Orion began to head down the street of vacant merchant shops as he headed towards his home in the inner city. What does King Avalon want this time? He speculated while kicking rocks down the road, not in a particular hurry. Up ahead, he could see his two-story sandstone house with a shed atop the flat roof.
Walking through the door, he took off his shoes and threw them to the ground, and began to head upstairs to the small building atop his house. As he passed his various exotic weapons and collection of monster souvenirs, he looked at his body through a broken mirror and realized he would need more bandages than he thought.
The city was well illuminated by the moon and stars, while parts of the forest remained very dark. His house was among the few larger ones in the second ring; the third ring was where most people lived, and the center was for government and business structures only. All outside of the palace of course.
"Good thing I put fresh water in this before I left," he said aloud to a silent night as he removed his clothes which where were soiled with dirt, sweat and blood and began to soak in the wooden tub. Orion had a clear view of the beautifully illuminated night sky, infinite stars, and complex patterns stretching endlessly across the world.
Thoroughly washed, he gently dried himself off and slowly wrapped his battered body with white cloth as a bandage for the wounds. After slowly putting on a fresh pair of pants, he gazed outside . It's nice out tonight. Taking a makeshift cot from the floor below, he set it down on the roof and lay down on his back with a clear view of the sky and drifted into sleep.
The wind rushed behind him as he opened his eyes to a night sky lit up with an infinite number of distant lights as he fell through the air, feeling gravity's pull to the ground.
Am I dreaming?
This wasn't the first time he had dreamt of endlessly falling, waiting to hit the ground for what felt like hours. Always a rude awakening and disappointment at the thought.
Must be.
Orion looked up at the moon and felt some sort of faint release as he relaxed his muscles and fell through the void that looked like a sky, while the wind buffeted his hair and clothes.
After what felt like hours or maybe just moments of falling, he noticed the stars begin to connect as faint beams of light were forming, and he began to hear something over the wind. "So the cycle begins anew. Will you end up where you started I wonder?" The woman's familiar-sounding voice took over his thoughts as the sound of rushing wind faded into the back of his mind. He had heard whispers of the wind in his dreams before, but never a clear voice.
Before he could respond, he heard it again. "Maybe something's different this time," his face reflecting slight confusion. Looking at the moon and the surrounding patterns, most of the connected dots and lines were unrecognizable to him except for one.
A clear picture of a longbow pointed at the moon, the brightest star being the tip of the arrow. His vision swirled as the stars began to move, and before he realized what was happening, he awakened with a jolt. He was back in his cot, the sun breaking the horizon as it started to bathe the land in warm light.