The Spirit of the Dream

Chapter One

Escape

The one thing that was on Ali's mind at the moment was escaping.

She looked around. All she could see was the dark stone floor leading to the cold, grey bars of the dungeon she had been forcefully led to.

Ali's eyes searched the prison for the thousandth time, looking for something to help her escape. The only movable object was a dozen rocks and small pebbles in the corner. Nothing sharp, thin or deadly.

Oh if only she could have thought before she acted. Then maybe she wouldn't be in this mess. Maybe....

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Arrrggghh. Why do mornings exist?"

Ali's alarm clock was blearing at her in full volume.

"ARGGGHH! Shut up you stupid thing!"

Ali Harrison isn't a morning person. Her idea of a perfect morning is one spent in bed. Asleep. Undisturbed. Never the less, she threw back her pony duvet and dragged her tired body out of bed. She walked down the hallway and into the bathroom still half asleep. As was the regular routine, Ali went to the basin and doused her face in water.

"Well nothing wakes you up as well as a splash of the crystal clear water god made us." 

Her voice was soft but not quiet. It reminded you of the whispers of the trees.

Suddenly she groaned as she looked at the calendar posted on the lilac coloured wall next to her foggy mirror.

Today was Saturday. The day that her dear or devilish Aunt Georgina was to arrive. It wasn't that Ali particularly hated her aunt. It was more a very deeply felt dislike.

Whenever her aunt came around, all the attention was focused on her older sister and parents. Ali would do all the chores and more without any praise. And though she was used to this, her aunt would always find something particularly despicable for her to do. Last year it was cleaning the toilets. Ali did that anyway so it wasn't to bad until her aunt accidentally lost the gloves and brush. Ali ended up doing it with her bare hands and tooth brush. Plus to make it all the worse, Aunt Georgina let loose a disgusting bomb that blew up the toilet seconds before Ali had to clean it.

Forget the deeply felt dislike. It was pure hatred. Ali could just imagine her in her awful purple and bright lemon yellow dress peering down at her from behind her tiny spectacles, the spit bursting from her bright pink lips.

Pushing the thought away for a few minutes, Ali stepped into the path of the mirror.

What she saw there was a familiar sight and one she kind of liked. While her family was flabby and a bit rotund, Ali's build was slight but strong. In her arms you could see the steel beneath her soft skin. Her face was lightly freckled over her nose with the hours she spent sneaking outside. Her eyes were a bright, intense blue that made you think when she was looking at you that she could read your mind. At the moment her usually silky blonde hair was a birds nest, sticking up in all directions after her nights sleep.

"Ali, are you up yet? The gardens need watering and the paths need sweeping. I've got a long list."

Ali sighed at her mothers voice.

"Are all parents like this?" Ali muttered to herself.

After Ali had rapidly brushed her teeth a swept back her hair into a tidy pony tail, she walked up to her mother and waited patiently for her to notice her.

Ali's mother, Michelle, was a lawyer. But not a very good one. She tried to look professional but always failed. Nobody ever told her that she looked this way but then again, nobody had the courage to stand up to her.

This morning for example, she was dressed in a tight fitting orange suit with a purple shirt underneath. Her hair was twisted up into a tight bun that sat on top of her head like a poo. She was chewing some black current flavoured gum that had coloured her teeth purple. In Michelle's hand was a clip board with a few pieces of paper clipped to it. The paper had nothing on it but coffee stains.

"Mmmm. Mmmm. Ahhhh. Mmmm." Ali's mum was practicing her fake sounds of interest before her meeting that afternoon.

"Ahhh. Mmmm. Ahhhhh." Mrs Harrison continued like this before Ali got impatient and introduced herself with a cough.

"Oh! I didn't see you there Ali. Here's that list of things you have to do. Now go and do them and get out of my sight."

Ali pocketed the list then raced away to get her jobs done as quickly as possible. As she ran, she heard her mum practicing for her meeting.

"Mmmmm. Ahhhhh. Mmmmm. Ohhhhh. Yeah. Yes....."

Once Ali was on the lawn, she took the list her mum had given her out of her pocket. The list was at least thirty centimeters long and her mums handwriting was tiny. On the list were things like the fact that the gardens needing watering and the paths needing swept, but there were worse things too. Like having to bike to the post office to collect a ten kilogram package and bike back. To make things worse the post office was seventeen kilometers away!

"Well..... I guess I will go to the post office when Aunt Georgina comes around." Ali said out loud. "May as well do the sweeping of the cobblestone paths and I might weed the garden as well as water it too." and with that she set out for the east side gardens.

As she worked Ali could not help but wonder that if her mum actually liked her, that maybe she would be able to have a few things of what she wanted most. So while she worked she thought of the things that would go on that list.

"Ummmm. A pony of course. Annnnnnd.... Riding boots and possibly some riding gloves." She went on mumbling to herself like this the whole time that she was doing the chores and soon lost track of the time.

If you hadn't noticed, Ali loved horses. She had loved them for as long as she could remember. But if you had to ask her, it would have really burst into life one day when she was little and was going out to the mail box to collect her mothers mail.

As she was walking out down the smooth, Tarmac driveway, she saw a young man, probably in his late twenties, riding his horse down the road.

The horse was an impossibly gorgeous russet bay. The horse must have been at least fifteen hands and was an arabian stallion. The way he held himself, he could have been a fancy thoroughbred stallion, having all bets laid on him as the winner of the grand national cup. His coat looked as silky as anything you had ever seen. He wore a dark brown leather saddle and bridle that looked as though it was made perfectly for him.

Ali soon renched her eyes off the beautiful horse to get a better look at the rider.

He wore navy blue jodphurs and a light blue polo shirt with the number three on it. His old jodphurs ended with well worn, brown leather riding boots that came up to his knee. His helmet was in surprisingly good condition and was a black velvet corich. He had a rather dark tan with lots of freckles and strong arms.

When her noticed her staring at him, her jaw slack, he gave her a friendly smile and a wave then galloped away as if from a fairy tale.