Jon woke up with a start. A strange voice had spoken to him in his dreams. He wondered what it meant. He knew the voice belonged to Oberon and what he asked but he didn't understand what he was asking. He felt he knew the answer but just couldn't put his finger on it.
Unknown to Jon his grandfather had put some wishes on the stone that would affect the new owner. One of these gave the owner an instinctual understanding of the universe. This was an effort by his grandfather to try and stop wishes being created that couldn't be reversed. This instinct had of course past on to Jon without his knowledge.
Jon got out of bed and turned on the light. Deep down he knew he had to learn more. He opened the box and pulled out the stone. He held it in his hand.
"I wish I understood that dream better." he said quietly.
The stone did it's work. Jon now knew the dream involved the true nature of reality. He pondered this for a while. Unfortunately the true nature of reality still escaped him.
He still had the stone in his hand and he knew just what to wish for.
"I wish I understood the true nature of reality."
He now understood his life was actually a fictional internet story that anyone could add new parts too and branch off in any number of directions. He thought that was pretty amazing but hard to believe. He felt real enough, not the creation of someone else's imagination.
He booted up his PC to see it for himself. Even though he knew the URL, when he typed it in, it couldn't be found. Then he realised the story didn't exist in his own reality. He knew how to sort that.
Yet again he put the stone in his hand.
"I wish I could access the website that contains the true reality on my pc and that only I can add to it in this reality."
He knew it was a rather quickly constructed wish but hopefully he had worded it correctly.
He typed in the URL again and this time it worked. He knew there were several such stories on the website and his was called "You Are What You Wish". He spent the next few hours engrossed in the numerous ways his life had been played out over and over again. Details of his life changed from story branch to story branch. It was a little bit worrying to discover that in a lot of them he somehow got turned into a girl, sometimes even with pictures. It seemed like fate was playing some cruel joke on him.
He was a little bit disappointed though. It seemed only that very day when he had told Karyn about the stone was where his life started. It was the same first day in all the variations of the story. It seemed Karyn was destined to become that blond with big boobs no matter what.
He checked the recent additions. He found his dream. Oberon had added an enquiry to his story instead of using the discussion forum. It had been so far removed from his reality that when entered it had woken Jon from his sleep.
It was an interesting question though. The least Jon could do was help. He tried many different search terms. He played with the stone in his hand whilst he typed several different combinations with his other hand.
Finally he found one that worked. Typing "img src=" into the search box in lower case seemed to find branches with pictures. Jon wasn't sure if this was exactly what oberon wanted but he knew he had spent enough time on the problem.
He decided it was time to start creating branches by himself. No longer he decided was his future going to be a random affair. As the passion built inside him he spoke out loud.
"Fate isn't going to trick me this time. I am master of my own destiny and I'm not going to say 'I wish I was a girl'..."
John looked at himself. The stone was still in his hand.
"Oh, Shit!"
