The Car Ride Home

My imagination has given me a new outlook on life. I see things people would only dream of seeing. When I close my eyes, I open them to a world of my own creation.

I recently took a road trip from Delaware to Alabama and back. The trip left me in a truck on the highway for 40 hours total. My mother and I took turns driving to give the other a break.

When my mom got behind the wheel, I put in my earbuds and looked for a playlist of music I felt like listening to in that moment. I found one I had neglected for some time now: The League of Legends Volume I OST. I selected the playlist and found the song I had left off at was Tales of the Rift.

I hit play. I close my eyes.

As the song starts, I feel electricity run through my veins. At the crescendo, is when my closed eyes begin to see. Like a pulse, at the same instant the crescendo begins my vision changes from a mundane car ride to an expedition into a familiar world.

The trees grow tall, coming to a piney point. The road before us becomes a grassy plain, stone patterns fading in and out from beneath the green pasture we drive across. Structures begin to construct themselves around us. To the right, a low, chest-high wall, which vines and other forms of vegetation quickly begin to curl around and consume.

To the left, a towering statue of a man holding a scepter. As the blue jewel atop the unique staff competed its self construction, a light of the same color shoots up into the heavens, parting the clouds in a radius around it, exposing the clear blue sky which was previously hiding behind them. As we continue the drive, I look to an alcove to the left. Not far from the opening begins a shallow layer of water. A tuft of bushes near the mouth are disturbed by an unknown source. I take a closer look. An aquamarine colored crustacean reveals itself from within the brush and scuttles across the width of the river. It takes notice of me. It stops and turns towards me. It tilts what I can only assume was its head -- at least I think it did, the antennae on top of its body went from sticking straight up to rotating to a slight angle.

As the Scuttler did this, a large shadow floats over both me and the crustacean towards the river, scaring the creature and causing it to retreat back into the brush. I try to look out of the top of the car. I can only barely make out a silhouette of a long, slender, worm like body with wings flying through the sky. As I can make it out, it changes its direction to divebomb towards a pass of rocky hills sticking above the trees. It lands, and I can see its radiant orange and black scales glisten in the sunlight. It is a dragon. It takes notice of me and roars in my direction, before leaping forward, off the hill and out of my line of vision.

As we continue to drive where I can see clearly down the river, I see a fearsome beast near the horizon. On what seems to be the entirely opposite side of the river, a wormlike body erupts from another range of mountains, only this creature makes the mountains seem like pebbles in comparison to its grandiose size.

It is smooth across its body, from what I can see, and is topped by a natural, yet extravagant, headdress, giving the creature a more royal appearance. The beast rears its head back, opens its mouth wide, and lets out a blood curdling, shrill, shriek that echoed all around us, as if to give a message to all living things who valued their lives: this land is owned by this creature; it is this land's Baron.

As I pass the river and can only see the top of the beast's headdress, I turn my head to look out the windshield, and see a familiar sight. Another tall statue, similar to the one I saw before, only this one was holding a red scepter, and faced in the opposite direction of the previous statue. We pass this statue, and for a while see only plains, with walls to our right and mountains to our left. To the left, I hear a low, guttural, all too familiar croaking noise. There goes one of the inhabitants, I think to myself. We eventually come up to another red statue, and behind that, a third statue stands with its back to a circular building of some sorts, with a red crystal inside. Behind that, two more of these behemoths stand guard in front of a humongous shrine, which holds the largest crystal seen so far. It radiates a glow so hot I feel the car burning up.

Just as I thought I had seen everything, a large shadow blankets the shrine. Although, unlike the dragon, this shadow was bulky, and appeared structural. A spectacular airship lowers itself into view. The balloon atop the ship deflates, and a small man steps forth. He notices me, smirks, and gives a small wave. I smile back.

As the song comes to a close, the shrine emanates a bright glow, that continues to grow until the song comes to an end, and at the very last note, I open my eyes.

I'm back in the actual car. On the real road. That adventure is over. But as I look at my playlist, the next song is soon to begin. The song is titled the Freljord. I close my eyes. As the song begins, I shiver as a slight chill trickles down my spine. I smile in anticipation, and await the pulse to see where this song will bring me.