Roses and Thorns

17- Asha's Nightmares

I wake below the earth. Leaves crackle about me as I get up, squinting out the exit. Ivy must still be out, but there's still a warm patch of leaves across the room, which feel suntouched as I step on them. Was someone else sleeping here?

A momentary fog clouds my mind, and feeling as if I should remember something, I step outside. Verdant grass rims the entrance, dancing in the breeze. It moves like fur rippled by wind, and almost feels like someone's pelt beneath my paws.

"I should be somewhere," I say aloud to no one in particular. There's no answer, as is to be expected, but the day is also quiet and almost hollow. The grass has stopped swaying, and besides the lack of wind, there's also an absence of birdsong, of movement, of breath. I try to inhale and find something caught in my throat, like a bubble.

I'm not breathing.

My fur stands up on end as I run into the center of the Glade, the sun blazing each follicle. There are no clouds and the sky is an anemic shade of blue.

I realize that I was supposed to go hunting with a sudden jolt, and look around for the Cloud Chasers. They couldn't have left without me, and there's no way that this is happening to me alone. Something has to be wrong with my throat, or with my mind, or...

There's noise coming from the Table. It's not conversation, but rather a clatter of noise not unlike hitting rocks against each other. Still, I'm so grateful for noise and company that I walk inside.

The room is well lit and just as tepid as outside. A scroll rolls towards me across the table, extending past me and on through the Glade. I look up and see Tammory and Eris sitting at two chairs at the end, sharing the position at the head of the table. Before them, several quills scribble away at a document, never lacking in ink despite their incredible speed. I look over the document, but there's nothing being written. It's just ink stains on paper.

"I'm- I'm so happy to see you! Do you know what's going on?"

As I rush up to them, I realize they're not my Tammory and Eris at all. Eris has far longer horns, great ram-like protrusions that extend around her ears and down to her neck, and Tammory has several quills stuffed deep into her neck and a thin row of stitches across her mouth. Where their eyes should be are dark voids that bore down into their faces.

I back up, and Tammory falls against the table like a stuffed toy, limp and lifeless. I turn and bolt out of the Table, feeling even more afraid when I realize I can not sense the beating of my own heart.

There's more scuffling coming from the Pantry. Legs trembling, I walk inside to find most of the lights off and the Cloud Chasers all resting at separate tables, all of them altered in some way and slumped in that same, awful manner. Llore's entire head is in a bubble of some kind. Nimbus and Lark have four wings. North looks taller, harsher, and his whole body is spread across the table, with multiple knives embedded in his back. All of them are bleeding cider, the liquid dripping with the thick consistency of blood and forming a fine film on the ground.

A single, shuddering shape stands alone at the back of the room, where I first came the night after I interviewed the Hunter.

"I shouldn't have been there." I stammer. "My house caved in well over a moon ago."

Ace turns around in the back. His eyes are the same, glittering blue they've always been, and his body is unscathed. "Rose, you shouldn't be here."

"Ace, what's going on?" I ask. "What happened?"

"This isn't the Glade. It's some altered, warped memory of it." he tells me. "It's always like this."

"Do you think we're dreaming?" I ask, and then everything clicks all at once. "Asha."