A Traveller's Nightmare

As I came to awareness, I was hovering over water and gliding, being pulled more like, towards a great city in the distance. The city was situated amongst great, dark mountains, and the city itself shone like a great star, with each individual building contributing its own hue of light. I was pulled to the city at a great speed and was now gliding over wide stone streets which glowed with a brilliant white. On each side of the great streets stood stupendous buildings; each one more beautiful and ornate than the one before it. There were innumerable churches, some in the style of mosques and others in that of great cathedrals. All were of a different color. I passed a great mosque of dazzling, heraldic blue, and then a monumental cathedral of deep, crimson red, and still a marvelous basilica of bright gold. I was awestruck by the beauty of the city and struggled to take in all the wonder, wide as my eyes were stretched in their astonishment. Then, without warning, the force that had been pulling me along those streets of beauty suddenly changed direction. I lurched forward and then was thrust backwards, flying at stupefying speed as if some terrible bird had seized my collar and now flew in the opposite direction. Cruelly I was pulled out of the marvelous city and brought to an immense canyon whose black depths no light hoped to pierce. Then, I was not dropped, but cast down into the abyss. Although the pit seemed bottomless, I knew in my heart of hearts that Hell lay beneath me, mouth agape and ready to swallow me whole. I was terrified. I tried to stir myself from slumber, but no force of will could wrench me from this nightmare and my pitiable fall into the mouth of despair. Long I fell. I gave into my hopelessness and awaited the ever approaching flames and torment. Alas, the flames came not, and I found myself sitting on a smooth rock floor closed in by walls to my left and right. I could not see about me, and I tried to climb up the way I had fallen but to no avail. After a while more sitting in a resigned silence, I began to feel a very faint breeze blowing from in front of me, and if I strained my ears I heard what seemed like the sound of water dripping. Summoning what remained of my will, I crawled forward. The breeze was cool and grew in strength, and before long I came upon the source of the water droplets and there was a shallow pool beneath me. The floor was no longer stone but indeed metallic. As I continued my crawl, the faintest beams of light could now be detected. Again resigned to my fate, doomed to crawl headlong into the maw of Hell, I bowed my head and continued on. Now, the light was bright and the breeze a wind. I had reached the mouth of the tunnel and the beginning of my doom. When I raised my head I was greeted by a greater shock than seeing the beautiful city from which I was torn: for the fiery lake lay not before me, but my waking homeland. …