Vivid Dream Reality 3 Read online

  There was hope on the horizon regarding Britain. After significant unrest and a meeting with the Queen, the Prime Minister had resigned and a new election was called. Both major parties were polling particularly badly, so an enterprising MP formed a new party called Britain First and after listening to what the public wanted, set out an Elf friendly agenda. I believe Andi may have helped with their funding. I also suspect she might have dug up dirt on any opposing candidates since a lot of them were discredited with multiple scandals rocking the major parties. Regardless, Britain First have just won an overwhelming majority, which may open up reconciliation and even the possibility of taking over the Isle of Wight.

  Mia with Roni and Katie would take part in the negotiations, with Andi listening in and allowing Vee and I to contribute if needed. Simone was in charge of New Amilyf but had warned that it was going to take a long time. From a practical point of view, the Isle of Wight would be a much better prospect for at least the next ten years. By then New Amilyf would be self-sufficient, secure and beautiful. I had some ideas that would speed up the process, but I needed a bit of luck to bring that to fruition.

  Chapter 3

  Matteo/ Wendy's POV

  I woke up back in the real world and was about to take my headset off when I heard Tia's voice asking us not to. We all waited, but it must only have been a few minutes, just enough for Tia to be out of sight. After we had our headsets off we got back in the van and, I guess, since I was the last to be picked up, I was the first to be dropped off. The nice elf who had picked me up checked the house out before passing me a mobile phone.

  “OK. A couple of rules. First, don't tell anybody who isn't an elf anything. You can contact loved ones after you are safe. Right now you are not safe, so you need to listen to your instructions carefully. There are a lot of people who would like to get their hands on you if they knew what you have just been through. Second, trust Andi, she will be your guide and will not lead you astray. Use this phone to talk to Andi. She is part of the Elven Nation HR department and will guide you. If you have any questions, ask her and if she doesn't know, she will find out and get back to you. She likes to chat, so don't feel like you are bothering her, it is her job to settle you in.”

  “Thank you so much, this means the world to me,” I told her. I didn't ask her name. This was all being kept secret so if she hadn't volunteered her name, I presumed she didn't want me to know.

  She waved goodbye and watched me close the door on her. I looked at the phone and in the contact list, there was only one name, Andi. So I called her.

  “Hello, Andi speaking.”

  “Hello Andi, it is Wendy speaking.” Right now I felt more like Wendy than ever.

  “Hi Wendy, are you ready for your instructions?”

  “Yes please.”

  “OK. It will take about two weeks for your body to transform and very little will be visible for the next few days, so we need you to travel as Matteo. Do not tell your landlord, empty your bank account or do anything to arouse suspicion. Leave your phone behind and do not use any credit cards. Once we have you safe in Fiji, we can sort all that out. I will arrange a flight for tomorrow, pack a bag with any memorabilia that you wish to keep and get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a big day.”

  “Will I feel different?” I asked her.

  “Most feel more comfortable with their female persona. Unfortunately, that means less comfortable with their original male identity. It will only be for two weeks though. Physically, you should feel more and more healthy. You know you need to avoid meat, right?”

  “Yes. I have read everything on the website.”

  “Perfect. Any other questions?” Andi asked me.

  “What am I going to do for the Elven Nation?”

  “We don't know yet. Hopefully, something that makes you happy and also contributes to the safety, security and prosperity of our growing Nation. We have various specially designed VDR programs to help work out where your talent lies. All elves are required to learn a self-defence martial art, Elven cultural studies and Elvish, other than that, we need to find how you can best fit.”

  “Elven cultural studies?”

  “There are certain aspects of being elven that require careful management. For example, the belief is that when you fall properly in love with someone, you will stay in love with them forever. So you don't want to muck it up and there are rules developed to try and ensure that.”

  “Oh. OK.”

  “Don't worry, it will all be explained after you arrive.”

  It was late, but I was excited, so I got my luggage out and started packing. Truthfully, there wasn't that much that I wanted to take with me. Photographs of my family only brought me pain. The few friends I had made when I had moved to Bruges, didn't know the real me. The Elven Nation would become my new family. So far they had shown me more kindness than the rest of humanity. I took a lot of loose type of clothing. Judging by my image in Lagbit's World, my body was going to change so much it would be unrecognisable. I was looking forward to it.

  I tried to sleep and maybe dozed occasionally but didn't really manage to get any decent rest. At six am, I cleaned the house, emptied everything that would go off quickly from the fridge into the freezer. I switched my phone off and left it by the bedside and then waited with my luggage until it was late enough that I could phone Andi and find out when my plane was due. After waiting five minutes Andi rang me.

  “Your flight will be leaving in five hours. I will send a text with the details. When would you like to go to the airport?”

  “Can I go now?”

  “No worries. I will organise an Uber prepaid ride for you. Wait a sec.” I only had to wait about thirty seconds, Andi was really efficient. “All sorted, the car should be arriving in about twenty minutes.”

