Dreams are my closest companions
Dreams are my constant shadow. Last night, my dream was so vivid and yet I realized I was dreaming, and needed to continue the dream. Lucid dreaming, I believe. It was amazingly clear and had a sort of plot, much like the last major dream I had. I woke up SO effected by it, convinced that I needed to write down the dream and that it has serious potential for a story.
So below the cut is my half-figured plot from my dream last night. All of the plot was had while dreaming, the cuts are where I'd have to fill in for an actual story. Like I said, it was a dream, so there are some logic jumps and some jumps in POV, tenses, etc.
They were born of the sea, and her first recollection was a stormy sea, being pulled to shore by the tides. She was a young woman, adopted into the society that found her. A society that lived in high places for fear of the creatures that roamed close to the earth. The wolves were their main terror, hunting them and capturing them never to be seen again, and presumably dead. They distrusted the swans as well, for they had a way about them that spoke of knowledge. She worked in the society, learning of the societal ways. They did not leave their homes in the trees except for food gathering, but they all dreamed of the sea. Why would such a land bound and tree loving society dream of the sea? The sea was their savior, or used to be. when the wolves chased them, they would run to the sea, where the wolves would only enter up to their chests. So long as you could swim in the ocean, you would be safe from the wolves that hunted you.
This had ceased to be the case though, and the wolves had learned to swim. They often told her of how lucky she was to have been found by them rather than the swans or the wolves. But she often wondered what life amongst the swans and the wolves would be like.
cut
nightmare, bedraggled swans, wolves with whole patches missing, all looking too large for their natural state. Working together, they circled and crouched closer, drawing nearer
cut
In a cage, in a basement/dungeon. Cold. Wet. A large viking of a man comes in, removes her from the cage and sets a shackle around her neck and waist. Leads her up many many stairs to a meeting in a large room filled with very large people. Some almost albino-colored with very soft and feathered hair, lithe and willowy. Some large, lumbering, brown and looking as though when they grinned their teeth would be knives. No one pays her attention. Until her captor shoves her forward, making the shackles clink loudly in the open meeting hall. All eyes turn towards her. They erupt into discussion, in languages she does not comprehend., The browns in a gutteral, feral sounding words and the albinos in a soft but cutting sounding words, as if they could whisper pleasantries all night long, but turn and devour you the next moment. She has the faint feeling that she recognizes a few words here and there, but not enough to understand anything more than her capture and danger.
She is handed off to a brown, grinning maliciously at her, and he takes her to another room down many stairs. Not a cage, but too small for comfort, and with nothing in it. A cell then. How long she waits is unknown. They do not feed her, but nor do they come to sneer or beat her.
Finally, an eternity of waiting, and the brown who put her there returns with an albino, who has strangely turned pink from the forehead down to what she could see of his chest through his open and airy shirt. Brown talks bawdily and with laughter at the albino, who nods and continues on, without looking at anything but straight ahead. She is lead to a carriage, knocked out, wakes in a room with bunk beds, she on the bottom bunk. There is a girl on the top bunk, and animals that stare at her. One, a dog, with bared teeth and hackles raised. The others with curiosity, smaller animals. A duck, a rabbit, a cat...
suddenly the girl on the top bunk lowers her head to speak with her.
She doesn't understand the language, but feels as if she comprehends the meaning. She says her name, assuming that is what was asked her.
The top bunk girl continues to chatter on in her own language, and the animals (not dog) play with her, tugging on her clothes, the duck taking her stocking. She does not understand her situation, nor the rules of where she is.
cut
she is taken to albino, into bedroom with very large bed. She thinks she understands now. Sex slavery. But he seems reluctant, blushing, murmuring to himself, looking quite haunted. He turns to her finally and speaks in his own language. She looks at him in confusion, not moving, but looking him the eye, seeing that he desperately needs to communicate some point. He tries again in brown language. thinks. Language the top bunk spoke. thinks language common to browns and albinos. getting more desperate by the minute, pulling his fine hair and putting his hands to his forehead and eyes to think. Finally he manages in broken language, "you...out...this place" She shows her confusion, but he can see the spark of recognition, and tries again, breathing slowly to completely form his sentence haltingly. "I...want...aid...out...you...
this place." He seems insistent she understand, grabs her arms and stares her in the eyes. There is caring there, and torment. She understands he is not like the others and does want to help her. But she does not trust him fully. He speaks again, "You.... tree people?"
nod of head.
