“What kind of deranged psycho are you!?”

The shout came from behind me. I whirled around.

Josh and Alexa were sitting at a table outside of Nicholas’ Pizzas. The parking lot I was standing in only had a couple cars. My friends were the only ones around.

“Seth!” Josh called, waving me over, “Can you believe it? She said she actually likes pineapple where pineapple has no business being! On pizza!”

Alexa rolled her eyes and took a bite out of the offending slice.

“Oh, it’s not too bad,” I said, sitting down. I went to lean my spear against the table...

What spear?

I shrugged and continued what I was going to say. “Tomatoes are fruits and we still put them on pizzas.”

Josh stared at me, mouth agape, “betrayed by my own bro...”

I grinned and stole a slice of his five-meat pizza, “bet it’s healthier than this too.”

“Ha! Another point for the pineapple!” Alexa shouted, pumping a fist.

Josh sulked. “Maybe you should’ve just stayed gone,” he mumbled.

“W-what?” The grin slipped off my face. Bile rose in the back of my throat, and there was a sinking feeling in my stomach. “What did you...”

A booming laugh cut me off, and I jerked my head around to look.

Charles had his head back with laughter. His arm was wrapped around Diana’s shoulders as she leaned into his chest. They were sitting on the living room couch, both laughing hysterically. Mom was on the other couch, laughing along with them.

“Finally, we have some peace and quiet around here!” Charles said, gleefully. “Now that that crybaby Seth is gone.”

Blood drained from my face as I stared at my brother. The others howled with laughter.

“You should have seen him at the hospital,” Diana said, giggling as she leaned towards mom, as if to tell a secret, “He was all...” She crossed her eyes and let her mouth drop open as she held her arms up in front of her and pretended to convulse. She laughed and fell back into Charles’ side. They all burst into another fit of laughing mockery.

“Diana!” I shouted, horrified and hurt. “That’s not funny! I was...”

“You know what’s not funny!?” My mom shouted, jumping to her feet. Her hands were balled into fists and her face was twisted in rage. “What’s not funny is you leaving me with your debt! You didn’t even pay a cent!” She drove a finger into my chest. “You should have disappeared years ago!”

Tears dripped from wide eyes. “Mom, I-I...” the words choked in my throat.

“Didn’t I say that I didn’t ever want to see you again?” Diana said, lips sneered in disgust as she looked at me.

“What are you guys saying!” I shouted, “I’m your family!... I-I..”

Charles stood and walked over. His eyes were indifferent as he looked at me.

“Charles, come on man. Why is...” A fist drove into my stomach. I doubled over, struggling to breathe.

“Not anymore you’re not,” he said, grabbing my shirt and lifting me back up to stare into my eyes. “You never were.” He spat.

“N-no. Ch-charl...” I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. Tears dripped freely.

He opened the apartment door and, with one arm, tossed me outside. He shut the door. The click of the bolt locking the door echoed loudly in the night air. Laughter rose again inside as I lay sobbing outside.

“No... Nooo!” I howled. I stumbled to my knees and turned to the door. My fists beat at the door.

“Let me in!” I screamed, pounding the door as hard as I could as tears and snot ran down my face. The door was like steel under my fists; they didn’t even tremble.

I pounded and pounded the door, again and again. Howling and screaming for them to open the door, for my mom, for Charles or Diana, but the only response was laughter.

Again and again, I pounded the door. Again and again until bones cracked and my hands split open, painting the door red with each slamming fist. But I didn’t care. I had to get in.

Again and again, I screamed for them to let me in, that I’m her son, their family, that it wasn’t my fault. Again and again, until my throat dried and cracked and blood gurgled out of my mouth. But I didn’t stop, and my wails and their cackling laughter filled the night until all went black.

>>

Awareness came back slowly. I felt hot, confused, and something was in my mouth. A liquid. Was it blood? A fear crept into my chest and I couldn’t breathe. It was dribbling into my mouth slowly; it dripped onto my face and neck but most of it went into my mouth. I tried to spit it out, but choked and ended up in a coughing fit.

Pain stabbed into my chest. The forgotten wounds made themselves known again, as they couldn’t handle the strains of the coughing fit I had sent myself into. The liquid stopped coming as soon as I tried to spit it out, which was good because I would have just kept choking on it.

I tried to stop coughing, but it was too late and I could only try to reduce the size of my gasps of pain to slow intakes of breath. Each cough sent shocks of fire through my chest and back.

Once I finally stopped coughing, I tried to open my eyes. They responded lethargically, only opening after a few seconds. As my eyes started to flicker open, the liquid came back; dribbling into my mouth. I didn’t try to fight it this time and just swallowed it. It didn’t taste like blood, and it seemed to be water anyway. I was just too tired to do anything about it even if it was something weird. A shadowy form standing over me, slowly coming into focus as my eyes opened.

