Daniel had no clue as to how he ended up in a vast open field in the middle of a forest surrounded by burning trees and foliage in every direction. Let alone why he was even in a forest in the first place. All he could afford to think about now was how was he going to get out. He franticly scanned the environment for an opening in the ring of fire. Calling it a ring of fire wasn't a good description, because the fire was in the perfect shape of a square, matching the too distant tree line. When he found none he panicked as the realization of my predicament hit me like a ton of bricks.
The grass singed and blackened as it crept in on me. The flames were at least a quarter of a mile away from him in every direction, but closing in by the second. The oddest thing of it all was that he was wearing a thick coat, his hands were mittened, and he was wearing two layers of pants, and he didn't sweat a drop!

A frightened fawn taking shelter in a flower bed caught his attention. The poor young deer was crying out an agonizing melody of sorrow. Its animal cry struck a nerve in my soul. Then he saw something so terrifying he had the impulse to run straight into the dancing flames hoping he could run the distance out of the fire. A stag came into view as it galloped faster than a cheetah out of the wall of fire and smoke toward the bed of flowers where the fawn hid. Its antlers were on fire while the rest of its body was unsigned by the flames. It was as if the stags coat were coated with fire resistant pheromones.

He watched as the stag bent down to nudge the fawn to comfort it. The fawn backed away as the burning antlers of the stag touched the flowers. They instantly burst into flame. In the blink of an eye the fire was extinguished and all that was left was a pile of ash. The ash then turned white. For a moment I was puzzled.
Suddenly the kind of vapor that you see when you exhale during a particularly chilly winter day whiffed out of the whitened ash. The ash had become snow! The fawn slowly walked forward and stood on the snow it's hoofed feet sinking into it. Suddenly plants began to sprout in the snow. Instead of flowers something else grew in its place.

Where there once stood beautiful flowers now rose an ominous rose bush. The thorns were coated with blood, and the flowers were of various unnatural colors that no rose bush he had ever seen sprouted. Black, blue, and whitish silver like colored flowers were in full boom on the plants stems. Daniel thought it was neat looking, but something deep within him told him it was the most vile and repulsive thing his eyes have ever had the displeasure of seeing.
Something besides the bizarre scene unfolding in front of him struck him as odd. Why couldn't he smell any smoke? He should have been coughing his heart out with all the smoke floating over him like a ghostly apparition. He was no expert on the chemical and physical breakup of fire, but wouldn't the heat of a fire this intense reach him even from this distance?

Duh, this is a dream. It sure seemed all too real though. He even pinched himself, because he heard that you couldn't feel pain in a dream. It wasn't true. When he pinched himself he felt it alright.

He jumped when the stag let out an ear-piercingly loud deer noise. As it did so its head was reared toward the sky. The flames scorching and licking at the forest were extinguished. Unlike the flower bed not all of them turned to ash, and then snow. Some of them most notably the taller and healthier looking of the trees weren't even burned at all.

Like with the flower bed new plant life began to grow in the snow. Some piles of snow simply melted and left behind normal looking grass. The trees that did grow back were as equally menacing as the rose bush. The bark of their trunks was the same whitish gray color, and the leaves which were shaped like stars were black. They glistened like oil stains in the faint glow of the stags burning antlers.

Mountains loomed beyond the trees. Their miles high peaks were obscured by misty clouds. Those mountains make the Himalayas look like ant hills, he thought. When he was done gawking at the wondrous view of the mountains he scanned every inch of the trees looking for anything blue colored, finding nothing. When he gave up he shifted my attention back to where the fawn was beside the rose bush. It was gone! Where it once stood was a miniature pond of clear water.



















Andrew was one-hundred percent sure he was dreaming. Staring at the water where the baby deer was Andrew felt like he was looking at the surface of the ocean from a plane.
Andrew tugged at the black coat he was wearing. He half expected it to be white. He had a dry sense of humor. It wouldn't have surprised him if he was in an asylum.
"Wow!" he gasped as a loud flapping noise fluttered overhead. "Wow," he said again. This time so overwhelmed by what was happening that he couldn't have screamed if he wanted to, and he didn't. Coming from all four corners of the trees every kind of animal imaginable was lumbering, slithering, swinging from trees, and flying toward the center of the field, a field that no longer existed. For in its place was a vast expanse of water. He practically jumped out of his skin when he realized the ground beneath his feet consisted of liquid. Only the ground beneath the trees was still land. All kinds of fish were visible through the water that was as clear as glass.

He jumped when a colossal whale swam gracefully beneath the soles of my shoes. He landed back on the surface of the water without making so much as a ripple on its surface. He was so mesmerized by an orca as it launched itself clear out of the water that he didn't care at the moment about any of the other animals. He paced over the surface uncomfortably as crocodiles zipped through the water beneath my feet like torpedoes.

They passed me by seemingly uninterested or unaware of my presence. He squatted down to see how deeply my feet penetrated the waters surface. The bottoms of my shoes didn't even touch the surface. He was hovering about an inch over the water. An orangutan was curiously eyeing me from a low tree limb. A komodo dragon, tiger, and a rhinoceros with a fierce looking eagle on it's back stood directly beneath the orangutan. They stood side by side as if they were meant for coexistence, as one.

Stunningly magnificent birds walked amongst the lions, leopards, and many other predators without fear. Occasionally however some of the animals would put on aggressive displays when in the presence of certain animals. He had had many strange dreams and nightmares before, but none prior to this one had ever been this unusual and realistic. Seriously, if it weren't for the unnatural plant life, and the fact that he was floating over water, he would have sworn he was fully conscious.

All around me both familiar and unfamiliar animals were gathered around the rosebush. He saw both gentle and birds of prey soaring through the air. Among the list of other animals were a long necked emu and ostrich, various deer, a lumbering elephant, big cats, small mammals walking in between the larger animals feet, various dog breeds, a fox, and wolves, there was even a unicorn and a winged horse! He knew if he turned around my mind would create more animals to populate my dream, but he kept facing forward.
One of the wolves stood out from the rest. It wasn't the same grayish color of the other wolves, and it stood alone separating itself from the other animals. Doesn't he realize he doesn't have to be territorial in my dream? Yup, that was typical of him, being sarcastic even in a dream. Andrew heard flapping noises and then a bird of prey he instantly recognized landed on his shoulder.