The world around you fades to nothingness and you are a disembodied spirit in the mists of cyberspace. Blurred shades of renegade dreams float by and a bare few register vaguely in your memory. Visions, a great fuming cloud of visions... they fold you into their embrace and hold you close.
The creature before you is a mix between science and legend, bearing the very visage of myth and the anatomically correct wings of a dissected insect. It never seems to touch the ground, as if suspended from an unseen wire. The movements of the hybrid are lithe and snake-like, bounding silently across the landscape like a kangaroon while its jewel-hued wings gently flap in the air. As it comes toward you, its reptilian features split in a casual grin- somehow, you understand that you have met it before.
"Cheers!" he exclaims in greeting, landing gracefully beside you. "I'm Albrecht, your spirit guide. We've been waiting a long time... what's that? Oh. This..." He turns, his tail absently lashing back and forth as he surveys the dreamscape. "This is a hidden land. Not everyone can come here because not everyone knows it exists. And of those who do..." A reptilian sigh escapes his snout, resigned and tinged with regret. "...half of them want to destroy it. Dreams are no longer the hidden treasures they once were. What you see here...? It's a fight against the inevitable. One day, the urge to conform will win. Burn this place down. And then there will be no more dreamers or dreams to sustain them..."
He smiles weakly, then turns toward a brilliant light in the distance. "See that? That's it. The big one, the dreaming. You can't look at it for too long, or you'll burn your eyes out. That's why we hang out in the shadow; it's too bright to look into for long."
Albrecht looks back at you, outlined sharply against the piercing brilliance of the dream. "I've held you up long enough, it's time you met the others. So this is how it works: you see the orb down there? Yeah, she's the, ah, the light. At least, that's how we know her- some others call her an Avatar of the Dream, but whatever. Anyway, look into the orb. Now look past it. Some say there's a light inside- can you see it? Hold onto it and let go of all else... follow it, past your fears and doubts and into the shadow of a dream..."
