by Alicorn
I walked cautiously around the tombs, feeling my way by instinct rather than familiarity. Most of the graves were of some rough stone or usually wood, a sign of the poverty in its town. There was one headstone, much larger than the others, with fresh earth on the grave’s surface. Upon it were fresh-cut words:
“Always in your heart?” I spoke to the grave, my voice frightening, even to me. “Always chained there in your heart where you can just grab the memory, flicking it across your vision with thought?”
My fist rose of itself and struck the stone, cracking it down the center.
“Never in your heart!” I screamed at it, my voice so loud that my ears rang.
I ran across the fresh dirt of the grave, over to the path connecting the cemetery to the village. My first inclination was to scream so loud that I woke everyone at once, frightening them into submission. Then I knew what was to be done with them.
The house was how I had seen it through the mist, grey with stone and dark. A small bit of smoke escaped from the roof, but not enough to warrant a true fire. Perhaps a dying fire, with a few glowing cinders puffing on cold night air.
“Open,” I whispered to the door.
The door hastily obeyed, not even squeaking a protest that I was there.
The mist returned around me inside the house, blanketing me and blinding me. As I had fought through a grave so did I fight through the mist once more, demanding of it to show me where to go. As before the mist parted and this time showed me a door in the house, a sleeping person unknowing.
“Her?” I asked the mist, not expecting it to answer.
A faint sensation assailed my deadened senses, as if to say yes, as if it was nodding in reply just like any person or animal could.
“Very well,” I rasped my voice at it, scaring it away with the sound.
When my blindness ebbed away I once again had a purpose, to find the sleeping girl, to open her door and approach her. My steps were silent, if you could call them that, barely touching the earth as I walked closer.
“Open,” I said once more to another door, this one having been revealed to me by the mist.
“Open more silent than me, if you dare.”
The door shuddered in its hinges, but made no sound, and followed my command as quickly as it could, so silent that only someone looking at it would know it had opened.
Inside the room was the girl shown to me, sleeping under a quilt. Her breath was soft and steady as she dreamt, perhaps of me, perhaps of her. My fingers reached out through the void of her room to touch the curl of her hair, escaping from the cozy heat of the bedclothes. The hair turned to me, startled, wondering what I was.
“Sleep still,” I told it, and it relaxed under my touch.
The girl’s dream wrapped around me, like the mist but not blinding, just enfolding. My eyes were clear. The dream was of *her*, as I had thought, though *she* couldn’t be in them.
The sun was shining brightly, but it was only as bright as the moon, and the sky was sapphire, but it was filled with more stars than grace the night. Three girls sat together on a blanket embroidered with flowers, but the flowers were wilting under the weight and the girls didn’t notice that a bit of dew could refresh them. A bowl sat on each of their laps, filled with berries — but the berries were green and hard. *She* pulled *herself* up from the ground, a specter without knowing it, and stretched *her* hands out to the jewels in the sky. *Her* screams weren’t startling to me, though it scared the girl, and the other one disappeared. A spot of blood kissed *her* cheek, three roses grew out of her neck, and all was silent once more.
The girl reached up to catch *her*, but it was too late. *She* had already fallen into the moon-bright sun, or was it really the moon taking the sun’s place? Seven tulips fell from the glowing orb and landed in the girl’s hair. They turned to jewels and began to bite her, claw her, scream at her. The girl’s terrified scream woke her, and the dream disappeared into dew on my eyelashes.
“Good night,” I greeted the girl carefully, my voice gentle as a kitten.
“Who are you?” she asked, thinking herself asleep in a new dream.
“I’m ... that doesn’t matter. Come dance with me. I tore myself through using the grave that was between us, but I can’t but hear the calling of the sun-bright moon. I’ll make the roses bloom for you, and summon all the rabbits and deer to lay by your feet when your tired.”
“I love to dance,” the girl said in her sleepy voice. “Carry me there.”
My arms lifted the little weight like she was the mist and I was the light of her dream, sifting through the colors to make them all the same. I twirled through the house, out the doors that opened quickly at my approach, dancing across the night ground to a green hill near the village. The girl was so warm the night became warm to the touch, rosy in its darkness. Up the hill I danced and spun, my arms holding her close to me. She reached up and held my arms then, letting her feet dangle as I held her high, waltzing the cold away. Then she let herself sink to the ground, and danced with me, letting me lead her across the dark emerald grass through steps enchanting. I spun her around in a little circle, then picked her up by the waist and held her in my arms, feeling her breath so quick from swirling ‘cross the hill with me.
“Do let me sit down,” she begged. “I’m tired from all that dancing.”
I picked her up again and carried her to an old tree stump, shaped by wind and weather almost like a throne, with a high imperial back and soft moss cushioning the seat. With my voice I called three deer and six rabbits awake to come kneel at her feet. The girl stroked their necks and ears with her tiny hands and stared delighted into big, animal eyes, full of joy and sorrow as they were. I knelt by her side as well, watching and waiting. At my touch to the dead tree small, green vines sprouted. A flock of roses grew quickly from the vines, forming blossoms. The petals opened wide to release a strong scent that covered our clothes and hair. With all the grace of a princess, the girl reached over and inhaled the scent deep in her nostrils, closing her eyes to enjoy the beauty of it. The rabbits crawled around her lap and fell asleep, while the deer curled up by her feet. I reached over to touch her hair, wondering as I did so if I would have to leave soon. Would the girl have wanted to be returned to her bed, or would she have rathered waking up in her throne of roses?
Her dream decided for me, because it wrapped itself around me once again. *She* wasn’t there, but I was, standing on the blanket of wilting flowers. We were feeding each other berries, and they were ripened by that time. I felt my fingers being stained crimson. Six stars scattered light across the ground as they flew down to rest in her eyes. A few tears on her cheeks surprised me, though I knew I was fading away. My senses dwindled, until all was mist surrounding me, and even my consciousness turned dark. I hoped both *she* and the girl were near.