Dream #1
In your dream, there is mist, flooding over the landscape so thick and so pale that you can't see the trees or the hills, or the cities stretched out beneath you. You're int he sky - this you know, and you aren't alone. You know that, too. And you must be inside of something - a ship, or a bubble, because you don't feel the wind.
(Behind you, there's the whisper of men and women, talking. The clink of glasses. You don't know why you don't turn around.)
The fog clears at last, and you press your hand against-- (the window? It is a window, isn't it? Yes, a window, surrounded by polished metal - an airship?) --the glass, and stare down over the wonders below.
-The spiraling towers ahead of you - the grandest city of the sphere.
-The lush forest beneath you, obscuring the closer you know are nearby.
-The mountains that penetrate the sky on either side of the forest, and the dwarves milling around the stony sides of them, mining... as always.
Blink. Everything is black, but only for a moment. Behind you, someone taps your lower back, and you turn around to look down at a dwarf - a friend? (why don't you remember him?) Behind him, engineers mill around the large space that is this room - a cafeteria, it seems. Among them, a golden haired woman, her curls piled high atop her pale face. She nods at you. She smiles, and lightning dances between her fingers.
Nearby, your dwarven companion says, "Be careful. The fog is rising."
Blink Everything goes black. A moment longer, this time - you can count to two in your mind, and then to three, and then there is mist in your lungs, choking out your breath. And the floor beneath you lurches. And the sky, it's so dark.
...you can feel it. Like tendrils, like tentacles of cold seeping up through your veins, flooding your skin, and welling up and spilling out, and---
There's blood on your hands, dribbling from your mouth. There's blood in the eyes of your friends. There's--
Everything goes black.
In the back of your mind, you can hear children singing.
Come the dawn, they float away.
Breathe the air, float away.
The Door opens again someday.
You wake up with that song ringing in your head.
(Behind you, there's the whisper of men and women, talking. The clink of glasses. You don't know why you don't turn around.)
The fog clears at last, and you press your hand against-- (the window? It is a window, isn't it? Yes, a window, surrounded by polished metal - an airship?) --the glass, and stare down over the wonders below.
-The spiraling towers ahead of you - the grandest city of the sphere.
-The lush forest beneath you, obscuring the closer you know are nearby.
-The mountains that penetrate the sky on either side of the forest, and the dwarves milling around the stony sides of them, mining... as always.
Blink. Everything is black, but only for a moment. Behind you, someone taps your lower back, and you turn around to look down at a dwarf - a friend? (why don't you remember him?) Behind him, engineers mill around the large space that is this room - a cafeteria, it seems. Among them, a golden haired woman, her curls piled high atop her pale face. She nods at you. She smiles, and lightning dances between her fingers.
Nearby, your dwarven companion says, "Be careful. The fog is rising."
Blink Everything goes black. A moment longer, this time - you can count to two in your mind, and then to three, and then there is mist in your lungs, choking out your breath. And the floor beneath you lurches. And the sky, it's so dark.
...you can feel it. Like tendrils, like tentacles of cold seeping up through your veins, flooding your skin, and welling up and spilling out, and---
There's blood on your hands, dribbling from your mouth. There's blood in the eyes of your friends. There's--
Everything goes black.
In the back of your mind, you can hear children singing.
Come the dawn, they float away.
Breathe the air, float away.
The Door opens again someday.
You wake up with that song ringing in your head.