This World is Wild, But is Not the Forest

[The Dreamer]

She blinked her eyes a few times, adjusting the bright, white world around her. This is not the forest she called home. It didn't even feel right, like it was not the planet she called home either. Just a vast, empty white space, dotted by animals here and there, and a few, what looked to be structures, far in the distance. Behind her stood a large tree, almost exactly the same as the one she had called home before... before what? She couldn't really remember.

She put a hand to her gem, a large, green emerald, settle where one of her teeth should be. She felt along the edges, well defined and slightly sharp, and the facets, flat and pristine. There was no damage to her gem, which was a relief, for if there was, that would spell certain the end of her long life. The only thing a Gem like herself could not recover from is damage to her own gem, for that is what a Gem is, all else you might see if merely a construct of will.

So, if there was no damage to her precious emerald, than she should surely remember how she got to this strange place, one seemly devoid of all natural life. It lack the warmth of the green and browns she had grown used to, and quite fond of. In this vast, seemingly unending space of white, there was only this fountain that stood before her...

She stumbled back a few steps. Where did this fountain come from? Where did the tree go? It was there only a moment ago! She thought. She looked down at her feet. There was dirt on the ground when I... woke up? I could feel it. Now though, there was only more white space, hard and smooth, cold to the touch of her toes. This planet...? Dimension...? What ever this place was, it certainly was far from the world she had come to know, to love. All that stood before her now was a fountain, spewing water from it peak, down into the basin at it base. Nothing natural about it, in it looks, although, it seem to hum with a similar energy to the white space that now encompassed her world. Maybe it was natural... well, this world's natural. I kinda prefer dirt and trees over a fountain and endless white space as far as the eye can see. If the laws of nature are different in this world though, I suppose I will have to accept them... while figuring out exactly what the laws are now... and how I got here. That would be nice to know. She knelt down, cupping her hand into the water that flowed through the fountain. Bring a hand full of the water to her lips, she drank from it.

She spit it out instantly. Even the water taste different here. She scowled. Hopefully it all doesn't taste like shit, or all the animals who drink from it will probably taste like shit too. While a Gem didn't need to eat in an capacity, Emerald grew up in the natural cycle, and was more than happy to be part of it on occasion. Okay, more than just occasionally. Though she hadn't drank the water, and had barely even touched if for more and a second, it had an adverse affect on her. She grabbed her chest. I feel weird. She dropped to her knees. Okay, weird is an understatement. I'm gonna hurl. The was a shimmering under her skin, a faint rainbow rolled in wave along her skin, from the tips of her fingers, all moving towards her gem. She put a hand to her gem. What is this... power I feel? Her gem seemed to gently hum with power. "What the...?" It was the same hum she felt from the fountain. It as if her gem and the fountain were now humming in unison. She leaned over the edge of the fountain, seeing herself reflected in the shimmering liquid. Shimmering? It was purely water a moment ago... cupping another handful of what she thought to be water, it shimmered a spectrum of colors. It was like a rainbow in her hand, moving the the same pattern as the rainbow under her skin had. What is this stuff...? What is this... Omnillium? She paused, dumping the rainbow liquid back into the fountain basin. Omnillium? Where... where did I hear that word? This word felt so foreign to her, something that had never been uttered by any of the humans she had spoken to in her years, but when she looked at the liquid that gushed from the fountain and flowed around it's base, it felt so... correct. So is that what this is, Omnillium? Is that what brought me here? There was a certain force in the world, at least in the one she had previously come to know, that flowed through all life in the cycle of nature. "Perhaps, this... Omnillium; Maybe it's what ties this world together," She touched her gem as it hummed in sync with the fountain, "and what now ties me to it."

She turned from the fountain, takes several step forward, and away from it. Well, if this is what ties the natural world together, well this world's anyway, then I should begin to understand it better, hopefully as well as it did Earth's. She felt confidence in the little knowledge she had of this knew world, while it was very important knowledge to her, and some that might lead her to learn the greater secrets of this new natural world, it was still a small percentage of the knowledge she would need before she more than just survived this world. To truly thrive as she had in the last one, she would need much more.

Now, where to begin.