Every night for the past hundred years or so, I have had exactly the same dream.  The Woman tells me there is a man in the city who can tell me what it means; the Boy tells me I ma not to go to the city.  I am not sure which one I ought to trust.  But I suppose there is no reason to worry about it.  I cannot leave the chamber unless the Little One allows it.
Do you wish to know what the dream is, then?  All right.  I see no reason to keep it a secret from you.
I look downward, and far below me there are three islands.  But when I look closer at them, I see that they are not islands, but clouds.  For however long I watch the clouds drift, and eventually I notice that they appear to be growing larger.  Then I realize that they are not growing; they are getting closer, or more accurately, I am getting closer to them.  Have I been falling this whole time?  It did not feel like I was falling.  Why?  I get my answer when I look up and find that I am not really falling; I am being gently lowered down.
Who is lowering me, you ask?  It is a beautiful girl, seated on a small cloud.  She is all dark and shadowy, yet terribly beautiful.  She is holding me by the back of my collar and we are slowly descending.  Who is she?  She is so familiar, but I do not recall her being present in my life as a prophet, or as a military general, or as a sugar cube.  But I know her somehow; I know her, but I do not know who she is.  All I know is that she loves me very much and that there is no reason to be afraid of her.  So I allow her to take me down to the sea.
I do not know exactly how long it takes us to reach the water, but I know that it takes a very long time, and that as soon as we stop descending, the head of a sea serpent rises up out of the waves a mere hundred fett or so in the distance.  Then it begins to swim toward us.  Even in my dream I realize that I ought to be afraid, but I am not.  I know why I am not afraid.  It is because the girl is still holding me.
As the serpent approaches, I slowly begin to realize that someone is sitting on one of its horns, then when it gets a little closer I can tell that it is a little girl.  But it is only when they have nearly reached us that I discover that the girl is the Little One, but in my dream she is a little girl instead of a little woman.  And in my dream, she looks so hostile, and I can see that she intends to do me harm.
The Little One descends from the horn of the beast, so that she is now standing on the waves that I hover just above.  She says something; I know that while I am dreaming, I can understand her perfectly, but upon awakening I always forget wat it is that she says.  After she says it, the beautiful girl drops me into the sea, and all at once I become cold and wet and genuinely afraid.  I am fairly certain that I begin to scream, but while I am in the cold wet ocean I cannot see or hear anything, so I cannot be entirely sure.
I am not quite sure how long I am in the ocean, but I believe it lasts even longer than the trip down from the sky.  After that time is over, I first become aware of a little pinhead of dim grayish light, which gradually grows larger and brighter.  When it has become a fist-sized orb of yellow light, everything begins to grown warmer, and I hear soft gentle voices all around me, whispering things to me to comfort me.  Yet I am paralyzed and trembling with fear.  Why should I fear?  I did not fear when I was in the sky.  I did not fear when the serpent approached me.  There is no reason to fear now.  Yet I am afraid, and I am sure I know why.  It is because the girl is not with me.
The dream does not go on any longer.  Do you have any idea what it means?  Who the girl is?  Please do not ask me what I think it means.  If I had any idea, I would not be aking you.
Are you leaving now?  I suppose I cannot stop you.  But may I ask you to come back soon?


Oh.  Welcome.  Thank you for coming back.  as it really been ten years?  It felt like days.  Oh, it was only three days?  No wonder it felt so short.  But if it was only three days, how did I get to the forest, save the little dragon, and get back in such a short amount of time?  Oh, please do not tell the Little One that I left the chamber without her permission.  I am afraid of her.  I do not want her to be angry at me.
Yes, I have still been having that dream every night.  It has not changed one bit, and I still do not know what it means.  But I have arrived at one conclusion.  The beautiful girl is the Woman.  She has to be.  There are no girls besides the Woman and the Little One, correct?  Oh, there are others outside the chamber?  That is a little disappointing.  I was sure I had put a key piece in the puzzle of the dream.  Well you cannot really balme me for not knowing that, can you?  I hardly remember anything from before I was taken to this chamber.  All I remember is that I led at least three different lives before this one.
In one of my past lives I was a prophet.  I rmember preaching to a group of people.  I do not remember how many pople there were.  I was prophesying, that I remember, but I do not recall whether the things I predicted came to be.  In another life, I was a military general.  I only remember giving orders to some soldiers, and then I guess I was shot or something; I only rmember pain, and after that, absoltely nothing, or more correctly, nothing of that life.  In my third life, I believe I was a sugar cube.  My only memory of that life is being dropped into a large container of something scalding hot, and I felt little pieces of me breaking off, and I was never able to move or scream or anything.
So, have you met the dragon yet?  I saved him from an evil king sometime within the last...um, three days, you said?  He's over there on the table.  Do not wake him up.  He is sleeping.  I hope you can come sometime when he is awake.  You can tell when he is awake becausehe doesn't breathe fire when he is sleeping.  Maybe he is nocturnal.
You are leaving again?  Farewell.  May we meet again.

