The night before, your last thoughts that had entered into dreams was more of a question that your mind had harbored for a very long time, 'Why can't it be real?' You spent that night tossing and turning in your sleep as you tried to reach out and grasp the very thing that you desired the most in your life.

You find yourself awakening to a warm morning sun as its light enters your bedroom window. Your very first thought though was still the same, 'Why can't it be real?' You look at the clock and its still early morning. You look past the clock and you see the book that you have been reading. It is opened to the last chapter and to the very last line, 'Now the adventure begins.'

You sit up immediately and ponder this. It didn't say that last night..?! It said, 'The End'..!! You shake your head in disbelief, and finally crawl out of bed and begin your morning like you always have. You even chuckle to yourself, 'Bah, 'The End'....hah hah ha.' You go outside and get your newspaper and check the mailbox.

On the way back inside you are going through the mail, when you come upon a white envelope that says, W. Rose Travel Tours. Inside you drop all the other bills and letters on the kitchen table. You hurriedly make your tea, and ready some biscuits as well. You waste no time to get back to the mysterious envelope. You open it to find a one way ticket to Cardiff, Wales, and another ticket to the W. Rose Tour Wagon. A letter accompanied the tickets and it read the following:

Dear Fellow Traveler,

You have won the all expenses paid trip to the home of your ancestors. We will be expecting you. Please note this is for one person only. Now your adventure begins.

Signed,
W. Rose

You start to jump up and down as you yell to no one in particular, 'I'VE WON, I'VE WON..!!' The excitement in your heart began to slow down as you suddenly realized one small important fact. You had never entered any contest. In fact you had never even heard of before. Now you say out loud, 'I don't care. I never win anything. So be it. I'm going..!!'

You made your arrangements, and packed your bag, asked your neighbor to watch your pup, pulled the shutters, and locked the door. Grabbing your bag you started off down the road.

Soon, it seamed like no time at all you arrived in Cardiff after many days of travel from your homeland. Your excitement now is very rich and deep within your heart as the realization of how old this part of Wales was. You knew it to be a very small part of Great Britain, but it was also the oldest, the most ancient, and the home of your ancestors.

You look around and see a small hotel named Hotel White, and it was just down the street a ways. Inside you are met by a very small old lady behind the counter. In a very strong Welsh accent she says to you, 'Please be kyat laddie. Your oom eese at ee top o the stairs.' Of course you had no plans of being loud or disorderly. You took the key and went to the top of the stairs and found just one room. You looked around behind yourself, and over the old bannister, and it dawned on you, there is but one room only?

Inside you dropped your suitcase and fell on the old feather bed falling asleep immediately from your exhausting trip. At sometime in the early morning hours you were awakened to a noise at the door. The room was cold and you shivered pulling a blanket around you. You slowly got up and went to the door to see what had awakened you. Looking down on the floor you see light under the crack under the door. A shadow moves and you hear again another soft like sound. You open the door quickly to ask what they want, only to find at the door sill a small note and next to it a single white rose. No one was there. They had vanished.

You shut the door and locked it, then took the note near the candle by the bed. You lit the candle and squinted as you read:

'Plans have beened moved up. We must start immediately. Waiting outside with the wagon. No need for extra clothing. Please hurry.

Signed,
W. Rose

You start to run around the room in excitement. All you could think to do was grab the note, then run out the door.

Outside was a small wagon with a couple of bench seats. It was pulled by two black Welsh mountain ponies. Sitting high on the buck board seat was a little old man wearing a black heavy coat and black bowler. He slowly climbed down and comes up to you. He says, 'Climb aboard, we are late.' You waste no time and scurry up and into the rear bench. The air is cold, but your excitement is keeping you warm. The old man cracks a small whip, and the ponies start off at a very fast pace.

The old driver says back over his shoulder, 'The Breacon Beacons, sir.' It is then that you notice a slight incline as the woods seem to close in on the road ahead. An hour passes by, and now your mind is starting to catch up with your thoughts. You begin to wonder many things. Why are you the only passenger? Why a one room hotel? Why a white rose, or better yet who is W. Rose? None of this is making much sense now. Yes its exciting, but something seems wrong, but what?

It was then that you noticed the driver kept looking over to his left as if he was watching the right front wheel. The black ponies were relentless though in their pace. Then you almost didn't see it. A movement by the driver's hand. He had quickly pointed at the wheel with his index finger. He twirled his finger in a small circle, and it was at that very moment when the wheel started to creak.

