Dream or Nightmare Ch. 01

This story is an adaptation of a "Choose your own adventure" story and might have some minor issues because of it. I have attempted to edit all of them out.

Warning: This is a long multi-part story and starts off rather slow.

You had been studying all night. The first big tests of the year were coming soon. Your final year of school had just started and already the work was piling up.

Luckily you had no intention of trying to get into a good college. You had the intelligence but preferred to slack off until the last moment. Which tended to end up with you being a pretty middling student.

To be honest you were pretty average in most ways. You were not overweight, but not an athlete either. You had some friends, but most people didn't even remember you existed. Mostly you just passed under the radar.

That's probably why you were still a virgin, despite you and everyone in your year being 18+.

God, I'm tired. I get that we have to learn this shit, but do they have to make it so boring? I'll just finish it tomorrow.

You finish up for the night and lay down in your bed. As you close your eyes, you expect to fall into a nice long slumber...

As you open your eyes, bright sunlight wakes you up right away. The smell of fresh air penetrates your nose and you register a cacophony of sounds. But for once it isn't the noise of the city moving around you, or the screeching and honking of cars passing by. It's birds chirping, insects buzzing, a soft breeze rustling the grass.

It almost makes you want to lay back down and just enjoy the moment. If it weren't for the fact that you were in your apartment just a moment ago. One second you're closing your eyes to go to sleep, next you open them to the sight of a green field.

You also notice you're no longer wearing your comfy pajamas. Instead you have some weird dark green medieval tunic and brown pants. Even your shoes and underwear is different.

Whoever thinks this is funny better have a real good explanation for this.

The clothes do actually fit you perfectly, but you're not sure if that's better or just more creepy.

As you look around you find you're on a small hill surrounded by a sea of grass. Spread out over the hills is a herd of sheep. Not to far away from you, one of them is slowly ruminating his last meal, as he lazily stares at you.

A few meter away lies what looks like a spear. Quite long with a wooden shaft and a big metal head. You can't make out what of metal it is, but it seems real, and real dangerous at that. Then again, you don't know anything about spears.

Well this just keeps getting better, doesn't it?

Further in the distance, you notice smoke trails coming from past the hills.

Smoke probably means people, so you pick up the spear and start walking in that direction. Unbeknownst to you, the sheep's eyes follow you as you leave.

Walking through the field you notice that while you felt like you just closed and opened your eyes for a second, your body does feel completely rested. In fact, you feel pretty great. This hike up and down the hills that would normally have tired you out, goes by with ease. The rest of the herd calmly avoids you as if they're not at all surprised to have you in their midst, or as if they are sheep content to eat grass on a nice day, depends how much you wanna read into it.

When you reach the top of a particularly high climb, you actually get to look out at the area around you. Behind you and on the left there isn't much to see, just hills and sheep. Not far to the right you notice there was actually a dirt road. Previously obscured by the hills, it would have provided a much easier path.

Guess I'll remember that for the next time I wake up in the middle of a field.

More importantly it seems your decision to follow the smoke has paid of. Not much farther in front of you, there is a small town. You can't see much from this distance, but it looks like a pretty simple, though busy place. Probably somewhere quite rural. You can't distinguish much, but there are a few figures going about their day.

Hopefully they can provide me with some directions, or better yet let me call someone to come pick me up. Or they will call the police on the crazy medieval person walking around with a big ass spear.

As you get closer you start to notice some details about the town. Most buildings seem to be simple houses, with farms on the outside of the village. The dirt road turns to cobblestone close by. It kinda looks like some of the medieval theme parks you went to as a kid, though you don't see any of the fun stuff. No castles or knights, just a small town.

Even weirder the people you can now clearly see are wearing similar clothes to you. Though in worse condition. They straight up look like medieval peasants.

One of them is walking loosely in your direction.

You decide to use the opportunity to ask him for help. As you walk up to them you try not to look too threatening with your spear. The man looks about your age and seems fairly unremarkable otherwise if it were not for the weird medieval theme going on.

"Hey mate, I seem to be lost. Could you help me out?"

