“Help me! Won’t anyone help me!”
God fucking dammit, I’m such a fucking sucker at times. As I cross the street towards the anxious woman, I notice my feet aren’t touching the ground. I feel the texture of the asphalt where my feet would be touching, but I am in fact floating an inch above it. Right. I’m dreaming. Even better.
“Can I help you, madam?”
She turned to greet me warmly, but chilled her response on seeing me. I quickly checked myself to see if my monstrous attitude was showing more than usual, but to my inspection I appeared as I did on waking.
She sniffed in the haughtiest of ways before answering. “Doubtful. But you can try. Maybe it will shame others more capable into coming to my aid.”
The number of cares I had about her situation nearly dropped to zero. But, since this is a dream, why not follow it through. “I don’t do coccyx alignments. A very messy procedure, and I’m wearing the wrong shoes for such pleasure. Anything else you need assistance with?”
She blinked in sudden confusion. “Cock-icks?” Waving the unknown word away from her attention, she finally pointed to the iron framed bench bolted to the side walk. “I came all this way to sit here and watch the river, but the seat is facing the wrong way and I need someone to move it!”
Wut.
The park bench was set on the far side of the ample sidewalk, facing the street and the series of shops on the other side. Facing north (or at least this particular spot was facing north) and in the added shade of a large tree, it was the perfect spot to sit and watch people without being in the way of said people.
Behind the bench was a dozen feet of trimmed meadow. A forest began there and quickly grew too thick to see through. We were on the border of a forest reserve.
“Madam. There is no river here.”
“There is! The map says so, and I want to see it!” She thrusts her tourist map in my face. Swallowing my urge to set it on fire by spitting on it, I took it from her. There was a winding ribbon of blue that did go past our location on the map. But that shade of baby blue did not indicate water, but the pedestrian walkway we were now standing on. The closest marked river was nearly two miles away as I would fly the crow flies, but to walk there was more like five miles on twisting trails.
Her bedazzled platform heels would make for poor traction, I’m sure.
“This is not the mark for a river. It’s the pedestrian walkway that we are currently standing on.”
“I know that, you simple minded fool!” She snatched the map out of my hands. I kept my tongue not for her sake, but to sense if the Envoy was present. This arrogant shit was one more offense away from being ejected from her dream with more than just a hot foot.
“I want to see the river! And I want to see the river sitting on this bench! And this city is supposed to cater to me and I want someone that is actually capable of doing something about it to actually do something about it!”
She slapped me with the map to accentuate her demand.
Strike three. You’re out.
I raised my hand and held it in front of her face. I waited until she was looking at it before changing it from human, to something a little more corvid in structure. She stopped her shrieking and stared at the blackening talons in wide-eyed silence.
“No.”
Her attention slid along my single word to my face. She couldn’t settle on which eye to stare at in fear, the living raven eye or the dead and clouded human eye.
I will admit to enjoying her fear. But then the realization of the immense power imbalance triggered my maturity. No matter how much I wanted to literally roast her ass for her arrogance, I couldn’t do it. She was a harmless ant to me. We would likely never meet again in this world or the next. I stopped her physical abuse and instilled her with terror. Have I done enough?
I reached out and straightened her blouse. She stood trembling in silent fear as I tucked stray hairs back into her elaborate braids. I flicked away seeds and dust that had settled on her. All in complete silence. Once her appearance was as perfect as I could manage, I stood back to admire my work.
I smiled. She laughed nervously.
“Madam.” I spoke softly but a harsh raven undertone was present because of my partial transformation. She flinched at the inhuman tone. “The City caters to its inhabitants, yes, but each of us still bears a responsibility to each other. For you to get exactly what you wish, in this communal dream, is to fuck up the dreams of several hundreds, if not thousands, of other dreamers. Is your brief satisfaction, that you are not likely to even remember upon waking, so desperate that it justifies sending everyone else into a nightmare?”
She shook her head and sniffed, this time to hold back tears of fright. I took the ripped map and smoothed it back into wholesomeness. “Now then, if you wish to see the river before you awake, I suggest asking the City, or a representative of the City, to help you. You will find that often all you have to do is literally turn the corner, and you will be where you wanted. Abusing other people is not likely to gain you anything here that you would want to keep. Now, then. Do you want to see the river, or not?”
