I have a fantasy world, it's a safe, peaceful place in the middle of a huge forest, and it's called Nialiah (nee-ah-lee-ah). It's protected from the outside forest with a huge impenetrable dome made of ancient magic. It's home to all kinds of magical beings and creatures, including mages, dragons, gnomes, fairies, creatures I made up called minkminks, a "firefox"; a fox who can burst into flame and put itself out without being singed, and a unicorn.
My very best friends in Nialiah are Amorphidus (Ay-more-fih-dus), the most powerful mage in the land, and Winnipeg the immortal unicorn, who has the intelligence and understanding of a human, even though she can't speak.
In Nialiah, I'm much younger than in real life, maybe eight or nine. I stay with Amorphidus in his little wooden cabin whenever I go to visit; I have my own bed tucked away in the corner of his front room. He protects me and looks after me; if I'm upset or have meltdowns, he always knows exactly how to calm me. Amorphidus, Winnipeg and I spend a lot of time together visiting the other creatures in their homes. I like visiting Dragon Lake, which, as the name suggests, is a huge grassy field with an enormous clear lake in the middle, that's inhabited by hundreds of friendly, gentle dragons. I like playing with the baby dragons and rolling around in the grass with them, it's like playing with giant scaly puppies.
Most of Nialiah is bathed in the soft orange glow of a permanent sunset; the magic dome refracts sunlight in such a way as to create the effect. Some areas higher up in the Dalmoor mountains, where the minkminks play in the fresh icy streams, don't see the refractive properties of the dome because of how high up they are, and the angle that the sun penetrates at, so it looks like normal daylight there.
I go to Nialiah a lot, mostly when I'm anxious or worried or lonely. It's part of my self-calming technique for warding off impending meltdowns, which is sometimes successful and sometimes not. If a genie appeared right now and offered me one wish, I would wish that Nialiah were real.
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"Survival is insufficient" - Seven of Nine
Diagnosed with ASD level 1 on the 10th of April, 2014
Rediagnosed with ASD level 2 on the 4th of May, 2019
Thanks to Olympiadis for my fantastic avatar!