Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Chapter 1: A Discussion of Dreams

Ember awoke up from her dream suddenly, like a candle being blown out. This was odd in itself, as she usually drifted slowly into consciousness upon awakening. She looked around, expecting to gaze upon the familiarity of her room, and then remembered all at once just where she was. She sat up slowly, stretching her arms out and arching her back. Her long locks of strawberry blond hair tumbled in the air like licks of flame. She huddled back into her covers, refusing to greet the day. She hated the day in the mornings.

All too soon her stomach got the best of her and she was forced to leave her warm bedroll. She got up, shivering in the cold air. Wrapping her blankets around her like a cloak, she started on making breakfast.

She did the morning tasks of adding logs to the fire and getting out the skillet, tasks which had already become habitual. After cooking a couple of bacon strips and a few eggs she settled down to eat.

Kat woke up with a yawn and drowsily walked up to the fire. Ember put a strip of bacon on another plate with some scrambled eggs, and placed it in front of Kat, who eagerly started devouring the food.

After Ember had finished her own breakfast (Kat always ate slowly) she sat looking into the fire for some time. As Kat finished off the last of her meal she looked up at her expectedly.

“Well what is it?” Kat asked, her voice terse. “You look troubled.”

Ember sighed. “I just had this weird dream last night… and not weird in the normal way my dreams are, you know, how they’re all over the place and don’t make much sense, but weird in that it was semi-normal… well, weird in that I could read it in a book and not think the author was completely insane.”

“Which says a lot for your mentality.” Kat yawned. “Well tell me the details of the dream, and I will try my best to interpret it.”

Ember rushed right into it. “Well you see, my parents were dead or something, and this man had to take me to my Grandmother’s, only Grandma wasn’t my Grandma, I think they were ex lovers or something, anyway, the point is, Grandma had to take care of me.”

Kat looked up at her with unblinking sapphire eyes. “Why did they give them to a common Hedgewitch then?” she inquired. “What’s so special about your Grandmother?”

Ember made an impatient sound. “I’ve read enough stories to know that much. Obviously they wanted to protect me from whoever killed my parents. No one would look for me in the little mountain town I grew up in,” she muttered.

“I think that this may be a way to escape your normal everyday life. You are always daydreaming. I suppose that your dream was no different from your conscious desires.” Kat yawned once more, largely, lying back down on the ground.

Ember scoffed. She didn’t really think that Kat needed to analyze her dream quite so critically. She stared moodily into the fire once more.

Both of Ember’s parents had died from a disease when she was very young. Her grandmother, the town’s local healer and Earth Witch, had raised her ever since she could remember. It was small, kind community, but Ember, as most young people are apt to do, had soon rejoiced at the thought of exploring far away places. If you asked her to describe the town in one word there was no doubt you would get one reply. “Boring.”

Ember dowsed the flames with a wave of her hand. She stood up stiffly, stretching out of her back. “Well we should get a move on Kat. You clean the dishes, I’ll get dressed.”

Kat glared at her. “Very funny.”

Ember stuck out her tongue as she picked up the dishes. “Well, you’re good for nothing…”

“I am a familiar, a very old and powerful familiar for your information. You should be honored to have me to guide a miscreant such as yourself,” lectured Kat sternly.
Ember scratched the prideful Persian under her chin. Kat purred contentedly. “Of course I’m honored. How many other witches can say they were taught by a talking cat?” she joked.

As she wiped off the dishes she thought of the dream. It would have been exciting if it were some sort of premonition. What type of kingdom would she come from? Why were her parents killed? The possibilities flashed through her mind like a typhoon.