The wagon was now making its way up a very steep grade. Ahead you can see somewhat as the early morning light begins to give eerie form to the sights all around you. Its a lower mountain road, yet you are coming out of a very deep forest. Ahead up on a small hill you can make out a sort of memorial in the gloom.

Just as the wagon makes it near the memorial you see on the opposite side of the road far below a small fishing village near the Irish Sea. It was just then that the creaking noise vanished into a loud crack and the front wheel to the wagon came flying off and everything came to a sudden halt in the road. The old man climbed down and walked around to the wheel to inspect it. You follow him and after a bit he says to you, 'She eez a bad one mate. I 'll go too dee wilage and geet elp laddie. Maybe you go to tower and reed dee plaque.' Without taking his gaze away from the wheel, he points up towards the memorial a few hundred feet above you.

You say to him, 'Are you sure sir? Are we going to be okay?'
He just simply said back, 'Oh doan you worreez bout meez, I'll beez fine laddie.' Then he just laughed and said, 'Go to dee tower, I'll beez back soon. I still wondered silently about that finger wagging he did at the wheel.

There was an ancient cobblestone path that meandered back and forth as it made its way up to the area of the stone monument like tower. At times there were flagstones and sometimes fieldstones as well, that were made into steps. It was a bit of a climb and you found yourself struggling to make your way. As you went, you noticed that the wind seem to have picked up a bit. You turned and looked after a while, and the wagon and horses were very small to the eye, and the village was even further yet. Clouds had came rolling in and it was then you thought, maybe a storm was brewing.

With every step you took, the wind increased and now it started to rain. You could hear distant thundering, but it kept coming closer. Your heart started to pound as the question came into your mind for the first time, 'What am I doing here?'

You made it to the tower, and you ran the last bit of distance as a wild crack of thunder exploded above you. A sheer white flash erupted from lightning in the boiling clouds above. You found yourself pressed hard against the plaque that the old man had referred to. The wind was tearing at you as you struggled to hold onto the edges of the plague. Another massive explosion of thunder occurred, as more lightning ripped through the air. Rain pelted you violently, and yet you looked down at the words on the plaque. You read them out loud nearly screaming them as the storm tore at your every limb, 'Behold the tower of the White Rose'.

Quickly, before you could respond or jump, the stone slab that you stood on, spun around like in a circle and you found yourself inside the tower stone..!! The storm raged on outside as you stood shaking in the dark. Wet and fatigued your mind raced for answers, and your fear was at its peak. You peered around in the total darkness, afraid to take a step into a possible abyss. You waited a very long time, before you took your first step. It was then that you seen in the far distance a lantern being lit. It was a very long ways away, and seem to be at the far end of a great tunnel or hallway.

Slowly your eyes adjusted to the new found light of the hall, even though it was a long ways away. You started instinctively to make your way towards the light. As you went forward, the hall went downward, yet very straight. On each side of you though, you stopped at times, and pondered the great sight there, as you discovered the walls of the hall were covered with huge family crests, or war shields and weaponry. Great helms and elaborate scabbards of boiled leather were displayed and covered with a fine layer of dust.

You peered ahead in hopes of seeing who it was that had lit the lantern. You walked upto the oil lamp that was burning fiercely on the wall next to an enormous black oaken door. Its massive weight was evident by the size of the bolt heads and iron bandings that held it together. A large heavy door knocker seem to never have been used as it was covered with dust, yet you reached out to it, just as the door began to creak and slowly move. You froze as the huge door swung away from you and warm lights and voices erupted from within.

'We have been waiting for you. Please come in youngster and have a meal with us.' The voice belonged to a small elderly man in his fifties with a gray beard and wavy long hair. He was stocky built, and was wearing an ivory colored hooded robe. You didn't move though, but instead tried to peer further into the room. You could see that there were about ttwenty people moving about and sitting at a large oak table. The old gentleman again said, 'Please, don't be frightened. All will be explained soon enough.'

Slowly you regained your courage and you stepped through the door cautiously. You followed the door man over to the table as he announced, 'Quiet now gentlemen, quiet. Our distinguished guest is here at last. We can now continue.' He turned and looked at me and said, 'Please sir, have a seat, and I will have a wonderful meal brought out to you.'

In the distance you hear someone say, 'Oh posh, its just soup and beer. I will have it to you soon laddie." You bow and tried to speak, but the doorman now put his index finger in front of his mouth. You never utter a word, as a tall thin old man stood up and tapped his beer mug with a spoon and said, 'Here we are...here we are....enough now...attention.' The room settled down as everyone finally took their seats around the great table.

