Was it a dream? Some kind of fevered hallucination perhaps? It seemed real enough, but the mind has been known to play tricks on a person. Mayhap I am dead, and looking into the face of Hell. I am wounded, of that I am sure. I felt the sharp point of a blade pierce my flesh, after which, I remember nothing, until the nightmare took me.

     I saw myself standing on a crowded thoroughfare nearly five hundred years in the future. It was the latter half of the twentieth century, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety seven.

     I marveled at the wonders of that future time. People of that age have conquered the sky, they fly! Inside the bellies of great metal birds that roar like dragons! They no longer have need of horses there, for they have tamed beasts of a like I have never seen on this world. They growl like hellish things, and wear multi-colored armor of steel and crystal. Awesome creatures to say the least.

     this place was like something out of ancient mythology. The people were like unto wizards and witches, living in magical kingdoms that rose up to pierce the sky. A wondrous place, yet in spite of their accomplishments, they have lost something I fear. I found very little honor among people of that era. They have become brutal in nature, yet cowardly in method. they kill one another in craven fashion; with weapons that spit death from afar. They have other weapons as well, fearsome things that threaten to kill the Earth. With such weapons they war among themselves killing women and children, such people are without honor.

     Will this be the way of the world five hundred years from now? I pray not, for should this be the future of things, I fear for humanity. They have every luxury they could hope for and it has made them complacent. Chivalry is all but dead, romance has become a game to these people, for they have become superficial. They care more for the body than the soul, more for material worth than the worth of a human heart. A world bereft of respect, a people deprived of dignity. It is a cold place indeed.

     As I stood there I felt an aloneness that chilled my very soul. I stood among multitudes of people and yet I was alone. Not the kind of alone one feels when he is locked away in a dungeon, nay, this was more akin to how a ghost must feel. I wanted to cry out but I knew my voice would fall on deaf ears. Perhaps it is best that they remain in their own world, unable to see or hear, for there is no room for their kind in my world.

     I wanted to leave this place, to escape the nightmare and return to the real world. I fought the vision like I had never fought before, and slowly my mind began to clear. Consciousness was returning, and I spied a glimmer of light. As the dream ended the icy fingers of reality took hold of me.

     I found myself standing on a crowded thoroughfare. It was the latter half of the twentieth century, in the year of our lord nineteen hundred and ninety seven.