.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Fermius Firefly

A Dream Log, whenever I remember the dreams I've had.

My Photo
Name:
Location: San Marcos, United States

Fermius is a pen name drawn from a series of short fiction I wrote when I published the small press magazine Stellanova (on paper.) I play RPG games to escape from my daily grind as a technology wage slave for the state of California. I eat out a lot in order to do my part in supporting our increasingly service level economy. I am butler to 2 feline masters. If you ask them they will tell you I'm not very good at it, late with dinner, don't have enough hands with brushes in them, and sometimes I even lock them out of their office.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Mount Hope and Dryad Bookworm

Had a pair of delightful dreams this morning. In the first dream I was driving, just travelling to see new places, not worried about a time committment, and unconcerned about the critters, as they were well taken care of. (Apparently I had a house sitter.) I had managed to pick up a travelling companion, a little younger than myself, hair still brownish red with only a few silver threads, the wrinkles around her eyes were in smile lines, and it seemed that her irises were not perfectly circular, so I found that intriguing. We rode up into the mountains one rainy afternoon, and decided to stop in a place called Mount Hope.

There were small cabins dotted all over the little hidden valley just near the top of the pass, and many of them seemed to be for sale or rent. We stopped and asked if there was a place we could stay for the night, and someone immediately offered us a cabin for no charge, as it wasn't ski season yet. We had a wonderful meal, and I noticed that my companion had only eaten the meat and green veggies again, leaving everything else behind. We walked around town, talking to nearly everyone we met, they were charming and friendly, and on more than one occasion I got the impression that they recognized my companion.

It began to rain harder during the evening. There was lightning, fairly close, and loud thunder that rattled the four small windows as well as the doors of the cabinets. We ended up together in the small bed in the loft of the cabin, she was very warm and snuggly, but insisted on there being no hijinks until we had a serious talk about that, first. She firmly moved my hand up to her ribs from her hip. I was too tired, so we agreed to have that conversation on the road in the morning.

At one point I woke, a loud very realistic purr in my ear. My hand was cupped around one of my companion's breasts. I gently removed it lest there be a relationship ending misinterpretation. The purring stopped shortly after.

In the morning, we made our way down the slippery rain and mud slicked roads in time to still have breakfast. We sat at a large table with about eight or nine others. I was sure that some of them had animal ears instead of human ears, and it made me suddenly curious about my travelling companion. She was never without her thick headband, even when we'd been snuggled up together in the bed she had been wearing it. As we paid our bill and left, I swore the lady behind the counter had an alligator head in the reflection.

A passerby smiled at us in the rain, "The Veil of Ignorance has been pierced; you're welcome back if you find the road is impassible." 

I thanked him then watched him head into the breakfast cafe, barely pulling his tail through the door before it automatically closed. I started to say something, but held the thought for now.
The trip down the mountain was even more dangerous than I'd thought. We'd slipped and fishtailed, even at the extremely low speed I was driving at. There was no attention for the rather promising conversation I had been promised.

We came to the bridge across a large gorge, and could see the torrents of water below had knocked the bridge's trestles askew. I could see cracks in the road. A dragon dove down and lifted a Mini Cooper off the bridge just before the trestles gave way with a groaning crack that rivaled the thunder. The Mini Cooper was placed on the road next to us and I could see the relieved faces of the occupants, furry faces, pointy ears, wet muzzles. We waved to them as they drove off, shouting their thanks up to the dragon who was now winging his way over to the other side of the gorge with armloads of warning barricades and "Bridge Out" signs.

"What did you just see?" My companion asked.

"I was supposed to see a car just making it across the bridge before it collapsed and a rescue helicopter delivering warning barricades."

"But, really, what did you see?"

"Same thing you did, I suspect."" I looked at my companion more closely, she had cat eyes, and cat whiskers, I was amazed I had not seen them before. She removed her headband. She had no ears where they should be, but a pair of tiger like ears further up her head, they flicked to and fro, free of her headband.

"It's not too late. We can probably find someone who can fix the Veil."

I decided I didn't mind seeing her as she actually was, and the fact that she had a tail explained, partly, her unwillingness the previous night to let my hand off her waist.

"Let's go see if we can find a place to stay until the bridge is repaired."

"Just until then?"

"We'll see, I think I could grow to like this valley, but there's lots other places to see." I managed to turn the car around and head back up the mountain.


In my second dream, after getting up to feed the cats. I was swimming across a fairly wide shallow stream with a surprisingly strong current. I was swept a hundred yards or so downstream from where I had intended to cross, but wasn't worried. There looked like there was a path or a very large game trail just at the top of the bank. It would have been an easy walk back.

When I climbed out of the water, however, I decided that I didn't want to walk back. There was a scantily clad Dryad sitting at the base of her oak, reading.

She was rather startled when I greeted her. I could see that her book was well worn, and quite old. I opened my pack. I had a couple of books with me, not as well made as the old book she had. They were in a waterproof bag that would certainly be large enough to also house her book. I had finished the books some time earlier in my wanderings, and so thought this would be a great opportunity to lighten my load a little bit. The Dryad was surprised, but delighted at the gift, protesting that she had nothing for me. I explained that they wouldn't be a gift if she had, that would be a trade, instead.
I agreed to camp under her tree until we could each read one of the other's books, and then discuss them. I wasn't sure that was a good idea, but it seemed only polite to agree. Apparently she had seen no one in many years, and even then, she hadn't revealed herself as she didn't think she could trust them.

I found the bones of the original owner of the book. She had tried to save him, but he'd nearly drowned, and then suddenly collapsed a few days later. She didn't know why. Her book had been new, then, and I looked at the date, March 1849. It was a book on Geology. Much of the information in it was now outdated, and more was known about the subject now. When that became known to her, she decided she would come with me.

I didn't think she could leave her tree. But she indicated that any healthy oak would do to keep her ageless, as long as it was not someone else's home. That was unlikely, she sighed. Most of the other Dryads had gone off to become mortal and live out their lives. She thought that might not be a bad idea, especially if she could become a Geologist, as that sounded pretty exciting. I found myself wondering how to enroll her in a college. While it would be easy to pass myself off as her dad, she didn't exactly come with a school record, SSN or any other way to identify herself to modern society.

Labels: , , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home