Hiril’s Dreams by Nienna

Chapter 1

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Hiril walked over to the window and opened the curtains wide, so that the first hints of sunlight would wake her early the next morning. She went to bed, and soon fell into a deep sleep.

It was dark. She smelled something strange, although she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. It was musty, but with a hint of growth underneath, like something wild had been covered with a thick layer of mold and decay.

She followed it, until suddenly she tripped over a plant from which the smell seemed to be emanating. The ground was rough beneath her hands. She had the sudden realization that she was underground. Deep underground. That would explain the lack of light after all. She got up and cautiously, continued walking.

As she walked she heard an echoing kind of music, and finally she found it’s source. It was a waterfall, deep underground, and with it came a little bit of light. She heard it rushing now, other sounds having subsided with proximity, and with the daring that is only found in dreams, she jumped in and was carried down, down, down, and spun around at high speeds.

After the waters calmed a little, she opened her eyes, and was astonished by the breadth of beauty that she saw. There was color, in sharp contrast to the dreary cave and so much depth she could not see the bottom. There were fish that she had never seen swimming out of cracks.

The water seemed to be getting... brighter. And brighter still until it seemed for a moment half there, suspended in smoke. Her body was caught between two worlds, wavering. Then the moment passed and she was most decidedly awake.

Hiril opened her eyes in amazement at what she had just experienced. It had a felt so real. It was real,or at least, if it was not, it was an entirely different dimension of un-reality than any of her previous imaginings.

She walked into the kitchen and, seeing as no one else was awake, fixed herself a cup of water and then continued on to the chickens.

It was a bright morning, the grass still wet with dew. The trees were mostly bare, but with a few patches of leaves starting to peek through, so that as she walked through the woods the sun streamed in and yet left irregular shadows along the ground.

It was her job to collect the eggs early each morning so that Mother has enough time to prep her part in the communal breakfast. When Hiril was younger she would protest the task, but it was, as Mother was fond of saying, “simply your part of being in the Chieftain’s family that you must accept. Other children have far more chores than you do, you know...”

But over time she’d grown to like the long walk and the time for reflection it gave her. She was especially grateful now for the chance to look back on her dream with the hindsight of waking awareness. It seemed to be important somehow, she felt deep down that it must be, but what it meant she could not yet say.