Wild Avalon

30

I was not familiar with this side of town. I was still following the same Raven. I was getting close to not being able to keep going. I needed to stop. To eat something really soon. I heard something unnatural hit the sidewalk. I was on a residential street. Narrow townhomes and duplexes lined street after street. 

I stopped running. Looking for what had fallen. It was a set of keys with several key card fobs attached. A raven called as I picked up the keyring. It had fallen on a walkway to a townhome that had a for sale sign stuck in the tiny square of front lawn. I went up the path. The keys didn’t fit the lock. One of the security fobs unlocked the realtor box around the door knob. Another set of keys falling on the front step. I picked up the much scantier set of keys. Only two silver keys on the ring. The second one unlocked the deadbolt on the town home.

I quickly slipped inside. Locking both the door knob and deadbolt. Stopping in the powder room just off the front porch to pee. The near liter of coke I had drank at the diner had been sitting heavy in my bladder for far too long already. On shaking unsteady legs I stumbled to the kitching. Slumping against the cupboard in front of the sink after flipping the faucet on to its coldest setting, and grabbing the hose attachment. Spraying water directly onto my face and in my mouth to drink. I mopped up the mess as best I could with the handful of kitchen towels in the lightly staged home. I opened the fridge. There was bottled water, and several packs of pillsbury cookies. I stood on legs that were weak and would hurt for days. There was a note on the counter. 

Sharon, cook the fucking cookies before the showing this time. Make sure the place is spotless. Buy some god damn flowers and rent a room for tonight. This one needs to fucking sell.
X Rich.

 A credit card, tucked inside the note. “Think there is anywhere that will let me use this?” I asked Hilda. ‘I’m willing to try and run fast the first sign of an issue if you are.’ I nodded grabbing two packages of the cookies.

I went to the glass flat top stove. Pushing the buttons to set the bake temperature. There was one sheet pan. Already in the oven. The outline of burnt cookies etched in the metal. I spread out the cookie dough. There wasn’t enough room for this many cookies. It was going to all merge together into one monster cookie. The small oven heated up quickly. I threw the cookies in, set the timer and ran upstairs, checking a closet and a bedroom before I found a bathroom with a shower. 

There was a single bottle of open men’s body wash still in the shower. I hopped in before the water had finished heating up. Washing my entire body as quickly as I could. Feeling as the detergents in the body wash roughed my hair up in water that smelled strongly of chlorine.  A decorative set of stiff towels on a wall rack were the only options to dry myself. I checked all the bedrooms. Tucked under the fake bed in the master bedroom, there was a small suitcase. I opened it to reveal a few days worth of womens wear. I borrowed a pair of clean underwear and socks. There was a black body con dress that looked like it might fit me well enough. The shoes in the bag were several sizes too big for me though. 

I went braless, the woman I was stealing from had a much larger chest than I did. The dress was a little large on me, and with my combat boots maybe I could make it feel like style instead of desperate. I heard my timer beep. Running down the stairs in my socks. I could smell the baked cookies in the air. Heavenly caramelized sugar and vanilla. I opened the oven. The edges of the franken cookie monster were a nice crisp brown color. The very middle of the sheet pan looked barely cooked. It was perfect. 

I started to dig in. I knew this wasn’t the meal my body needed. I needed anything other than more sugar. When you can’t have what you need, accept what you have. I ate the entire sheet pan of cookies. I was clean. In clean clothes, and full. I grabbed my boots and laid down on the couch. I needed to sleep. While also being ready to run. 

I slept with my boots on my chest. Knowing I would never sleep if I couldn’t wiggle my toes. It was bad enough I kept the socks on. It was almost shocking how quickly I fell asleep. Every part of my body, mind and soul was exhausted. 

It felt like I hadn’t even closed my eyes when they opened and I was standing in Rama’s garden. I was wearing the outfit I had gone to sleep in. Except the boots were on my feet in my dream. I looked around. I seemed to be alone. Which was disappointing.

I turned around one more time and almost spun into Rama’s chest. He was still dressed in his out of time kingly clothes. The quilted fabric and exaggerated shoulders made his body look even more godly than I knew he was underneath the clothes. He was a mountain. One I wanted to climb naked.

I could smell him. I could see him. I could feel the earth that was underneath my boots. This was too real. “Where am I?” This wasn’t a dream. I was worried this was another trap.

“We are in your dreams Avalon. I am dream walking to be with you.” Rama said. Offering me his hand, so we could walk in my dream gardens like we had at his castle. I accepted. Wanting to relive a happy memory. We walked in silence. 

“Why didn’t it work? I was holding her hand?” I asked Rama. I had felt so close to success, I had teleported back. Why didn’t my mom come with me that first time.

“You are my link to the outside. The ravens and crows can help me if they choose. You are my tether, my mate, my world Avalon. I could take you, you could take something you already had. The door between you and your mother was still locked. She could not follow the magic.” Rama said. It was my fault. If I had of broken the door first, then called for him, mom and I might be sitting in his castle, the three of us having dinner in the impossibly large dining room.

“Or your mother was already gone before you arrived, and my magic would not allow what has taken residence in her body to follow you to my realm.” Rama added. A finger under my chin to make me look at him directly. So gentle was his touch as he whispered, “This was not your fault Avalon. You were courageous. You have the true heart of a warrior.” Rama’s voice colored with pride. 

His pride, his adoration. It only made my heart hurt more. “Why can’t I come back?” I needed to know. Still unsure if this was a dream or real. Either way I wanted to know the answer I would be given.

“I hold the gate. I rule over the space between planes. Those who can not find their place in their worlds, find their way to me. Sometimes, my domain is found by accident. Usually a near fatal event in the right place triggers the meeting.” He looked at me knowingly.

“The flood." I whispered. Remembering being sure I was going to drown. " I almost died that night.” Rama nodded. 

“You reached the edge of life and death. Death could have taken you. She refused and so you ended up in my realm. Where Rutherford found you.” I heard a voice, one I didn’t know start swearing as she fumbled at the door. Waking me from my uneasy sleep. Taking me away from Rama again. I clutched my boots and ran for the back door. Just as the realtor found the key copy on her physical ring unlocking the door. I had fully intended to clean up after myself entirely after my nap. I didn’t have time. I also didn’t mean to steal the credit card, I had planned to just go out and quickly buy a few essentials and leave it on the counter. 

The realtor arriving when she did, meant I instead grabbed it on my way to the backdoor. Jumping the fence and taking off at a run in my socks until I felt I had put enough distance between me and the house to pause long enough to put my boots on my feet. Sitting down on the steps of an apartment building just long enough to tie the laces before I took off again.

**Less than ten chapters left!  Then I'll work on finishing Song of the Sea and I just started teasing details out for a new simple, very smutty reverse harem story. Thanks for reading. Anyone have a name suggestion for the reverse harem heroine?? **