Once upon a time, there lived a being amongst other beings, seeing and breathing an endless world… or so it thought.

One day, reaching out to another being, its stretched hand hit an invisible barrier and the being thought: “My endless world is not endless, how can that be? I can SEE it’s endless. I can FEEL it’s endless. I KNOW it’s endless. But how can I not even get out of this invisible shell?”

Every day, the being stretched its hand, and tried to reach out into its endless world, and the same thing happened, the same questions were asked.

Until one day, the being’s shell bumped into another being’s shell. They’d known each other for a while. They’d played and worked together. But, this time, the bump created a path between their shells. They both saw the path, cherished it, loved it, but were afraid to talk about it lest it disappeared. They feared the other didn’t see the path, or didn’t want it. And so, they stayed, in their respective shells, for years and years, occasionally sending individual signals through the path, but never talked about it.

After a few years, with the endless world around them changing, their connecting path suddenly appeared stronger. They rejoiced, secretly. They celebrated and had wild parties in their respective shells, secretly. But still, they never talked about the strengthening path. They dreamt, in their own shells, of all the words they would say to each other across that path, of all the feelings they had for each other, of all the adventures they would have, together, two shells connected in an endless world.

Over time, their dreams grew, engulfed, and insulated their shells. Their dreams became their shells, and expanded so far into their endless world.

Sometimes, their dreams would shrink or dissipate, and they would see their endless world darker, greyer, duller, and so they would dream again, and the path would grow stronger. They dreamt new dreams to fill their endless world, but they would never talk about the path, the words, the feelings, or the adventures. They felt it was better that way, it was safer – to protect the dreams, to guard the path.

Other times, they, individually, dreamt about expanding into wild fierce fearful giants that would break through their shells and pull through the path until they merge, together, into one big beautiful powerful being. But they never shared those dreams. They felt it was wiser that way – not to scare the other or lose the path.

They continued to float around their endless world, bumping into other shells, having occasional paths here and there, saying words, declaring feelings, going on adventures with other beings, but they never had a path like this one; the only path they chose to keep and protect, but never to cross, because their endless world would be meaningless without it.

In the end, their dreams faded, and the path faded with them. The beings, individually, secretly, locked the last of their fading dreams away in an orb of imagination. They continued to reach out to each other while connected to other beings; feeling and living the legacy of a path that joined them in a journey of a thousand words, feelings and adventures, alone, together.

And now, whenever their endless world grows darker, greyer, and duller, they take a peek into their orbs, absorb a little dream-power, relive a reviving solitary connection, before they go back into their respective shells, seeing and breathing a brighter, more colourful, adventure-filled endless world.