The Dreamers Forest

Chapter 1. Seeking colors.

When I was little, I dreamt of colors. I dreamt of bright lights that colored in the skies as the warmth of what I later knew as the sun sets. I dreamt something called grass as is swayed in the early morning with droplets of water that seemed to cover it despite it never seeming to rain. When I told my parents they looked at each other with a look I, being the naive 6 year old I was, could not decipher. They told me that those "colors" as I called them were legends, myths even. They asked me where I heard about such a story. I smiled and said in a innocent voice that almost suggested they asked a dumb question.


"The man that visits me when I dream, but I dont think he's just a dream mommy. He even held my hand and took me deeper in the forest!" She looked at me funny. I gave her a look of confusion, as if I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that my mom wouldn't believe me. It made perfect sense to me! Why didn't it make sense to her?


"Hun, there are no forests. There's nothing beyond the walls anymore. Decayed buildings? Maybe... but forests? They existed a long, long time ago. Not anymore." She brushed a stray wisp of my hair back behind my ear, fallowed the path my braid created on my shoulder, and kissed my forehead. I never spoke about it again. I was too embarrassed about not being believed. The colors haunted me. They were so far out of reach and the man in my dream continued to lead me through forest after forest taking paths only he could see. He would talk about something called a flavor even taught me what the different colors were called. When I was 16, I got the courage to ask 2 questions that had sought out my mind many times. They had always seemed forbidden, but the curiosity was so blaring in my mind it forced me to act. I had dreamt and like every other day he took me by the hand and led me from the tree stump I had always awoken on to the newly formed oranges and yellows on the trees. It seemed to become what was called autumn faster this year. With a slight chill in the air, I looked to him and tugged on his hand. He froze and looked back on me with panic stricken on his face. I took a deep breath to gather every bit of strength I had in me and crossed the forbidden wall.

"What is your name, and why do I get the feeling you aren't just a recurring dream?" He stared at me for a moment too long with a sorrowful face. Like he was trying to memorise every flaw and every strand of hair. Like he was preparing to say good bye for a long time. It broke my heart. He took a deep breath, just as I had before and steeled his look strengthening the look of resolve on his face. He looked down to the forest floor and said:


"My name is Jace Killian and I'm not a dream. I won't contact you after today, until the time comes for you to learn the truth. Alana, you are like a daughter to me.." he paused and shifted nervously looking around as if the trees would tell the secret he was going to let me in on.


"So, I must warn you. Don't mention me. Don't even look down or worried. I know you. You are an open book. Hide everything the best you can. I'm sorry for your future. I'm sorry what you're going to go through. I will see you again when the time is right. Good bye, Alana Aryan James Taylor. Please, for my sanity, endure with everything you have." By the end of his speech I was crying and so was he. Weather out of fear, concern, or for the loss I had just experienced I had no idea.. He had walked off. Out of the forest, which I had come to known as my safe spot. I crumpled on the floor and cried until I awoke in my bed. With eyes that were blood shot and a heavy heart as I looked in the mirror and practice smiling. I would need the practice according to Jace.

That was 2 years ago. I am 18 and I havent seen Jace killian in 2 years. I missed him more each day. He was more of a father than my own father ever was. I missed the color of the trees and the breeze that felt cool on my skin. I had never felt a draft before I met Jace and I often woke up with the same heavy heart I had when he left me heart broken in the forest and a longing for the grass sprinkled with droplets of water and a sky that melted every morning and night.

Today, I was condemned to the worst part of this society I grew up in. The distaste I felt hit so hard I faltered in stride the moment I stepped into the assignment room that was littered with boys and girls my own age in an overly frilly gown that matched every girl in the room. The room where everyone over the age of 18 gets a partner, a job, and assigned an age the counselors dean appropriate for your mental status to handle a child that will be handed to you already named and already few months old.