Chapter 6
1113 Words
Chapter 6
I pace among the flowers in front of Silver’s cottage. She’s the village flower peddler. She was a soldier back in my time when I was still awake.
Silver still remembers when the kingdom used to be called the Kingdom of Midnight Roses. When the Dark King murdered my father and took over, they say that people lost heart and began to call it the Kingdom of Midnight.
I wonder sometimes if that’s why Silver grows flowers. Maybe it reminds her of those olden times when a good king still ruled.
“Do you ever sit still, Briar?”
I spin to see Silver walking toward me. I smile when I see her trim body and purposeful gait. Her thick hair flows over her shoulder like a silver braid decorating a captain’s uniform.
“I can sit still when I’m dead,” I say. “Until then, I need to move.”
Silver comes over and hugs me. She hugs me for so long that I have no choice but to stand still. After a while, I feel calmer. Just because my body is in a permanent state of stillness doesn’t mean that I have to be jittery all the time.
Funny, Silver is one of the toughest people I’ve ever met. She served my father during the war, then continued to fight even after the Dark King took over.
I never would have guessed she was the hugging type. I sometimes wonder if she does it just for me rather than it being a habit for her. If it wasn’t for Silver, I would have forgotten what it felt like to be touched. I almost had by the time I met her.
When she hugs me, I remember what it was like. It’s squishier than I remember a hug being in the Waking. Not quite as warm, either.
But hardly anything is just like the Waking here, so it’s good enough. It’s real enough. I close my eyes and settle into Silver’s warmth. This is what it feels like to be hugged by a living, breathing, moving person.
Silver has a granddaughter. It’s very strange, considering how Silver looks my age whenever I see her. But that’s just how she sees herself and not what she truly looks like in the Waking.
I’ve always wondered why everyone doesn’t look young and beautiful in their dreams. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in peering into people’s true selves through their dreams, it’s that people are complicated.
I think Silver thinks of her granddaughter when she hugs me. It must be the case, because her hugs are so genuinely caring. Don’t get me wrong. Silver will just as easily smack me upside the head if I give her cause. But I swear that I can feel love when she hugs me.
Or maybe that’s simply the feeling of being touched rather than the feeling of love. I’m not sure anymore. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve felt either.
I tear up a little if I think about it too much. If I think about anything in my life too much, I tear up, so it’s best to just stay busy and enjoy life whenever I can.
Silver always hugs me as if she’s glad that I’m still alive. As if she knows that I might turn into a ghost and fade away forever without her embrace.
“So what are you going to teach me today?” I ask as we step back from each other.
I feel energized from her touch and ready for a brisk training session. I begin to bounce on my toes, warming up my nonexistent body.
“Training is over for now,” she says.
I stop bouncing. “What do you mean? We’re just getting started on how to handle multiple assailants.”
“You don’t need physical fighting lessons, Briar. If anything, it’s more likely to hamper you to be tied to real-world tactics.”
“But I like my lessons.”
I start to get nervous. Without the lessons, I might not see Silver anymore.
Life was pretty dull before her, and I only had a jumbled, vague idea of what was happening in the Waking. Once Silver came into my life, she told me what was really happening out there. So now, I know that both waking and dreaming, we’re all trapped in a nightmare.
To get rid of my nervous energy, I race at the wall of her cottage and run up it, doing a triple somersault in the air before I land.
Silver watches me with a raised eyebrow. As usual, she doesn’t seem impressed. Despite the warm hug she always gives me, Silver isn’t the type to coo over kittens or to coddle anyone. That makes her hugs all the more special.
“Someday, when you rejoin us in the Waking, you’ll likely break your neck on the first day trying something like that.”
Silver always talks like it’s guaranteed that I’ll wake in that dusty tower someday. I wish I could be so sure.
“You just said I shouldn’t hamper myself with real-world tactics. Which do you want me to do?”
“I want you to come into your own style, in your own environment.”
“But I don’t know my own style. That’s what you’re here for—to teach me.”
“Is that what I’m good for?” She arches a brow at me.
I shrug. “That and a host of other things, like saving the kingdom from evil and providing the good nobles of the land with flowers.”
“My life sounds rather silly when you put it like that.”
“I wish mine was that silly.”
“Your life can be as magnificent or as miserable as you make it,” says Silver. “You, above anyone else, can make that happen.”
I nod, trying to believe it. Silver’s always telling me stuff like that. But she can see that I don’t truly believe it.
“You are more capable and have greater strength and power than any of us realize,” she says. “Don’t waste it by doubting yourself.”
“I’ve been pushing myself, just as you told me to do. You should see all the things I can do now, Silver. You’d be amazed at what I’ve learned.”
I certainly was. Who knew that I would be able to manipulate dreamers and reshape the Dreaming?
“And you’ll learn more. Keep experimenting. Keep trying different things. You need to believe that you can do things no one else can. You define reality here. I’m glad you’re waking up to that fact.”
I swell with her words. I may not be able to wake up my body, but I can wake up to my own reality. There’s a delicious freedom to that, even if it’s dampened by the fact that it’s a reality only in my head.
“Show me what you’ve learned to do since I last saw you,” says Silver.
I smile and begin to demonstrate some new tricks that I learned while distracting the hunters.
- Writer
