I had just closed my eyes. It was bright and early morning when I closed them. It was deep night when I opened them. I was inside, sitting at a desk when I closed them. I was standing at a campfire in the middle of the Mojave desert when I opened them.
I looked at the fire, and despaired.
“It’s not real.”, I pronounced to myself.
“Is it? Are you sure?”
I turned around to view the speaker. On the top of a nearby mound, was a warrigal. It was lying prone giving the appearance of lethargy. But the body posture was tense and alert. I was in the presence of a predator. It reminded me of a particular person. That it did only made me doubt what I was seeing even more.
“No. I’m not sure. Doubt is blinding me. I… I think I’m going insane. To a different depths than before. It’s… it’s all just [redacted], isn’t it.”
“Was it such when you and [redacted] were here? Together?”
“… No.”
“What do you need? A handwritten invitation?”
“Third-party corroboration would help. Something external to me, that I could not possibly have influenced. I have much more control over my immediate sources of input than I wish to admit. I need something that I could not have sandbagged myself with, that I could not have unconsciously set myself up for.”
“As you wish.”
The warrigal got up, and trotted away from the campfire with a high and purposeful gait. I found myself alone at the campfire. Distraught, I wished to leave. I had to claw and fight my way back to full consciousness. It felt like I was drowning, and I was struggling to break the surface of the water.
Struggling to breathe.
Struggling to be.
I said nothing, not online, not privately. I kept the conversation to myself. Just when I had forgotten the incident had occurred, on my Tumblr dash, these two comics appeared:
http://onlyfoolsandvikings.tumblr.com/post/54585413469/oh-no-i-made-a-small-comic-about-a-scene-with
…
Warrigal. Okay.
Last night I returned to the campfire. The warrigal was lying on top of the mound again.
I approached it, but stopped short of stepping on the mound itself. “I got yer invite. Both of them.”
It turned its head to look straight at me. “Good.”
“Okay. I guess I’m back in the game. What’s up?”
“Are you sure? Doubt will destroy you where you’re headed.”
“Assuming I don’t destroy myself first.”
“Indeed.” The warrigal stood up and yawned, yelping slightly at the end of it. “Come. [Weaver]. You have work to learn, and then you have work to do.”
The warrigal led me away from the campfire, into the depths of the desert. The further away from the campfire we moved, the less like the Mojave desert my surroundings appeared, and the less my awareness was able to remain lucid. Finally, I placed my trust in the warrigal, and the dream enveloped me completely.