PARAGAIA

Chapter Seven | Auger Stone | The Buried Dreams

Feeph never lived too far from me in the outskirts of Belton. Although at the time, any distance was walking distance so long as I could get to her. The night air of the Bifrost slipped up and over the wall and blew whirlwinds through every twist and turn of the city, snow beads pelted us in the face as we walked only to be tossed into the light of the Hearth and melt away.

It had been quite some time since I'd traverse the maze of Belton in this way, towards Feeph's house and especially in such inclement weather. Snow that melted off the tops of the homes flowed into rain catches, trickled down pipes, or soaked us as we hurried our paces to avoid the drops from what the gutters couldn't hold. Times like these reminded me of our days as kids, when we were much younger, hungrier, and desperate for the things we'd been starved of.

Feeph would take me by the hand to our forested maze of back alleys and side streets, past humming lights and candle lit windows towards her palace. It was damp tonight, and my house was further still as we reached her doorstep. It was a small home, passed to her from her parents, perhaps the only thing she appreciated them passing onto her. I vaguely remembered the insides, but when her parents were around— I remembered the thrills being this close to her home meant for me. My heart fluttered at those memories.

We shuttered as she fumbled with the keys and I looked up at her home which hadn't seen life in years, reliably push the freezing run off of the melting snow down and into the drains.

"Would you like to come in?" She invited me, in a tone that wasn't unfamiliar to me and yet still so.. foreign?

"I would." So I did.

Inside the doorway we kicked off our shoes and coats and stepped our wet socks onto cold bamboo floors before sliding them into house slippers.

"I may still have some of your clothes." She said softly, nodding towards my soaking trousers and heavy winter long sleeve. The Hearth's light and heat did not reach this place, but for some reason— neither did the Bifrost's cold.

I nodded to her suggestion and she disappeared into her bedroom, I dare not follow. While she was gone I glanced around the entry, looking as deep into the home as I could without wandering where I was not yet welcomed. I had always liked it here, feeling the sensation of familiar territory with her was always a luxury.

Feeph retrieved an old, nearly ancient, outfit of mine I'd left here a lifetime ago. To my surprise, she returned in a different outfit of her own, although it was old and perhaps from the last time we'd seen each other. It was as if she stepped back in time, as if she hadn't lived an entire life between the last time she'd worn those clothes and now. Her top was fit to her skin, and white. Her pants were... tight at her thighs and in the space between her white cotton shirt and black pants I could see her stomach, I darted my eyes away, and commented on the state of her house.

"Nice place you got here! Sturdy!"

"Well hopefully the fire place still works or this is going to be a long night. You can use my room to change!" She chuckled, pressing the change of clothes into my chest and walking past me to the living area.

I entered cautiously, a proverbial foot in the door. What was I thinking? This was my dearest friend, thoughts like mine were... disrespectful to that friendship to say the least. Things of the past were meant for dreams and journals. I shook the past from my head and changed quickly, a new cold draft filled the room. I was happy to leave and return to the living room.

Feeph sparked a few old Belton Times newspapers and began to get a fire going. She pulled dry, but cold logs from the stove next to the fire place and tossed them in— the room slowly illuminating as the fire struggled for life.