Chapter 6

                Liber Somniorum is an old book that contains the mystery of dreams and how to navigate its plains. It explains how the plains of dreams are divided. First is the 'Shallows', a place where you will find yourself at the beginning of your sleep, the outside can influence your dreams and manipulate them based on your understanding, for example, the sound of water dripping outside can be projected in one's dream. Second is the 'Plain of Desire and Idea', it is the largest part of the plains and the most crowded, this is the place where your normal dreams happen. The third is the 'Deep', a place where people find themselves deep asleep that they experience no dreams at all. Next is the so-called 'Twilight Zone', a place filled with miasma that comes from the abyss, the miasma induces nightmares in the people who come in contact with it, the twilight zone on occasion erupts thus sending miasma towards the upper portion of the plains and may even cause the dreamer to experience sleep paralysis. And lastly the 'Abyss', the abyss is the deepest part of the plains it is the main cost of miasma, although no one can prove where exactly it comes from, people who come in contact with the abyss slowly turn insane the longer their exposure is, the abyss is filled with miasma that traveling in it can be very slow thus prolonging a person’s exposure in it.

                The plains of sleep are mostly inhabited by people which classify as dreamers, dreamers are normal people who are connected by "Tethers" from which is connected to their physical body, they constantly float and drift between the plains of sleep and if they wish to wake they unconsciously use the tether to return to their bodies. A dreamer's emotional baggage can affect the speed of their descent and return, most people who are experiencing stress or had traumas float near the twilight zone thus making them susceptible to the miasma. Dreamers who found themselves tainted by the miasma coming from the abyss suffer nightmares with varying degrees depending on the exposure or how thick the miasma is. Some dreamers who have suffered prolonged exposure from the miasma can either become a 'Stranded' or worse become a 'Taken', stranded dreamers may have their tethers badly corroded thus broken resulting in the physical body falling into a coma, taken dreamers are people with broken tethers that unfortunately drifted down the abyss, the dreamers "soul" will then be corrupted beyond repair resulting the body to become brain dead.

                Special dreamers which are called 'Lucid Dreamers' are people who can "swim freely" in the 'Plain of Desire and Idea' thus granting them the ability to control their perceived dreams albeit they do it unconsciously. Very few lucid dreamers can master this ability and swim freely on the plains of sleep thus having the ability to technically turn your dreams on and off as you swim towards the deep, these people are classified as 'Lucid Divers'. A few of these Lucid Divers have the ability to reconnect a dreamer's broken tether thus waking them up, these special people are called 'Dream Callers' and are considered as Master of Dreams.

                Although Dream Callers are masters of dreams, most of those who ventured into the abyss was taken by it, and the unlucky few who woke up turned insane and killed themselves speaking about the horrors that lies in the abyss.

                Phil read the book with great interest that the next time he noticed the sky was getting brighter, he wanted to master the ability to control his dreams so that he won't be plagued with nightmares anymore. He arrived at his school with dark bags under his eyes, he was excited to share the contents of his book with his friends. He saw Eric chatting with some girls and approached him, the girls saw Phil and were clearly annoyed, Eric sighed in relief as he saw Phil and walked towards him.

                                "Sorry girls I need to excuse myself."

                The girls were disappointed and were staring daggers at Phil.

                                "Hey Bro, what's up with you? Did you have another nightmare?"

                                "No, I did not, I found this really strange and cool book and I want to share it with you and Sonja. Where is she by the way?"

                                "She's in the library with Samantha, apparently she saw Samantha getting bullied again and helped her."

                Phil and Eric walked towards the library, Phil clearly excited to share his experience while Eric was a little curious. In the library, they saw Sonja sitting on a Desk with Samantha on the opposite of her who was gloomy looking down.

                                "Hello Sonj, what's up with her?"

                                "Morning Phil, she's just a little shy."

                                "Did you scold her again, anyway look at this book that I found, it's really weird and interesting."

                Phil took the old book out of his bag and placed it on the table so that everyone can see it, Samantha was even curious and took a glance at the book.

                                "It talks about dreams and how to navigate it apparently."

                Sonja and the others watched the old book curiously, the cover depicts a compass with a crescent moon covering one side while a greek ship at the bottom carrying the two, the words Liber Somniorum etched in gold seem to be the title of the book.

                                "The Book of Dreams."

                Samantha whispered. Phil and his friends looked at Samantha.

                                "That's what the title means, The Book of Dreams."

                Samantha explained shyly. After Samantha's explanation, they returned and curiously read the book again. Phil then flipped the book and stopped at the page which explains how to control your dreams and a set of practices on becoming a Lucid Dreamer. Eric and Sonja were intrigued and wanted to practice as well, while Samantha was more concerned about how they treated the old book roughly, she even held her breath as Phil flipped the pages recklessly. Eric and Sonja wanted a copy of the practice and asked Samantha to use the library photocopy machine, Phil even gave Samantha a copy after they photocopied it as a payment for her service.

                After School was over the trio hurried home and were excited to try and practice so that they can control their dreams. At night after reading and re-reading the book again, Phil laid down and relaxed he immersed himself and recall the practice as he slowly fell asleep. Phil woke up and felt himself dreaming he tried to control his surroundings and to his glee, his surrounding changed. Phil imagined that he was a superhero and flew to the sky, he gave himself some superpowers as he savored the feeling and enjoyed himself, and he imagined traveling around the world and conjuring weapons that he used to fight against bad guys. But little did he know a shadow figure was staring at him all the time, it watched him change his dream, but instead of getting angry that he could no longer terrorize him in his sleep, it smiled with glee with its many mouths dotted all over its body.

                Sonja found herself in a void, everything was dark but oddly it was not scary. Sonja liked the feeling of peace and quiet as she immersed herself in this newfound feeling. Eric found himself in a situation like Sonja, Eric willed and changed the dream and everything changed, now he found himself in a grassy field while the gentle wind blew through his hair, but instead of getting excited from these god-like powers, Eric felt bored he knew it was just a dream. He stood still and quietly closed his eyes, he knew he could do better than this, he knew that this was merely an illusion and wanted to go deeper. Eric opened his eyes and saw himself floating, he looked around and saw white figures in fetal position floating around him, and all figures around him had a golden rope connected to their heads. Eric was intrigued by this and knew that this might be the 'Plains of Sleep', he felt that navigating these plains was like swimming in the ocean while traveling and looking around, he saw figures that were moving and waking up, it slowly grabbed the golden rope on its head and yanked it gently, the figure was then whisked away ascending quickly and disappearing on Eric's vision, he assumed that the figure woke up in the real world.

                As Eric continued his journey he saw a figure that had no tether on it, the figure was slowly sinking and Eric chose to follow it out of curiosity. He swam deeper and deeper until he saw a place filled with dark smoke billowing around, he stopped on his tracks as a sense of panic swept over him, he slowly calmed himself and told himself that everything was okay, he watched as the figure slowly descended and came in contact with the miasma, at first nothing happened and the figure kept on descending. Eric thought that maybe it wasn't that scary, he was about to swim down and look for himself when suddenly the white figure that was slowly descending down came to life it hurriedly tried to swim up it clawed its way as it tried to escape the miasma, it was slowly being corroded by the miasma and black spots were starting to appear on its body, it noticed Eric and reached its arm towards him begging him for his help, but the miasma grabbed the white figure as shadowy arms formed and dragged the figure down towards the abyss. Eric saw it all and he was paralyzed with fear, he saw the white figure looking at him even though it did not have a face he knew it was begging him for his help. Eric was petrified and stared at the abyss he had a creepy feeling that the abyss were staring back at him.