"Caw! Caw!" the crow screamed from the top of a regal palm.
Briana opened her eyes and commenced her consciousness, "Because in this world the crows think they're chickens."
And so commenced her sarcasm. The boulder, as expected, was not such a great resting place. Briana was not quite up to full charge, and Botolf coming into her quarters, giddy as he was, didn't make her feel any better about having to get up.
"Good morning, Briana!" he exclaimed.
He walked over to where her head was and noticed that she was barely awake.
"Come along, now, you've got a big day ahead of you," he went on.
Briana didn't budge but instead let out a long, low groan of disapproval.
"Still out for a canter, I see," Botolf observed, "Well, that'll do no good."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, canvas bag with a string tying it shut. He undid the string and poured a little bit of what was inside onto his palm—it was a powdery substance, somewhere between sugar and cocaine, and it had a variety of different colored crystals in it. Botolf knelt down and blew the powder onto Briana's face. Briana wrinkled her nose at first. The stuff was irritating, but then she shot upwards with newfound energy.
She turned to Botolf. "What the hell was that?" she demanded.
"Atom dust," he said, wiping the residue onto his pant leg, "It offers immediate restoration of energy. You need to be alert today, so I thought it right to spare you some. You're welcome." He smiled.
"Thanks," Briana responded.
Botolf left Briana to do her morning routine, but the whole thing was upset with her being dead and in a place that she had never been to before. Now that it was morning, there was more light in the room. Mother Nature's sanctuary within the forest wasn't as blocked from the sun as the land outside of it. The tree tops weren't as intertwined with each other. Light poured through, leaving a golden air about the whole place. Shelves, tons of them, lined the walls of where Briana was. What they had on them, she could not find out. Jars with liquids that had stained the interior glass to the point where the contents were hidden. Viles, all empty and some cracked, of all different colors lined one of the rocky walls from top to bottom. They looked like a mosaic. Reds, blues, yellows, greens, and purples, all hanging in neat rows and columns, but the colors followed no pattern. There was no organization outside of the fact that they had to fit in a certain space and so we placed with set dimensions. They were somewhat dull against the wall because, like the jars, they had been stained by their use, but they still made a unique piece of art. There were some books on the shelves too, and various rusted tools that appeared to be most useful for mideavel surgery. Everything was covered in dust with the floor and boulder bed being the only exceptions.
Briana took a moment to look at what she was wearing. It was the same outfit that she had died in—a plain t-shirt, jeans, and socks—just without the blood stains. It wasn't anything extravagent, but then again she had no one to impress. She pushed her matter hair back and had a human thought about how much of a curse natural curls were. Overall, she wasn't overly presentable, but she couldn't do much for herself. She was dead. There was no make-up, no flat iron, not even a tooth brush and toothpaste, so she had to make do.
With a sigh, she left the room of rock and viles and went back into the clearing. The pile of wood from the previous night was still there, charred but usable. Mother and Botolf sat in the center of the clearing on an odd table—which had not been there the previous evening—composed of a large, blue stone supported by thick, green vines. The two were both seated on the ground. Mother sat, legs crossed, with a cup of some unidentifiable substance which she sipped from. Botolf, on the other hand, was ravenously tearing away at the plate in front of him. Fruits, berries, meats, and a respectable array of nuts sat on platters in front of the work creature, who, with a moutful of it all, motioned for Briana to join him and Mother.
