Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story.

[smallestopener]

Ingress had a brilliant birthday. She’s eleven. Eleven is nearly grown up! It’s also the year when children in the stories she’s read come into their own. Adventures begin, schooling starts, worlds are saved… she can hardly wait to see what will happen next

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Not all is as it seems

[smallestopener]

Out by the lake, Ingress scans the water for Mr. Julia. It’s hard to see because it’s dark. She hasn’t been out by the lake at dark before, so Tom must be close by. Or Door. Neither are. It’s quiet out here. Ominously so. She only hears the lap of water against the rocks. It’s not a good quiet, and she remembers the warnings she’s heard over the years - don’t talk to strangers, be careful, come home straight away, there are things in the dark that will take you away, take your mother, your father, your brother…

She is frightened, but Ingress, Lady of the House of Arch and soon-to-be Herald, does not let fear stop her. She lifts her head high, hefts her sword, and begins to walk towards the far-off lights in the distance, skirting the shore.

It seems a very far way to the safety of those lights.

Re: Not all is as it seems

[it_has_teeth]

The wind stirs eddies in the water, whorls and ripples that grow deeper with time. Deeper and --

Brighter.

A fin the size of a sail breaks through the surface, sudden and swift and arrowing straight toward the shore.

Toward Ingress.

And a voice rises from the water too, cool and dry and dull as death.

(It has teeth in it.)

"Well met, little Opener, little Herald-to-be. Shall you choose, at last, to venture out for a swim?"

Re: Not all is as it seems

[smallestopener]

Ingress never met the Master Shark, but she knew of him from shivery stories told to her.

At least that's what she seems to remember.

She only knows that no, she shall not swim with him for a long time.

"No thank you," she says, polite and quiet, and how are her toes that close to the water line?

"Not yet."

Re: Not all is as it seems

[it_has_teeth]

"A pity."

The vast fin that heralds the presence of ed'Rashtekaresket turns slowly away from the shoreline, beginning to circle.

"My bite would have been swift."

No ripples mark his passing.

Not this time.

Re: Not all is as it seems

[smallestopener]

Ingress scuttles away from the shoreline. She watches the still water, worried for Mr. Julia. She can't see his waving tentacles anywhere.

She's worried. She can't Mr. Julia, she can't find Megwyn, and it's too dark for the butterfly, either. It's night, so there are only moths.

She crosses her arms over her chest. Frowning, she starts towards the lights again.

Re: Not all is as it seems

[young_tmriddle]

A man - or the shape of a man - stands near Ingress, staring out over the water. He wears a dark hooded robe.

When he sighs, it is a familiar sound.

Re: Not all is as it seems

[smallestopener]

Ingress startles, surprised by the noise. Then she breathes her own sigh of relief.

"Tom, you're here. Good. It's scary at night. I thought I was lost for a minute."

Re: Not all is as it seems

[young_tmriddle]

"Is it?"

The man doesn't move. The hood shrouds his face.

"Perhaps you are."

Re: Not all is as it seems

[smallestopener]

Ingress pulls back the hand that was ready to take Tom's.

"Are you-"

you?

"-okay, Tom?"

Re: Not all is as it seems

[young_tmriddle]

"Fair can be foul. Haven't I taught you that?"

The man's voice is Tom's, but it's not. It's more sibilant.

"Darkness is to be feared. Lies, as well."

The man turns toward her.

"You'll know in time. And then where shall we be?"

Re: Not all is as it seems

[smallestopener]

The face inside the hood is- it's not Tom. It's not her Tom.

It will never be.

She would be scared, but the voice is sad. Terribly sad.

That doesn't make him pleasant. Ingress backs away. She does not wish to linger. She has to go on, towards the light, no matter what.

Re: Not all is as it seems

[smallestopener]

As she backs away from the robed man, a shadow looms on her left. Ingress raises her sword, gritting her teeth. Her heartbeat quickens, and even though she knows-

this is just a dream

-that she need not be scared, she's afraid.

"Go away," she calls out.

Re: Not all is as it seems

[ofthatantet]

(El Valiente - Why are you running when you have such a good weapon beside you?)

And it does.

Up ahead, beneath a tree, there's a spark of flame, and the shadow does what shadows do when the light comes. (While the light is strong, anyway.) It goes away.

The spark becomes a flame; becomes a campfire, here on the verge of the woods, in the comfort of a pine. Outside it, the shadows puddle. Gather. Inside is a woman in a white jacket, the hood turned up to hide her face and hair. Her hands are brown.

"Come a little closer," she calls out from the fireside.

"Come and see."

Re: Not all is as it seems

[smallestopener]

Ingress frowns, hesitating before she steps-

But in dreams, you don't need to walk. Sometimes you fly.

Of a sudden, Ingress is there, beside the fire, gazing upon the woman. She seems familiar.

(Maybe it's the eyes. They're hazel, vivid in a dark face when she looks up. Her face is framed with thin dark braids.)

"See what?"

The shadows encroach, but Ingress waves her hand at them, waving them away. They pool and regroup, but are held at bay.

For now.

Re: Not all is as it seems

[ofthatantet]

There's a couple of candles burning near the blue-jeaned knees of the woman in white; a deck of cards, with a string of them laid out. The Rose; the Parrot; the Soldier. The Earth.

"Your future." The woman smiles. "Do you like riddles?"

Re: Not all is as it seems

[smallestopener]

"I like a Riddle," she laughs, and she remembers the man in the robe who sounded like Tom, but was not him at all.

He couldn't have been.

She sits down and points to one of the cards. "The Parrot is nice."