I dreamt a dream I'd never had before; or at least one that I'd not previously remembered.
In my dream I awoke on a litter of dead, dried leaves. Confused, I sat up from my leafy bed and looked around. In every direction around me, reached the arms of a huge weeping willow, it must have been hundreds of years old to be so large.
I didn't know where I was or how I got here. As I carefully got to my feet, with a crunching of dry leaves, I saw a quick flit of movement out of the corner of my eye.
Startled, I moved my head in the direction of it, but saw nothing there. But the feeling in my gut told me there was, indeed, something nearby. I sensed the general direction of it, I knew not how, but still it was invisible to my eyes.
'Wait! Invisible?...Could it be one of the fairy folk concealing itself with invisibility?'
Just then, I sensed something approaching me and stepped backwards. Tripping over a tree root and scraping my back against the trunk of the large tree, I slid earthwards.
Something took that moment to throw a handful of flower pollen and tree spores at my face. I waved my hand, trying to bat at the stuff in an attempt to keep it clear of my airways.
I held my breath and tried not to breathe again until I thought the air was clearer of it.
But some of it must have ended up in my system for I suddenly felt odd, and the colours of the world took on a brighter, almost carnival-like colour palette.
I coughed and choked, trying to get it out of my lungs.
A four-foot tall, metallic red orange shelled beetle laughed at me.
"There's no use fighting it.", it chuckled at me.
"What…what have you done to me? What was in that powder?", I demanded, both afraid and angry.
The elegant boughs of the willow parted and a fushia- coloured fae with the wings of a butterfly entered.
With the cluck of a disapproving tongue, she chided, "What's the matter with you?! Getting the bride all worked up before her wedding! You should know better."
I felt like all the oxygen was sucked from my lungs suddenly and with great force.
"Bride? Wedding? No. No.', I thought.
But I had already looked around earlier. I knew there was only three of us here. A sinking feeling took over as the realization sunk in further that they could only mean me.
I felt myself shake my head no, as I stood up again.
'This is terrible! I have to get out of here…far away…'
I tried to run but found my feet could only move slightly faster than a shuffle.
Terror, despair and fear, battled within me as I tried to struggle with the arms that grabbed for me.
I spun and fought, until, with a thud I fell.
When I opened my eyes, I was on the floor of my room, cocooned up in my bed sheets. In fact, I had ripped the sheet in one spot during my struggles.
Somehow, I felt grateful that I had fallen out of bed. Something about the dream disturbed me deeply.
As I got ready that morning, in the back of my mind, remembrances of the bad dream still lurked. It was only after feeding the cat, when he jumped into my arms for a cuddle, that I felt better, and the last traces melted away.
I didn't cuddle for long, before I was out the door and on my way to the park.
On my arrival, I found both my fox and Alpha David waiting for me. I was pleasantly surprised to find the fox sitting, quite calmly, near David.
I smiled to myself. It was nice to see my fox getting used to him.
I greeted them both, and gave the fox an egg, before David came to walk beside me down the narrow path.
I turned my head to look at him, I wanted to ask him how his day was, when my body involuntarily froze on the spot.
He was changing from wolf to man. I had never saw such a change take place! In a way, it was fascinating to see how muscles, ligaments and tendons rearranged themselves. But it was also terrible to see. How the flesh shuddered and shivered and became less hairy.
For a moment, it was a horror that I couldn't take my eyes off of.
But all of a sudden, a realization came to my mind. He was becoming human! Naked human.
I turned away quickly. I felt embarrassed and disappointed in myself.
'I shouldn't have gawked at him like that', I chided myself.
I felt a blush creep up my cheeks and reach my ears.
'I should apologize to him!'
"Sinead?", his voice was quiet, low, and gruff.
I felt my body let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding.
"I am sorry!", I gushed out. My back was still to him.
"Sorry?", he asked me gently, echoing my words.
In an embarrassed waterfall of words, I tried to explain myself. But the entire time I felt like I was only making the situation worse.
I heard him sigh. The sort of huff of air that made me know he was internally laughing at me. He found me amusing.
"It's okay."
He put a firm, steady hand on my shoulder. I didn't move.
"I don't care what you saw or didn't see. It doesn't bother me. If I had a problem with it, I wouldn't have changed in front of you."
'What did his words mean?', I wondered. 'Did he mean we were close enough friends it didn't bother him? Like I was just one of the guys in a locker room? Was he that free of an individual? Or did his feelings go the other way? Was there some reason he wanted me to see?'
All these thoughts made me blush harder. I unconsciously raised a palm to my cheek. It felt warm. My whole face must be red as a tomato by now!
I wonder if he sensed my feelings as he said, "It's okay. I have shorts on now. I didn't know you were that shy, I didn't mean to embarrass you."
Then in a quieter tone he said, "I guess you're still very innocent."
Innocent. I knew exactly what he meant by the word. But I was no virgin. Yet, he was right about the shy part. I didn't know why I felt this way around him.
But I certainly didn't expect him to be naked around me suddenly. Maybe there was something about the shock of it?
Something about this situation annoyed me. Was I annoyed at him, or myself? Was he being smug? Somehow, he had the upper hand.