He began, 'My name as you all know is Ransalt Baywhittle and this is the nine hundredth and seventy-second meeting of the White Flower. Standing before you is this year's winner and I would like each and everyone of you to stand and give your introduction as is fitting when I am finished.' He then turned and faced me as I was a few chairs to his right and he said, 'From the past I know you have had many burning questions, but please forgive me as I will give you the answers before you even ask the questions.' With this he smiled at me, and I felt more at ease finally.

'My dear laddie, you have been picked,...no, I mean summoned, to fulfill what we call a 'role'. There are thousands in the world that would love to fill your shoes at this very moment in time, but only the elite may be called, and that is 'you'.'

'The White Rose Society is a very secretive organization that was started back in the thirteen hundreds to ensure that our way of life endured through time. Great wars have been fought and won, and lost as well, since we began our mandate. Yet it is our tradition to call up on one person every year that we feel deserves the gifts of the White Rose.'

'To begin with I will tell you that our caverns, caves, tunnels, hallways, and great halls are massive and enormous. They go for miles underground and the Breacon's are but a small part of our world. You have been summoned here though because we are your ancestors.' With this bit of news you are startled, and begin to think him but crazy.

Ransalt continues and says in his low bass voice, 'I see your concern but I'm willing to tell you more. Here, time stops, and your first gift is ever lasting life. Look, if you will, at your time piece.' You do look at it and it had stopped apparently when you entered the tower from outside. 'Also you will notice that you crave no hunger here, and crave no tobacco, nor drink, nor wealth, nor pride. You will crave only one thing, and that is the continued main purpose of the White Rose.'

He took a long pause here, and you could see the seriousness in his eyes as he says, 'You asked the question many days ago, but you have asked it many times in your life. 'Why can't it be real?' You know of what question I speak. When your mind enters another world and you linger there out of wonder. You see the many strange and wonderful places, people, and things. Then you are interrupted by your everyday life, so your immediate response is, 'That must have been a fantasy?'

You now start to understand that he knows more about your inner thoughts, more than your closest friends and family. He in fact knows the most important thing on your mind. Why can't I live my fantasy as if it was real. Your eyes go wide with this realization. Could this be the real thing? Could I be entering my fantasy world only its no longer fantasy?

Reading your mind Ransalt says, 'Yes...this is 'it' for you. If you stay here with us, we will show you how to help others who strive to live in their world as well. From time to time, one of our order will leave and enter back into their old world, but we allow that, if it is necessary. You might have wondered who they are and why. We see it as an opportunity to increase our societies existence. We are networked in every country of the world, and we reach people of all ages and walk of life.'

'Now we will let you be, and you can spend tonight here pondering what I have said, and try to gain the meaning of it all. Feel free to walk our halls, and to ask any question that comes to mind. A great revelation is at hand for you, so you must make the same choice as we all have had to do in time.'

When he had finished, all the others spoke up one after the other. You then realized they were some of the most famous people of the past, and yet some were obscure, yet great in their own way. Your first question came to you but before you asked it, you heard Ransalt's answer very clearly. He laughed and said, 'Yes Professor Tolkien was one of our best. He had the most wonderful creative mind, and yet had the talent of putting it to ink and paper, so it was, that we let him go back.'

That made you smile, because you had read the professor's books, and asked the question, 'Why can't Hobbits be real?' You, think it was then, at that very moment in time, that you reached your final decision. Yes, you now would become a member of the White Rose Society. You would answer your own question, 'Why can't it be real?, for now, it was... truly real.

You sort of woke up in your dream state, and found you were deep into the halls. You turned and your many ancestors and the famous of the past came walking towards you almost like ghost. They handed you a beautiful ivory white robe. You put it on and a shiver came up your back as it felt so sweet, and that was the beginning of your new life. They then led you to the first hall of many. It was all about shape-shifting and its lore and repression. Later it was the hall of armor, and you learned the many mysteries of armor blessed with magic and spells of the arcane. Then weeks later the hall of different speech including animal, human, and other beings as well.

In time you learned them all, and became the master of many roles in life. The role player had become the role realist. Welcome now to our section dedicated to you, the role realist of the Lord of the Rings Online.

(Author's note: The newspaper clipping said, that no more leads were found in the disappearance of a young person that had been missing several weeks. Only clue found was a single white rose laying at the front door of the victim's home.)

THE END