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Excerpt from a dream
| Passions in Prose |
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Excerpt from a dream |
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Skyfyre Senior Member
since 1999-08-15
Posts 1906Sitting in Michael's Lap 
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I was forestwalking, as I often did in Spring ... the day was idyllic for it, though admittedly I had been known to take leisurely strolls in the most inclement of weather. Rain always gave the air a different flavor, I said when anyone questioned, and the trees beneath storm seemed entirely different creatures than they were on a mild, sunny day like today. The responses I received to this claim were always interesting, though never, it seemed, understanding. I always just smiled inanely and invited whomever to think what they would... Most of the trees here were giants, which was strange because my home in Florida claimed no such behemoths ... and yet, the path I walked was as familiar to me as morning coffee in my favorite mug ... warm, comforting and somehow right. The game trail I traveled was invisible beneath an abundance of fern and moss; looking off into the distance, the only way it could be distinguished from the rest of the brush was a slight but abrupt lowering of the swaying fronds that stretched to cover it. They tickled my calves as I walked, just then realizing that I had forgotten my shoes and could feel the silken coolness of rich soil beneath my feet. Dappled sun shimmered on all sides as the false ground seemed to breathe with each caress of wind, shuddering now and again with the hidden retreat of some animal stirred to wakefulness by my intrusion. Unseen birds warbled, their voices distant and dreaming. Every sensation seemed somehow magnified as I continued; the foliage glowed an impossible green, even in the shadows. The intermittent gold of sunbeams was almost tangible in its richness, a bright warmth at once godlike and gentle. The breeze parted around me like gauze curtains when it came, trailing insubstantial fingers across my skin and leaving the thick, heady perfume of pine and loam in its wake. The following silence was magical as tiny white moths fluttered lazily in the calm, their wings sparkling like some unearthly creature when they caught the sun. A sudden darkness appeared in the distance; as I came closer, it resolved itself into a cabin fashioned of dark logs which crouched like a cornered animal amongst the relative brightness of its surroundings. There was a picnic table in front of it, spread with stacks of papers which seemed strangely impervious to the breezes which should have long since carried them away. Three people sat at the table, bent over what seemed like an endless task of putting whatever information the papers held to rights. They worked silently, scarcely noticing when I drew near and inquired whether they would like to rest for a moment and walk with me. After looking at me as though I was daft, they waved me away, saying they had "too much work to do to waste their time with such foolishness." Until then, they had seemed strangers; at that point, however, I recognized them as my boyfriend's father, mother and sister. As I walked past the odd little cottage and away, I wondered at how his parents had spoken to me in perfect English, sans accent, when they had been born in Cuba and Colombia respectively and while the mother spoke passable, though heavily accented English, I had never even heard the father attempt a single word. I pondered this mystery only momentarily, though; it was carried off in the next breath of wind and swiftly forgotten. As I walked further, there was a slow change to the forest; an almost imperceptible shift from shadow to sunlight which grew more pronounced as I continued. The trees continued to thin, finally disappearing completely as I emerged into a bright clearing carpeted with soft, swaying grass. In the center of the roughly circular meadow towered a huge pillar of glass, at least a mile in diameter, which seemed lit with an inner glow only slightly more blue than the sky it seemed to stretch toward. I moved closer, awed but not surprised by this miraculous column, noticing that I could not see the top of it from any vantage point. From about twenty yards away, I noticed spots of color against the blue and dark shapes moving within the tower; as I neared its surface, I realized that it was actually filled with water and the things I had seen were fish and other sea-life swimming about. There appeared suddenly a staircase in front of me, winding up and around the glass wall and ending in a most unlikely doorway in the glass, open to both water and air, through which one could enter the tower. The way the water stood flat and still in the opening as though the glass was never interrupted did