Dreamwalking

Chapter 6: Back to Earth

      Delinda walked slowly toward the Barrier. Her legs didn’t seem to want to carry her away from Dallan. But she couldn’t stay. She still had a job to do, no matter how much it hurt. She kept walking.

       As she drew near the Barrier, she could see a figure standing next to it. The closer she got, the more she recognized the person waiting for her. She ran the last few yards and hugged the man standing there.

       “Gur—Gar—um…Hi!” 

       “Yeah, hi, it’s…me…Gur-Gar-um…apparently,” he said, smiling.

       She hugged him again. “No! I just can’t say your name here, because you’ll be trapped. What are you doing here?”

       “Oh, I fell asleep waiting for you to come back to camp. And here I am.” He returned her hug.

       Delinda frowned. “Have you been here before?”

       Gurion looked thoughtful for a moment. “I don’t think so. I’ve had strange dreams before, but nothing like this.” He gestured around him at the strange, gray and brown landscape.

       “How far from this have you gone?” She indicated the swirling silver Barrier.

       “I only turned around and looked. Then I saw you coming. So just here.”

       Delinda nodded. “Good. I’m headed back. It’s dangerous here, for the living. You could get trapped, conscripted, waylaid…raped. You should go back, too.”

          He nodded in his turn and asked, “How?”

       Delinda chuckled. “You just step through that.” She pointed at the Barrier again.

      He made to step through the Barrier, but then he turned and asked, “Conscripted? Raped?”

       Delinda shook her head. “I’ll explain later. On the other side.” And as he gave her a raised eyebrow, she said, “I promise, Gur…” She paused and put a hand to her forehead. “Here we go again. Look, I will explain, I promise, but we need to get back now.”

       Gurion nodded and stepped through the Barrier with no further questions.

       Delinda looked around, to be sure no one was around to follow her, and then she stepped through the Barrier as well. This was the hard part—enduring the blurred, confused, and fragmented images her brain conjured as she was moving back into her earthly body. At least it passed quickly…

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       Dara awoke on the ground, and sat up quickly. Her mouth was dry. How long had she been dreamwalking? She took a few deep breaths. Then she made her way to the river, but she didn’t drink. There were too many diseases she could contract from drinking unpurified river water. She felt her pockets, and was grateful to find a tube of lip balm, which she applied liberally to her parched lips.

       In her other pocket, she found the scroll the General had given her. She shoved it back in her pocket and looked around. She wasn’t far from a flowing well, so she headed for that first, trudging through dead leaves and fallen branches.

       Mentally blessing whoever had the idea of piping it to this park; Dara cupped both hands, fingers held tightly together, and held them under the running water. It was clear and cold, flowing down out of the mountains and through the pipes. She drank deeply, shivering as the icy water flowed into her stomach.

       She heard a step behind her, but showed no awareness until whomever it was got close enough. Then she whirled around, bent her knees to spring, and brought her fists in front of her defensively. She dropped them just as suddenly when she saw who it was.

              She straightened and relaxed. “Trying to sneak up on me, Garreth?”

       “No, I just woke up from a very weird dream, and you weren’t back yet. Camp is just over there, so I was looking for you.”

       She laughed. “Relax, I was teasing. Come on, let’s go back to camp. We can build a fire and…roast marshmallows or something.”

       “And talk?”

       She nodded and headed in the direction of their camp. “And talk. I have some things to tell you, and I want to know about your dream.”