echo I never understood how dreams worked. I had never dreamt, as dreaming is a neurological process requiring both sleep and a brain, neither of which I possessed. I doubt I would have ever realised what dreams were if the animals did not tell me after their winter rest. They had such silly dreams. Dreams about giant birdseed monsters swooping down and consuming them, dreams that a giant meteor had struck and killed them all, even one of an orange man that caused war and chaos. It was all so… unbased, so unrealistic, not an ounce of fact or reality in them.
I urged them to recall more of these intriguing little tales to me, as they had soon become a delight of my day. Unfortunately, their ability of comprehension was so little, and their brains even tinier, and they could not remember more details than a single sentence. I decided to ask the monkeys about their dreams, but their language was harder to understand, and their dreams mostly consisted of food. One little monkey, though, was able to provide me with information.
He used to live at the zoo, he said, and had once heard one of the human females mutter of a ‘dream man’. It was of his utmost unbiased opinion, he said, that humans must have a deeper connection to these odd dreams than the works of nature were. Perhaps these dreams were caused by the large metal wires they strung over their concrete structures, or perhaps this ‘dream man’ was the cause of all these dreams. A new god, perhaps.
I had never been to these concrete forests before, but I was certain that I could navigate it. I set to work and made myself the perfect appearance of a human. Two eyes, five fingers on each hand, and a pair of lungs. I wasn’t quite sure where to fit the second lung, so I put it under the stomach, and I believe it fit quite well. It was incredibly natural. And then off I went, to find this new god. I was quite eager to welcome a new god to the world, I did not get to meet any often.
Yet, when I reached the city, I was faced with a terrible dilemma- I simply could not sense this ‘dream man’ anywhere. There was not a single trace of divinity in the area, or if there was, it had been overridden by the scent of human pheromones. The dream man must be quite skillful to hide his presence in such a free flowing city, where life passed through the pathways with ease.
I elected to follow a herd of human females, and expertly blent into them. They all had items on them plastered with images of what seemed to be a human male. To be able to hire artists to draw so much on this many different articles of clothing, they must have been nobility. I marvelled at their decorations. The sheer dedication of their pursuit of this human male’s imagery till it was on their clothing, holding, and a small portrait dangling from their neck, was one of utmost religious devotion.
Were these perhaps how gods of the modern age now depicted their icons? It was certainly much more mobile, and appeared to be more protected than paints of oil. I listened to their small conversation. One mentioned this man being an icon. It must be the dream man, did he perhaps presume a human form to be better depicted by human artists? I found the idea rather intriguing.
I followed them to this…grand structure. It was a rounded, hollow iron structure, yet the outside was painted with various dyes, as if a colourful mating male was attempting to attract a female. There were great sounds of chatter from the humans within. They were all lined up like ants in a line- and almost all of them had these icons depicted on them. They were all organised in the same dyed clothes- purple. Purple, such a hard dye to achieve for the humans- they must have crushed at least a million sea snails to achieve such a vibrant hue. The whole of this concrete forest’s royalty must have come to see this dream man. How had I not realised the extent of this dream man’s influence before? I told myself I must surely start leaving my dwelling more often.
After I waited in their ant-like lines for enough time for a juvenile tree to burn down, I witnessed the accepting of offerings by the dream man’s servants in the form of their tiny glass boxes of metal. It was so thin, yet the dream man’s servants merely took a glance at the glass before letting them pass. I did not possess these tiny boxes, as decorated as they are with… even more icons underneath transparent plastic. They lit up upon a tap of the humans- perhaps a new type of lamp? I had miscalculated the ceremony, it must have been a formal one. It would have been rude to arrive with no gift. I attempted to explain my situation as best I could to the servants, in the human language.
“Greetings fair servants of the dream man. I have come to worship as all mortals shall obviously do. My two eyes and the presence of a brain, obviously shared with the rest of my kind.”
I added some eyebrow raises, something I saw humans frequently do.
Then, I proceeded to summon a strike of light from the sky. The servant turned to look at it against the clear night sky, a sign of approval. I slipped in while they were validating my offering to the dream man. I hoped it would be satisfactory, as lightning was quite dated even by the stone age.
I joined these odd pathways, and ended up near what appeared to be a black proscenium stage. Many possessed drawings, likely commissioned by the royal artists. They were all tapping on their tiny lamps, which caused it to light up. I overheard some of them talking of wishing to be part of his priesthood, wishing to be married to the dream man himself. It was commendable of them to say it all so clear and loudly for all to hear. Some paid them uneasy glances. It was understandable, devotion does not come easily for every human. I myself did not understand it, and could sympathise with their plight.
