AUTHOR'S NOTE: You might want to read the author's note first. Like, the one at the end. Not this one. Well, also this one. You get it.
The first thing Liam sees when he wakes is... well, blinding light, really. He flinches away from it, turning his face away to press it into the grass. Grass?
As the pain washes away, his brain begins to function again. His thoughts are structured strangely - memories he hadn't ventured near in years brought to the forefront. All of them, all at once; they crowd together, jostling for the primary positions that are supposed to already be taken. As his headache begins to build, he begins to toss them frantically into the back of his mind.
It's too much. Years worth of school. Sports. Friends. Family. Meetings, partings, successes, failures, mistakes, victories, all he's ever loved and hated - all the big things, and all the small. The way he felt when his first pet died jostles against the type of toilet paper he uses, and he tosses them both into the background, but the pain just continues to get worse.
And yet, as the pressure builds, his focus sharpens instead of blurring. At last, he has the presence of mind to organize the memories... Huge swathes of memories, most everything from before his teenaged years is bound and swept into his subconscious, to be gradually processed and put in its rightful place by systems far more qualified for the job than his conscious mind. The pressure is instantly halved, and as he sweeps away his nightly dreams - things he never remembered in the first place - the pressure halves again.
Now that the momentum is built, instinct and his subconscious mind kick in. Like water sweeping through an unstuck drain, his memories flood back into their rightful places, and the pressure becomes bearable.
Groaning, Liam rolled over. His eyes were still closed, but the sunlight shone through his eyelids, pounding away at his already excruciating headache, and he tossed an arm over his face to protect his sanity. With the piercing light gone, the warmth became comforting, and he soon fell asleep.
~~~~~~
After a time, Liam's consciousness returned. He groaned as he rolled over in the grass, leveraging himself up with an elbow as he stretched his neck and observed his surroundings at last.
Verdant plains stretched off to the horizon in all directions. Some hours must have passed since he first lost consciousness, but the sun remained high in the sky. A cool, light breeze tousled his hair, and light clouds drifted across the sky, filtering the sunlight just enough to maintain the comfortable temperature that originally put him to sleep. The only sounds were the rustling of the breeze through grass and wildflowers, and that of his own breathing.
At first, he tried to remember where he was and how he had gotten there. His memories of the last few... days, maybe?
'Hahh, this must be a dream. The comforting mental fog, the instinctive confidence... I am once again in the familiar world where I am King!'
He smiled beatifically, gazing up at the blue sky, and basked in the warmth of the sun for a time. Dreams were the one place where he could feel truly free of all the burdens of the real world, and he had always relished every chance to indulge. He had long learned not to overthink these moments - to shatter the illusion would bring only tragedy and disappointment.
Eventually, he became restless. Turning to sweep his gaze across the horizon, he spoke aloud, "Well, there must be more you have to show me. Perhaps we'll make things more interesting?"
He raised an arm to point loosely at the horizon and focused, posing with an imperious expression as though to summon power from beneath the earth. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, nothing continued to happen.
"Er... that's a little awkward." He suddenly relaxed his arm, turning to cough awkwardly into his fist. 'It would seem as though my control is rather limited this time. Which is fine... being here is enough.'
He lifted his head to smile warmly at the horizon again, before beginning to stroll along aimlessly. He planned to enjoy this place as much as possible before it was gone.
Liam walked for a long time, tireless and serene. Though empty, this dreamland was beautiful. The fields were a wash of vibrant green streaked in the colors of wildflowers, the sky clear and calm, and the wind was warm and gentle, just strong enough to push his hair out of his eyes and ruffle the edges of his clothes.
Of course, all good things must come to an end eventually. As he was scratching his stomach and gazing up at a cloud with a particularly interesting shape, Liam suddenly felt his outstretched foot meeting only air where there should have been more grass. His eyebrows flew upwards as his mouth opened in an 'O' of surprise, and then he was plunging down the rabbit hole. Er, well. Some kind of hole.
After a rather wild and somewhat uncomfortable tumble through moist dirt and the occasional root tangle, he sat up, shaking away thoughts of tardy bunnies and outraged hobbits. He registered very little light in his surroundings, but as it was a dream, his vision remained unimpeded. Whilst rising to his feet and attempting to rid himself of the dirt that clung to him in all manner of weird places, he cast a curious glance about Wonderl- *ahem*, the space he now found himself in.
A rather unusual sight met his eyes, although - rather paradoxically, perhaps - that was to be expected in the land of dreams. The man sized dirt tunnel he had tumbled down for an indeterminate length of time opened up around him into a larger space, similarly dug out of the dirt. Less than ten feet away from him, the space ended in a relatively flat wall of dirt. Pressed into the dirt wall was a large, ornate gate crafted of some form of black metal or stone. However, this managed to hold Liam's attention for only a couple moments as his eyes were drawn to the man standing before the gate, staring down at him with an expression of mild surprise.
The man was an even 6 feet tall, with tousled brown hair and intelligent brown eyes hidden behind large wire-framed glasses. A white lab coat was draped across a wrinkled black dress shirt and faded blue jeans, his once white Nike sneakers slightly sunk into the soft dirt. One hand was raised in the direction of the gate, half encompassed in a small cloud of golden runes.
"...Are you lost?" Was the first thing the man asked Liam, continuing to stare at him with the same mildly puzzled expression.
"Uhh..." Understandably, Liam was indeed rather lost, and in more days than one. After a moment of slack-jawed mental processing, during which the man continued to watch him patiently, Liam abruptly snapped his mouth shut and stood, brushing off the last spots of dirt as best he could before replying.
"Who are you?" He asked, disregarding the other man's question. How could he be lost in his own dream?
"I am Richard, of course. Richard Towers."