Soren has been dreaming rarely lately.

Stress at work kept him awake long and his nights short. And the little time he slept was neither restful nor comfortable.

His bed was uncomfortable and the broken window, which kept squeaking open and shut, made sleeping more of an ordeal than a relief.

He floated in the darkness for some time, until suddenly something changed.

Something bright appeared in the distance – a sun, if he wasn't mistaken. It drew him closer, and he was helplessly at its mercy.

The heat increased with every second, until he felt sweat streaming down his forehead.

'What is happening?' he thought, panicking. His thoughts raced, but his body did not obey. He floated ever closer to the blazing sun. The heat became more and more unbearable and the air increasingly suffocating.

What had started as a strange, lucid dream was turning into an unstoppable nightmare. He tried to move, to flee, but he was as if paralysed. There was no escape. It drew him closer and closer until the sun filled the horizon and blocked out everything else.

His clothes had long since burnt to ashes, and he floated on towards the sun.

The heat burned on his skin as if he would burst into flames at any moment, but he couldn't free himself.

'Wake up, Soren, wake up!' he shouted in his mind. 'This is all just a dream. You have to wake up. If you make it, you'll be back in your life. For sure!'

But the dream held him captive. Every attempt to move or open his eyes failed.

Never before had he felt so helpless.

But the more he tried, the further away he seemed from awakening. The sun was so close that it blocked out everything else, a blinding, relentless light that overwhelmed his senses.

---

Soren woke up bathed in sweat, breathing quickly and shallowly.

Instinctively, he put his hands in front of his face to shield himself from the blinding rays of the sun that mercilessly struck his eyes.

The bright light burned in his eyes, and he squinted them shut while his hands tried their best to block out the light. Sunbeams directly into the face, right after waking up, was the worst enemy of a morning muffel like him.

"What the hell, I drew the curtains in front of the window!" he murmured, dazed and annoyed at the same time, while he slowly sat up and shook his head. First the nightmare and then this.

As his eyes adjusted to the light and he squinted, looking around, he realised that he was not in his room. No squeaky window, no sagging mattress. Tall trees rose around him, their thick, moss-covered trunks rising up from the ground and surrounding him like walls should have done.

The treetops formed a swaying green roof, through which individual sunbeams broke through like golden arrows and shone in his face.

The air was cool and fresh, filled with the scent of damp earth, pine needles and the distant sound of a stream.

Birds chirped in the trees, and somewhere in the distance he could hear the rustling of leaves as a small animal scurried through the undergrowth.

Soren leaned on his hands on the soft moss and stood up slowly, his legs shaking slightly. The moisture of the forest floor stuck to his fingers as he looked around in disbelief.

"Where am I?" Soren wondered aloud, but as soon as he had spoken the words, he stopped abruptly.

His voice sounded different, strangely high, almost like that of a child. A few octaves higher than he remembered it, as if someone had put a filter over his voice. The echo of his own words reverberated in his mind, and for a moment he just stood there, frozen in shock.

He instinctively touched his throat, as if the feel of his own hand could confirm to him that what he had just heard was real. But the touch of his fingers also felt wrong. They were too small and too delicate than his fingers and hands.

His heart began to beat faster, panic crept up inside him like cold fingers choking his throat.

'This can't be,' he thought, speaking again, this time in a whisper. "Hello?" But it was the same, a high, childish voice.

First the dream, then the surroundings and then his voice and hands. His thoughts all pointed in the same direction.

Soren turned around hectically.

This was definitely not his living room, and he would definitely remember if he had suddenly had the idea of going for a walk in the forest.

He looked down at his hands, which had seemed small to him before. Now he understood why: he really was smaller, and not just his hands, but his entire body was that of a child. The clothes he was wearing hung limply on him and looked very used and dirty.

''What kind of nightmare is this supposed to be?'' he asked himself.

''Now it must have happened... I've gone mad,'' he whispered, and an uncontrolled, bitter laughter erupted from him. It wasn't a happy laughter, but one that came from pure desperation, like the last valve that was still open to keep the madness out.

His whole body trembled slightly as he shook his head, unable to comprehend what had happened.

But suddenly he fell silent, his laughter stuck in his throat and his eyes widened as he took a step back.

''You've got to be kidding me. What is this?'' Soren said wearily as he looked the creature in the eye.

A lion emerged from the thicket. But not just any lion, because this one was easily twice the size of a full-grown lion!

But what shocked Soren most was the animal's mane. It was ablaze! A huge, flaming mane, crackling and blazing as if it were alive. The flames glowed in every shade of red and orange, dancing wildly in the wind.

The lion's glowing eyes rested on Soren as the lion let out a deep growl.

The ground trembled slightly under the mighty lion's paws as he advanced on Soren.

Soren held his breath and felt his blood curdle at the sight. He stood frozen in front of the gigantic lion.

He tried to take a step back, but before he could react, the lion leaped at him with a speed that belied its massive body. Soren threw up his arms in front of him, more out of reflex than any real hope of defence, as the beast pounced.

The lion's huge paw brushed against him, and even that fleeting contact was like a hammer blow. Soren was flung through the air and crashed into a tree trunk with full force. The impact took his breath away, and a sharp pain shot through his side where the lion's claws had torn his skin. Blood seeped from the fresh wounds, and he gasped for air as his whole body ached.

He tried desperately to move, while the lion approached slowly.

For the beast, this was just a sadistic game.

Soren lay bleeding on the ground, his clothes in tatters, and every breath was agony. His head was dizzy and his vision blurred. The blood seeping from the wounds on his side made him weak and the cold of approaching death crept into his limbs. He could hardly see, but what he still perceived was the heat. That terrible, paralysing heat that emanated from the lion and enveloped him relentlessly.

But this heat... it was familiar. Deep in his foggy mind, a thought from his last dream emerged.

The dream in which he flew towards the sun, the burning heat that threatened to consume him. This feeling was the same.

'No,' Soren thought to himself, as he struggled to his feet, his arms trembling with weakness. 'This is not how it ends for me.'

He felt his hands begin to glow as the power within him gathered. The rage and will to survive within him flared, and the sun that had almost consumed him in his dream shone even brighter within himself.

He could feel the energy pulsating through his veins, growing stronger and hotter with every breath.

As the lion prepared to leap, roaring and hissing flames, Soren screamed, raised his hands and released the energy he felt inside.

*BOOM*

A blinding beam of light burst out of him, so bright and hot that it bathed the forest in a dazzling glow.

The beam met the lion head on. The lion roared, trying to fight the overwhelming force, but the heat that Soren was radiating was too strong, too unstoppable.

The light penetrated the lion and triggered a huge explosion. A blinding pressure wave escaped like a dome of light from the centre of the explosion.

The ground trembled under the force of the explosion, alerting everything and everyone in the vicinity.

Soren, completely exhausted and breathing heavily, felt the heat of the explosion pass him by, but it didn't seem to burn him. He dropped to his knees, his arms powerless at his sides, while the aftermath of the battle faded away in the air.

Slowly, Soren sank to the ground, his hands digging into the soft moss, and looked up at the sky in a daze as his eyes closed from exhaustion, plunging him into the darkness of the unknown.

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So, now I've started something new. I know, I know..." We don't know yet how far he'll write this time", etc. But to be honest, writing only makes sense if it's fun or you can make money from it. And if I'm not making money from it, then I will only write while I have fun with it.

Else I would be stupid.

So, enjoy the story.

Leave a Review if you like it! Much Appreciated.

Men scroll

Men see

Men smile

Men gifts Stones

Men leaves Review

Men leaves happily.

Yours,

Jasonenrick!