Awaken anew in the Hunter's Dream
From Create Your Own Story
You are surrounded by complete darkness as what feels like cold fingers prod at your body from multiple angles. Whispers on the edge of your perceptive hearing reach your ears, but when you listen those whispers become shrill screeches. You almost immediately figure it was best to distract yourself and not pay any attention to the whispering voices or the poking fingers of ice. As you stand there you begin to try and recollect what you do know already. A chill runs through your body when you realize you can't remember anything significant. Brief flashes go through your mind, but nothing more. All you can recollect is a mansion with the full moon rising behind it, a flaming field of corpses and discarded weapons, a giant beast of slime and fur clutching your head as it held you several feet off the ground, and an old man telling you to travel to a city known as Yharnam.
Yharnam. The name is something familiar to you. Why does it feel like you've been to a city called Yharnam before? Despite how familiar its name was to you, you couldn't picture a single detail about it. Perhaps it was a place you learned about a dozen years ago or so from some old history text you read. Whatever it was you had a reason to go there. Perhaps some answers waited for you there, though the idea of that seemed unlikely.
Finally, as the fingers pulled away from your naked body, your feel yourself begin to open your eyes. The darkness that once enveloped you is flooded with light. The light is painful at first to your newly opened eyes, but you're able to adjust quickly. While shielding your eyes with your hand you look up at the sky to find that is filled with grey clouds that hang in front of a pale silver moon. The moon is full this night and is larger than you've seen it in a long time. Another chill runs through your body as you are reminded of the tales of werewolves and other unnatural beasts that came out during the full moon.
Looking down from the sky you begin to take in your surroundings. All around is what appears to be a garden of sorts. Bushes and various flowers dot the landscape around you with small cobblestone pathways leading off in a multitude of directions. Tombstones of various shapes and sizes line the cobblestone paths bearing faded but still legible rune markings. In front of you, a little ways further down one of the cobblestone paths, stood a hill with an old house sitting at the top. You could hear a fire burning from hear meaning someone was undoubtedly home. Still, you take the time to take in your surrounding more completely.
Nestle by a distorted part of the hill, just off of the cobblestone path that splits off to the left from where you are standing, sits a small and empty fountain. Along the pathway that leads up to the house on the hill there sits a life-sized doll dressed in a rather exquisite dress with fingerless gloves and a rather simple bonnet covering her grey hair. It's only now that you notice the whispering has stopped now as you find yourself in this strange place. Just as you begin to question yourself on where you are, a voice not unlike your own answers your own question inside your head.
The Hunter's Dream.
This place is what was once and what is sometimes still known as the Hunter's Dream. It is a place outside of the normal fabric of reality, separate but not entirely isolated from the physical world itself. Part of you finds a sort of comfort as you begin to remember more and more about this place. You remember that these graves used to mark the passing of some very important people, that an old man in a wheelchair lived in the house above, and that a secret path behind the house lead to a hollow tree stump with some very curious creatures living inside of it. Then you begin to worry again. Why is it you know all of that stuff about this place, and yet you don't actually remember it? It's like you have been told all about this place without the actual experience of ever having come here yourself. But then why can't you remember ever having been told about the Hunter's Dream? The number of questions and concerns piling up in your head begin to cause a dull pain between your eyes. You close your eyes and begin to rub your temples.
When you open your eyes again, you find you are still in the Hunter's Dream. Motion off to one side draws your attention though, away from the house on the hill, and towards the fountain nestled against the hill itself. A liquid has begun to bubble up from its empty basin, filling it with a sort of clear liquid that flows like water. As the dull pain in your head begins to fade you approach the fountain. Once you are a couple of paces away from the fountain, the liquid stops flowing and pools together, filling the whole basin up to the very brim. From here you can see the liquid is actually reflective, almost as much as a mirror would be. Allowing your curiosity to get the better of you, you approach the fountain and glare down at the reflective liquid.
You see...?
