Just a Dream

Walk | Talk | Think
 
Adjusting to her new accommodations had proven to be difficult. The den beside the lake was comfy, cozy even despite sharing the space with Maximous since it was his to begin with, but still everything felt off. It was noisy there beside the water, ripples heard regularly while the splashes were more random though no less distracting. Insects were starting to make their return with the warming of the seasons, and though their noises were still quiet the rational thinking Callisto knew it was only a matter of time before their buzz became a drone outside the den's doorway. And then though she had been unable to bring herself to suggest Max sleep somewhere else - though a part of her had wanted to since she was unused to sharing space - there was the soft sounds of him sleeping within the den with her. Needless to say, falling asleep had taken a while. 

But staying asleep, more in importantly keeping within a restful sleep, was worse. Her thoughts, as they often did when she was alone and in the quiet since leaving the metallic ship and her months there behind, wound back to the demon who haunted her and the spawn he had taken from her. She had never wanted any of it, not to be taken by Lel, not to carry his brats, not to care for them as long as she had. It had all been forced on her, demanded of her, and she had not been given a choice. And yet in her dreams she worried. She fretted over the children that she had left behind, and her paws carried her over snowy terrain as she searched for the ship they had been born in, desperate just for a peek, just to see that they were there. That was all she needed, and then she could go back and try to forget about them again. 

The snow in her dream felt thick and yet soft, making her long grey legs clumsy as they tried to hurriedly bring her to the ship before Lel would know she had returned. Her eyes stared forward, searching, but through the snowstorm she suddenly found herself in it was hard to see and keep her bearings. Resolution pushed her forward, determination driving her to find that place where she knew they would be, but she felt so turned around, wandering in circles inside a swirling mess of darkness and snow. And the presence that she could feel without seeing, the one that she recognized as her own personal demon, followed her progress like a shadow, just out of sight but close enough to feel and sense. She had to get there fast, before he caught up to her, before he could catch her and claim her again. 

With a start, Callisto scared herself into wakefulness, her blue eyes more silver in the pale light as she lifted her head up off the floor of the den, her body tensed as if ready to run as she had in her dream and her breathing quick as if she already had.