Origin [Rough Draft of Shattered Stars]

Chapter 8: Training

I gazed into the dense fog enveloping me, thoughtless and emotionless. Prickly gravel crunched under my feet as I wandered forward. My breath condensed in the chilling air, merging with the fog. A strong pine scent tickled my nostrils.

After some time, the mist around me thinned and receded, as though I repulsed it. The path on which I walked was like ballast for train tracks, disappearing into the fog ahead of me. Obscured bases of trees passed by on both sides of the path, where the fog was still dense.

The white haze glowed faintly in all directions as it continued to expand away from me, leaving no trace of shadows. An endless forest of pine trees hugged both sides of the gravel path, forcing it into a straight line that went off to infinity. Each tree was a copy of the tree next to it, and they were spaced apart equally from one another, as if a giant grid contained them. They stood petrified in silence.

I stopped walking, my breathing now clamorous compared to the calm of the forest. Something was off. After a fruitless survey of the surrounding trees, I aimed my muzzle towards the azure sky, which took a surprising amount of mental effort to accomplish. A lazy scan of the sky told me the sun was missing.

Where is it? The haze was faint in every direction, as though an invisible heat source was burning it off. The world had a quality of flatness. Nothing made shadows, and everything was lit equally from all sides.

I crouched and prepared to take flight, but a blue light in my peripheral vision stopped me. It resolved into text when I focused on it.

<- LUCIDITY: 95% ->

The number incremented every few seconds, each increment making me more aware than before. Was this a dream? I performed a dream test, attempting to push my finger through the other hand's palm. It slid through like my hand was a hologram.

<- LUCIDITY: 100% ->

I smiled. This was indeed a dream.

The familiar icons and symbols popped into existence in my interface. The time icon showed the real-world time, 4:18 AM. The seconds ticked in slow motion. Was the implant accelerating my thoughts, or was this the normal flow of time during a dream?

<- DEFAULT DREAM PROTOCOLS ACTIVE ->

<- TIME DILATION INACTIVE ->

That's good to know. I searched the system settings for text options; I didn't want to have the thing screaming at me in all caps.

<- Settings changed. ->

Much better.

A new "Dream" icon prompted me to explore the capabilities of the dream world. Hundreds of options whizzed by as I scrolled down the list. Some would've made me blush if I were still human.

Human... I found the "Shapeshift" option and selected it.

<- New species: _ ->

I entered "human".

<- Searching existing identities . . . ->

<- Identity found. ->

Everything froze and shifted, like a television temporarily losing its dish signal. After I recombobulated, I was closer to the ground. My human nose was present on both sides of my vision. My hands were flesh and bone. My wings and tail had disappeared. Although this body was different from the one I had moments ago, my mind told me it was the one I'd always had.