Free Verse #6: Puppeteer of Soldiers

Puppeteer of soldiers
I am disturbed.
Gone is free will
Because of the choice to have no free will.
You are a puppeteer of soldiers.
I am disturbed.

I am a disturbed young woman.
I am the disturbance you feel as you tell them to fire.
Because,
As you look at me,
You can see that I am a disturbed young woman,
Walking toward your puppet soldiers.

Little do you know,
They can see that I am a disturbance.
They can see that tiny hesitation.
And it makes them hesitate.
Your puppet soldiers,
Puppeteer of soldiers,
Have hesitated despite you.

And I am the disturbance
Growing stronger.
Cutting puppet strings.
Ripping puppet minds.
Destroying puppet faces.
Walking toward the puppets and the puppeteer.
And when you shoot me,
Because you will shoot me,
They will drop their guns.

Because they are no longer puppets.
So shoot me.

Free Verse: Harvest

We have sown the seeds
We have watched these fields
For many years
We have tended these fields.
We have worked the ground
The course clay
The sands
The dirt.
We have been through all of it.
We have sown all of it.

We have sown the seeds
Through the minds of the masses
The fields of the masses
The fields of imagination.
We have watched these fields
Worked these fields.

Soon, we will come to the harvest
Soon, we will see the wonders of the thoughts we have sown.

The Journey of a Lion: Chapter One

Withta nestled in at her nursemaids teats with her brothers and sister, squeaking and rolling about until she grabbed hold. Somewhere in the outer realms the Uprights were clanging around and banging things, but she hardly noticed. Her parents and older siblings and nursemaid and, well, everyone, had told her that they were always noisy. She had gotten used to it.

After a few minutes of drinking she felt as though she might burst, so she lay down with her brother, Whistar. They cuddled together in the luxurious nest that had been created as a sort of getaway space for members of the royal family. All around them the fruits of late night raids were spread out to be eaten at leisure. It took only a moment for Withta to fall into a half sleep and she no longer noticed her surroundings, only the thump of her brother's heart. Tha-thump tha-thump tha-thump tha-thump tha- CRASH!!!

Bright light streaked into the haven and a silhouette loomed above them. Withta could feel her heart and her brother's beating rapidly, her breath coming in shallow spurts. Their nursemaid had sprung up as soon as the crash sounded, scampering away with Wathna and Wuther still attached to her. Whiddur fell off as she leaped and was laying beside them, staying as still as possible, just like they had been taught, just like their instincts told them to be.

The Upright, a massive creature with a hairy face and an enormous body, examined them for a moment and Withta was certain that it would scoop them up with one of those giant hands and pop them like grain into its gaping mouth. It seemed like hours before it finally moved away from the opening, but still the three of them couldn't move. Then it returned and really did scoop them up. But it didn't eat them, as she had feared. Instead, it dropped them into a container where they lay, shivering with fear and adrenaline.

She had the sensation of being forced downward, into the bottom of the thing, and when she looked up ever so slightly, everything seemed to get shorter. The Upright focused its eyes, which were probably bigger then herself, on the siblings and made some sort of rumbling noise. It scared her so much that she whimpered quietly, clinging to Whistar and Whiddur.

Then they were moving and the world passed by them faster than anything she could have imagined. She had watched the fighters in the yards racing back and forth, building up their strength for the raids, but even they weren't as fast as this. They were set down somewhere and the Upright left again. She took a moment to shut her eyes and resolved not to open them again until her brothers shifted. Soon, she fell into a light sleep, comforted by their familiarity. They were lifted again, after a while, and sll three of them tensed up, but Withta left her eyes clamped shut. Above her, she cold hear the grumblings of Uprights, she thought three of them, and Whistar was lifted from her. She opened her eyes to see her brother moving through the air into the hand of a different Upright. This one had less hair than the first and seemed to be somewhat smaller. Then Whiddur was lifted away from her and put into a different container. She could see him through the clear walls of it, nestled uncomfortably between the wall and whatever was inside of it.

Then she felt her tail being lifted and was suddenly up in the air. The Upright who had her was murmuring something at her and quickly put her into the container with her brother. They nestled together, hoping that they would put Whistar in with them. Eventually they did, but he ended up on the other side of the container. Withta smelled his fear and realized that it was less than her own. She wondered what the Uprights had done to him, to make him less afraid, or if he was just naturally more brave than she.

Outside, the creatures were still grumbling and moving about and after a long while their container was picked up again and they were carried. She looked up and saw that it was the second Upright, this time, and that it was taking them out over the open green space that their nursemaid told them about in legends and stories. They were all still for the length of that journey, until the Upright set them down, grumbled something, and walked away. After a few minutes, they cuddled up together and shivered as one.

