Bella-Rosa Carr's Story

The sun began to rise on the small town of Mantua and the world sprung to life as the birds began to sing a beautiful earthy jingle. The town was bathed in the sunlight as the inhabitants of this small town awoke to face their everyday lives. The Blue Rose Inn was open 24/7 and had many visitors already arriving ordering rooms and meals. The Inn was bustling with life as more new arrivals came. Mantua was one of the portal towns. Where people from earth came to the dream world, so The Blue Rose was almost always busy. Today was no different.

Trenton sat at a table in the corner of the Inn and sipped some tea. The Inn was beautiful, the entire building was made of four trees that were manipulated to grow into three floors of pure nature. On top of the building there were many blue roses, where the Inn got it's name. Trenton sat in a corner examining the new arrivals. They all seemed so awestruck by this new world, but none of them could Trenton help. He had heard of three arrivals the day prior, and they weren't to happy to be dead and trapped in some weird afterlife. He would tell them of the stone, the stone that could set them free. It wouldn't be an easy quest, but everybody has to face their fears.

Bella-Rosa woke up on a tree limb. She looked around and scratched her head. 'This isn't my house.' She thought, climbing down from the tree limb and looking around. Off in the distance, she saw a man, walking toward a small town. She quickly dove behind the tree trunk and waited. When he was out of her sight, she sighed and came back around it. She looked further, and didn't have to squint. She reached up and felt her face. She was wearing her glasses.

'Of course. I wake up in some strange place, and I'm wearing these stupid glasses.' She thought, wiping her sweaty hands on her jeans. She looked around and decided to walk after the man. She began walking toward the town, taking deep breaths along the way.

She reached the town in a bout 50 minutes and looked around. It seemed as if it was around 9, and everything was closed, expect for a small inn. She walked inside and went to the innkeeper. She pulled out her phone, and typed quickly. It read 'Excuse me, might I know where I am?' She handed it to the man and waited for his answer.

The Inn Keeper's wife was bustling about getting rooms ready for all their visitors when a young woman approached her and handed her a small device which automatically turned off. "Silly girl." The large and chubby woman said to the young girl with black hair. "Technology doesn't work here." She told the newcomer.

Bella-Rosa sighed and began thinking as the large woman began walking around again. She had a light-bulb and tapped the woman on the shoulder again. This time though, Bella-Rosa began using sign language, spelling out, 'Where am I?' Bella-Rosa put her arms down and began mentally praying the woman could speak sign-language.

"What are you doing girl?" The Large woman asked her. "If you want a room go see my husband at the front counter. We're the best Inn in the Dream World you know." She told the young woman. "Why do I always get the crazies?" She questioned herself before storming off to another room to get ready.

Bella-Rosa sighed, then froze. 'What did she mean by dream world?' She thought to herself, as she walked over to the front desk. She rang the bell and waited for the innkeeper.

"Forgotten myself my dear boy." The Inn keeper apologised. "You are in Mantua. You're in the Dream World. It seems..."

Trenton stood from his table and walked over to the young man clad in a black cloak. "You have died in your sleep." Trenton said in a smooth and powerful tone. The kind of voice he usually spoke in. It was heavy with power and honour, yet very light and somewhat soothing. The Inn Keeper saw Trenton finish his sentence then scrambled off to help another customer, a young girl with jet black hair. Trenton eyed this figure. He could see destruction in his very soul. "This is the Dream world, where your soul goes when you sleep, and if you die in your sleep there is no body to return to. So you're stuck here." Trenton said in his suave tone.

"Yes my dear?" The innkeeper asked, his thick black moustache moved like a caterpillar as he spoke and moved in unison with his matching mutton chops.

Bella-Rosa sighed, finally getting someone's attention. Quietly, she whispered, "Where am I?"

Trenton seemed to laugh as so many people started questioning where they were. It was no funny matter, but Maybe the innkeeper should put up a sign that said 'You have arrived in the Dream World's beautiful town of Mantua!', but seeing as he probably wouldn't do it Trenton pointed at a wall and imagined a sign on the wall saying such. He had to focus on fine details, what the sign was made off, how many particles made it up, what those particles atoms were made of...It was a fine science. Then the ink was even more complicated because he had to focus on the exact chemicals to make the ink black and bolded, but after about just thirty seconds of these thoughts racing through his head the sign appeared.

Trenton then turned around. "If you're in Mantua, which is where we are. Your body has died and your soul is stuck here. There's no waking up. However... If this world full of your wildest dreams doesn't satisfy you... You may speak to me later tonight at the Prancing Minotaur Tavern." Trenton stated eliminating all questions until later. He loved that everyone was so curious and hungry for this new knowledge, but he was getting swarmed by it.

Trenton then snapped and he had disappeared. He had only made his particles move to the Prancing Minotaur Tavern. Like teleportation. But after those tricks he was spent and almost passed out. "a little too much..." He told him self with a light hearty chuckle.

