The Journal of Dreams (The Tales of Tahana - Book One)

Chapter 20: An Urgent Meeting

29-2-2-4012 DM, Yatlang Village, Telama, Hilaraya

"Make it stop!" Dari shouted as the floor beneath him shifted. He was on the floor on his back and he could feel his heart racing wildly in panic. His eyes were wide open but he could see nothing but darkness around him.

"Please! Make it stop!" Dari cried, his voice giving off an echo as if he was in a vast cavern. The floor beneath him shook more violently and something hard hit his head, making him scream in pain. Desperately, he tried to concentrate and listen for the sound of chimes but there was only silence. He tried to shift sideways but he couldn't move a muscle in his body. It was as if he was restrained, but he couldn't feel anything that should keep him from moving. The floor beneath him shifted again, and, unable to control his limbs, he rolled over to the left with the floor's motion. He continued to roll uncontrollably until the floor stopped moving a few seconds later. He was on his back once again but he felt his feet dangling on thin air. He realised that he was at the edge of the floor and he would fall if the floor shifted again.

"Attend me! Please!" Dari screamed once again as he felt his body sliding off the edge. He tried to squirm away from the edge, but he couldn't move! He could feel his left thigh slowly slipping off the edge, and he knew that he would fall any moment now. A few horrifying seconds later, the rest of his body slid off the floor's edge. He closed his eyes and let out a scream as he waited for the inevitable pain of impact. He felt his insides roiling as he fell down a seemingly endless abyss.

Dari expected the impact to be painful, but when it came, he was surprised to hear a soft "thud" followed by a weak creaking sound. There was no pain! He must have fallen for at least a hundred arms or more. He slowly opened his eyes. He was momentarily disorientated and confused by what he saw. His vision was still hazy but he saw details that made him wonder where he was. The ceiling above him was covered in tightly woven thatch over slender bamboo logs. The walls of the room were made of split bamboo and the window to his right side was made of thatch as well. Streaks of sunlight came in through small gaps on the window and the walls. The room was smaller than his own room in Arang, and he could see a door about an arm away to his left. A blue blanket was sprawled at the edge of the bed to his right. Then, he finally realised what happened. He fell off the bed.

Dari closed his eyes and a sense of relief wash over him. It was only a bad dream. In the last two days, he had been having nightmares whenever he dozed off. He still couldn't forget the horror of waking up bound, blindfolded, and gagged in a cage. He realised that he was breathing heavily so he tried to calm himself down, breathing deeply as he laid on the bamboo floor. A few moments later, his breath came more easily and his heart was pounded less hard. He opened his eyes and was about to sit up when the door of the room opened.

"Oh! It seems that you've fallen off the bed again."

Alyana's smiling face looked down at him. She wore a blue tunic and a pair of black trousers. Her flaming red hair was in a thick braid and fell down her left shoulder.

"Again? What do you mean?" Dari asked in a hoarse voice as he tried to sit up from the bamboo floor while furiously brushing his tangled hair with his fingers.

"When I checked up on you yesterday morning, I saw you sleeping on the floor. I even carried you back onto the bed but you didn't stir at all," Alyana said chuckling.

"Oh..." Dari said, feeling heat rise from his cheeks. He turned his gaze away from Alyana and began fixing the bed.

"Hey, it's alright. I fall off my bed, too, sometimes," Alyana said as she moved closer to Dari and grabbed a pillow from the tousled bed.