~*+*~

Ilsta, who had been nursemaid for the royal family for three generations and was reputedly unshakable, was in an unheard of panic as she scurried into the throne room. The king and queen were conversing with courtiers and other noble mice, settling disputes and hearing pleas. But all conversation stopped as she squeaked to a stop, breathing hard and chattering rapidly.

"...and then it was looming over us and I ran away and now three of the little ones are lost and..." Deep breath. "...we're never going to see them ever again!" The maid collapsed on the floor in heaving sobs.

"Ilsta!" the queen cried, rushing down to the nurse. "Ilsta, what on earth are you babbling about? I couldn't understand a word you said. Something about the children? Was that it?"

"Yes! Yes! A giant Upright has stolen them away!" There was a shocked silence in which no one even seemed to breathe except the distraught Ilsta. Then, all at once, the room erupted in noise as people began to understand what had happened. The king began calling out for a search team to check all the hiding places that the children had been shown and the queen consoled the various noblemice who were sobbing along with the nursemaid. Eventually she managed to find out that Wuther and Withna were both safe in their beds there at the palace but that Whiddur, Withta and Whistar, the crown prince, had all been left behind in her panic.

"I'll never be forgiven for leaving them behind!" the maid wailed. "I'll be damned forever, and if I'm not I'll be disappointed in the justice system! I can never be forgiven!" The queen, being a kindly mouse who loved easily, naturally forgave her immediately, knowing that she may never have gotten away with even two of her precious children. But still, a terrible blankness filled her heart where her three babies used to reside.

All throughout that day parties were sent out, again and again, searching for any sign that the crown prince and his siblings had survived. One scout eventually came back with some vague information about an Upright walking across the green spaces with a jar.

"I'm not completely certain," the young mouse said, "but the princes and princess may have been inside. At least, I think I might have seen one of them stick their head up. I can't be certain, of course, and there's still hope that..." He trailed off, waiting for the king's reply. King Yustaf was becoming an elderly mouse. He knew that soon enough someone would be succeeding him on the throne and he had hoped that it would be Whistar. The young mouse was bright and quick to learn and promised to be quite strong. And he was blessed with a mark upon his face, the white star for which he was named. It was seen as a sign upon his birth that he should be the next in line. After all, all the males from earlier litters had either died, left or become Lunatics. Wistar, being the eldest of the youngest and marked in such a peculiar way, was the obvious choice for kingship. Yustaf sighed.

"Thank you, Orille, you said your name was?" The scout nodded. "Thank you, Orille. The news that you've brought, though grave, indeed, will be a help to us. The most we can do, now, is to hope for the safe return of my children and post watches at all the entrances." He sighed again. "You may continue with whatever duties you must attend to. Thank you." The scout bowed and left the throne room, leaving the older mouse alone. After a moment, Yustaf called for his attendant and asked for a quill and paper. He wrote four letters, one to his military general, one to the High Priest of the church and one to a professor at the university. Those first three were summons to a council to discuss what should be done. The last one he addressed to the crier council, so the news of the kidnapping would be spread around the city.

He sighed again, and left the throne room to see the two young ones who had survived.

Dream Sight: Prologue

Ba-bump.









...Ba-bump.








Ba-bump.
Ba-bump.
Ba-bump.

My drowsy night thoughts suddenly sprang into action at this new sensation, whatever it was.

Ba-bump.

Something in the very core of me pulsed and I honed all my consciousness in on it. There was something taking form in the middle of my trunk. Then, almost against my will (because how could a tree will itself to do this?) my branches moved and my roots writhed in the dirt. Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bumpba-bumpba-bump. The pulse increased and my sap and liquids were caught up in it, swirling through me. My limbs flailed about, twining together and taking on a new form. The changes were drastic, I knew that, yet somehow I wasn't afraid. Only curious. Until my sensations all changed. First came feeling.

One moment I sensed my roots in the dirt, I was vaguely aware of the wind through my leaves, the next I felt them. A worm wriggled over my rapidly shortening roots, leaving a small amount of slime behind it. A small breeze blew through the meadow, pushing my now thin upper boughs in a tangle.

I panicked, for a small moment, as that change occurred, but soon got control of myself. Only to be overwhelmed by the combined senses of taste and smell. I sell-tasted the old trees that surrounded the small grove where I grew, the water that flowed through the nearby stream, all the wildlife that surrounded me in the forest. I found myself breathing, an act that was sort of like the breathing I did with my leaves, of which I only had a few left at that point. As I breathed, more smells and tastes found their way into me. I breathed steadily, telling myself that it wasn't so different, that perhaps the changes would stop there and I could go back to being docile with night. Not so. Instead I was suddenly more acutely aware of the thumping from my middle.