She nodded. I cocked my head to prompt her to speak. She squeaked a small noise of affirmation. I smiled and nodded as I accepted that. “Here.” I handed her the map folded to our location. “I think you have a nice surprise in store now that you have recovered your manners.”
She took the map and looked at it. Her eyebrows furrowed as she realized it had changed since she last looked at it. A strange breeze blew around us as the background scenery changed in the blink of an eye. The sound of splashing water curled around our ankles.
She stood and turned around to face what had been the forest. A waist-high iron fence kept passers-by from falling off the pier. The bench, which had been facing the stores and walkway, was now bolted to the boards of the pier and facing the laughing river. Leisure ships moved lazily in the distance. A fisherman cast into the waters below from a safe distance away from us.
“Madam.” She had forgotten about me that quickly, and my vocal reminder chilled her so cruelly, the wind warmed in response. “I probably should have allowed you to reap what was proper for your sowing, but you seem to have awakened the one fuck I have per year. Enjoy the remainder of your dream.” I offered my taloned hand in a offer of a handshake. She took it and allowed herself to laugh with warmth. Her laughter ceased when I dragged my thumb across her hand, burning a bloodless welt. “Let this be a marker for when you awake. Not everyone you piss off, here or there, will be kind to insects. Before you demand what is proper for your place, be aware of what your place actually is.”
I released her hand and walked away down the new and ancient pier. The fisherman hailed me as I went and I wished him good fishing in return. As a sudden fog moved in and separated me from the woman and the fisherman, I felt the Envoy step into place beside me.
“You let her live.” Was that a statement or a question?
“She wasn’t worth the paperwork.” He snorted a laugh at my reply.
“You know, you seem to have some diplomatic skills…”
“Aw, hell to the fuck naw! I’ll concede that I’m a citizen of the City, Envoy, but I’m not going to be a shining role model! That’s your job!”
“Speaking of role models.” The fog obscured even the ground under me as it slipped between my still floating feet and the worn boards of the new pier. “I have received requests for an audience with you.”
“Denied.”
“You haven’t heard from whom, nor for what reason!”
“I don’t need to. Look, I’m not hard to get a hold of in the waking, and I’ll bet a box of donuts that all those seeking an audience are waking world readers. But the dreaming is my time, and I have a lot I have to sort out still. If you’re going to drag my ass to Show And Tell, there better be a damn good payoff for me.”
The Envoy sighed as we both expected he would. “Still mercenary, I see. And here I thought you had become a shade more altruistic than before. After all, the City endured much because of you.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake, Envoy. With all due respect, Sir, fuck off, with prejudice. You and I both know that despite Roger’s threat, if you didn’t have me fix it, you would have had others. And there certainly were several others that could have fixed it a hella lot neater than I did. Nothing can hold the City down for long, if it can completely hold it down at all. Why, if I didn’t know better, you let it play out as you did to better try to guilt me into serving the City afterward.”
Through the thick fog, I could see shades of neighborhoods and architecture. I recognized places I have lived, and places I have only seen on screens. The scents of different cooking spices teased at me, and what was blistering summer in front of me was steel-shattering winter behind me. This was the heart of the City. All it needed to have form, was for me to wish it to have form. I could have my perfect paradise. But to take it meant giving up all my other travels.
The Envoy smiled and took my hand the same way I took the arrogant woman’s. Instead of searing my flesh, he leaned over and kissed it with courtesy. I made a mental note to myself to check for marks later. “You have much wasted potential. It is my duty to see that each citizen uses theirs to their fullest. You included.” He released my hand and straightened himself. He fussed over my cloak and feathers the same way I fussed over the woman’s. “Another time, then.”
I rolled my eyes as petulantly as I could before sighing in resignation that the Envoy will always be chasing me to settle down in the City and cease my traveling. “Yes, let us continue this argument another time. Good day, Envoy.”
“Good day to you, [Weaver].”
The dream gently ended.