I've got the finish this homework. But I'm so sleepy... I don't want to...

This was me, a college student who was rather overwhelmed with homework. My name is Neuman, and everything from my tidy, straight, black hair, glasses, and stylistic button-up shirt screamed "NEEEEERD". In all actuality, I liked this style. I liked the whole intelligent air that it gave me, and it honestly fitted me perfectly. I was born with an eidetic memory, meaning every little detail of every little minute was doomed to never escape the black hole that is my memory. Because of my memory, I had no troubles in class, and I actually skipped several grades to get where I am today. I guess you could also call me a bookworm, but I only read nonfiction books. I didn't want to waste my time on reading something that would likely never prove useful. That's the type of person I was. This was the defining moment to which that was about to change.

Where's that adventure that I dreamed about? College is so boring. All it is is work, work, work, and more work.

I looked at the time. Just after midnight.

I should call it a night. I did lots of good work today.

After putting all my school supplies away I tucked myself into my bed. It's a funny thing, you know? When we wake up after a long night's sleep, we can still kind of feel the passage of time even though we were unconscious during that time. Maybe our dreams become part of our lives by using our active brain to tick away at our internal clocks. Or maybe, just maybe, sometimes it's much more than that.

-----

The sunlight woke me up. I felt terribly dizzy. Without opening my eyes, I stretched out and tried to flip the switch on my alarm clock. I'm already awake, no need for it to go off later. My hand failed to find the clock though.

I'm probably on the wrong side of the bed.

I reached further and felt something. After feeling around it, I found that it wasn't my alarm clock.

Is this... grass?

I opened my eyes and looked around.

I'm... outside? What kind of prank is this?

I stood up and stretched. This is when I realized I wasn't in the clothes I was in when I fell asleep. In fact, minus some glasses, I wasn't wearing any clothes at all. Embarrassed, I looked around to make sure no one was around. It must've just been my luck, because someone was walking right at me. I tried to find a bush or tree to hide behind, but there was no such site around. I was standing in the middle of a plain.

"Fear not, it happens all the time. Finding out that you're going about your life without clothes is a pretty common dream after all."

It was a man's voice, but I couldn't tell by the body what gender the speaker was. He was covered in a rather bulky and jagged looking suit of armor. The only visible hole in the armor seemed to be his eyeslit, which I could not see into anyways.

What's that he's carrying. Could it be... clothes?!

The man walked a few feet short of me and threw me the clothing.

"Put these on and head in that direction" he said pointing behind me. "You'll eventually hit a road which you will follow until you hit a village. Once you get there you'll need to find and talk to a girl named Ariel." The man turned around and started to walk away.

"W-who are you? Where am I?"

He stopped. "I am known by the name Prometheus. Welcome to Insomnia Wake. Goodbye Neuman." He kept on walking.

"...How do you know my name?"

He laughed, but didn't stop. "This here world is a party, and the party is by invitation only."

This has to be a prank. Right?

I hoped with all my heart that that was true, and I felt alone. Alone, and scared. I just wanted to get to the "Surprise! We got you good didn't we?!" and be done with it. But I clung onto my fragment of hope, and, not seeing a better option, decided to trust the strange man who had clothed me and headed towards the mystery village ahead.

-----

I walked for nearly an hour before finding the road, and nearly another to reach the village. When I reached it, however, I had to stop. Not because there was a gate or anything, but because the site of it. There was a woman flying around with stuff in her hands. There was a man who was hauling back the largest pig I had ever seen. Another was conducting bees in... music? Whatever it was seemed to roll off my ears like honey. The houses were extravagant and bright. Everything in the little town seemed to be buzzing. And this was not a large village. There must have been at most a dozen buildings.

Apparently my amazement didn't go unnoticed because the flying girl swooping over.

Aerial=Ariel?

"Are you ok? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

I nodded. "Um... Are you Ariel?"

"Nope, but I know where to find her! You can probably find her in the tavern over there."

"Umm... Thanks."

I walked to where she pointed, leaving her with a puzzled look on her face.

Surely I'm dreaming. I pinched myself. Well that didn't work. Maybe it's a lucid dream? Yeah, it has to be that. I'll wake up before long. Just to humour myself I decided to continue to search for this "Ariel" character.

I stopped at a building labeled "Pterodactyl Ptavern." Well this must be the place. I took a deep breath, and took my first step in.