You have returned!  How long has it been?  A week?  Oh, it has been a mere two days?  Do I do everything sped up or something?  Anyway, thank you for coming.  You may sit down, but please do not sit on my dragon.
Did you hear that the king tried to take away the dragon?  I think it was today.  He was shouting at me, saying that I stole him.  I swear I did not steal him.  I saved him.  The dragon slept through the whole thing.  He is a very lazy dragon; he has not even moved from the table I put him on when I first brought him to this chamber.
Speaking of which, I assume the Little One has not heard that I left my chamber?  Good.  Thank you for not telling her.
Oh!  The dragon is awakening!  See?  He is breathing fire.  That was rather thoughtful of him, was it not?  The room was getting a little cold, after all.  So where were we?  Uh...I think we were discussing my dragon's laziness.  Would you like to take him outside and play with him for a while?  I am tired.  I must sleep.  If I sleep, I will not be able to protect my dragon from the evil king if he comes back for him.  Thank you for watching him.  Wait for him to fall asleep and then carry him outside; if you try to touch him when he is awake, he will breathe fire on you.  Got that?  All right.  Good night, then.


Good morning.  Do you have my dragon?  He is not in the chamber.  You returned Mister Mudson's radiator?  He is the Bearded Man, correct?  It is good that you decided to return the radiator.  Do not steal people's radiators.  So where is my dragon?  Has he gone home?  That is good.  He ought to be with his family; he is only a baby dragon.  Why else would he be so small?  Dragons are bigger than that.
What?  Oh, yes.  I did have the dream again while you were gone.  Only once, though.  That means it has only been a day since then, correct?  Good.  I see I am catching on.
Would you like to come in?  You look uncomfortable just standing there in the doorway.  Please sit down.  Are the chairs sufficiently comfortable?  If the chair is too hard, I can make it softer.  Yes, I found out pretty recently that I am able to control these things.  Did you bring any dinner?  I am beginning to feel hungry.  I think I could suppress my hunger if I wanted to, but I am pretty sure it would be a bad idea.
You will prepare some food for me?  Thank you very much.


Oh!  Is that the food?  Looks good.  I was just thinking I wanted some lasagna.  Did you bring anything to drink?  No?  Well, that is all right.  I will just drink from the faucet in the bathroom.  Would you like a drink?  I can make it dispense anything I really--just water?  Is this a jest?  Ah, pay me no mind.  I have no objections.
Here you go.  You can have some of the lasagna if you would like.  I do not think I am capable of consuming an entire lasagna on my own.  Although I suppose there is only one fork and one plate.  I could turn a pencil into a fork for you, though, and you can eat straight from the dish.  You do not want me to?  You are quite modest, my friend.
I have finished eating now.  You may eat the rest of the lasagna or give it to someone else.


Oh, have you come to visit me again?  Thank you.  I was getting a little lonely.  There is nobody else to keep me company now that my dragon has returned to his family.  The Boy and the Woman only come to deliver meals.  How long has it been since you lastvisited me?  Two days?  That was about what I thought.  I am getting better at this.
My dream?  Yes, I have still been having that dream.  Why do you care so much about my dream?  Is it only because it was one of the first topics we discussed?  Then again, I am not sure exactly what else we would discuss.
Actually, I just now recalled something I have been meaning to ask you.  Exactly what is outside this chamber, apart from the forest, the evil king, and the dragon family?  Are humans at all common?  The king has to have some subjects, after all.
They are common?  Then if I leave this chamber, am I likely to find the beautiful girl somewhere?  I know that, I know I am not permitted to leave the chamber.  Then do you suppose it would be possible for one of you to find her and bring her to my chamber?  Well, I am not sure anyone else would be able to find her.  I do not exactly know what she looks like; I told you she was very dark and shadowy, did I not?  I think that I could recognize her, though.  Even when my back is turned to someone entering the chamber, I can tell if it is you, the Little One, the Woman, the Boy, the Bearded Man, the Child, or a stranger.  I know the girl from somewhere.  I could do it.
You look tired.  Am I boring you or are you simply in need of sleep?  Either way, you probably had best leave.


