The cage opens to several men all speaking at once, "Be careful with her, we can't damage the girl." "How do we know she is human?" "Can she be our savior?" "Hello pretty lady, how would you like a human man? Care to re-inhabit the planet with me?" "You buffoon, you'll be the last allowed near to her if you're speaking to her like that!" "Sorry boss, I'll behave, I just haven't seen a woman since I was leaving college for my internship." "I can't imagine she would want an old man like you anyway, you didn't age well."
I peek above my cage to see scarred old men, "It appears to me that none of you have aged well. Been through a radiation poisoning recently? Oh wait, you're in to skin grafts and plastic surgery huh?" Such a snarky attitude coming from my mouth. Aren't I the one in a cage?
The oldest looking of the men walked to me and promptly shoved a needle in my neck, "See how much you like ugly old men when you have no options left." I am REALLY tired of passing out.
I wake up on an examination table this time, stark naked, for the umpteenth time. My stomach is swollen and my back aches. Two of the dirty old men are standing near me arguing. "How could this have happened, there's no way she has been tarnished! Why would she allow one of them to touch her? They know we need to salvage our planet, but they take the one thing we needed to save us!?" One of them growled out.
"I told you I should have just been allowed to have my way when we first brought her in, would have solved all our problems, but nooooo I'm an old buffoon." The other man responded. Lovely, a grumpy old pervert!
The first man rolled his sagging eyes and replied, "We have to terminate. IMMIDIATEY! This is our only chance."
Just then Ash is thrown in the room, wearing a lab coat of his own, "What have you done to her, unstrap her, she isn't one of your experiments!"
My voice wells up in my throat, "Ash… are you working WITH them!? How could you!? I LOVED YOU!" I was yelling with all the strength and anguish in my body. As I screamed, the earth shook. How would I shake the Earth? No, the building is cracking around us, and the walls are crumbling. A large vine-like, tentacle juts out through the wall, Earth giving way as I am drug midair in to the dark. Ash disappears along with the men as my vision fades.
I wake up in agony among Ash and muck. Most of the grounds where Ash and I spent our time have been destroyed and the rain is washing it away around me. The decay and death make me feel as if I'll just lie here to die with everything around me. What if the place that brought me here, can take me back? This awful dream I have been living, the pain, agony, and betrayal I feel is just a dream. I just have to get back and then I will wake up.
I take off running to the old building Ash had shown me I had come from. Pain explodes from my abdomen; blood runs down my legs. Something is inside me, but I have to get out of this world.
"TAKE ME BACK!" I scream, running as fast and as far as my legs will take me.
Brown decay covers the crumbing building as I reach the spot, I know I have arrived. I find a lily, half dried, dead and half oozing into the ground from the rain. Knowing I have no time left I curl in to it, hoping to wake up home in my bed, far away from this pain. Please God just take me home.
I wake to a bright light, a feather soft bed beneath me, and a baby cooing beside me. I must be in another dream, really? I open my dream eyes to see Ash and his barky brother next to me. Rage boils in the pit of my insides as I start to raise my voice and question them both, but no shouting or explanations come to me; I'm fast forwarding again.
The music sounds all around me, the happiness I feel is eternal and I never want it to end. The dress I'm wearing is trimmed in white rose petals and Easter lilies. The smile is so wide my cheeks almost hurt, but it's a pain I welcome. I've never been this happy in my life.
IVORY. The color of my wedding dress.
The music starts as I proceed down the aisle, my soon to be brother-in-law accompanying me as I go. I whisper under my breath, "You know Barky, you're going to be seeing a lot more of me around. We might have to take a hedge trimmer and a Dremel to your hands and arms if you're going to be walking me around with Ash." I looked out the corner of my eye, smirking at him.
He faked a look of horror and returned my comment with an elbow nudge, almost knocking me over with his size. "You know you can call me by my name, we are family now!"
"I know Oak, but I still think Barky fits you better heh." Just then I looked up to see Ash smiling at me as Oak handed me over to him. We said our vows from our heart and our first kiss as husband and wife was just like the happily ever after from storybooks. As we prepared to walk down the aisle inside our home tree Awanassa, our fairytale, living castle, she had a gift of her own to give us. Her vines reached out to us like a warm embrace, and as the released us, she placed a crown upon each of our heads and nudged Oak to take a lead in front of the people. He followed through, bowing before the new royalty of our world, King Ash and Queen Lascella.
The congregation of beautiful, floral people followed in turn, showing their allegiance to the Leaders of the new Earth. Awanassa had not finished with her gifts though. She took a small bundle of ivory and mint, placing him in Queen Lascella's arms, a crown of his own upon his head.
My head ached and throbbed, but my body was wrapped in warmth. Where am I now?
I hear my voice calling my own name, no not my voice, the Queen's, "Nola it's time to wake up now." I remember now I was in a dream inside a dream. I must be back to my actual dream now, no longer remembering the Queen's life.
I stretch my arms wide, much more agile than I was the first time I woke up here, "Oh thank you Queeny. That story was absolutely wonderful. Am I supposed to learn a lesson from your life? Is there a moral before I wake up in my bed to get up for school?"
"Mother, may I speak to her yet!? She is fully clothed and covered, there is nothing to hide from my eyes any longer." The young man's voice from earlier has a face, a familiar face.
The Queen rolls her eyes in an un-queenly manner, "Jude, please do not pester the girl. She needs to process everything before you start harassing her with you enthusiasm." She giggled and pulled him in to a motherly embrace.
My emotions are on a rampage and full of confusion from the dream that just ended. I'm filled with a jealousy for some strange reason, but it must be because my mind still remembers the pain from the birth of this grown man in front of me, although it must have happened 20 or more years ago.
Queen Lascella must realize I am still adjusting from her memories, because she looks at me with pity in her eyes. "Nola do you need to rest more, child?"
I am getting irritated with this child nonsense, "why do you keep calling me child? You do realize you were born maybe 3 years before me, right?"
"Nola, I have been with Ash and Awanassa for almost 300 years."
My ears must not be working, dream or not, Lascella is not that old, there's no physical way. She looks at me with pity again, but it is starting to annoy me. "Ok, I am done with this dream, I am done with this story, and I want to wake up in a world that makes sense. I must have done some serious day drinking at the botanical gardens to have a trippy dream like this."
"Mother, why does she think she is in a dream? Are we not real enough? My blood flows green, but it flows just the same. Her skin can't be that different. Could she be sick? Her face is lovely to look at; her fair shoulders are beautiful just the same.
IVORY. The color of Nola.