He looks at you curiously and says: "Of course, you're in the town of Bellhollow. A few days away from Cleartide."

Doesn't ring a bell, but at least he speaks English so it shouldn't be too hard to get home.

"Haven't heard of it, is there a train station or something? Or a police station?"

The man seems confused. "What is a train or police?"

Now it's your turn to be confused. "You know, public transportation, or someone who keeps public order and solves crimes?" you clarify.

"Ah, well this is a small town. We don't really have a dedicated transport service, but you could try to find someone willing to take you to Cleartide. People go there to sell wares fairly regularly. Might only take a few days to find someone. We also don't have any guards, nothing much ever happens in this town. But if you need anything official you could ask the town leader."

Well, this is just weird, maybe it is a theme park or something and he's not allowed to break character. Guess I'll try his advice.

"Alright, I'll see if that works. Thanks."

"No problem. I'm Brien by the way. If you need anything else, feel free to come find me later."

You nod and say: "I'm Sean, and thanks again."

He gives you directions for the town leader and his house and goes on his way up the hill.

You decide it's best to just find a way home. As you walk around town for a while, you ask several people if they can help you, but it doesn't seem like anyone is leaving any time soon.

You do notice a small store and a church at the town square in the center of the small town. You decide to make a mental note of it and maybe come back later.

You might as well try to go to whoever is in charge of this place, so you follow Brien's directions to find the town leader.

After following his instructions you come to a slightly bigger building. It looks older and much sturdier than most of the town. The doors are invitingly wide open, but you knock anyway as you step inside.

"Hello? Anyone here?"

You hear startled sounds coming from the house and after a moment a girl comes scurrying out of one of the rooms along the hallway. She seems to take a moment to catch her breath and adopt a calm demeanor, giving you the chance to check her out.

She looks a bit nicer than most people you have seen. She's wearing a chemise (white underdress) under a green dress that is tied from her waist to the bottom of her breasts. Leaving the dress open in the middle as it goes down her legs. It shows a nice amount of cleavage as it pushes up her bust. Her long brown hair flows down past her shoulders. Simple, but nice.

When she has gathered herself, she smiles at you and asks: "Hi! How can I help you?"

"Hey, I'm afraid I'm lost and someone told me to look for the town leader here."

"Ah, I'm sorry to hear that. Sadly Aldis isn't home right now and I'm not sure when he will return. If you want I can take a message."

Frustrated you accept her offer and say you will be back later.

As you're about to leave, she hesitates before continuing: "um... do you have a place to stay tonight?"

You realize you haven't seen a hotel or anything of the sort since you entered the town. You might have to spend the night outside.

"I don't actually, is there someplace I could get a room?"

Even if there is, I don't have my wallet or any money with me. Maybe they'll let me pay afterwards.

"We don't have a tavern here. You could check at the church, they might want to help you." A blush comes to her face as she says: "Or I could ask mom if you could stay with us for the night. We don't have much, but it's better than outdoors."

Excited to spend more time with her you quickly agree. "That would be great."

"Cool. Just come by later and I'll see what I can do."

She gives you directions to her house, which somehow sound vaguely familiar, before saying goodbye and turning around to go back to whatever she was doing.

You watch the slight sway of her ass while she walks away from you, and then go back into the town.

Having some time to waste, you go to explore the town for a bit.

As you wander around you notice the quality of everything. There are no cheap replicas, no hidden modern areas, nothing to break the illusion of the medieval town. If this is a theme park or anything of the like, it is very well done.

Most people ignore you as they go about their day, but you do get some looks as you are walking around noticeably cleaner than anyone else. Not to mention the spear you are still carrying around.

You're walking past an alleyway when you suddenly feel like you're being watched. Quickly you look into the alley and you barely see a figure covered in a dark cloak turning a corner. Not sure what's going on, you dart after the figure, but when you reach where you last saw it, you don't see anything.

It's probably nothing, at most some part of the theme park. Whatever they have going on here is really not very entertaining. As much as they have got the accuracy down, it's quite boring without the knights and princesses and whatever. Who wants to spend their day looking at historically accurate farmers?

