Darrien felt completely isolated in this space, he knew he must be somewhere in the Northern American region, he had guessed since this was the heart land of the Celestial Union, yet this whole issue with the book just dropping would give him a bit of a fright, who would do something so horrible as to scare a student, well actually now that he thought into this a few more moments he came to realise that was totally a thing students would do.
"Ok, funny. You scared me you can come out!"
He would wait for a few moments as his voice echoed down the hallway, the dust scattering slightly before settling back down, he would look around and see a small trail of dust with his own foot prints and no one else, he was one of the only person to come in here for along time.
Something felt strange about this place, looking around the very essence of this place had changed, the normal quiet atmosphere with an aura of learning had changed to a creepy and almost foreboding place, warning him to leave, he felt his own breathing starting to grow rapid as the lights dimmed in the distance, each corridor around him looked the same as the last.
He looked back down at the book before reaching his hand out, the only thing calling for him in this place and was actually inviting, hand gracing against the old leather of the tome, slowly pulling it up as he would open the old crusting pages, jets of dust scattering from the inside as he felt his vision growing dark, magical energy flooding from the core of this ancient tome into him.
His vision coming back as he was back again in the strange place, his body chained to something again as the sands around him shifted, the woman still sitting and drinking as he was getting sick of this, he was not someone that people could play with.
"Oh my, back again so soon. Seems you must have found one of my books or has it found you?"
She would tilt her head again, the only feature he could see since she wore so much clothing, Darrien bit the bottom of his lip, feeling the urge to just tear her mask off and screaming at her to speak sense, the rage and angry flooding him as his body was getting strangled by this chain, his head bound to this rock as he could not look anywhere else.
"So much anger, I've not chained you here. You chained yourself here"
Darrien stared at her for a moment, he had chained himself here, why would he do such a thing. This woman was clearly insane, who would drink tea in the middle of the desert while she watched a chained person struggle.
"This is insane, am I insane...wait" He said slowly, his mind racing as he came to a thought.
This was his dream, he had dreamed about this woman many times, maybe the strange place he had entered had some charm or magical ritual to make him fall into a dream state, it was possible that he had entered into a forbidden area. Which would be a pain when he woke up.
"One problem at a time"
He said to himself as he would quickly feel the chains against him, these chains felt oh so real against his own skin, tightly holding him down, this was all to real to him.
Looking down at the woman as he would sigh before breathing slowly, taking his breaths slowly as he would try to imagine his breathing, the world around him being just simply air, the chains around him just air that surrounded his limbs.
A few moments went past before he would open his own eyes, gusts of wind flooding the land, sand getting scooped up as the chains around him simply started to vanish into gusts of wind, body falling from the stone as he would fall and smash into the sand, face first.
"Oh god, sand in my mouth!"
He would continue to spit out the sand as he would look up at the woman, she again seemed confused as she would tilt her head the other direction.
"Thanks for the help?"
He said sarcastically before rubbing his clothes from all the sand, checking over his body as he felt like something had changed, his body had grown in size slightly, his more athletic build had changed into a more muscular build, his features more sharp as he moved a hand over his face.
He took a few moments to look around as he noticed the object he was chained to, the glowing hum and slow movement caught his attention. "Oh Echo, why are you showing up everywhere like some cheap crossover character." He said clearly in displeasure.
He would again turn towards the woman in black, his body moving over to her as he needed some answers for all the crazy things happening to him, in the end it could be pointless as this woman could be just another crazy part of his mind.
"Well, that was unexpected. It normally takes you longer to do that." She said softly, shaking her head as she would look up at him.
"Who are you exactly, why are you speak to me, have I gone crazy?"
Each question coming fast as the woman continued to sit and watch, the parasol above slowly turning in the wind that had yet to calm down from his interaction with them earlier.
"I'm a friend, old friend. We have done this so many times that it does get slightly boring. It's fine, you have already passed the first part."
He would shake his head, she failed to give anything to detailed, in the end he would just assume he had gone totally insane.
"It's time to wake up though, if you stay here longer then you may be in danger."
He would blink as he watched her for a few seconds, waiting for her to continue before he found his mind growing hazy, slowly grumbling out to her. "Oh this is not fair!"
"It's never been fair. Good luck!"
He found his eyes cracking open as he pulled himself from the floor, covering in dust as the book in his hand slowly turned to ash, his fingers trying to grip the sand like partials that slipped through his fingers.
"Ok, that is it. Next time I see that lady..." He would stop as he wondered for a moment. "Wait I sound so stupid and crazy!" he shook his head before checking himself, brushing off the dust from his body as he looked around the place again, the lights had been dimmed to a horrible low as he continued to search,
It was strange as he could still see without an issue, maybe his one power from changing was night vision which he never had noticed to this point. "I guess there is worse powers then night vision" He said as he finished cleaning himself up.
"Oh, Night vision. That will help you" said a strange, creepy and disjointed voice, almost like an insect clattering its mandibles together.
He felt a chill going down his spine as he would slowly turn, his mouth almost hitting the floor as he looked up to a creature that almost made him want to scream, this long insect like creature with many legs like a centipede with the face like a praying mantis, two large crushing claws for a mouth which seemed large enough to crush him in half, this creature was almost twenty five foot long just from looking at it while being almost five foot wide. It's body was similar to a human at the top half, except for the arms being massive praying mantis claws.
This was a nightmare.
"Do not worry, guess what time it is?"
Darrien laughed awkwardly as he would take a few steps back.
"What time is that?"
The creature shifted and with speed it would start to move fast towards him.
"SNACK TIME!"