By Fenrir Mercury
Tyler Ross was a normal teenage boy who went to a normal high school in a normal town where nothing spectacular ever happened. He didn’t care much for school, but what he did love was knights. Since he was a young boy, Tyler had been enraptured by tales of daring knights slaying vicious beasts and overthrowing evil kings, and as he grew, so did his hunger for knighthood. Most thought his obsession was childish, but Tyler didn’t care. His parents particularly wished it was replaced with an obsession with learning and schoolwork, but knew they’d have to accept that it was more than just a phase. In fact, the only reason he really attended school was to play on the Fencing Team, and even that he didn’t care much for. He’d rather learn medieval sword fighting, but fencing was the next best thing. Tyler Ross’s normal life bored him, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. One night, he lay awake contemplating this when suddenly, something utterly fantastical happened to him.
It’s not hard to see that Tyler was a dreamer, but he never really had coherent or memorable dreams. When he did, they were as painfully boring as his everyday life. But that Monday night, he had a dream he’d remember forever. He was really a knight! He looked down to see his dream self clad in armor so shiny he could see his reflection in it. In the reflection he noticed a scar across his cheek and assumed it was earned in a fierce battle. He looked up and jolted back when he saw the giant, hulking beast standing before him. It was at least ten times his size, covered in feathers big enough for him to use as a blanket. Its four mighty legs ended with piercing talons, which Tyler only noticed because one was swinging right at him. He shut his eyes tight and thought it was over, but when he opened them he found that he had unsheathed a gleaming sword to shield himself. He paused to examine the blade’s beauty, and would have paused for longer had the beak of the beast not crashed down upon his helmet.
Tyler opened his eyes to find it had all been a dream. He lived out the rest of the day as usual, but when he fell asleep that night, he found himself once again shielding himself from the giant claws with his sword. He had been given another chance. This time, he fought valiantly and sent the beast whimpering off into the distance. Every night for the rest of that week, Tyler had magical dreams of knighthood. He was so excited for each dream that he failed to realize that each dream was strangely a continuation of the last.
However, one night he found his pattern disrupted. This time, the dream started the exact moment he closed his eyes, but ended when he fell asleep. He woke up confused, but when he closed his eyes to rub the tiredness out of them, he found himself clad in his armor and holding his sword. He opened them out of shock, but when he closed them again the same thing happened. He tried this a few times until his father told him to get ready for school. Every time he blinked, he saw his dream world instead of the typical dark nothingness. When he got to school, the boredom pushed the strangeness from his mind until he got the most spectacular idea.
When Tyler arrived in his English class, the most boring class of them all, he put his things beside his desk, sat down, and simply closed his eyes. When he found himself in the dream world, he was just where his last visit had left him. He was in the stables taking care of his noble steed, Gallahad. He reached out to pet his snout, but immediately pulled his hand away in surprise. He went to stroke his nose again and found he could actually feel it. He could feel every bristle of hair on his hand. What’s more, he found that he could smell the manure just outside the stables, and when he walked out he could feel the warmth of the sunlight on his skin. Just then, he opened his eyes to find his English teacher had slammed a book on his desk to wake him up. Though he was not sleeping, Tyler did nothing to defend himself. Not only because he was still baffled about what he had experienced, but also because if he told the truth everyone would think he was insane.
When he went home, he sat at his desk in his room and closed his eyes. He was standing outside the stables again, the warmth of the sun contrasting the cool touch of his metal armor. This calm moment was once again disrupted by someone shouting. Tyler looked up to see Sir Phillian the Fierce, a foe defeated in a previous dream, charging toward him and looking for a rematch. Tyler drew his sword just in time to block the first few blows, but was caught off guard when one was aimed precisely enough to strike him in one of the few weak points in his armor, slashing his forearm. Despite the injury, his focus remained unbroken, and he sent Sir Phillian running home with wounds the knowledge not to mess with Sir Tyler the Valiant ever again.
In the heat of battle, Tyler failed to notice something detrimental about the slash on his arm. Hours after the fight, as he was dressing the wound it finally hit him: it hurt. He could feel the piercing pain in his arm the same way he could feel trusty Gallahad’s hair between his fingers. As he thought about it, there was a flash of light, and as the smoke cleared, a mighty wizard stood before him.
He introduced himself as Aldous the All-Knowing, and what he said next shook Tyler to his core. He had known him as Sir Tyler the Valiant, as did everyone in this fantasy world, but in addition he knew Tyler Ross, the ordinary schoolboy. He knew about the normal world and about Tyler’s power. He explained what Tyler had already guessed: this world was real, and every time he closed his eyes, Tyler had actually been transported there. Aldous had sought him out, Aldous had given him a second chance against the Griffin, and now Aldous had an offer to make. He could cast a spell, and Tyler would become part of this world forever. He could never return back to his normal life, but he could live out the rest of his days in the world he’d always wanted to be a part of. Tyler looked at his glorious sword, then down at his wound, and back at his sword. He had made his choice.
Tyler Ross slipped into a coma, never to open his eyes again. Sir Tyler the Valiant was no more. When Tyler opened his eyes, he was no longer clad in his shining armor. Rather than the beautiful silver he came to love so much, he looked down to see a pattern of black and white. He could hear the bells on his shameful little hat as the ends drooped around his head. Tyler the Fool found himself performing before the court of King Aldous the Abominable, the sound of laughter pierced into his ears as his audience slung rotten vegetables his way. And quite the fool he had been.