Angry as I was, I wasn't in the mood to argue. I sat up quickly, swinging my legs over the bed I had been laying on. Only to fall into a heap of vines catching my waist, bringing me back to a seated position.
"Nola, you will not be able to walk until Awanassa brings your legs back to life," Jude said this plainly as if it was common knowledge that my legs were "dead".
I looked at my legs, wiggled my toes, "nope, they seem pretty much alive to me," I shrugged my shoulders. These living vines began to pulsate, wrapping around my legs, torso and eventually arms, massaging my muscles I didn't realize were sore and weak. Suddenly feeling very trapped, I was starting to panic.
As my nerves started to send my adrenaline in to hyperdrive, a soothing glow emanated from the vines. My adrenaline plummeted, but without the crash and I only felt calm. The vines started to release me one by one and set me on my own two feet.
"I have no clue what just happened, but I like it," I was saying this to no one in general, only realizing the urge to run had dissipated, and I stared at those around me.
I remembered I had been naked before, but now I am clothed in a beautiful floral outfit, not much different from the one the queen was wearing. The top was cropped, a flowing skirt stopped just above my knees. If a high fashion designer had made clothes for Jane from Tarzan, I am pretty sure she would be wearing something similar to this piece.
"If I didn't know better, I would assume it was all organic, high end silk… no this is softer than velvet, like the petal of a rose? It feels like I am swaddled in the softest material I have ever worn." My tactile mind had distracted itself again, touching every surface of my clothing, "Alright, no funny business, who dressed me? I can not possibly afford to purchase an outfit this luxurious and I would hate to snag it on something in this wooden room. Is it possible to just get my favorite hoodie back from wherever you pulled me out of? I am not typically one to go streaking, so who did it?"
Lascella and Jude stared at each other for a moment before Jude began to speak, "I am not sure what a hoodie is but, if you would like me to fashion a hood on your top I can? It would be very simple to add one, or perhaps I should make you a new outfit all together?"
A boy who can sew high end fashion? He is out of my league, or batting for the other team. I replied, "Did you seriously design this? I would love to learn to be half this decent! I play around on my sewing machine back at home but I can't make anything half this quality, much less afford the fabric to make it."
Lascella placed her face in her hands, laughing, "Oh I miss hoodies! Don't worry about Jude, he has no clue about what modern fashion was in the early two-thousands. He has no clue about life outside of the world we all live in now. It makes life easier for everyone living to move always forward. Some things remain, but in some ways, life has evolved and returned to days of old."
Jude glared at his mom, not liking to look ignorant in front of Nola. He said, "I know many things about many things mother, and I can teach her well if you will allow."
She rolled her eyes lovingly at her son, "You may show her around, but try not to overwhelm her very much, okay? I am not sure she is sold on the fact; this IS real. Be gentle and understanding, and have fun."
Jude held his hand out to me, palm up, waiting for me to join him. I had nothing better to do than to enjoy this place, lets lucid dream then. I grabbed his hand and let him lead me to an empty wall. A space wide enough for us to walk through opened up, and an entire hallway emerged. We walked hand in hand, silently as he led me, looking back to smile every so often.
He stopped, turning to face me with a look of mischief on his face, "high or low?"
With a puzzled expression I returned his question with a question, "high or low?"
"High it is then!" He took off running, my hand again in his, dragging me behind. We ran through another archway to an open outside. My heart fell to my stomach, my stomach falling out entirely as I realized I was amidst the branches of a tree the size of a skyscraper.
Jude only paused a moment to allow me to collect myself before he was running up the thin ledge of bark, higher up into the tree, still dragging me behind, "JUMP!" he said.
Jump? Where am I jumping to? "AHHHH!" I missed my leap, distracted, and I was falling to my death. Only, I wasn't falling. Jude had caught me using a rope, no vine, no, what is that? I was being lifted up, but I didn't see him pulling the vine, just reaching his arm towards me.
