***There is a Spotify playlist for this story, but I can't paste a link. There is a playlist at the end of the story too. Check it out. However, here is a video that is part of the playlist with plenty of sounds: 

https://youtu.be/NtCzzciX_Ec

In the hushed whispers of the elders, a time before the Bubbles is remembered, an era when ancestral spirits walked the land, their wisdom carried on the winds of memory. They speak of a distant age when traders from the land of the rising sun brought tales of the Baku, a dream-devouring beast that consumed nightmares.

But the Baku found a new home in the spirit world of Africa, merging with a once-benevolent ancestral guardian of dreams. Corrupted by a ravenous darkness, this spirit became uMdli wephupho - the one who eats dreams, leaving hollow shells of dreamers in its wake.

For centuries, the Dream Eater slumbered, its power held at bay by ancient rituals and unwavering faith. But as the world changed and the whispers of the ancestors faded beneath the relentless hum of modernity, the old ways were forgotten, and the seductive allure of manufactured escapes took hold.

The arrival of Dream Dust, a whispered promise of oblivion, awakened the Dream Eater, fueling its insatiable hunger. It seeped into the Reverie, the shared dreamscape, twisting its wonders into nightmares.

Now, the Dream Eater stalks the Reverie, growing stronger with each dream consumed. The ancestors' whispers are faint, their strength waning. In this liminal space where reality and dream intertwine, the fate of the dreamers hangs in the balance.

Only those who remember the old ways, who dare to confront the darkness within, can hope to stand against the Dream Eater. They must navigate the shifting topography of memory and desire, seeking the fragments of light that still flicker amidst the shadows.

For in the quiet spaces between heartbeats, entire universes are reimagined, and the transformative power of dreams can be reclaimed. The dreamers must become cartographers of their own souls, tracing the contours of their fears and hopes, to weave a new tapestry of reality from the threads of their own remembered light.

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