He seemed to think for a moment, looking at her strangely, but finally nodding. "I.....you.....out....you.......working?"
Was he asking if she could work? She had labored to keep her people alive an well, just as everyone else. She nodded.
"Is well.......You ......reading...can?"
She was barely literate, enough to know that the signs above doors meant their profession, and that her name was to be signed on important papers, such as a deed or marriage license.
"Only a little."
He seemed to understand the meaning of her words.
"You.....get teach.....for reading.......work ......place....books." He mumbled something in his own language to himself. She had the feeling he was hoping for something more that she could not provide him.
cut
she works at a bookstore, hidden from general view of browns and albinos, sheltered by albino elder who owns the bookshop and is sympathetic with the albino who put her there. Slowly, and very patiently, he began teaching her the language that albinos and browns spoke between each other, which he called common. And he taught her to read it. He had an apprentice that was young, but a bit older than her. a brown that she did not trust at all for weeks until his calm and gentle nature assured her that he was not going to immediately harm her.
He doesn't speak her language, nor the language of the top bunk girl, but he speaks brown, albino, common, and several others. He is the one who tells her that she is different. Even from the tree people. she nodded, and said in common, haltingly and slowly, "I ....not true tree people.... I was....found at ocean."
His eyes widen and he thinks for a moment and decides something, of what nature she can't determine.
He looks at her and smiles. "You will be alright. We'll make sure you can read and speak, defend for yourself, and we will keep you safe her. Me and the old man."
she is comforted.
He is the one who tells her of the legend of the swans, wolves, and how they are their own origins. Browns ARE wolves, albinos ARE swans, and the dangerous black in the street was king swan, black, not albino.
She absorbs this, and thinks upon her own origins. She was found at sea. Could she have been from some faraway place?
wolves and swans, when they do not eat other peoples in their animal forms, take them as she was taken, for sex slavery, tree people especially, because they are so different from wolves and swans. But she was different even fro tree people, which is why she was given to the second prince of swans, the albino who put her here, a good friend of the owner, and who saved this wolf from orphan hood. Under the swan princes tutelage, this wolf grew up calm understanding and gentle.
So below the cut is my half-figured plot from my dream last night. All of the plot was had while dreaming, the cuts are where I'd have to fill in for an actual story. Like I said, it was a dream, so there are some logic jumps and some jumps in POV, tenses, etc.
They were born of the sea, and her first recollection was a stormy sea, being pulled to shore by the tides. She was a young woman, adopted into the society that found her. A society that lived in high places for fear of the creatures that roamed close to the earth. The wolves were their main terror, hunting them and capturing them never to be seen again, and presumably dead. They distrusted the swans as well, for they had a way about them that spoke of knowledge. She worked in the society, learning of the societal ways. They did not leave their homes in the trees except for food gathering, but they all dreamed of the sea. Why would such a land bound and tree loving society dream of the sea? The sea was their savior, or used to be. when the wolves chased them, they would run to the sea, where the wolves would only enter up to their chests. So long as you could swim in the ocean, you would be safe from the wolves that hunted you.
This had ceased to be the case though, and the wolves had learned to swim. They often told her of how lucky she was to have been found by them rather than the swans or the wolves. But she often wondered what life amongst the swans and the wolves would be like.
cut
nightmare, bedraggled swans, wolves with whole patches missing, all looking too large for their natural state. Working together, they circled and crouched closer, drawing nearer
cut
In a cage, in a basement/dungeon. Cold. Wet. A large viking of a man comes in, removes her from the cage and sets a shackle around her neck and waist. Leads her up many many stairs to a meeting in a large room filled with very large people. Some almost albino-colored with very soft and feathered hair, lithe and willowy. Some large, lumbering, brown and looking as though when they grinned their teeth would be knives. No one pays her attention. Until her captor shoves her forward, making the shackles clink loudly in the open meeting hall. All eyes turn towards her. They erupt into discussion, in languages she does not comprehend., The browns in a gutteral, feral sounding words and the albinos in a soft but cutting sounding words, as if they could whisper pleasantries all night long, but turn and devour you the next moment. She has the faint feeling that she recognizes a few words here and there, but not enough to understand anything more than her capture and danger.
