This is a longer story than any of the others on my account at the time of writing, and it's also one I'm proud of. It's also relatively lengthy, weighing in at just over 11k words. Join Taylor J. as he discovers a world within his dreams that seems to hold unlimited potential, and watch as he meets Zaea, an anthropomorphic bird who guides him through this new reality.

Here is an excerpt of an early section of the story so you have something to go off of before downloading:

The dome he once took to be the bounds of his dreamscape was little more than a small metal orb inset into a basin of natural earth. The walls of the basin rose to mountain peaks, from which spring water flowed in rivulets down to a lake near the dome. Beyond the ridge, the landscape carried on infinitely in all directions, curving up in some and down in others until it was indiscernible with distance. Above it all, the lustrous sky shone down, brighter than any full moon and overflowing with stars and galaxies intertwining in wonderful forms.

Taylor landed himself in the sloping prairie at the base of one peak. The grass was wet with dew or streamwater, and small flowers bloomed in random clusters across the landscape. A small pond nearby brightly reflected the stars above. He marveled at the landscape, unlike any he had seen before. He had dreamt this? He couldn’t even recall the last time a dream of his had even had a distinctive setting, beyond perhaps some high school hallway or the lot of his apartment building. He knelt near one of the patches of wildflowers. They smelled sweet and felt wet. The air was cold, and the wind was blowing. He looked down at himself, and his body seemed as present as when awake, although with more ideal features.

He was distracted from the reflective exercise by a shadow that flew across the starry sky. The shape was like a bird, but as it circled overhead it was clear there was more to it. The creature had a human-like torso, with two taloned wings. Sky-blue feathers encircled the being as it landed on the grassy slope. It wore nothing but a satchel across its back, but its feathers provided some modesty. It looked up at Taylor with green eyes and spoke:

“You are the newcomer, yes? What is your name?”