Then I was completely taken over by a wave of sounds. I heard the breeze across my newly founded ear canals, the stream through the trees, burbling like a hundred voices. And, oddest of all, I heard the sound of real voices chanting. At first I couldn't make sense of it, but gradually I grew more accustomed to hearing and I began to discern individual sounds.

Then I had the sensation of blackness in front of me, which, truth be told, wasn't actually as overwhelming as the sensation of having a front. My new senses soon dulled down, allowing me to experience the world without being blown apart, and I calmed myself by taking deep breaths. I didn't know exactly why this calmed me, but it did, so I kept doing it. My branches were still moving around of their own free will, but they had slowed down considerably in comparison to the beginning.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they settled down beside me, pointing in exactly the wrong direction. The thumping settled to a regular, steady pace and I continued breathing. In the back of my mind I realized that the chanting had stopped and I wondered, albeit briefly, about that. Moments passed.

"Open your eyes, cousin," I heard. I wondered about that, too, and suddenly the blackness in front of me lifted and I saw. Thankfully, it was the middle of the night, so there wasn't much to see, otherwise I might have screamed from over-loaded senses. As it was, I opened my eyes to see a dark, purple sky above me, speckled with the first stars of the evening. The sky faded away into deep, impending midnight in front of me and a radiant mix of gold and red behind me where the sun was falling behind the trees. I dropped my head, seeing the top edge of the moon peeking above the forest, a pale and delicate sliver that was a day away from being new.

I lowered it further and saw three figures standing before me, three young women. I instinctively felt a deep connection to them, a bond of family that made the thumping in me a little stronger. The one to my right was of medium height with deeply golden hair the color of wheat under the midday sun. She had bright blue eyes and evenly tanned skin. She smiled radiantly at me as I swept my eyes over them. The middle one was the tallest of the three. She had white hair, a delicately pale complexion and gray eyes. Right from the start she reminded me of the sensation of early morning that I had felt as a tree. She, too, smiled at me, though I could see worry and shock in her eyes and wondered why. The third came up to the middle's waist and had a shock of red hair, chocolate colored skin and deep green eyes. She wasn't smiling, but her eyes didn't contain the emotions of the taller, either. looking at the three of them inspired me to look at myself, to see how far I had changed.

I looked down at the ground, somehow lifting my branches in the process without realizing it. Only they weren't branches. Instead, they were ivory white arms. And below them, thrust into the ground, were pale legs. And above those was my torso, which was so pale it practically glowed in the faint moonlight. Hanging in front of my face was a strand of hair that was blacker than pitch, blacker than the sky in front of me. I ran my hands through my new hair, examining the various shades. Sometimes it seemed completely black, at others it was tinged with red and purple to match the sky. I looked up at the three women waiting for me after a moment of thorough examination and saw the looks of amusement that passed over their faces. I grinned, testing out my lips and jaw.

"Welcome, blessed cousin," the tallest intoned. "My name is Famella. I am the morning child, here to welcome you to our family."

"Welcome, dearest relation," the one with gold hair chanted. "My name is Sranti. I am the noon child, here to welcome you to our family."

"Welcome, newest child," the short one whispered. "My name is Palu. I am the afternoon child, here to welcome you to our family."

"What is your name?" they asked as one. Sudden understanding flashed through my mind, along with a single word.

"Drez. My name is Drez, the dusk child." They looked puzzled, but continued with the ritual.

"Welcome, Drez. We open our hearts and minds to you." They all smiled then.

"Come along, young cousin," Famella said. "We're happy you've come to join us." And with that they helped me to climb from the dirt and led me to the village.

On the far side of the forest, an old woman, the Eldest, woke from her trance. All day she had waited for the birth of the newest Dryad. All day she had been tapped in to the expanding worry of the whole community. Not for thousands of years had a child been born later than mid afternoon. Never before had a child been born as the moon rose. Never before had a child been born this close to the new moon.

Never before had a child been born with the totem of this child. Nor with the destiny.

Poem#2: The Coming of the Snows

There are no flowers in my garden now.
They’ve wilted with the coming of the snow.
Their petals lie upon the freezing ground.
They wait for spring so they, again, can grow.

Blue irises stand covered in white frost
And marigolds are curled and turning brown.
Their colors fade and soon they will be lost.
No life streaks through the flower’s once bright crown.