She is handed off to a brown, grinning maliciously at her, and he takes her to another room down many stairs. Not a cage, but too small for comfort, and with nothing in it. A cell then. How long she waits is unknown. They do not feed her, but nor do they come to sneer or beat her.
Finally, an eternity of waiting, and the brown who put her there returns with an albino, who has strangely turned pink from the forehead down to what she could see of his chest through his open and airy shirt. Brown talks bawdily and with laughter at the albino, who nods and continues on, without looking at anything but straight ahead. She is lead to a carriage, knocked out, wakes in a room with bunk beds, she on the bottom bunk. There is a girl on the top bunk, and animals that stare at her. One, a dog, with bared teeth and hackles raised. The others with curiosity, smaller animals. A duck, a rabbit, a cat...
suddenly the girl on the top bunk lowers her head to speak with her.
She doesn't understand the language, but feels as if she comprehends the meaning. She says her name, assuming that is what was asked her.
The top bunk girl continues to chatter on in her own language, and the animals (not dog) play with her, tugging on her clothes, the duck taking her stocking. She does not understand her situation, nor the rules of where she is.
cut
she is taken to albino, into bedroom with very large bed. She thinks she understands now. Sex slavery. But he seems reluctant, blushing, murmuring to himself, looking quite haunted. He turns to her finally and speaks in his own language. She looks at him in confusion, not moving, but looking him the eye, seeing that he desperately needs to communicate some point. He tries again in brown language. thinks. Language the top bunk spoke. thinks language common to browns and albinos. getting more desperate by the minute, pulling his fine hair and putting his hands to his forehead and eyes to think. Finally he manages in broken language, "you...out...this place" She shows her confusion, but he can see the spark of recognition, and tries again, breathing slowly to completely form his sentence haltingly. "I...want...aid...out...you...
this place." He seems insistent she understand, grabs her arms and stares her in the eyes. There is caring there, and torment. She understands he is not like the others and does want to help her. But she does not trust him fully. He speaks again, "You.... tree people?"
nod of head.
He seemed to think for a moment, looking at her strangely, but finally nodding. "I.....you.....out....you.......working?"
Was he asking if she could work? She had labored to keep her people alive an well, just as everyone else. She nodded.
"Is well.......You ......reading...can?"
She was barely literate, enough to know that the signs above doors meant their profession, and that her name was to be signed on important papers, such as a deed or marriage license.
"Only a little."
He seemed to understand the meaning of her words.
"You.....get teach.....for reading.......work ......place....books." He mumbled something in his own language to himself. She had the feeling he was hoping for something more that she could not provide him.
cut
she works at a bookstore, hidden from general view of browns and albinos, sheltered by albino elder who owns the bookshop and is sympathetic with the albino who put her there. Slowly, and very patiently, he began teaching her the language that albinos and browns spoke between each other, which he called common. And he taught her to read it. He had an apprentice that was young, but a bit older than her. a brown that she did not trust at all for weeks until his calm and gentle nature assured her that he was not going to immediately harm her.
He doesn't speak her language, nor the language of the top bunk girl, but he speaks brown, albino, common, and several others. He is the one who tells her that she is different. Even from the tree people. she nodded, and said in common, haltingly and slowly, "I ....not true tree people.... I was....found at ocean."
His eyes widen and he thinks for a moment and decides something, of what nature she can't determine.
He looks at her and smiles. "You will be alright. We'll make sure you can read and speak, defend for yourself, and we will keep you safe her. Me and the old man."
she is comforted.
He is the one who tells her of the legend of the swans, wolves, and how they are their own origins. Browns ARE wolves, albinos ARE swans, and the dangerous black in the street was king swan, black, not albino.
She absorbs this, and thinks upon her own origins. She was found at sea. Could she have been from some faraway place?
wolves and swans, when they do not eat other peoples in their animal forms, take them as she was taken, for sex slavery, tree people especially, because they are so different from wolves and swans. But she was different even fro tree people, which is why she was given to the second prince of swans, the albino who put her here, a good friend of the owner, and who saved this wolf from orphan hood. Under the swan princes tutelage, this wolf grew up calm understanding and gentle.