As it starts to get later in the day, you decide to check if the girl you met did indeed get you a place to sleep. Following her instructions turns out rather easy, as you seem to have remembered all of them. You finally come to a small house in a rather poor condition.

You knock on the door and a few seconds later it swings open and you see a familiar face in the doorway.

"Hey Sean, you came after all. What can I do for you?"

To your surprise, it's not the girl standing in de doorway, but Brien.

I knew I recognized the address!

"Hey, man. I went to the town leader as you suggested, but he wasn't home. The hot girl there told me she might have a place to stay for the night. Is she here?"

He looks confused for a moment before he replies: "You mean my sister? Yeah, she's here, come on in."

You follow him to a small kitchen. Inside you see a middle-aged woman and the girl you met before sitting at a table. The woman looks quite good for her age as she fills out her simple dress nicely. But it is the girl you are focused on. As she enthusiastically stands up, you get a nice view of her bouncing tits.

"Hey. I asked mom and you can stay here for the night if you want." She smiles and gestures for you to sit down.

"Thank you so much, I looked all around town, but I couldn't find anyone else who could help me." You sit down in one of the chairs before continuing: "I didn't get to introduce myself last time, I'm Sean by the way."

"I'm Emelia and that's Anne." The girl answers.

The mother looks up from her cooking and addresses you for the first time: "Nice to meet you Sean, it's always nice to have guests. I hear you're looking for a way to the city?"

"Yes, I'm quite lost and am trying to get home. Not much luck so far though."

"Well, I'm sure we can figure it out tomorrow, or otherwise, Aldis will be able to. In any way, you're welcome to have dinner here and stay the night."

"Thank you, you can't imagine what that means right now."

Anne and Emelia finish making dinner and you all sit down to eat. It's a pretty bland meal, but as the smell reaches you, you realize you haven't eaten all day and you enthusiastically dig in.

"So are you some of adventurer?" Brien asks.

"Uh, no I'm a student actually." You point to the spear leaning against a wall. "I found that thing when I woke up this morning."

"So you don't have a class?" Emelia pipes in.

"A class? I go to class at my school if that's what you mean." Continuing to gorge yourself on the food, you're having some difficulty following this strange conversation.

"No, like an adventurer's class. We don't see them here often, but in the city, you'll find warriors, mages, rogues, etc. Those are just the standard ones of course."

Brien adds: "Yeah, most of the time when someone strange passes through they are some kind of adventurer. But having a class doesn't necessarily mean being one. Some people don't know they have one, some are retired and some have classes that don't really help with adventuring."

While it sounds like gibberish to you, it seems the topic is quite exciting to Brien and Emelia. It begins to dawn on you that this is definitely way past a normal theme park. Either you're dreaming or these people are crazy.

"Can't say I have heard of it, so I probably don't have anything like that."

Though it only makes everything more confusing for you, Anne decides to apply some logic to the situation: "Well, if you haven't heard of classes, you might not know that you have one. If you're going to the city anyway, you might as well check with the adventurers guild. They can give you your adventurer's card if you do have a class. Who knows, maybe you found that spear for a reason."

You decide it's probably best to find a more normal topic to discuss, so you mumble something of acceptance and try to pivot the conversation.

You decide to ask Emelia why she looks different from most people you have seen in Bellhollow.

Emelia starts blushing as she hears the question. "I work for Aldis, doing pretty much whatever is needed. Cleaning, cooking, paperwork. He's quite a busy man. He wants me to look nice. Apparently, he thinks it helps give his home a welcoming appearance to guests. It's a bit embarrassing don't you think?" And she pulls up her dress in a futile attempt to cover up her cleavage.

Right, I'm sure that's the only reason. Can't say I disagree with the decision though.

"Well, you look great in my opinion. So what does he actually do? There can't be much to manage in such a small town."

She thinks for a moment before replying: "Not really no. He does some official work, coordinating with Cleartide and contacting the adventurer's guild when needed. The day-to-day stuff is split between him, the church, and the community in general."