Leaves shrivel, curl and fall in barren waste
As stems grow brittle, bent in submission.
For us this death is nothing but a taste
Of winter’s cold, hard and deadly lesson.

But look how delicate the petals are
Encapsulated in a lay’r of ice.
Their beauty is that of a dying star.
Fading, they try the winter to entice.

Free Verse#4: We DO Love You, Boredom, Truly!

Bored.
Bored.
I’m bored.
What is there to do?
Walk into the kitchen.
Open fridge…Close fridge.
Look around for a minute.
Walk out.
Stand in the living room.
Sigh.
Sit down on the couch.
Get back up.
Go to the bathroom.
Look in the mirror for a minute.
Hair is a mess.
Should I fix it?
Nah, I’m at home.
Sigh.
Walk back into the living room.
Sigh.
Sit down at the computer.
Music. Ooh, Sun is Shining.
Good song.
Listen…Change song.
Something harder. Rock out for a minute…
Change song.
Sigh.
Facebook?
Well, I don’t really want to…
I click on Facebook.
Nothing going on.
A bunch of people that I don’t really want to talk to
Because I don’t actually know most of them.
Bored.
Status: Bored.
Damn.
Go to my e-mail…Nothing.
Back to Facebook.
No change.
Music changes. Rock out…
Change song, again.
It’s late, eleven thirty.
I’m not tired yet.
Uneventful day. Boring. Not tiring at all.
Except mentally.
Turn off computer.
Continue sitting at computer.
Sigh.
Get up and go to the bathroom.
Brush teeth.
Look in the mirror.
Hair still a mess.
Pull on it a little, no change.
Sigh.
Walk back out.
Enter kitchen. Look in the fridge.
Nothing has magically appeared yet.
Close fridge.
Tea? Okay.
Water in pot. On stove. Element on high.
Hmm, what kind?
Milk thistle,
Chamomile,
Peppermint?
Mate.
With chai?
Why not. Pull out chai mixture.
Silently thank the older brother
For leaving it with me.
Pull out cloves, cardamom, fennel.
Crush.
Add to mate.
Water boiling.
Fill.
Drink.
…
…
…Still bored.
Go to computer.
Sit.
Sigh.
Open up Microsoft word.
Sit.
Sigh.
…
…Sudden inspiration!
I write this.

Poem#1: Communicate

“So what do you think?”
He asked me that night
I looked and replied
“Well, I think you’re alright.”


“That’s not what I meant
And you know very well
I asked what you think
Not if I’m doing well.”

I thought for a time
And said “I don’t see
That the question you’ve asked
Has relevance to me.”

He said with a grin
“But I’m sure that it does
As the question I’ve asked
Is about your own thoughts.”

I did not understand,
Asked him to explain
And the answer he said
Caused my mind some pain.

“I ask how you feel
And the things on your mind
Not to invade thoughts
But to see what I find

For in finding things
I get to know you
And knowing you better
Is a good thing to do.

If there’s a dilemma
That you’d like to share
Just speak the words to me
And know that I care.

If you have no problems
Just tell me your thoughts.
Perhaps we have more
Common ground than we thought.

I’d just like to know you
Because you’re my friend.
I know we just met here,
But we’re bound to the end.”

At first I was shocked
By his open desires
And I closed my mind to
His good, friendly smiles.

But as we sat waiting
I pondered his speech
And found there were things
He could help me reach.

So I told him my thoughts
And he helped me find
Solutions to problems
I had in my mind.

That day he taught me
A valuable thing
A friend in a stranger
Is great as a king.

Free Verse#3: Free Verse

There’s something
Enticing
About writing a paragraph
That isn’t a paragraph.
Something
Freeing
About having no meter,
No rhyme,
No boundaries.

When you speak it
There are awkward
Spaces,
Lines that don’t
Quite match up.
But somehow,
They work,
In the greater scheme of things.
Perhaps, though,
Reading it is easier
Than speaking.

It’s not quite poetry
Not quite essay.
But it can be a story.
Anything can be a story
If you want it to.
Or,
It can be like this.
Fully without any relevance
To anything.
Unless you want it to be.

That’s free verse.
It’s free
Verse.
It doesn’t cost anything.
Except maybe
A few minutes of your time.
To read it.

Free Verse#2: Purity of Winter Snows

At first I hear nothing.
Silence, silence, so soft.
Then a patter
As the falling white alights on the fallen white.
A breeze makes a bit of snow fall from a branch.
Softly, muffled. So soft.
A bird, sparrow, chirps above me and behind.
Takes flight,
Wings pumping air.
Swish, swish.
Lands on a tree.
More powder falls to the ground.
Softly. Shlooth.
Crunch crunch.
I step forward a few paces.
Still. Crunch crunch.
Crisp snow.

