DreamLeaper2

Dream Leaper 2

“… let down your hair…”

Shari woke with a start. The bed was hard, the room cold. It was dim and humid, with one large unglazed window. Tildalune was standing in front of the window, her astonishingly long hair tightly braided. She called out, “Did you bring both of them?” Shari sprang out of bed and bolted to the window.

Tildalune was a foot taller than she, maybe more, but Shari could reach the window. Tildalune looked disgusted; a man in his 20s was holding a small sachet of something. She strode away from the window, obviously unamused. She said, “Men!” and spat on the floor. “They’ll be no rope today, let’s go.

Shari headed for the door, Tildalune flying over her shoulder, reduced to about three inches tall.
They headed down the spiral stone staircase and into the computer lab. The moss growing on the rocks of the walls made everything smell damp and close. Shari and Tildalune sat down at their respective computers and began the remote-learning lesson. Today’s was on the left-handed two fingered death grip from position 7A.

Exactly two hours seven minutes after the lesson started it stopped. Shari leaned back in her chair. Milo’s head suddenly popped out of nowhere, a nasty smile fixed on his face. “’Smatter, Sis, feeling lonely?” Out of the corner of her eye she saw Milo’s gnome … Tildalune spotted him too and leapt at him with a great war cry. They both disappeared immediately, off fighting in some incomprehensible dimension.
Milo’s head was gone too.

“Might as well get up,” Shari said to no one. She headed out to the empty courtyard. She headed to the open front entrance – wasn’t it always supposed to be locked? – and headed to town. It was a 40 minute walk, but the weather was fine.

The trail was empty.

She passed no one on the trail.

“Oh ,that stupid Milo is getting me back for that dreamweaving. He’s just so mean!”
The town wasn’t empty. Shari walked in her favorite ice cream shop but the folks behind the counter just ignored her. For that matter, so did the other folks in the shop. She walked behind the counter and helped herself to some ice cream. “Well,” she said, “At least this part is delicious.” She giggled.

Shari spent the better part of an hour wandering from shop to shop helping herself, then she decided this wasn’t much fun. She headed back to the ice cream shop and filled a bucket full of ice. “This will wake me up!” She dumped the ice on her head.

“…let down your hair…”

Shari woke with a start. The bed was hard, the room cold. It was dim and humid, with one large unglazed window. Tildalune was standing in front of the window, her astonishingly lnog hair tightly braided. She called out, “Did you bring both of them?” Shari sprang out of bed and bolted to the window.

Tildalune was a foot taller than she, maybe more, but Shari could reach the window. Tildalune looked resigned; a man in his 20s was holding a small sachet of something and a large coil of rope. “You go on to class, sweetie, I’ll follow in about 20 minutes. Men!” she sighed resignedly.

Shari headed for the door as Tildalune started fussing with the buttons of her dress.

She headed down the spiral stone staircase and into the computer lab. The moss growing on the rocks of the walls made everything smell damp and close. Shari sat down at her computer and began the remote-learning lesson. Today’s was on the left-handed two fingered death grip from position 7A. Tildalune showed up nearly half an hour late.

Shari couldn’t figure out what to make of it. She headed out to the empty courtyard and the front entrance but it was locked. Then she remembered the rope, went back to her room and managed to use it to scale the wall. She figured she’d head in to town and ask someone for help.

She passed a few people on the trail but they mostly ignored her. When she got to town it seemed that everyone recognized her and avoided contact as much as they possibly could. When she got to the ice cream shop they closed the doors in her face. This wasn’t going well at all. She heard a feeble cry behind the shop and went to check it out … it was Milo. He didn’t look well at all.

His eyes looked sunken, his skin clammy & pale. “The third time …” he croaked, “… the third time. They’ll get you the third time. Don’t go back! “

He moaned in pain, and then popped out of existence.

She needed to wake up. Shari had a brief mental flash … something like this had happened before, what did she do? Something about pouring ice cream on her head … no, ice … she ran out in the street and found a large bucket of ice waiting.

Too easy.

She ran back to the school. The rope she’d used to escape was gone. But the walls had been designed to keep people in, not out, and she was able to find a large boulder near a tree to get over the wall. She snuck back into her classroom and hid in the closet. She heard it starting up about 30 minutes later and began remembering.

“…let down your hair…”

After a time Shari heard Tildalune calling out, “Did you bring both of them? …You go on to class, brat, I’ll follow in about 20 minutes. Men!” she exclaimed excitedly.

Shari thought to herself: “it’s a script. If Milo was telling the truth, it ends badly for me. It’s ensared Tildalune. But the script doesn’t seem able to adapt … I’m here, not in bed. There is no where to go but town: but if I leave now I’ll be out of sync with the script, maybe I can use that!

She bolted upstairs and grabbed the rope, ignoring Tildalune and the young man in lustful embrace. That was just wrong: although Tildalune appeared human, that was merely to please Shari. She didn’t have sex like that. Shari scaled the wall, but this time took the rope with her. No telling when it might come in handy. She jogged to the village.