not seem the least bit odd to me as I stepped from the top stair through the portal and into the columnar sea. I swam leisurely at first, not surprised to find that I could breathe the water as easily as air as I wandered, marveling at this or that denizen of the deep as it flitted by or swayed in currents as gentle as the breezes outside. The fish and other creatures knew no fear of me, and in fact seemed as curious as I, studying me with their round, unblinking eyes as I regarded them from behind lids and lashes. Most sounds were muffled and watery, but this place was never silent; I heard the slightest movement of a fish miles away as clearly as I heard those within arm's reach. The loudest sound was my own breathing, which, oddly enough, echoed with the familiar "whoosh" of air rather than the swirl of liquid, though I was quite obviously breathing the water through which I swam. I tasted its pleasant saltiness in the shallow of my throat and smelled it in my nostrils with each breath. I swam about for a few more moments, trailing an ever-changing following of curious fish which darted in now and again for a closer look, sometimes testing the warmth of my skin with their slippery coolness. Or perhaps, I swam for hours; the dynamic stillness of this place distorted time as easily as sound. At last, I decided to leave this wondrous place, resolving to bring my boyfriend's sister Jessica, using force if necessary, to experience this wonder with me before the sun set (somehow I knew that it would not be here after dark). I swam purposefully back the way I came, searching for the doorway though which I had entered. Retracing my path proved impossible, however, and I soon realized with a growing unease that I was lost and unlikely to find even the door before dark, much less Jessica. My unease spiraled into panic as I realized that I could not even find the wall, and therefore could not rely on feeling my way in the dark. I began to feel trapped, despite the expanse of space around me; at this moment I looked downward and noticed several dark shapes below me, larger than any I had encountered before. They circled lazily, upward and closer, and I realized that they could be nothing other than sharks, drawn by my panicked flailing. Panic gave birth to terror, now, and I was suddenly unable to breathe. My lungs burned, traitorous, suddenly demanding air when there was none to be had. Finding the threat of the sharks paling suddenly beside the certainty of drowning, I struggled upward toward a surface that I was not even certain existed. My swimming, which had been effortless only moments ago, was now incongruously slow and difficult. My heart hammered in my chest and my limbs ached from effort and hypoxia, and I knew that I had only mere moments before I surrendered my consciousness and drew into my lungs the water which was recently so sweet but was now poison. The weight of my own impending death seemed to drag me downward like a treacherous current, drawing me mercilessly toward the unhurried predators that I knew must be close behind. Exhausted, I surrendered to the inevitability of my fate, and ceased my struggling, hanging suspended for a moment in the blue before drifting slowly downward toward my doom. The relative quiet of my stillness allowed me to hear the approach of my shadowy stalkers; with my pause, their movements quickened toward me, gliding though the water with a grace I knew I could never possess. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying for a quick death. They were upon me swiftly enough; I felt rather than heard them close in, their passage moving water along my skin in frantic eddies. They circled tightly for a moment, then angled downward; morbidly, my thoughts urged them hurry, lest I be made to suffer drowning AND being eaten at once. I felt the press of a smooth-skinned dorsal on the underside of one arm, and then the other, and with the flip of unseen fins I was racing at impossible speeds upward – toward the surface, and salvation. Thrilled but still unsettled by this unexpected turn of events, I dared a peek at my would-be saviors. Looming to either side of me, their lithe bodies moving fluidly though the water, I found not the cold, forbidding visages of sharks, but the sleek, grinning profiles of dolphins. Intelligent eyes seemed to study me as they lifted me unerringly sunward, as though they understood the urgency of my sudden need for air. The sea swirled by in lightening shades of turquoise until finally, we broke the surface and I gasped mightily for the sweetest breath I had ever drawn. When my preoccupation with breathing had passed, I turned my attention to my companions, who waited patiently nearby as though waiting to see if their efforts had been in vain. Smiling in spite of myself, I managed a whispered "thank you," my voice still rough from coughing and the sting of