TMD-- Down the Rabbit Hole?

I yawned and reached up to wipe the impending sleep from my eyes. This was definitely not the time to be falling asleep.

I had just begun to tap out the words to my next greatest story, possibly in all of time, and I'd reached my coffee limit already. This wasn't a good sign. But inspiration knocks when inspiration knocks, and I was not one to turn it away.

My body had other plans.

With every passing moment, my eyelids were drooping further down towards the warm, homey feeling of being closed, cradled even. There was a limited amount of time in which to pour out all the newfound creative genius; I was racing an invisible clock.

One minute, I was hunched over my glowing laptop screen, fingers flying furiously until they were nothing but blurs of pale skin, and the next I was tumbling down like Alice, darkened walls on either side of me as I fell without resistance into nothingness, unable to summon the ability to scream or even move.

The feeling of air rushing past me as I freefell was chilling, and with a start and several moments of wiggling and reaching to touch my clothing, I realized I was wearing my favorite outfit, not what I'd been previously wearing--a pair of baggy sweatpants and an old, holey T-shirt. As I marveled at this even stranger turn of events, I felt myself begin to slow, through I still couldn't see even a pinprick's worth of light.

I began to worry about smashing headfirst into whatever ground might be coming towards me at a high speed. What if I die? Where am I, even? Am I dreaming, or is this real? I can't even see anything!

And then, miraculously, light flooded my eyes, and I landed perfectly upright…in someone's arms?

As my eyes fought to adjust enough to show me where I was, whose arms I was supported in, and everything else around me, I heard a grunt and suddenly, the ground was meeting my rear end in a harsh greeting.

"Ow!" I complained, blinking several times to clear the last of the whiteness from my vision.  

I was in a field, a plain field, filled with long waving grasses and dancing wildflowers. In the distance ahead of me, I could see the outline of a forest; a line of tall, dark trees. The sky was a deep blue color I didn't recognize, and the grunt I'd heard had come from…

"Stop complaining, you fool."

My head snapped up and my eyes squinted against sunlight, but I saw the figure clearly enough.

Rough brown and green clothing, baggy and filled with pockets I'd designed. Windswept brown hair, touched with blonde highlights; also something I'd designed. And last of all, above the frowning mouth-- the depthless steel gray eyes that even I could not read.

Aegis.

…

Aegis?

Confusion filled my head as I stood shakily and dusted myself off.

"What are you doing here? Wait, how are you here? Are you real? I am so confused…"

He rolled those gray eyes at me and grunted an unintelligible response, likely annoyed that, as always, I didn't listen to what he said.

"Aegis! Answer me! What am I doing here, with you, and where are we?"

"Damnit, woman, I don't know! I've been here just a few minutes more than you. Stop asking me questions I cannot answer!" He fumed.

This was definitely the Aegis I'd created. Down to the last syllable. I was stunned.

"So…what do we do?" I asked, dumbfounded.

Another grunt, and he strode in the direction of the forest, leaving me to follow or be left alone.

Needless to say, I followed.

"Aegis, slow down. My feet hurt!" I whined.

He barely turned over his shoulder to acknowledge me, and kept walking at his usual fast clip, causing me to grumble under my breath about my questionable reasons for making him walk so fast.

Another few minutes and we'd reached the shelter of the trees.

Aegis stopped and immediately began surveying our new surroundings, probably making sure we weren't in danger. I spent the time catching my breath and looking for some sign of civilization.

"Let's move" Aegis murmured, and we were off again, deeper into the forest.

Not long after initially entering the trees, we came across a low stone building, unremarkable, really, nestled among some stones and shrubs. There was a compelling force inside me, tugging me, telling me to go inside. I voiced my thoughts to Aegis.

"That's incredibly stupid…but I have a similar feeling. Maybe we should just check it out."

He moved for the door, ready to kick it down, no doubt, when it opened completely of its own accord.

We exchanged a wary glance, and slowly entered.

Inside was a small room, wooden floored and empty save for an old spiral staircase leading straight into the ground in the center of the floor.

With nothing else to do, I followed Aegis and we made our way down the stairs.

At the bottom was yet another door, but this one required that we open it ourselves, and it creaked as Aegis swung it open with much of his strength.

Beyond the wooden door was a vast room, filled with people and creatures of all shapes and sizes, some familiar and some entirely alien to Aegis and I, alike.

As we were taking everything in, we noticed that, like us, they were mostly all in pairs, clinging to each other's sides as if they had the same questions we did.

With a loud bang, the door shut behind us, trapping us in the strange, stone room with all of the others.

The clinking of a spoon against glass caught all of our attention, and the murmuring of the massive crowd stopped as a black-robed figure appeared before us on a dais.

The figure was clad like a judge, and his voice boomed over them all.

"I am The Editor, you are all authors and their characters. You are here to fight! Why you ask? Because you are all trapped in the Muse's dream, and you will wish to escape which can only happen if you wake her. To do that you must reach the centre of her dream, but she will only let the best and most creative writers go there. We will see if you have the ability to reach there. And if you do, we have one extra prize for you, one piece of writing, one piece in which myself and the muse work in perfect harmony for you, as writers you will see the value of that."

I looked to Aegis, who returned my glance with eyebrows raised, obviously questioning my abilities. I sighed in frustration and made him a deal,

"Keep me alive through this, and you can have all the food you want for a year, you scrawny thing. Better bring your A-game."