Nora’s face hung over mine; her lips pursed as she poured water from her mouth into mine. Her eyes focused intently on her task, making sure not to spill too much. Canines aren’t known for water-tight mouths however, and she consistently spilt all over my face and neck.

My mouth snapped shut, lips pressed tightly together. I tried to give a growl of disapproval and glare at her, but it came out as a pitiful moan and my eyes were already growing heavy. Her eyes snapped up to mine and she whimpered. Nora spat out the water to the side and turned back to lick my face.

I tried to say something, but my eyes drifted closed.

>>

Bright white light seared into my eyes, forcing me to squeeze them shut with a yelp of pain. Even still, the light burned through my eyelids with a red glow. I tried to block the light with my hands, but it didn’t help much, only muting the glow by a fraction. I dropped to my knees, hands pressed to my eyes, and stayed like that until my eyes no longer burned. Slowly, I shifted my hands away. The burning light returned, so I kept kneeling there with my eyes squeezed shut, hands resting on my lap. Eventually, I got used to the light with my eyes closed. I didn’t know how long I had been there, but it must have been over an hour.

I opened my eyes. Tears sprang up, trying to help but was just useless. Everything was white with the light’s glare. I kept my eyes open anyway. Gradually, my eyes adjusted, and I wiped the tears away. Finally, I could see.

The ground between my knees that I was staring at... it looked like ground and yet it didn’t. It was like a solid sheet of white glass that had been sculpted to look like ground and there was a light behind the glass. I reached out to feel it, brushing my hand over the surface. It felt like normal loose dirt, but several small shards of glass broke away with my hand. The shards skittered along the ground a few inches before it molded back into the ground, becoming solid again. I dug my hand into the glass-ground and scooped up a handful, it came away easily and looked like a solid piece of glass. I dropped it and the chunk molded to the ground, becoming a solid piece again.

Freaky, I thought, dusting my hands off on my pants despite the fact that none of the glass-dirt remained. I looked up... and gasped.

I was in a giant forest of fire. The forest was made up of trees with trunks dozens of feet thick, and hundreds of feet tall, and each trunk was a column of fire. It looked as if the fires had been shaped into the shapes of trees and were frozen in time. Each branch, a tongue of frozen flame. The leaves that filled the canopy, however, didn’t look like fire. The leaves were shards of clear crystals, rustling with the wind, shimmering with the sunlight.

I stumbled up to my feet, trying to look all around me at once. Turning in circles, trying to take it all in. The forest continued as far as the eye could see. Once I spun around a few times I stopped so I could enjoy the view.

It was beautiful... but wasn’t there supposed to be sounds in a forest? Shouldn’t I hear bugs and wildlife? Where was the underbrush? The only living things—at least I assume they are living—that I can see are the trees, and the only sound is the breeze through the crystal leaves.

“Where,” I mumbled, looking around again, “am I?”

"You are in my world," the voice behind me sounded like an avalanche, deep and crashing into me.

Gasping, I whirled around to the sound's source. Standing only ten feet away was a massive grizzly bear, making a cough-like growl at me. At fifteen feet tall, it loomed over me with its shoulders almost touching the low branches of the trees. It looked like a normal bear despite its large size... not that that made me any less terrified.

I stood stock-still. What was it that people say about bears? If black, fight back; if brown, lay down? Though, I doubt that playing dead will help me at all with this guy. It stared at me with eyes that shone with intelligence. If I tried playing dead, it would probably just scoff at my stupidity and then step on me.

Why isn’t it doing anything? Wait... who spoke? Is someone with it? Is it trained or something? Does it have an owner?

I shifted my eyes away, head still, to look around. No one was there.

"I don't have any owners," the voice said with a coughing growl that sent shivers down into my soul.

My already-agape mouth dropped even further. The voice came from the bear. Its lips flapped and everything.

I mean, Nora is intelligent so I guess it's not too far off for a bear to be as well... and be able to talk.

"Umm," I started to say, sweat trickling down my back, "Hello, I'm Seth."

That coughing growl came back and the bear's shoulders shook. The bear shook its head slowly, lips peeled back to bare its teeth.

Wait, that's not growling. That's laughing! This bear's laughing at me! Is he a good boy like Nora?

The bear threw its head back and roared with booming laughter. Hands slapped to my ears as I tried to block out the sound. Eventually, the laughing devolved back to the growl-like chuckles.

"Yes, Seth, I am what some would call 'a good boy,'" the bear said, bringing a paw up to wipe a tear from its eye. "My name is Deli, and I am somewhat of a fan of yours."

I blinked. Apparently, Deli the bear can read minds... And he's my fan... For some reason.

"Sooo... you're a fan?" I asked, my fear forgotten in my shock at the words that came out of a bear's mouth.

"Yes! Never in my million years would I have ever dreamed that my world—my world!—would be your first traveling!" Deli boomed with laughter again. "Why didn't you ever tell me!"

"Tell... you?"