salt. Bobbing their heads, they seemed to accept my thanks, and approached slowly when I held out a hand in greeting. They glided around me, frolicking and splashing as I ran palms along their smooth sides and over their heads, gasping when one sprayed a playful breath through its blowhole, tickling my hand and making me start in surprise. They were amused by this, apparently, and I was promptly showered with splashes from all sides. My reaction ran the gamut from mock indignation to mirth, and I choked periodically on the spray as I laughed with abandon, joined by their own squeakings and clickings which I took for laughter as well. I was seized by a sudden epiphany, and all at once their vocalizations turned from so much noise to a complex but decipherable language. At their urging, I took hold of the dorsal fins of two of them, similar to the manner in which I was rescued, but allowing for more maneuverability. With excited chitterings, they swam slowly at first, pulling me along as though my weight were insubstantial – which, perhaps, it was to these powerful creatures – then with increasing speed, until we appeared to be not so much swimming but skimming over the surface of the water. I reveled in the whip of the wind, the sting of spray upon my face and the caress of water below the strangely mirrorlike surface of this unlikely sea. As we went, the dolphins barraged me with questions: "How came you here?" and "What are your kind called?" mixed with commentary of all sort as to my odd appearance and curious origin. I answered as many and as quickly as I could, using a combination of their language and telepathy, until the voices grew too numerous and overwhelming for me to sort out, resolving at last into a pleasant hum. I fell silent, and my companions seemed unbothered by this, but the sound buzzed on, lulling me with its familiarity. At length, they coaxed me once again into the depths, overcoming my fear by explaining that it was my panic that had robbed me of the ability to breathe, not the water. After a few careful trials I found that it was indeed as they claimed. With a burning curiosity that overcame my hesitation, I accompanied my new friends on a tour of their watery home. Erm ... OK, this is turning out to be a little longer than I thought ... I'll cut it off here and post it, and if anyone wants to hear the end, I'll post part II – LOL Linda [This message has been edited by Skyfyre (edited 02-22-2001).] |
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| © Copyright 2001 Linda Anderson - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Swamp¤Faeryie Member
since 2000-12-04
Posts 393fairyland....of course;) |
i said it an hour ago,now i will say it again,HOW COME EVERYONE HAS MMMMYYYY KIND OF DREAMS AND I HAVE DREAMS THAT ARE THE OPPOSITE OF ME!!Does that make sense to you?all my day dreams are like this,all my night dreams are entirely upside down and aren't the kind of dreams you'd think a person ike me would have....hmm one of the great mysteries of life. Not only was this an awfully interesting dream,but it was also a worthy bit of prose i liked it much!! sammio i am kinsman to the animals,my body is part of the soil and the trees are my sisters.~halifax wilde |
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serenity blaze Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738 |
Oh...I do want to hear the end....  and I will not "gush" until I do....hmmm...why does everything I type give me pause? lol..linda, and waiting impatiently. |
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Elizabeth Cor Senior Member
since 2000-10-13
Posts 879Over the river and through the woods |
Linda, start creating part 2 IMMEDIATELY....*withholding gushing in light of Karen's example* |
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Elizabeth Cor Senior Member
since 2000-10-13
Posts 879Over the river and through the woods |
Okay, you know what? We've all been patient... Personally, I keep checking back here day by day in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, Linda has finished her dream sequence. GET YOUR LITTLE BUTT MOTIVATED! *whines* Liiiiiinda! I want to read the rest of the stooooooory. now! |
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Christopher
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-02
Posts 8296Purgatorial Incarceration |
Hmm - your writing style appears to have matured as well. Perhaps, as with me, it suffers the inverse of behavioural attitude.  Obviously there's little to comment on the storyline itself, as it's a telling rather than a "creation." But I will say that despite the dream-scene quality, I found it really easy to follow, something I wouldn't expect from the telling of a dream. The writing - well, I can rarely say anything about that regarding you. Excellent.I too await the next. C |
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