"Jude? Jude! You look like freaking spiderman, where did that vine come from!?" I dared not squirm for fear of my only rescue, this vine attached at his arm breaking and letting me fall again.
"Maybe I went a little too far, too fast for you? Mom did say take it slow. I have never been one for following her directions to the T." He laughed and pulled me in to his arms.
As cute as he was, I wasn't sure how I felt about being in this highly attractive, partially green man's arms. I was too afraid to push him away for fear of falling, but this awkward embrace was embarrassing.
"Could you possibly, safely, let me go?" I thought politely asking was the way to go.
He grinned ear to ear, blushing slightly, "Yeah, sorry about that! I didn't expect you to be so clumsy. I suppose I am used to flying through the tree tops with my mother. You remind me of her with your Ivory and green tinted skin."
I must have made an awkward face at him because I swear he said Ivory and GREEN tinted skin. I am sure last time I looked in the mirror I was almost as fair as a human can possibly get.
"Ivory and green? What is that supposed to mean… WOAH" Jude grabbed a leaf bigger than the two of us, wrapped it around us both and we were flying higher, at least that's what it felt like. We were being tossed around gently, but enough to make me dizzy from being trapped in a leaf with a stranger, and being jostled in to an unknown destination.
"I am sorry for the sudden movement, I figured until you aren't such a newborn, I'd let Awanassa do the work for us." Jude slowly lowered the leaf from around us. As the light filtered in to my vision I saw we were in an alcove of the tree, a collection of water in front of us.
"This is beautiful, I mean absolutely stunning! This is part of Awanassa?" I spun slowly, taking in the area around me.
Jude smiled wide, pleased with himself for having us brought here first. "I know you are such a newborn, just a young lily blossom, but come look for yourself. I led you not in the wrong direction, for I know the color green well." He placed his hand on the center of my back, leading me to the edge of the crystal-clear water. There, I saw my reflection for the first time since awakening here.
I stared in awe at what my face looked like. Much the same as I was before, pale ivory skin covered most of my body, but faintly, I realized I had a faint green color, smudging parts of my body. My temples were a light mint color fading into a deeper green in my hairline. I squinted, seeing my hair had also changed from a light brown to a deep shade of greenish black. I looked away and started investigating the rest of my body. My skin was mostly still all Ivory, but there were subtle differences. My veins looked as if they flowed green, instead of blue and red. My nail beds held the same mint shade as my temples, and even the thin peach fuzz covering my arms wasn't a light shade of brown anymore, but rather matching that of my new hair color.
MINT. The color of me.
"Jude I have now confirmed this is simply a very creative dream, and I think I am truly ready to wake up now, pinch me please," I held out my arm for him to pinch, which he did without flinching, "OW!! Why did you pinch so hard?! Jeez, are you trying to break the skin?"
My face must have shown every emotion that passed through my mind as it changed from anger, to shock to fear and panic, "Why am I still here? I should be waking up after a solid day hanging with all my friends yesterday!"
Jude looked at me with pity, "We tried telling you, Nola. I mean, typically waking up half paralyzed in a lily, bare naked, should have been some clue."
"Do you think that is just something that HAPPENS to people around me? Oh, here is a giant lily, here comes the birth of a fully grown human, or am I even still HUMAN!?" By this time, I was ready to blow. My anger was mostly out of shock and confusion, but I didn't understand how something that sounded like a book I would read was happening in real life.
My tantrum stopped as my memories from the botanical garden started to resurface. I was grabbed by a hypnotic plant and pulled in to the darkness underground… That really happened?
"The experiment, Dr. Green, Diego and Ashlyn… oh my.." My mind was overloaded with a thousand rushing thoughts. I stopped and looked Jude in the face, "What year is it?"
He blankly stared back at me and responded, "I thought you'd never ask, my minty colored lily blossom, it is 2463."
MINT. The color of me, in 2463.