The taste of the cold is there,
In the back of my throat.
Swirls across my tongue and lips.
Ahh. So clean.
I taste a snow flake on my tongue.
Sweetly pure water,
Falling
Sweetly.
I breathe deep and taste it.

There’s no smell though.
No smell through all that powder.
So pure.
You can imagine a smell, though.
Imagine what crisp smells like.
And clean.
What does snow smell like
In the back of my imagination?
So pure.
I breathe deep
To find the imaginary smells.

Another sparrow wings past,
Sending a breath of wind over my face.
Goosebumps.
The cold runs behind my ears,
Under my hat,
Into my veins.
Chilling, but not freezing.
I can feel the little crystals
Landing on my face
Melting
Cold dots of wet.
They sink into my skin.
Cold, pure.
My fingers open up and let the cold between them.
It races around,
Caressing.
My lips are wet with breathing.
Toes cold,
Even in my boots.
Body cold,
Even in my clothes.

And all around me is white.
Pure, clean, crystal, white.
It encapsulates everything.
All branches.
Leaves, not yet fallen.
Blankets the ground.
Snowdrift,
So crisp,
White,
Wind swept to crests.
The powder is falling from the sky,
Like small angels
Coming to Earth.
Then I notice the color.
Gray branches,
Beneath the snow.
Green needles on evergreens.
Looking up
Red berries dangling,
Frozen.
A sparrow,
All brown and gray.
More sparrows. They look at me,
Take flight, altogether.
Like one mind.

The branches reach out to me.
I take a hand,
Pull it to me.
Or me to it?
We come together,
Fingers running
Over skin.
Fingers running
Over ice.
Breathe deep, close eyes.
Feel. Feel.
A calm opens up in me.
I feel all the stillness
Of the trees holding me.
Hours pass. Stillness, time is not noticed.
Seconds pass, loooong seconds.

Open eyes with new knowledge.
Beauty surrounds.
So much beauty.
Delicate, delicate.
Like tiny lace coverings,
Blanketing everything.
There is a great stillness.
Not a sound.
Not a smell.
Only white
And the pale colors
To be seen.
I walk.

Free Verse#1: The Feel of Fall

Sound, sound. It surrounds me.
What is there to hear?
Tchik tchik tchik tchika tchik
That’s the leaves, you know.
Then there’s a great roar through the treetops.
I know because I can hear it.
Shlap shlap chuuushlap.
Newspaper?
A plastic bag. Well,
I suppose they sound about the same.
Then there’s my footsteps
The only even sound.
Until they…slow…and…
Stop.
Now there’s only the leaves, the trees.
And the plastic.

There’s cold from behind me,
Swishing over my skin,
Through my clothing.
Almost like arms, caressing. Or silk.
No,
It’s turned. it’s coming from the front now.
A leaf hits my leg and I can feel it
Through the fabric.
My hair is lifted from my shoulders,
Waving about in the air.
I feel it on my scalp, cold.
And what’s this? A dot of cold,
Wet, on my upturned lips. And another on my eye.
It runs, drips,
Ooover my face
And is blown off into the air.

And the smell, it’s almost…
Nonexistent. There, but so faint.
The smell of turning leaves,
Earthy, fragrant.
And there.
That clean scent before the world’s great cleaning.
And there’s the smell of the cold itself.
Crisp. Fresh. Ahhh.

You can taste it, too.
The cold.
It rests on your tongue, smooth,
While swirling through your mouth
And throat.
All the way to your stomach, if you let it.
The leaves are there with it
When you close your mouth.
You can taste their slow decay,
Sweet, sweet, earth.
I lick my lips and taste water on my tongue.

And there’s color.
All around. Red, green, yellow, brown leaves.
And all the brightness of the debris.
Gray sidewalks, street. Painted yellow lines.
I see them.
Movement as the trees sway,
The leaves tumble and float off of them.
Newspapers flap,
Feebly,
Against the tires
Of the truck they are pinned to.
A cat streaks across my path.

Only my path isn’t there.
How can it be when I’m not moving?
And all the world is fluttering around me.
Only my body doesn’t move.
Well, my hair raises.
And my arms are lifting
I think of their own accord.
They caress the air that streams by
Collect wetness in the palms.
But only a little.
My legs move me in a circle
Slowly
At first.
Then I pick up speed.
A laugh bubbles between my wet lips.

