Life Isn't Easy

Prologue

What would you do if you had the chance to make your deepest wish come true? If there was a land of magic where anything imaginable was reality? What would you give to have the chance to go and make your dreams come true? Me, I'd give anything........ At least that's what I thought in the beginning. Now I'm not so sure.........

Chapter 1

It all begins in the year 1673 with a young private named Nicholas Jonathan Mason. The war had been going strong for a year and all looked gloomy and dark. Many lives had been lost new faces kept coming and going all too fast. Only a few of the soldiers had lasted since the start and Nick was one of them. He fought hard for his country and his family which he missed often and dreamed of every time he was allowed to sleep. It was late and he hadn't slept for almost three days now when he was relieved of duty and told to go get some sleep. He went carefully to the tunnels and quickly fell asleep. His dream was the same one that he had been dreaming since he got into the trenches. It started with his goodbyes to his mom and to his little sister as he went off to war, then it changed to sights of death and destruction that had become a regular part of his weeks. Finally his dream took him to a land where troubles didn't exist and problem were far away behind he always loved escaping his daily hell to come to his dreamland. He was awoke early the next morning before sunrise to take his place among his comrades in this ever raging battle................

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"Settle down students and please take your seats. Today we will be learning about the war of 1672. Researchers found many fascinating things documenting the war, in my opinion the most fascinating was this journal kept by a young british soldier named Nicholas Jonathan Mason."

"My name is Private Nicholas Jonathan Mason of the british army. I am nineteen years old, of average build and intelligence, my hair is a sandy dirty blonde colour and my eyes are chocolate brown. I am keeping this journal to record my time in the army. I enlisted to serve my country and to protect my family. Life in the trenches is like nothing I have ever experienced before. I've only been in the war for about three weeks and I can't believe how much can happen in such a short time."

"So class as you can see this is only one page of the journal and I will be handing out copies of the entire journal now. Your assignment is to read the journal and answer the questions attached. It will be due on monday so you have this whole week and weekend to do it." The bell rings signalling the end of class "Class dismissed" the teacher says.

Later at the home of a seemingly ordinary family extraordinary things are happening that will set in motion events that will change this family forever.

The next morning Tyson woke at the sound of his alarm clock after having an odd dream that he just couldn't remember. The only thing he recalled was hearing his name being called but it was by a voice he didn't know. "Another day of the same boring routine. Basically I'm going to go downstairs, be greeted by my mom, have a silent breakfast, and then mom is going to make me a promise that she isn't going to keep. Its always the same. I wish it would be different." He gets out of bed and gets dressed then heads downstairs. "Hi honey how was your sleep?" His mother asked. "It was fine" he replied. "Hey sweetie I get off of work at two today so I'll come and get you after school so you don't have to take the bus today." "Cool mom I'll see you after school bye" Tyson grabs his stuff then heads up stairs and bangs on his sisters door and yells "hurry up in there or we'll be late." Then he heads downstairs and a few minutes later Amy joins him and they head off to school.

.............

Nobody could tell how long had passed because when living in the trenches one never saw the sun. So Nick had no idea when his commanding officer had requested to talk with him but he went immediately and then he proceeded to complete his new orders. One of their men had found a tunnel and he had been chosen to explore the new tunnel. He was not happy because many lost their lives in tunnels especially when nobody knew where they led. He walked through the camp and grabbed some of the things he felt he would need to take with him. He packed a flashlight, batteries, some food he had snuck, his compass, and a few personal belongings, then he slung the bag over his shoulder and marched to the entrance of the un-explored tunnel. He made his way down the narrow corridor that was just a few inches taller than he was. The tunnel stretched on for what seemed like hours but being underground time was very hard to determine. Eventually the tunnel started to get wider and then ended in a giant room. Nick cautiously stepped inside and looked around, the room was gigantic but as he looked around he spotted no dangers so he decided to go back and report. In the following weeks he visited the cave many times because it was something to do instead of just waiting or playing cards. He went back as often as he could and only when he was sure he wouldn't be missed or needed. He had found so many interesting things in the cave like the stalactites and stalagmites that were on the ceiling and floor and the many gems an semi-precious stones his favourite of all the gems he found were a deep, dark blue gem that he didn't know the name of. He was looking at them so intently that he didn't even notice that he wasn't alone in the cave. "Those stones are my favourite" an old woman spoke startling him. He looks back to the stones an then to the woman's face "mine too" he replied and after an awkward moment "where did you come from and who are you?" he asked "My name is Agatha and I am the dream-keeper, are you a dreamer?" She replied kindly with a gleam in her eyes "sort of, I guess" was his response his attention back at the stones "do you know what kind of stones these are and she told him that she had no idea but that it made them more interesting to her. They stood in silence for a while occasionally Nick would ask a question and Agatha would kindly answer whatever he asked. "I hate to say it but I think I should head back, it was a pleasure meeting you" he starts to head towards the tunnel "all right dear, please do come back and visit me anytime". About a week later he visits Agatha and they talk about random things. "Nick, I have something I would like to show you" he agreed to let her show him what she wanted. He never imagined that when she had said she wanted to show him something that she would have meant this magical place called Dreamland that only she could get to. She told him about how Dreamland was a magical place where anyone could travel with the help of the dream-keeper which was her at the moment, she then explained that she hadn't always been the dream-keeper but when she was a little girl she had met the previous dream-keeper and likewise for thousands and thousands of years. She told him how the dream-keeper was the bridge between the world of earth and Dreamland and how there must always be a dream-keeper to keep the peace and operate the bridge. He asked her many questions about Dreamland all of which she answered and when he went back to his camp that night he dreamed of Dreamland and everything he had learned.