You step outside your house. That was close, you think to yourself. You were the meteor was touching your house, even if only a little bit. Well, not enough to make any real impression on the house, but it HAD to have touched somewhat. Anyway, you’re nowhere near the meteors now. Laid out before you is a dark, grassy, sparse forest. A few cautious steps indicate that the grass is absolutely smothered in dew. Is whatever sun this world revolves around going to rise soon? Another glance reveals that to be the likely. Huh. Bet it’ll look nice, you think to yourself. You’ll have to wait a while to see if that’s the case, though. It’s four AM at most. Cautiously quipping your trusty “Knowledge is Power” hardcover extended edition dictionary, you take your first few steps in the land.
...
The time is roughly eleven AM, and you are dying. Yes, literally dying. You’re not sure why you thought straying so far from home would be a good idea, but in any case, it wasn’t. The dew on the grass decided to stay put when the sun came fully up, and it’d been reflecting light and heat since. You weren’t sure how the heck that worked- in fact, you were SURE that wasn’t how it was supposed to work. Sure as you were, though, you were also certain that your eyes couldn’t stand much more brightness, and that your body was well beyond its heat tolerance. To top it off, you must’ve turned off course at one of your rest stops, or while fighting imps, as you’d turned right around when you decided to head back and hadn’t swerved yet, but you had yet to see your house in the distance. Not even the few trees that were around anymore offered any respite to the heat, or even the light. Your end was going to be met alone, and while blind.
Through a clearing in the woods ahead, you saw a comfy-looking bed. Was it a mirage? You hadn’t encountered any yet... Regardless, you decided that it probably was, and that you absolutely did not care. You shambled as fast as you could in the bed, testing it with your hands before leaping in. To your present surprise, it was indeed solid. You hopped in and got one last good look at the sky above before preparing to sleep death away. Sadly, the last thing that you saw was your own dictionary falling towards you. How-
...
11:57. Have to get back before noon.
Wait, what? Was that supposed to mean anything? It kind of did, though. Things were already plenty hot and light here- in a few minutes, they’d only be worse. In fact, the smell of smoke was in the air- despite the dewy grass, would the trees burn? Probably. Yeah, this whole planet would be afire at noon, more than likely. Wait, did you get hit with your own dictionary and die? You hardly felt dead, though you felt the force of what absolutely could have been a dropped heavy book on your face. You were also now wearing some cool red clothes. Was the bed somehow a gateway to a higher resurrection through death? Maybe. You sigh and decide to ask yourself, who is somehow standing by the bed, staring at you. Wait, what the hell?
“S’okay, I felt the same when I was in your place.” The you that isn’t you chuckles, then sighs. “You’re gonna want to get up, you’ve got a dictionary to drop.”
“What? Where?”
“On yourself. You’re a fully realized Mage of Time, now. You can now track the flow of time, or just mess with it. For example, you might go back a few minutes and kill yourself to give yourself these powers and maintain a stable time loop.”
“This is stupid.”
“Yep. Now do it.” You sigh- other-you seems insistent.
“Fine, but how?”
“Oh, easy. Just write the exact time you want to go to anywhere in the margin of your dictionary- 11:55 in this case. Don’t forget to hang around to tell your newly-dead self this, by the way.”
“Alright. Then what?”
“Idunno, go to 5:30? That’s all the me before me said she was going to do. Good luck.” With that, other-you scribbled 5:30 in her dictionary, closed it, flashed an encouraging smile, then disappeared. With her gone, you noticed that the place was indeed going up in flames. Hastily, you took her advice and wrote 11:55 in your dictionary, slamming it shut with eagerness to leave.
...
You were in the same spot as before. In front of you is... you, slowly climbing into that darned bed. You consider telling her not to, but the renewed strength and lack of eye pain that you’re feeling from revival are worth dying for. Literally. You climb a nearby tree, let the dictionary fly, wait for yourself to realize her true potential, and explain what was explained to you. Gee, time loops sure are weird, you think to yourself as you head to 5:30.
...
It’s starting to become a little light out. You’re still at the bedside, except without another you in it. A note on the ground, perhaps written on a torn-out page of the dictionary, says: “Take a nap, it won’t/didn’t hurt the timestream any. When you’re done, go to 5:28 and leave a new note from page 1247, then go to 6:00.” What? Utterly indecipherable. Well, except the word nap. You can decipher that quite well. The bed was nice and comfy, too...
In your future, you will guide yourself, and receive guidance from yourself. Eventually, you will uncover all the secrets of the Land of Rays and Dew, and figure out how to manipulate the dew to prevent the destruction of your new planet. You are the Mage of Time destined to bend and to break the loops of destruction intertwined in the time of LORAD. With your skill, you will alter its timeline, bringing to it life and hope. For now, though? Every hero needs her rest.