"Sorry, sorry," Deli chuckled, "I'm getting ahead of myself; telling you things I shouldn't have. Let's start over. Welcome to my paradise! Of course, as you are now it's the complete opposite for you and I can't have that."

"What do yo-" I tried to say, but Deli just kept talking.

"I know that you're trying your best to survive, but even with Nora with you, you aren't doing that great a job... And if I'm going to have any fun with you, you need a little push in the right direction."

"Fun with me?"

Deli ignored me and continued his monologue. "There's a lot of rules stopping me from directly helping you, but I'm not totally powerless. There's no rules about you remembering something you already know."

Deli's laughing continued. And despite the deep growl of a laugh that Deli had, I couldn't help but remember a door like steel and laughter that echoed into the night as everything went black.

New sweat beaded on my forehead, and I swallowed.

"What are you going to do? " I asked, taking a step back.

A paw reached out and snatched me up in its claws. I yelped in surprise as Deli lifted me up to his face. The claws dug into my chest and back, slicing me open. I screamed in pain, but Deli just sighed, his breath blowing my hair back.

"Oh Seth," Deli chuckled, "I'm going to help you."

"I don't want your help!" I yelled, beating at his paw, writhing to get away from the claws.

He just grinned, his teeth gleaming in the brilliant light, and chuckled, "I am so glad you're here."

Everything went white.

>>

"Hey Seth, you listening bud?" My dad asked from behind me.

I, not listening at all, replied without looking up from my gameboy. "Huh? Oh, yeah Dad. Of course."

We were in the backyard of our old house, and Dad had brought home the hide of a deer he had hunted. Dad was insistent that I was there in the yard with him.

"Who knows what could happen?" He would say with a shrug, before dragging Charles and I somewhere for a 'lesson' in whatever bushcraft thing sparked Dad's interest. It wasn’t like he ever tested us though, so Charles and I learned to bring along our own entertainment.

This time it was just me and Dad. he was experimenting with leather making, and I was playing a Pokemon game. A win-win situation. I kept on playing my game and Dad kept on talking.

Wait... This is a dream; a memory. Is this what Deli meant when he said he'd help me? Showing me a memory of my Dad talking? Well, it works, I guess.

Dad was talking behind me, explaining that even though the hide was now on a frame, we still had to keep working on the hide. Even though I wasn't actually paying attention in the past, Dad's words stuck in my head. The words ingrained themselves into the memory, becoming the new focus instead of the game.

The entire process of leather making was explained to me. Of course, Dad couldn't do it all in one go. He just talked as he scraped the fat off of the skin's inside, and the fur off of the skin's outside. But he did explain the process from start to finish.

Huh, so I don't have to actually pee on it. I do need the brains though, and lots of soaking, wringing, and smoking. Man, that sucks. It sounds a lot harder than I had thought... Oh well. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, and I need the leather, I gotta prepare for the 'fun' Deli as planned for me. I doubt that I'm gonna like it.

I finished off the wild ekans with my Venusaur's razor leaf, then saved the game. I turned the gameboy off and flipped it closed. Dad had stopped talking, entirely focused on his task, and that meant I could go back inside. I didn't say anything though, because that would just get Dad talking again, and quietly went back inside.

I stopped at the door and looked back. Dad's face was scrunched up in concentration as he worked his knife back and forth over the skin.

Man, I wish I paid more attention to him and spent more time with him before... Well, it's too late now.

I turned and went back inside, the door clicked shut behind me.

>>

I awoke to rays of sunlight on my face, pulling me out of sleep. The bright morning sun lit the cave and the rest of Camp Rock. Just inside the cave the fire ring was cold and ash-filled, the rack was still placed over the ring, the meats were still hung. Past the rack and out of the cave, I could see the two skins still on their frames and leaning against the trees on the far side of the clearing. Everything looked the same as I had left it, but where’s...

“No-Nora?” I tried to say, but my voice croaked.

I turned my head over to look into the cave, and turned right into a wall of fur.

Oh. I was sleeping right next to her.

I pulled my face away from Nora and looked around to find her head. Her face was next to the top of my head, so I had to crane my neck to see her. Nora’s eyes were closed and she was breathing softly. She was sleeping.

Probably tired from taking care of me... speaking of which.

I looked down to my chest. My shirt was already days gone and my bandages were untied when I fell unconscious, so my chest was bare and I could see my wounds. What was left of them anyways. Three large pink scars lay across my chest. I brushed them with my fingers; they were still tender to touch.

Carefully, I scooted away from Nora so I wouldn’t wake her, and quietly got to my knees. I reached to feel my back. No blood, no cuts. It was probably scarred like my chest was.

How long was I out? Weeks? I thought, hand absent-mindedly brushing the scars. I suppose it doesn’t matter. I’m better now. I looked out of the cave and up to the morning sun, just cresting the treetops with bright yellow light. And I got work to do.