Compendium:Dream 1008
You dream of Earth, dark and moist and full of worms. It surrounds you on all sides, yet you are not Earth. Well, of course you're not Earth. You know Earth. You are not Earth. You're what is left when the Earth is removed. You are black, like a sky once the bright lights are taken out of it, and empty, empty, empty... Struggling, you reach to grab the Earth that is all around you, so dark and moist, with all its worms, the lives and the fullness of it. You reach and you grasp and you pull, and it all falls into you, but you feel no less empty. You feel bigger, and more powerful, but also more alone, for the Earth is further away, now. It fears you, or it longs for you, but when you embrace the Earth it falls away and is gone, and you are even more alone with your black and empty sky.
Your dream shifts, and still you are not Earth. You are standing on Earth, feeling its moistness beneath your bare feet, knowing it to be dark and full of worms. You hold in your right hand your tool that you use to move the Earth, and you stand before a grave, a grave of the Earth. You did not dig this grave. The earth that was moved from it was more than moved, it was re-moved and un-moved and now there's no telling where it is, or if it even is at all. In your left hand you hold a dead chicken. It needs to be buried properly, but you don't think this grave can do that. Proper burial requires the Earth to be moved back into the hole. If the Earth isn't there...
"Are you going to get on with it?" asks the chicken. You don't answer. You're not in the habit of talking with your clientel.
"Look, just pop me in the hole and get on with it," says the chicken. "Quests don't wait for ever, and the library will close eventually. Time is of the essence, you know."
You look at the chicken, then back in the hole. And then you bury it in the blank and empty sky.
The dream shifts again and for the briefest moment you see the girl standing behind you, flickering like a bad TV image, first in one colour, then another. The winged kitten on her shoulder hisses at you and she begins to turn to look at you, but before you can see her face...