She hesitates again. "To be honest I'm not entirely sure what he does most of the time. He only lets me help with the town, but he seems to be some kind of businessman as well. In any case, he's well respected and the job hasn't been too bad so far."

You talk for a while longer, getting to know them. Finally, you finish dinner and Brien takes you to your place to sleep. It turned out to just be a Straw mat, but at least you're not outside.

You lay down for the night and consider everything that happened today.

Nothing that happened today makes any sense. Probably I'll just wake up in my bed tomorrow, realize it was all a dream and go to school as if nothing happened. Although I wouldn't mind seeing Emelia again. That's just my mind, to make up some fake girl that might actually be interested in me. I do wonder about those adventurers they talked about, almost want it to be true. Oh well, back to school it is.

You try to fall asleep, but for some reason, it won't come. Be it the strange environment or the lacking bed, you were wide awake. And you just lay there, eyes closed, in the pitch-black darkness. It seems like hours pass and still, your mind won't drift away.

Suddenly you hear soft cursing not far from you. You freeze as you realize someone is in the room with you.

But how is that possible, I should have heard them come in.

You pretend nothing has changed as you try to listen and make out what is happening.

"God damn it, why won't this thing move?"

You don't recognize the voice, but it's a girl, probably about your age. She's about a meter to your right.

Okay, I have just about had enough of today. Whatever she is trying to do, she can do it after I have slept.

You decide it's time to take action. You may not have heard her enter, but now you're the one with the element of surprise.

Okay, on three. 1... 2... 3!

You quickly reach for your spear to threaten whoever is there into leaving. Instead, your hand finds a slender arm holding onto the spear. You hear a startled shriek, the arm lets go and tries to move back, but you hold on tight. With your other hand, you quickly grab the spear and hold it out of reach.

"Let go of me." She cries out. "Please, I didn't mean any harm."

"I find it hard to believe that the intruder trying to steal my spear is actually innocent. Why don't we have a talk outside before we wake up anyone else?" And you drag her with you out the door, before letting go of her arm.

Outside in the moonlight, you can finally see what's going on. In front of you stands the cloaked figure you saw while wandering around earlier today. She's quite short as she only comes to your shoulders. Her face is well hidden within the hood of her cloak, but you can see strands of shoulder-length silver hair reveal themselves. She shies away from you as you try to look at her.

"Please just let me go. It was a mistake, I promise I won't do it again."

"Well, I can hardly just let you go right? I should at least report you. But I am curious why you were there in the first place." You look around and see the town square further up the road. "Why don't we have a little talk first and then I'll decide."

She looks down defeatedly and meekly nods her head.

Quickly you lead her to the middle of the town square, where both of you sit down on the wooden bench resting against a big oak tree.

"First of all, why don't we get rid of that cloak, so we can talk face-to-face."

She slowly pulls back the hood revealing her face. As you see her face for the first time, you are stunned by her cuteness. She looks at you with bright blue eyes and your demeanor instantly turns softer.

"Well, that's a good start, but I do think it should go all the way. Otherwise, how can I be sure you're not hiding a weapon under there?"

She lets out a sigh and turns away from you. Seems to gather her courage for a moment, then takes off the cloak and sits back down. She is wearing an outfit somewhat similar to you. Grey pants and a light blue tunic. Sadly it covers most of her body, but you do see the shape of her perky tits and butt. On her hips, a dagger hangs off her belt. She starts to blush heavily as you look her over.

You quickly reach over and take the weapon out of its sheath. "Now that's out of the way, let's start over. I'm Sean."

The girl refuses to look at you and nervously fidgets with the bottom of her shirt. Barely audible, she answers: "Tia."

You smile encouragingly. "Okay Tia, so why were you trying to steal my spear?"

"I just hoped it would be worth something. I saw you walking earlier today and you stood out so I thought you might be wealthy. But when I found you, there was nothing but that stupid spear." She starts pouting as she grows bolder. "You would have never noticed me if that thing would have just moved. I don't know how you did that, but it's completely unfair!"