  After about twenty minutes there was a knock on my door. I left my old life without looking back. My past was dead, but my future looked bright.

  Travelling to Fiji was boring and tiring. I managed to sleep some of the time, but still arrived feeling grubby and exhausted. An elf was waiting for me at the airport with my name and some others. I headed over and met up with two others who had been in the van with me and two more who I didn't know. We were taken via bus to this rather large mansion with high walls all around and a clear security presence.

  I was given a chance to rest and then we started a new routine. First thing in the morning we had Taigoa lessons, then Mia would go through Elvish matters. I felt instantly drawn to her, but she was so high up in the organisation that I knew I wouldn't have a chance to interact with her. That didn't stop my fantasies though. When she did explain how if you lost your bonded, you had to accept that that was the end of your romantic life and find something else to give your life purpose.

  I put my hand up then and she gestured for me to speak. “What about reincarnation?” I asked her.

  “What is reincarnation?” she asked.

  “Some people believe that we have a soul and when we die physically, we don't die spiritually. That spirit can then come back, be born again, but with none of the memories that they had previously. If your bonded died, and you lived long enough, isn't there a chance that they can be born again?”

  “Our teachings in Lagbit's church are that if you are worthy, you enter paradise.” She frowned. “The afterlife has always been a mystery. I will meditate on your words and investigate this concept. Going to a just reward can mean different things to different people. If I had died rather than my bonded, I know I would have wanted to return, if I was given the option.”

  That session ended early, Mia's mind was clearly distracted. After lunch, I would have a VDR session. We all started with the same one, where we were taught druid concepts and meditated in a forest. I know others would then go to different scenarios, but I seemed to have some talent with druid learning, so every day I would spend a week in a forest concentrating on druid law, meditating and connecting to the external world.

  During
the next two weeks, I marvelled at the changes in my body. Every day I looked forward to all the little hints that I was becoming more and more feminine. I rejoiced when my penis withered and the morning I woke up with it gone was one of the best of my life. As my body started to assume its final shape, I was offered clothes that fit more comfortably and looked more feminine. I had a choice to keep my identity and apply for a change of gender with new photographs and evidence or to create a completely new identity.

  I was to be part of an experiment. Apparently, the magic of Lagbit's World mostly didn't work here, but the druids and druid familiars worked just fine.

  Unfortunately, there were only four Elven druids at the moment, so it would help if there were more. I was part of the experiment to try and create more. Those who seemed to show some aptitude, and I have no idea how they judged that, went through a druid training program. Fortunately, that could be done in VDR, so my two weeks were the equivalent to fourteen weeks worth of training. Then we needed to enter Lagbit's World again with Tia and go through the familiar summoning ceremony.

  I, along with four others, had completed our druid training, fully transformed into beautiful female elves and were ready for the next step in the experiment. I chose to have a new identity and together, we were travelling back to Europe. Hopefully, we would meet back up with Tia and see this experiment to its conclusion. If I was successful, my next job would be training with my familiar. My end role would depend on what familiar I managed to summon if I managed that.

  We arrived in Barcelona and were met by elven security who led us to two cars. We then spent four days trying to lose our tails. We kept our ears covered, paid for everything with cash and switched cars and direction frequently. There were various wigs and glasses. In the end, I believe two of our security force had to take a more hard-line approach. Tia had been waiting in the area, so as soon as we were assured that there was no one following us, we met at a deserted beach at two am.

  I did not see how she arrived, but suddenly a group of elves were walking over a dune towards us. Tia looks identical to Mia apart from the hairstyle and yet the attraction I had towards Mia just wasn't there. I somehow sensed on a fundamental level that this identical looking body housed a completely different spirit.

  We laid out some towels on the sand and put the headsets on. Tia checked that everyone was ready and started the process.

  Chapter 4

  I woke up in the same bed I had the last time when I had been transformed. We were all taken to stay in the church dormitories. In theory, we could all be taken to different glades for the familiar summoning ceremony, but it was traditional to use the most sacred site. It was also traditional for the most senior druid to perform the rite, so we were going to have one per day and I was third in line.

  I had a couple of days to relax before the big event. The other girls with me decided to have some fun with the other elves, so I saw very little of them, but for some reason, I just couldn't join them. It didn't feel right, giving my body to someone else felt like I would be hurting someone, even though there was no one to hurt.

  Mia was pretty unapproachable on Earth. I don't think it was because she was aloof, but she was surrounded by other elves constantly and if you didn't have a good reason to come near her, you weren't given the opportunity. Myra, on the other hand, always kept her door open and was happy to talk. I felt the same attraction to Myra that I did towards Mia and had been thinking long and hard about her declaration that once you lost your bonded, your love life was over.

  I kept trying to convince myself to give it up, forget about my silly fantasies, but no matter what I told myself, I just couldn't let it go. I think I am a relatively shy person. Even the idea of knocking on Myra's door was making me shake inside and yet, I couldn't seem to help myself. I wanted to convince her that there was hope in her future. It probably wasn't me, as much as I would like it to be, but that didn't mean she had to give up on the idea of meeting her bonded again.