And suddenly I’m no longer me.
I live in the wind
And rain.
In all the cold that sweeps across me.
In all the leaves
Like partners in an intricate dance.
They touch me lightly on the arms, the legs, face.
So does the water.
Their spirit is me,
Ah, that beautiful spirit
With it’s brightness in the gray of the sky.

And suddenly it stops.
And I’m left
Breathing shallowly,
In the street.
The leaves twitch then fall motionless to the ground.
And the trees are still.
The roaring is no more.
The rain still falls,
Though heavier now.
It runs over my skin.
I walk again, a path before me,
Footsteps being covered by the patter of water
On the yellow painted lines.

Play #1: A Matter of Matter

SCENE:(Spot light up on PERSON1 in child's pose just left of center. Sits for a moment then goes into mountain.

PERSON 1: M (Goes back into child's pose then back to mountain) M. (Repeat several times)

Spot light up on PERSON2 on stage right in mountain. Moves to warrior as PERSON1 goes back into child's)

PERSON2: A (Goes back into mountain then into warrior.) A. (Repeat several times.)

(Spot light up on PERSON3 just right of center in warrior. Moves to triangle.)

PERSON3: T (Goes back to warrior then to triangle.) T (Repeat several times.)

(Spot light up on PERSON4 stage left in triangle. Moves to child's pose.)

PERSON4: R (Moves back to triangle then to child's pose.) R. (Repeat several times so all four letters are being said in succession with motions.)

P1: M

P2: A

P3: T

P4: R

ALL: M. A. T. R. M. A. T. R. M. A. T. R. M. A. T. T. E. R. Matter. Matter. Ma-

P1: Matter matters. (Continues between child's pose and mountain.)

P2: We feel matter, matter matters. (Continues between mountain and warrior.)

P3: Because we feel matter, matter matters. (Continues between warrior and triangle.)

(At this P4 stops moving halfway through the change so they are standing straight. The other three continue with the motions.)

P4: And if matter doesn't matter?

P1,2,3: Because we feel matter, matter matters.

P4: So what of non-matter? Not-matter? Anti-matter? Matter-less?

P1: I am matter.

P2: You are matter.

P3: We are matter.

P1,2,3: We are matter. Matter matters to us. Matter matters to all. All is matter.

P4: (After a thoughtful silence of watching the others move.) Matter only matters if you think that matter matters. So, if matter doesn't matter, what is matter?

P3: (Stopping motions and looking angry.) Matter matters. Matter matters. Matter. MATTERS. (P2 stops and joins in with P3. P1 stops as well.)

P1: Matter matters. Matter...matters? But how can matter-less matter?

P2,3: Matter. MATTERS! (Mumbling throughout the next lines.) Matter matters.

P4: Matter matters not.

P1: How is matter less?

P4: (After a short silence.) A dream. A dream of matter. A matter dream.

P1: Matter matters in the dream. We are matter of the dream. We are dreams of matter?

P4: Dreams of matter.

P2,3: MATTER MATTERS.

P4: Dreaming matter matters matter.

P2: I am matter.

P3: We are matter.

P1: Matter only dreams of matter. You are just a dream.

P4: (repeats throughout.) Just a dream, just a dream...

P2: (Starts repeating mantra.) Matter matters, matter matters...

P3: Matter matter matter MATTERS.

P1: Matter only matters if you think that matter matters.

P3: I feel matter, matter matters. I feel you, you are matter.

P1,4: I am only matter if you think that matter matters. So if matter doesn't matter I'm not matter. Nor are you.

P2: Matter doesn't matter? Do I think that matter matters?

P4: If matter matters you don't think.

P2: I think. I think matter doesn't matter.

P3: (Cutting P2 off.) Matter MATTERS.

P1,2,4: Doesn't! (P4 laughs and starts into a basic sun salutation. When P4 gets to upward dog P1 laughs and starts spinning in circles then lies down on the ground when P4 returns to mountain. P4 then follows the example, leaving P2 smiling at P3.)

P3: Matter matters. Matter MUST matter.

P2: Love matters. (Falls over.)

P3: Love. Matter. Matter matters. Love is matter? Love isn't matter. Yet love matters. Love matters. (Silence.) Matter doesn't matter. (Falls.)

(Blackout.)

The Free-dom, Post #4

Chapter Three:

For the first time, Zachalope was the last one in the house to wake up, and he found Cactus, Skitch and Dizzy conferring in the lower level. They all smiled mysteriously at him as he came down and he stopped suspiciously on the bottom step.

"How are you guys this morning?" he asked, slowly.

"Excellent."

"Just fine."

"Wonderful."

"Oh yeah? What happened that's so wonderful?" He narrowed his eyes, trying to see what they were plotting.