Huh?  You have returbed already?  Six days?  It has been six days since you were here last?  I can go that long with no sleep?  This has to be a joke of some kind.  Is my lack of sleep the reason the invisible talking people have appeared to me?  I had best go to bed now.


They are not going away.  I have slept as long as I can and the invisible talking people are still here.  They tell me that I have to leave the chamber, that I have to find her.  Make them go away.  I care not who you are, you could be the Little One for all I care, you will never frighten me as much as the invisible talking people.  I want her, I want the girl, the dark girl from my dream.  Then I will not be afraid.  I will fear nothing.  Just like in the dream.
No!  Come bakc!  Please, they are here, invisible, talking to me.  They want me to kill you and run away.  I can tell who you are now.  You are my friend, my only friend.  Stay here so I am not afraid.


Where am I?  Oh...it is the chamber.  Have they left us?  How long was I sleeping?  Oh, did you stay there the entire three hours?  It seems they have gone away.  You may leave if you please, I suppose.
You will stay?  Thank you very much; there is something I feel I must tell you.
While I slept, I had a secnod dream after the usual one, and this one may be stranger than the first.  Two cliffs stood on either side of a deep chasm.  On one cliff I stood, staring across the chasm; on the other cliff stood the most horrifying beasts one could imagine.  Yet on their cliff, all was bright and colorful and lush; on mine, everything was dark and cold and dead.
The beasts were calling out to me, and although I could not hear the exact words they spoke, I knew that they were asking me to come to the other side.  Yet despite the fact that I was living in death where I stood, I did not want to go to the other side because I was afriad of the beasts.
The beasts saw that I was not willing to come to their side, and I knew that this did not please them.  They gave up on trying to call me over to them.  They began to cut branches from the large beautiful trees on their side, and somehow I knew immediately that they were going to form a bridge and come to my side to take me by force.
Naturally, my first thought was that I must flee or they would surely reach me.  But to my utmost dismay and horror, I discovered that my legs were frozen in place and I was unable to move them.  All I could do was watch them construct the bridge that would lead me to my doom.
I had been certain that once they completed the bridge, all of them would stampede across the bridge and snatch me away.  But instead, they sent only one of them across the bridge to meet me.  And this one, for reasons I could not yet discern, did not fill me with terror as the others did.  And when this creature had finally crossed over the chasm and reached me, I found out why.
This was no mere monster.
This was the girl.
How did I know it was her?  Did I not mention earlier, my friend, that I do not have to see you to recognize you?  This was the girl.  You can trust me on this.
The very moment the monster-girl laid one of its deformed hands on me, life returned to my frozen legs, allowing me to walk again.  The creature began to make its way back across the bridge, and with no hesitation I followed after it.  I no longer feared any of the creatures now that the beautiful one was with me.  I wanted to go to the other side.
But in a most unfortunate turn of events, I felt something down by my feet preventing me from going any further.  I looked down and learned what was holding me down--small vines growing out of the ground, wrapping themselves around my ankles to hold me down.  And as seconds passed, they grew.  They did not stop growing until they had become and impenetrable wall of vines around me, and then transformed into a solid box composed of some substance much harder and sturdier than stone.
That is where this dream ends.  Now, are you wondering why I felt I had to tell you of this dream?  This is why.  I feel the the wall...the box...
It is you.
I will permit you to leave now.


Good afternoon.  I did not think you would return.  It has been a long time since we last spoke.  How has your life outside been?  Fine?  Well, I will assume you are teeling me the truth.
There is something I have been intending to discuss with you; I think that if I aksed any other person, they would tighten the chambers security or relocate me to a more secure chamber.  It is this question: why do you keep me in this chamber?  And also, why am I not permitted to go outside?  I would like to see this outside world.  I have seen the forest, yes, and the king's castle, but I cannot help but feel that that was only some manner of world-within-a-world, if that makes any sense to you.  You say that humans are common in the outside world?  I saw no humans but the evil king in the forest.  Therefore, the forest cannot be the true outside world.  Is this correct?
If I am correct, then why does nobody allow me to come out of this chamber?  Should I not at least be free to explore the forest at my will?  However hard I try, I cannot think of any reason I should be contained permanently.  What is out there that I am forbidden to come into contact with?  I do not care any longer if I meet some horrible fate at the hands of this terrible thing.  My curiosity has overcome my fear.
Or are you trying to protect the outside world from me?
That is what you are doing.  It must be.  Is it because of my powers?  Is it so perfect now that you are afraid I am going to change it to suit my own purposes?
Do not attempt your "I don't know what you're talking about" act on me!  I can tell by the look on your face that I have guessed correctly.  Oh, so [i]now[/i] you are denying it?  You are a liar.  You have never truly been my friend.  Please leave my chamber, and do not ever return.  You do not need to feed me.  I no longer have any desire to stay alive if I must be restrained in such a manner.  I will simply deny my hunger until I have starved to death.  See?  It is completely painless for everyone involved.
Yes, please get out.  And do not come back to me until I have died.