  This was the reason why on the afternoon of the first day I had crept up to her door and lightly knocked. I wanted to be confident and knock firmly, however it had taken all my courage just to get to the door and bring my hand in contact. Fortunately, Myra has good hearing and invited me in.

  “Good afternoon.” She gestured for me to take a seat. “How can I help you?”

  “Sorry to disturb you, priestess,” I said meekly, struggling to meet her eyes.

  “That's alright. I was catching up on some paperwork. I like being disturbed from that. What can I do for you?”

  “Well, I was having this discussion with Mia, when she was teaching cultural studies. She said she would need to think about it, but has then been too busy.”

  “We may look alike, but I have no knowledge of what happens on Earth,” Myra told me gently.

  “I know that priestess, but I thought it was important to your happiness as well, so I felt compelled to see you.”

  “You've got me curious. What was the discussion then?”

  “Mia said that when you have lost your bonded, that was it, you had no chance of love again,” I said, looking up briefly to meet her eyes before dropping them.

  “Yes. That has been our experience.”

  “On Earth, there is a school of thought that believes in reincarnation. Reincarnation is when your spirit comes back, to be born again, but with none of the memories from the previous life. There even appears to be some evidence behind it, when people remember what they shouldn't know,” I informed her.

  “What did Mia say to that?” she asked curiously.

  “She said that the afterlife was a mystery. The teachings suggested a just reward and that if she was given the choice between going to paradise or returning to the world where her bonded was, she would have returned. Then she said that she would meditate on it.”

  “Truthfully the afterlife is a mystery. We have not seen any evidence like you spoke of. More importantly, no one who has ever lost their bonded has found another to love.”

  “I know and have been thinking and meditating on the question and a couple of things came to mind. I don't know if they were inspired by Lagbit or my own imagination. If you believe that your bonded is gone forever, do you attempt to love again? Would you close your heart off so that it can never be hurt in the same way again? The other thought I had was about numbers. There are so few elves born and your whole population is tiny compared to human standards. Do you mind me asking how many elves there are in Lagbit's World?”

  “We believe there to be a little bit over 200,000.”

  “On Earth, the current population is over seven billion. It is much more likely that we would notice something like reincarnation, or have evidence of it. Then I wondered if spirits or souls from here, from Lagbit's World, could be born on Earth, as humans who would become elves. Then I thought of Katie and Ash. Born on different worlds, but bonded. Does that mean that Katie had an Elven soul?”

  “A good question.” She sighed. “You raise many good questions that I do not have an answer for. I think I will have to ask Lagbit in a ceremony of light. It will take me some time to prepare. Come back to me in three days time and I will have your answers.”

  “You can speak with Lagbit?” I asked surprised.

  “Sort of. We can ask Lagbit to channel through another and ask them questions.”

  “Wow.”

  “It is not easy and will take a lot of preparation, so we only perform the right for something important. I consider this really important. It would validate what we are doing as well as giving so many elves who have lost their bonded, including me, hope.”

  After that I had nothing to do until my druid ceremony so I spent the time practising Taigoa, mediating and taking more druid lessons with any druid who was willing to spare the time.

  On the morning of my ceremony, Leaf collected me after my Taigoa session. We travelled peacefully and calmly, enjoying the tranquillity of nature on our way to the sacred glen. I stripped
naked as Leaf prepared the fire.

  She had me lay down by the edge of the brook so that my hand dipped into the water. A rock warmed by the fire was placed against my foot and she encouraged me to dig the fingers of my other hand into the soil. She then walked me through a meditation, where she had me do breathing exercises, followed by moving my concentration to my hand in the water. There she talked about the wonderful qualities of water, then moved onto feeling the soil between my fingers and the strength of the earth, followed by feeling the wind caressing my face and finally the warmth in the stone pressing against my foot.

  As she talked about that warmth, the stone seemed to heat up, almost to the point of pain, but just within my tolerance. After talking about the advantages of fire and warmth in general she asked me to open my eyes, remove my hands from the water and the earth and sit up. The rock touching my foot was glowing a fiery red colour. I knew what I had to do. I picked it up, again, it was hot. Hot enough to make me think if I held it too long my fingers would start to burn. I brought it to my forehead and felt a burning sensation right between my eyes. The stone in my hand then rapidly cooled.

  Of the two elves before me, only Vienne had succeeded in summoning a familiar, so I figured I had about a fifty per cent chance. My next challenge was going to be communicating with a fire familiar. Leaf told me they were pretty rare and very dangerous. In peace times they were in charge of preventing forest fires or became blacksmiths. In war, a fire familiar could be devastating. In Amilyf, only the blacksmith, Hannah, currently had a fire elemental, so she suggested I spend what time I had remaining with Hannah. I was exhausted though, so the rest of the day I spent trying to get my energy back.