"What? Is it wrong to be happy in the morning?" Skitch asked, feigning indignation. "I just woke up this way, okay?" She smiled hugely, Cactus and Dizzy following suit.

"All right, what are you three planning?" They put on nearly identical fake innocent expressions.

"Nothing at all, Zach," Cactus told him. The other two nodded in agreement.

"Oh really? Well, if it's nothing, you won't mind telling me what you were just talking about."

"Oh, we weren't talking about anything," Cactus said, slyly.

"It was a family matter, really," Skitch added. Dizzy just grinned hugely. Zach rolled his eyes.

"You'll probably tell me eventually if it has something to do with me, which I think it does," he told them. "In the mean time, shall we go down for breakfast?" They nodded, still secretive, and walked down the many steps to where various pre-breakfast liquids sat steaming on the serving table. Smear, Drummah and Foundling were already there, passing a bowl of mate around. Smear, who was drinking just then, quickly slurped it down and handed it back to Foundling. Skitch sat down beside him and gave him a quick kiss before snuggling into his side and accepting the mate for herself.

"I don't know why people ever wanted to French press mate," she said when she finished. "It's just so much better when you drink with friends through a bombilla. And I think it really does work in bringing soul mates together." She smiled at Smear while Dizzy made gagging motions.

"It's the best way to drink it on the road," Zach said, "even if it does get a little lonely."

"Maybe you should have someone along for your journeys," Skitch replied, grinning. Before he could ask her about the grin Foundling passed him the gourd and he drank.

"So, when do you think you'll be going, Zach?" Drummah asked.

"Well, I need to do a little tweaking on my bike, make sure everything is still functioning, then I need to gather up some supplies, but I should be ready by tomorrow."

"That soon?" Dizzy asked, looking a little crestfallen.

"I'm a messenger, I don't really like being in one place for very long. But don't worry, I probably won't be going for a couple more days."

"That's a relief. I thought you might just lave us all without even a farewell party."

"Farewell party, huh? I don't really need one of those." Foundling passed the gourd to Dizzy.

"Sure you do," she said, grinning hugely. "We give everyone that leaves a farewell party. Call it a custom." Zach laughed as the circle thought up elaborate parties for him. A few minutes later, Yuki and her daughters came out of the kitchen bearing heaps of pancakes, goat butter and fresh fruit. Janae sauntered up to the top of the kitchen and rang the bell while the early risers dished up. Zach sat back down in the circle and the mate continued to be passed.

"So, what's it like to travel so much?" Drummah asked him.

"Not boring, that's for sure," he replied, making her smile. "It's a little hard for me to explain, 'cause I've never done anything else. I was practically born traveling, in fact. My mother took me to China a few months after I was born and I haven't stopped going since."

"Interesting existence," Penguin, who had sat down a few minutes ago, said. "I've never even been out of BC, though I haven't really had any inclination to travel, so it works out okay."

"Well, to each his own," Zach said jovially. "How about you, Drummah?"

"I was born in Africa, adopted by my foster parents in New Orleans and moved to Vancouver when I was twelve." She smiled. "Cactus was the first person I met in Canada because she say beside me in math class. At first I didn't really like her, but I guess you could say we became pretty dang good friends. It's kinda funny how things like that work out, hey?" Zach and Penguin agreed and Penguin said how him meeting his girlfriend, Rooster, had been a lot like that.

"And look at us now, happily in love and living with each other." Zach put on his best melodramatic shocked face.

"Living together? And you're not even married? The indecency!" Penguin laughed as Drummah finished off her last bite of pancake.

"Well, I do believe I'm going to get to work," she said, standing up. "A wonderful day to you all." She tipped her nonexistent hat to them and walked off to the chore tree. The others soon followed suit and Penguin asked if Zach would like to join him at whatever post he had. He declined, though, having to work on his bike.

"Does that mean you'll be leaving soon, then?" Penguin asked.

"Yeah, probably in a few days. It's nice to get some recuperation time in, though." When Penguin left he walked to where he had leaned his bike against the kitchen wall and rolled it over to the fire pit to work on it. He pulled his toolkit out of a bag and got to work. As he worked, Tick'lish, the young blonde once-orphan, watched his every move. From what he knew of her, she had come to the Free-dom that year with the boys Goner, Shimmy and Cracked, after being alone for two years. They had been some of the only survivors from an orphanage in Vancouver and rather than staying in the city with the panicked people, they lived on their own out in the forests.

