A Dream Chronicle

6

☪

ⓘ picked up my old dreamcatcher and placed it by my heart. The new one lay on my bed, and I prayed gently towards hope, having safety for all. I placed the old dreamcatcher on my bed and thought all about the dream. Hartburrow in danger? Mum being taken from my dreams? And what did the woman mean, Dad will be next?

Dad...

I rushed downstairs, my heart pounding. Nothing had happened, that I heard of, and I was only asleep for about an hour, so Dad would have been awake for at least two more hours after that.

"Dad!? Dad!" I ran so fast down the last steps, nearly falling over onto the cold floor.

As I reached the wooden floor, I stopped as if I had a heart attack. I looked down, and then all around. The TV was on, showing the news, the paper was in the exact same spot as before, probably not touched since I went upstairs, and my mug, where was it? It wasn't on the table. It was gone!

I ran around the table looking for clues, and there it was... My mug, smashed on the floor, probably just fell over, but Dad was nowhere! He wasn't in his bedroom, kitchen, living room area...He too, was gone.

I picked up the pieces of the mug and put them in a small pile of the table. The sharp pieces put tiny cuts in my hand, only bleeding a tiny bit on my shirt.

Still in my red and black pajamas, I grabbed my wellies and coat and ran out the door, carelessly leaving the lights and the TV on.

I forgot all about the bikes, and decided to run the whole way. I don't know what my goal was, if I was trying to find him, or if I was going to the village, I just ran.

"Dad? Dad!" I kept running. I think I was half way to town before I stopped and thought about what I was doing.

Dad? Dad! Hello?

Oh, I didn't know what to do. I had no thoughts, just a heart about to burst, and an energy rising inside of me, ready to bubble and boil out of my blood. I decided to give something a try.

"Hartburrow...?" I whispered. I pretended to put the dreamcatcher to my chest.

"Please... Please..." No sign of anything.

"He won't come, he's gone!" A woman said as-a-matter-of-factly. She sounded high up, as if floating in the air. I looked up at the tree tops, to see a woman sitting on a huge tree branch. She wore a big, blue dress, and had her hair tied up all messy, and was all pulled together with a hair tie and pulled back, off her face with a flower.

"What do you mean, he's gone?" I snapped. How dare she just presume that, can't she have hope?

"I mean, he was taken. Probably by Azafar, unless you have any other presumptions." I showed a shocked look.

"And my Father?"

The woman shrugged her shoulders. She looked at her long nails and checked them over one by one. I coughed loudly.

"Am I dreaming?" I knew it was true.

"Indeed, but I am real, here to help. You've been dreaming for hours. You hit you're head on a tree after a while if trying to find your Father. You've been lying underneath this tree for quite a long time. You really banged it." She chuckled.

"Something funny?" I was confused.

"Look, I was sent here to help you, apparently Tallawinks aren't the best guardians of sleep. You needed one, since Hartburrow was yours, and now he's gone, taken. So I am here."

"Thanks but no thanks. I don't need your help." The woman looked shocked and hurt in a way. "I don't even know your name." I continued.

"As you don't need to; one person does not need to know a name of someone if they were to work together, play together." She hopped down from the tree quite gracefully and stepped right close.

"Where's my Mother, my dream Mother? The only one I have..." I looked up at the woman. She seemed to have no answer. My eyes began to water. She came up close and wrapped me in her arms.

"Sshh...shhhh." She stroked my hair. "Meet me in your dreams, and I can help. But doing nothing will bring you time to use wisely." She winked.

I was pushed back a few steps, and my shoulders were covered by dirt, and the woman's hands, keeping me up right and in a single position.

"Look, here comes help, go off, and I'll see you real soon..." I looked off into the distance, to see a bright light heading towards me. I looked back infront of me. The woman's face faded, and I fell to the floor, falling into a deep sleep.

☪

I felt like I was violently shaken. I became dizzy and dazed, like I had just fallen from the sky.

"Robyn!? Robyn!" It was Dad! He was screaming my name, shaking me like I was dead, and he was bringing me back to life.

My eyes clicked open, released from the sticky glue of tears that held them shut. "...Dad?"

"Robyn!" He threw my in his arms. "Dad!" I said once more, hugging him back with equal love.

"Why are you out here!?"

"I woke up, you weren't downstairs! I panicked!" I admitted. Overreacted, maybe...

"I was fine! And you knew I was gone! Your light was on, so I called up to you and said I was quickly going to the village. You said OK."

I did, didn't I? When I was talking to the lady in my dream...

"Then why was that mug smashed?" I sobbed. "That was why I wanted to go out. I accidentally smashed it when I bumped into the table, I hoped you didn't hear and I wanted to replace it with a nice dreamy one from that shop you like."

"Oh." I sat down and listened to Dad talk and talk, apparently he came back to the cottage two hours ago, and thought I was asleep. When he came up to check on me he noticed I was gone. But the rest, I fell asleep after, the next thing I knew I was awake, in my bed, with my old dreamcatcher around my neck, and a nice new dreamy mug filled with milk on the bed-side table.

I finally felt safe, but Hartburrow, Mum...

...What about Azafar...?

☪

☪"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

-Albert Einstein