Getting to sleep was easy. I had meant to start out the dream in the lair with Snake. There were things I wanted to discuss from the Waking, and I needed a safe place to air them out.
So when I felt hypnagogia wash over me and opened my eyes, I was surprised to find myself standing before the dragon’s house again. Well, I guess I’m going to keep my promise to visit her again.
I knocked on the door and her daughter, the clerk from the home improvement store, answered. The look on her face when she saw I had indeed returned was worth all the trouble of not being able to talk to Snake tonight. I asked if her mother was at home and she gave me a look of “Of course, where else would she be? She’s a dragon!”.
“I don’t want to impose if y’all have anything planned…” “The only thing planned is screaming at the TV for that human paranormal bullshit show.”
I should have brought popcorn.
She yelled over her shoulder to her mother’s assistant, to let her know I was here. She welcomed me into the home and stood aside so I could walk past her. As I crossed the threshold, all further memory of what happened in the house was taken from me.
I’m sure I was yelling at the TV with them.
That is quite a bullshit show.
~~ later on in the night ~~
“Does the camera work?” “Yea, it works.”
“It transmits fine? How about now?” He starts jumping up and down with the helmet-cam still strapped on. “Yea, it works fine but you’re making the floor creak!”
The Thespian is so excited. He has never skydived solo before. His husband is too afraid to join him, so he’ll be watching the monitor from the ground. Somehow I got roped into accompanying him in the airplane. I won’t be jumping with him, but the instructor wants a level and friendly head to be with him… just in case.
Well, they got the friendly right…
Dunno about being level-headed though.
Flying up to altitude, the Thespian was a non-stop chatterbox. He kept in contact with his husband on the ground continually. Not once did he tease him about being too afraid to join him.
It was time. The instructor had chained me to the safety rig in the interior so I wouldn’t accidentally fall out. He didn’t know who I was and had no idea I could fly. At the door, the instructor patted the Thespian on the back for luck. The Thespian leaned over to me and I gave him a kiss for luck.
Or so I told him.
Something about the trip wasn’t sitting well with me.
I gave him a kiss, to mark him.
So no matter where he went, I could track, and follow.
If all went well, another peck on the cheek after we landed would remove the mark, and none would be the wiser about my concern.
If something happened… well… I can call my feathercloak. I can follow.
ONE! TWO! THREEEEEE! And there he goes. The instructor is also getting a feed from the helmet-cam. We watch on the monitor as the Thespian falls through a clear pristine sky.
I feel a sudden chill down to my bones. “Eh? The camera quit?” I look at the monitor, and the feed is showing a screen full of random static. I don’t have to look out the window to know the Thespian isn’t there anymore.
“Hey, Instructor! Did he ever tell you my name?” “Huh? No. Who are you anyway?”
“I am Weaver. And don’t worry about me. See you on the ground.” As my name sinks in, he blanches with shock. I remove the safety harness from around me and jump out the airplane in just jeans and shirt. No parachute. No skydiving suit. Just me, myself, and my will.
I call the feathercloak to myself and start soaring. I pull the wings in for a dive and focus on the Thespian’s location. A soft thud muffles my ears as I jump into a clouded world. My human senses are dulled at once.
With an ease that surprises me, I shift form and become a giant raven. I find him easily. He is still free-falling, and is directly under me. I didn’t realize how large I had become until I extended my talons to grab him in mid air. My feet could completely encircle his body without piercing him. Which is precisely how I intend to grab him.
My talons close on nothing. He has been whisked away again. I caw loudly and angrily. When I find who is doing this… Closing my eyes, I can sense which world he was taken to.
I jump into an empty night. Again he is directly under me. He is not afraid, nor panicking, but rather enjoying himself quite thoroughly. I consider if he is jumping by his own will.
“Was there supposed to be an eclipse today?” Welp, that answers my question. I wonder if he has noticed he is much higher now than the altitude the airplane had taken him. Probably not. I better get him back to the original world he started in. No telling what the residents here are like.
But before I can even begin my approach to grab him, he blinks out of existence again. This time, I catch a scent of what threw him. No, this is not his doing. But until I get physically ahold of him, I can’t tell if this is the Socialite’s work or not. I focus on his location, and jump to him again.
Fuck! It’s cold! Shit! Way too cold for him or me. No more playing around. I have to get him and get out of here. More clouds obscure the ground, but the air has a particular taste to it, like the air of a walk-in freezer. You can taste the ice. Where ever we are, it is frozen solid. I would dare to say an arctic environment.
Again he’s under me, but he is no longer enjoying himself. The extreme drop in temperature has stunned him. Limp-bodied, his body is starting to turn into a head-first diving position.
Gotcha! My foot closes around his torso and I pull him towards my raven body. Ignoring the ice forming on my wings, I focus on the world we came from, with the cloudless sky and the warm sunshine. Together we jump out of the arctic world.
“Ahh! SHIIIIIIIITTTTT!!!!!!!” The jump stirred him to wakefulness. He opens his eyes to find a giant black bird has grabbed him and is striving for altitude. I caw in laughter as I turn him face down and gently release him back into freefall. He turns to keep an eye on me, but in the space between releasing him and him spying me, I’ve turned back into my raven-feather cloaked human form.
He recognizes me and waves as I make large circles around him. He remembers his lessons, and opens his parachute at the right time. Without any more incidents, he lands true on the target and is caught up in his husband’s arms before the parachute itself has settled.
I land a little away from them and allow the wings to fall back into cloak form. The instructor comes to me nervously. I ask him how long were we gone. “An hour.” An hour? But… each jump wasn’t even a minute! He had called the City and was told to wait for me to return to this world. I thanked him for staying and for keeping the Thespian’s husband with him.
“Are you kidding? When he heard you had jumped out after him, he said he had to remain here so you could use him as a beacon to get his husband home!” I hadn’t thought of that. Good idea.
The Thespian is caught up on why his husband is nearly in tears. He comes to me for an explanation I am unable to give him. No, I don’t know who whisked him away. Yes, I had an inkling something was going to go wrong, which reminds me, hold still so I can remove my mark. ~kiss~ Yes, the giant bird was me. No, that wasn’t a normal dive.
But everyone is safe and sound on the ground, and the feeling of impending doom has passed. The Thespian and his husband retreat to their home. The instructor thanks me for preserving his safety record. I leave the airfield with one last puzzle piece that I told no one.
I wasn’t able to jump from the arctic environment. I lost too much body heat myself, and was about to pass out. It was all I could do to hold on to the Thespian. I didn’t jump, I was thrown. Something appeared, saw me struggling, and pushed me through the worlds back to safety. It is a something that knows me through a friend.
I shouldn’t be surprised when my dream worlds overlaps with someone else’s. I will have to thank her later.
Right now… coffee.