Adventures in Life and Writing

With her eyes still closed she went over her dream from the night before. It was so strange. The trees of her secret place had grown bear bread stairs and there were homes up in the trees. A whole city was up in her secret place. It was the best dream she could ever have. She must have fallen asleep while she was meditating; that surely wasn’t something she could have made up while awake.

She rolled on to her back, stretching her arms out as she let out a yawn. She finally opened her eyes. The view before her wasn’t her room; it was the room she had fallen asleep in during her dream.  Pulling the moss blanket off, she jumped out of the bed.  Her eyes turned to the ivy-covered doorway.  She walked through, the long tendrils swaying at her passage. Once again the table was set with food, this time there were a few people sitting around it. She stopped and stared at them. They looked just like her and her parents. They had long flowing brown hair, each one in a different style, with leaves, lichen or mosses weaved in.  They would easily blend in with the scenery around them. Their skin was a light brown and covered in tattoos. Their ears were not curved like the people she normally saw, they slanted and came to points a few inches past that of the normal person. These people were the most elegant things she had every seen. Their beauty surpassed that of the silverware and creations around them. She looked at her plain skin, she never understood why her body was not covered in the designs that her parents had. Somehow, though, she knew that she was just like these people. She did not know what they were called, but they were not humans.

The nearest one stood and bowed to her, it was obviously the father of the family. He held out a hand to her and spoke in a tongue which she barely knew, a tongue that her parents only would whisper at night.  Over the years she had come to understand a few of the words, but she never used them.

“Welcome home child,” he said. She stood for a moment staring at him, confused. Her legs slowly buckled and she sank to the ground. ‘Welcome home child?’ What was this? Surely this was not her home, her parents were not here and she had not seen this place before.  These may be the people of her parents, but this was an unfamiliar world.

The mother of the family moved to her side and helped her stand.  “We have been waiting for a long time for you to find these trees. You have come and gone in many of the places around our woods, but till last night you had not found the stairs. We are glad you have returned to us. We trust your parents are doing well.”  The girl’s brow crinkled, trying to puzzle over the words and make sense of the ones she didn’t know. She had been running around the woods? The only time she had gone near any forest was when she meditated and then it was only in her mind.

Her lips were barely able to form the words that came stumbling out. They rolled awkwardly over her tongue. “I-I, whe-where,” she started and then after a pause continued in the common tongue, “where am I?” The mother just chuckled at her and gave her a squeeze.

“Home, now please come sit and eat, you must be hungry from your long rest,” the mother said in the common tongue. The mother looked upon her with love and understanding.

With the mother’s help she managed to sit down at the table. She ate in silence, barely picking up anything that was said. This was all so new to her. She wondered how in the world she had gotten here.