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Awakening

Co-post with Eftemie
She heard the soft chiming of bells and the sound of water falling gently over the stones. A stream...a small creek even.

Opening her eyes, she found it to be neither that idyllic or magical. She was in her room, in her too small apartment. The sounds were from her water fountain...a large pottery bowl with brass bells that floated about a center dais that spouted water. When the brass bells chimed gently against the dais, there were resultant and various levels of sound generated.

She would have preferred the stream and the outdoors. The bells the chime of the wind as it passed through the trees.

Instead what awaited her was another drugery filled day. Another workday...another 11 hours spent toiling to merely exist. A lackluster existence, slavery to a weekly wage. How she wished she needen't subsist so...

But she did. Nothing would change that. As all others were...save the most fortunate, so was she. An ant. A worker bee. A plebian.

What would it be like to flitter as a nymph through the forests? To live in a cycle of total nature? To be in a position where daily drudgery gave way to actual living...as opposed to carving out a simple and unadorned grind?

At least she still had the ability to dream for such a thing...

"You're late again, Effie." opening the door with a slight grin, she waved her in. "I cleaned up the floor, try not to trip over your own feet, and watch the kitties, okay?"

She hadn't yet put the tea on, knowing that it would be cold or boiled empty before the other girl made it. So she flipped the switch on now and waited for the water to heat up.

"How do you want your tea? There's also some fresh bread I made. You should try it, it's really good."

"exciting?" She gave a small an unhappy laugh. "Nothing exciting ever happens. You know that. Day in, day out, its all the same thing over and over again. Except when something bad happens....that's the only difference."

Turning off the water, she poured the tea and then rooted out the honey from the fridge.

"Nothing changes, it just gets more, and more monotonous as time goes on."

"Exciting?" she asked. "You're like a train wreck waiting to happen. And Im not sure I mean that in an entirely GOOD way either."

There was a slight quirk to her lip as she said it though. Perhaps it would be as easy as that. A night out, away from the humdrum and noise and sounds...maybe that simple.

Was anything that simple?

Never.

Still, she was hesitant to deny her friend. Eftemie was a distraction, if little else sometimes.

"...all right. But I get to make the popcorn. You scorch it."

"Sure." she murmurred. "Just like that."

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Justification

Co-post with Harmodious

She tossed and turned on the piled up blankets on the floor. Eftemie had offered her the couch, but she had disdained the offer, preferring the nest she had built of blankets and pillows. In a way, it was a security response...a last shout for novelty in an otherwise doldrum week.

Even these small deviations could sometimes provide relief from the crushing monotony. Sometimes they didnt...

Like now.

Tossing again, staring at the ceiling, then the floor, then the wall... she sighed softly.

She wasn't sure when she fell asleep...surely not much later....

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The crackle of fire and faint smell of smoke caused her to open her eyes. Immediately, however; they were closed again to re-open in a rather nonplussed fashion.

The plush seating beneath her was certainly no floor...nor was this Eftemie's house. Staring for a moment at the fire, the hearth, the wide and spacious room...she did the only thing she could think of.

She pinched herself.

And nothing happened.

Turning, she walked carefully around the ringed chairs, pacing the room, cross-sectioning it physically and in her mind both. Where WAS this? She didn't dare call out...not just yet. A door would suit her needs well. A door that lead outside and gave a hint of her location.

Turning back, she jumped, nearly stumbled and just caught herself before a rather graceless fall. Grabbing at what remained of her dignity, she squeaked out "hello."

"N-nooo." she negated, with an abrupt shake of her head that sent her bangs afly. "Where did you come from? I didn't see anyone here when I woke up." she narrowed her eyes. "I did wake up, didn't I? I don't think even scorched popcorn would have had me dreaming of strange...men...sorta...laying on a couch in front of a warm fire."

She frowned at him, tooth tugging her lower lip. "So you are a dream?" she took the mug, feeling how warm it was. "Does that make me a pervert then?"