Then, came the chanting. The chanting of the thousands of humans within this structure, and they held up coloured sticks of electricity. They were all chanting the same words, a series of sounds in the pronunciation of one of their god’s many titles. DREAMBOYS. They had all been chanting it like a mantra, a prayer, loud enough for all other temples in the vicinity to hear. It confused me however, why there were multiples of them. I had been under the impression that the dream man was a singular god. The worshipping session began before I had the time to ponder hard on it.
Light lit up on the black glass on the proscenium. It flashed with a bright light- and the humans cheered. Loud, booming music resounded throughout the structure, as clear as the chirping of crickets at night. How many musicians were at work behind the steel walls? They all performed in sync, not a single instrument out of place. The worship of humans never ceased to amaze me. The light, however, stunned me.
Beams of light emerged from small black canisters that shone with the light of the sun. Only the sun could be so precise and bright. The sunbeams moved and darted across the stage as if guided by fireflies. It made no sense for the sun to have split herself into small parts for another god’s worship ceremony, regardless of the god’s kindness or charisma. She was far too prideful for that. This, I realised, was the dream man’s ability at work again. The nonsensicalness of dreams had been manifested into his place of worship.
A large smoke erupted on the stage. The humans’ cheering reached their loudest. The music shifted to a more instrumental beat. The black glass started to show patterns. In a blink, a wind blew away the stage, revealing a herd of human males. They all wore shades of purple and had multiple shades of hair. One had it dyed the colour of roses, another had white hair despite not yet having reached the end of his lifespan.
They began to dance and sing. Their bodies move fast and quick, like trees in a forest. Singing in voices in a tune I was highly unfamiliar with. However, it was not unfamiliar to the humans. They sang along to these hymns. My confusion did not last, and it only appeared due to my outdated thinking. The dream man sung the hymns to guide his followers. It was incredible. He had become involved with his own followers in his own worship, unlike the gods of my day that watched from a distance. Even the title of ‘DREAMBOYS’ must be a term to describe all his worshippers by sharing a part of his domain in what they were known as. It certainly had the worshippers engaged. Yet, I still faced a dilemma. Which one of the human males was the dream man?
I presumed that the other four males on the stage must be his most faithful devotees, the high priests who were there to support their god. In his noble pursuit to allow his followers to feel more connected to their worship though, he had blended so expertly as to seem like one of them, that I truly could not tell which he was. It was only when the session of worship was over that I heard one of the females gesture towards the white haired male and said that he was her ‘dream man’. His name was Lee Seo Jun. Before I could attempt to communicate with him on the stage, he had disappeared behind the black glass. Quite fast. A god that valued his privacy, perhaps. I did not wish to intrude, but to even introduce, I would have to go to drastic measures to encounter him. I would chase the dream man.
I made my preparations. I first asked the sky of his location. The sky however, was unaware of a new god named ‘Lee Seo-Jun’. I marveled at his capacity to hide himself from even the sky. Divinity that could spread to the majority of the species was not easy to hide at all, yet he managed to do so. I then asked the oldest tree in the city, yet it had no answer. It did not know the names of the humans in the city, and his name was so human-like it did not know his as well. He must have had no need to appeal to the trees, as they were unable to dream. I sat outside an establishment for eating, and was at a loss for options.
Then I met Siri. A human that sat next to me spoke a question regarding the weather out loud, and not to me. It was uncommon, but not impossible for some humans to be connected to the spirits. The spirits knew much, yet they tended to stay away from my presence since the extinction of the dinosaurs. Yet this Siri, this spirit, answered in my vicinity. I took the chance to ask the spirit where the dream man lived. It answered me in a cool, calm voice. I thanked Siri for being so welcoming to me, and set off on my journey.
The dwellings he lived in were guarded by knights. I was unsure of the development of human weaponry, but if they were as loud as the clashing of rocks, then humans would surely notice if I engaged in a violent confrontation with one, and it would frighten them. While I have never wished much harm, humans tend to be subject to the same fear as deer do, but more prone to attempt to throw a rock at whatever form I was inhabiting.
Therefore, I entered his house through a willing plant. I asked it for permission to temporarily possess its body as my vessel, and it agreed. I arrived in the early morning, when the dreams were said to stop. It took me quite a short time to model the plant’s body to resemble more of a human’s. I did not want to alter it too much, as I had borrowed it, so I retained the chlorophyll. Human skin came in the shades of bark, the shade of leaves could not be considered too unnatural compared to a lack of fingernails, which I grew.
I stood over his human-like body. He appeared to be asleep. He was likely in his domain, performing his duties. Did he have two bodies? Or perhaps he had borrowed another body to traverse his domains. There were so many questions I wished to ask him, a god of the new age. Fortunately for me, they would soon be answered, for his eyelids opened.
I opened my mouth and made sure to show all 32 of my teeth in a gesture called a ‘smile’. I hoped he found it welcoming.
“Hello, dream man.”
I was unaware that shrieks had become a new form of greeting within humans, but I accepted his shriek with grace.
Written by: Hoe Yan