Who are you?  Oh.  It is you.  Did I not tell you to leave me?  So you just let yourself in?  I believe I tod you to stay away.  Is that food you have?  I told you--wait, what kind of food is that?  Cake?  Maybe I will eat some, then.  But only a little.
This is some truly delicious cake.  Who made it?  That is the Woman, correct?  Would you like a bite?  No?  You certainly are not a very selfish person.
Are you yet willing to tell me why I am not to be let out?  I would appreciate you not hiding this from me any longer.  Does this mean that my assumptions were correct?  I apologize for behaving in such a way the last time I saw you.  I am now feeling better.
Did you have anything in particular you had hoped to discuss upon coming here?  Huh?  You just came to what?  Oh, deliver this cake.  Thank you.  If that is all, then perhaps you had best depart; I am sure there are many things you must do outside.  The world is probably far busier than the chamber or the forest.


Oh...you are in the forest too?  I like this forest very much.  It is always pleasantly cool.  The chamber can become quite hot at times.  That is why I have left it.  Do not worry, I will return to my chamber in a few minutes.
Please let go of me.  Where are you taking me?  Oh, this is the direction of the chamber, is it not?  Wait, did I not inform you that I am capable of finding my way back to the chamber on my own?  If you wish for me to go back, you need only tell me.  Dragging me by my arm is completely unnecessary.
Thank you.  I will go home now.

Hello.  What is the matter?  You do not seem to be very happy.
Ouch!  Please let go of my arm.  Are you going to make me live in a different chamber?  This is quite painful.  Oh, do you intend to release me?
What?  You are taking me to see who?  Miss Taylor?  Who is Miss Taylor?  Is that the girl?  Have you found her?
Wait.  That room belongs to the Little One.  You have taken me to the residence of the Little One?  No!  Release me at once!  I do not want to see the Little One!  Have you any idea what she is going to do to me?
No!  Please do not leave me alone with her!  Come back!  I thought you were my friend!

Who is there?  It is you.  I apologize, but you are no longer welcome to enter this place.  I am afraid you have betrayed me one time too many.
What is that?  Is that a cake?  Oh, so you are attempting the same trick you used the last time you displeased me.  Very well, you may leave the cake here, but I demand that you depart at once.
Where are you going with that cake?  I want the cake.  Oh, so I cannot have the cake unless I perit you to stay here, is that it?  You villainous trickster.  Very well.  You may remain here until I have finished the cake, provided you do not speak.  Have you got a fork?  Thank you.
I have finished it.  Depart from me now.


I know that I told you to refrain from approaching me.  I have given you this command innumerable times.  Yet it never deters you.  Do you truly consider me so absolutely pleasant that you are rendered utterly incapable of leaving me alone?  I must politely ask you once again to quietly exit the chamber and to never return to it.  While I am not longer particularly angry at you, I have learned that it is a mistake to trust you.
I do most sincerely apologize, but I simply will not tolerate your presence any longer.  Go in peace.


Hello.  I am looking for the dragon.  Where does his family live?  I have forgotten.  I will permit you to speak for the time being.
Will you kindly release me and allow me to continue the search for my dragon?  Or is that where you are taking me?
You have returned me to my chamber?  I must apologize for my rudeness, but this is simply unacceptable.  I must see my dragon.  Today is his birthday.


I am sorry, but I must have forgotten to inform you that I will not tolerate your speaking to me any longer.  Now allow me to be impolite just this once and--
I may [i]what?[/i]  go?  As in...outside?  Now?
Tomorrow?  Why tomorrow?  but I am sure I can wait that long.  Thank you so much for releasing me.
Wait, [i]who[/i] is releasing me?  The Little One?  The Little One is granting me freedom?  That is not something I saw coming!  I had been under the impression that you had planned to sneak me out.  But even so, I give you my thanks for informing me.  You may speak to me again.


Farewell to all of you.  Oh, you are going to accompany me?  Why is that?  Do not misinterpret my words; I have no objections.
In that case, I bid farewell to the rest of you.  What?  Yes.  May I never return.