"If you're in Mantua, which is where we are. Your body has died and your soul is stuck here. There's no waking up. However... If this world full of your wildest dreams doesn't satisfy you... You may speak to me later tonight at the Prancing Minotaur Tavern." A man said from behind Bella-Rosa. She turn just in time to see the man snap his fingers, and disappear. She gasped and looked around the room at everyone else. They were all standing around, staring where the man once was.

Then, realization hit Bella-Rosa like a ton of bricks. 'I'm dead.' She thought. 'I died in my sleep. My heart stopped. Oh my gosh, my disease killed me.' She thought, beginning to hyperventilate. She backed up against the wall, slid down it, and curled into a ball, breathing heavily.

"I'm dead." She whispered to herself. "I died." She began wheezing and coughing hysterically. She rested her head on her knees, wrapped her arms around her curled up legs, and wheezed into her legs, closing her eyes.

Dov listened as Trenton spoke. He was not the least bit bothered by the fact that he was dead. To Dov, this had to be just another part of an inevitable cycle. Still, after seeing the man disappear into thin air, Dov couldn't help his curiosity. Besides, the Prancing Minotaur had to be close.

Standing up, Dov realized that he now wore a cloak. After investigating the cloak for a moment, noting the nice material it was made of, Dov began to walk forward. After about five steps, a small wolf pup appeared just in place to send the man head over heals, landing on his back. He then sat up, looking around for what he tripped on while holding his side which now mysteriously hurt.

The pup soon trotted happily over to Dov, who then looked down at the small animal. "Hey little guy. Are you what tripped me?" Dov said in a childish and loving voice as he picked up and began petting the puppy.

The Innkeeper was getting tired of so many questions. "If you want to speak to Master Trenton, the tavern he spoke of is down the street towards the Evermoon. And before you ask What the Evermoon is, it's the red moon that's always in the eastern sky." The tall bearded Innkeeper said flustered. He then abandoned the newcomers and started handing out room keys.

Trenton sat in The Prancing Minotaur. It was a nice enough building made of a mixture of natural trees, but it had windows of stained glass depicting different scenes in mythology. one window depicted Theseus slaying the minotaur, another of Odin discovering Loki, Heracles defeating the Nemean Lion. It was truly beautiful with the art, ale, and beautiful bar maids. It was everything Trenton loved. He sat expectantly waiting for those people he had earlier met. He sensed a certain destiny about them that seemed to emanate a sort of power and greatness. It was about time for trenton to go on another quest anyway.

He was learning a lot about this place just by listening to these guys. Nathan was still seated at the table listening to the stories and interrupting every now and then to ask a question. It appeared that not everyone who came here had powers but that some people did. He was pretty sure he wouldn't have any since he'd already been gifted youth once again. He figured there was no way he would win the lottery twice. He learned that once you ended up here you were pretty much stuck as no one could tell him how to get back home. He had inquired about what would happen if he were to die here but was just met with laughter. He figured they didn't really have an answer as to where you went and we probably just died for good.

Which was what he was zoned out thinking about when a man stood up and proclaimed to seemingly anyone that we had died and that if we weren't satisfied with this we should meet him in another tavern. He was going to just blow it off, after all he was starting to get a nice buzz and the stories he was gathering were pretty interesting. He had already learned of another town not far from here that he planned to visit in the next few days. Once he figured out how he was going to get some coin in his pocket. He was sure not every place was going to be as friendly as this one and just let him eat, drink and sleep for free. Then again, this was a place made of dreams. But the man who had previously been standing just a few feet from him disappeared with the snap of his fingers. He also noticed that people had quieted down as the man had begun to speak.

At the same time he noticed that a few others had recently come in and seemed as out of place as he did here. There was just something awkward to the way they fit into the people around them. The one who tripped over seemingly nothing before disappearing under the tables for some time. There was a girl who seemed to be having some sort of panic attack and another guy trying to apparently repeated whatever trick the important man had done. "At least I am not the only one new here. "

Once again though the thought poked it's way through his mind. He was dead and that man had absolutely confirmed it. It wasn't as bothersome a thing as you would think. He actually just smiled and thanked whatever force had made this possible. He knew it sure wasn't him and he sure didn't deserve this. But he was interested in at least hearing out what the guy had to say and made to stand. He said his farewell's to the people he had been chatting with and made his way out and through town until he came across one of the others. He was holding a puppy and standing in the entrance to a building he could only assume was the Prancing Minotaur. "Pft, what a name!" he thought as he silently followed the guy in and watched him make a b-line for the table with the man in the blue robe.

Instead of immediately following him he went to the bar and tested to see if he could get a drink or a smoke. He sure hoped that they had cigar's in this world. Even though he'd been given a second chance he wasn't above squandering it in booze and smoke. "Eh, give me a cold glass of yer worst and a fat one." Ordering it up he moved away from the bar in hopes of getting someone to bring it to him without him actually having to pay or explain anything up front. And headed straight to the table seating himself with a nod. "Nathaniel. What's this nonsense we are in?"