The air smelled merry, like eggnog and candy. In all reality, that's probably what the two people at the bar were guzzling.

A girl, with hair the color of the day sky, slammed down a mug that looked to be made out of orange wood. "That makes five mugs of it! Beat that!"

"I give, I give. You win again," said the boy next to her, standing up quickly, and thus pushing his stool to the floor. "But this is only this time! I'll get a bigger stomach or something and beat you next time!" He then proceeded to run right past me, leaving a trail of dust in his wake.

"Yeah right you big loser! You'll never beat me!" The girl laughed quite loudly at her accomplishment. It wasn't until now that anyone noticed that I was there.

"You look like you're lost. Come and have a drink," said the bartender, as shining woman of probably 16 or 17. This is when I realized that I had yet to you see anyone who wasn't a teenager.

I picked up the stool that had fallen and sat down on it.

"What would you like, hun?"

"Just... water... or something."

The bartender smiled. "Certainly. One mug of water coming right up!" She pulled out a mug from under the table and filled it with water from a barrel. "Here you are sweetie. Now tell me what's the matter." The bartender girl grinned and rested her head on her arms, looking curiously at me.

"It's nothing... I'm probably just dreaming..."

"Well in a way you are" said the girl next to me. The grin she wore turned from savage to a little bit more friendly. "I'm Ariel. Nice to meetcha. So, you just now got here huh?"

I am dreaming after all? What a relief...

"Oh I see, that's what it is. We've all been 'round here for so long that we forget what it's like when you first come into this world" said the bartender.

Wait, she said Ariel. "Ummm... Ariel, is it? I was told to find you."

Both girls gave me a puzzled look. "Someone told you to find... me? Who did?"

"Some guy... I think he called himself 'Prometheus'."

The wonder became visible, almost tangible in the girls' eyes. Our conversation had also begun to attract the ears of the other customers. "Prometheus? THE Prometheus?! You met him?! And he told you to find me?!" It looked like she was going to explode. "Hey, hey! What was he like?! Wasn't he just awesome?!"

Fangirling much? "I don't really know, he just handed some clothes when I got here and left. Is he popular around here or something?"

"Popular? POPULAR?! He's one of the eight sentinels, the overseers of this world!" She suddenly noticed that she was talking to a newbie. "Well... I guess you wouldn't know that. He's probably the coolest of the eight! They say he not only has existed for thousands of years, almost since the beginning of this world, but that he can appear in multiple places at once!"

"I think it's a bunch of baloney. I mean, he's got to be a group of people and not just one! You know the rules of this world" said a sceptic from across the room.

"Yeah, but that's the wonder in it! What if he's the exception! I mean, aren't many of the other sentinels proven exceptions as well?"

The sceptic didn't seem convinced. "I'll believe it when I see under that darned helmet of his."

Ariel looked me right in the eye. "Let's talk about this some other place."

Still seeking answers, I obliged. As I went in to take a sip of water, something caught my eye. In the reflection upon the water's surface I saw a face that resembled my own but was not mine the way I knew it. In the reflection that could only distort my shape and not my color, I had white hair.

-----

For it is written in the ancient tablets found in the cave Illuminance, thought to have been written 56 years after the start of this world, and verified by those lucky enough to have been reborn, the following rules and truths that guide this world.

This world is not that of Earth, but can be reached through Earth once one has shown the correct conditions to enter it.

Because it is entered through a dream, no matter how long you spend in this world, it will correspond to but a moment in Earth time.

The age and body of one in this world is built from their subconscious, and the body will not age nor will it need sustenance in the form of food, drink, or sleep, though consumption of materials is still possible, and grooming may be found to be necessary.

Once one loses access to this world, they may come back if they meet the same requirements as to which they entered in the first place, where they will be reborn on the plane just as a newcomer would but with memories from any previous adventures.

When one is born into this world they are born into any time from the beginning of this world to about 7000 years afterwards, thus peoples from all walks of time and country may find themselves side by side.

All will find that they have acquired abilities that they did not have in the former realm, though it is possible, however rare, to have multiples.

The abilities of this world are born from personalities or aspirations of the wielder, and cannot be changed.

Death in this world is not synonymous with death on Earth, but is instead accompanied with transport out of this world and locking away of memories forever lest the person is born again.

These are the rules by which the world of dreams, the world of a seemingly endless dream--an eternal adventure, Insomnia Wake, adhere.