"Can you hand me the little wrench over there?" Zach asked her. She hesitated a moment, then tentatively picked it up and handed it to him. In a few minutes she was sitting down beside him as he explained how to care for a bike and what it was like to live on the move. She soaked it up like a sponge and when Siren called her over to her lessons, he could tell she had already learned exactly what she really wanted to know. I think I'll put her name in for messenger service, he thought. She seems like she would do well as a traveler. He smiled and cleaned his chain.

Fifteen minutes later he decided he should probably move again, so he climbed one of the least populated trees to the middle, walked out on a limb to where it crossed over to a smaller tree and climbed over to the trunk of it. From there he climbed out onto another limb on it's other side and wove his way among the branches, exploring the treetops. Eventually he circled back to the Free-dom and climbed high enough to see the gardens from a tree away. He called out to Angora, who was weeding tomatoes, and laughed as the shaggy man looked around, bewildered.

"Over here!" Zach called. "In a different tree." Angora scanned the treetops and smiled when he finaly spotted Zach, clinging to the top of a spruce tree and waving.

"Whatcha doin' over there?"

"Chillin' out!"

"I wish I could do the same, man, but there's tomatoes to be weeded."

"I wish you well in your weeding, then." Angora gave him a salute and got back to work while Zach climbed back down the tree to the Platform. He put his tools away, leaned his bike back against the kitchen and walked inside to once again help Yuki and the other chefs cook.

Cactus was working in the loom room with Coconut, Tick, Sliver, Rake and Serena, finishing off one of the thick blankets. They were nearly done with the last batch after two years of weaving, and just in time, too, as winter was only a few months away and the nights were getting colder already. She pushed her shuttle through the threads and pulled the weft as tight as she could. Then she wove a long stick back through and pushed the shuttle back. A few more rows and she would be finished with that blanket. Sliver, who was seated at one of the looms near her, sighed and sat back in his chair.

"Woohoo! I'm done," he said.

"I'm nearly there," Serena said, Pulling her shuttle through the final time. "There, now all that's left is the tying." She smiled and got to work cutting strings and tying them in groups of four. Sliver followed her lead and soon enough the whole group was tying instead of weaving. It took nearly a half an hour to finish with the tying, but they managed it and they folded the blankets up and put them away in the winter house that was a level lower than the loom room and only slightly lower than the Platform. A few minutes after they sat down on the benches and waited until Yuki led the cooks out with lunch and someone rang the meal bell. Cactus hailed Dizzy and Skitch and beckoned them over to the chore tree.

"So, I have a question about what I told you this morning," she began. "Now that you've had a chance to ponder it a bit more, what do you think of my idea?"

"I think it's great," Skitch said immediately. "In fact, it's so great I want to come along with you. Life in the Free-dom is all fine and wonderful, but adventure is something completely different..." Cactus smiled broadly at her sister.

"What about you Dizzy?"

"Well, I think it's a good idea and I know you'd enjoy yourselves," he said, "however, I also know that if you go, I will miss you. So it's definitely a double edged thing."

"Why don't you come with?" Skitch asked.

"Well, I don't know. I'd miss my other friends, I suppose. But I can see what you mean by adventure is something completely different...Can I think on it for a bit? I'll let you know after lunch. Or maybe at supper." Both sisters nodded. "When were you planning on letting everyone else know?"

"Supper?" Skitch suggested, looking over at her sister.

"Yeah, supper seems good," Cactus agreed. "No sense procrastinating." A grin split her face, suddenly. "This is going to be amazing," she said. "You just wait." The other two grinned back at her enthusiasm and they sat down on the benches to eat. When Dizzy had cleared his plate and sat it back down on the serving table, he walked over and bent low to his sisters' ears.

"I'll come," he whispered. and before either of them could say anything he raced off to his chores. Skitch and Cactus looked at each other, stunned for a moment, then their faces took on almost identical joyous expressions. They embraced triumphantly and went off to their separate jobs. The weavers, having nothing more to do, decided to do some 'house cleaning' and they set about sweeping away the newly fallen leaves, tidying the winter house and loom room and doing small repairs on the stairs and buildings. Cactus ended up taking a broom to her own house and checking that there were no faults in the floor, walls or ceiling. As she was checking the tree growth, the supper bell rang and she headed back down to the Platform.

When she arrived, Angora was piling logs on the fire, which was already surrounded, and the fuel caught quickly, brightening up the already night dark Platform. Cactus looked up to see the light fading through the branches, though she could still see the gardens outlined against the sky. She loaded herself up a plate and sat down between her siblings and Drummah. Skitch was full of unconcealed excitement whereas Dizzy, though happy looking, also looked a little sad. Cactus slung her arm around his shoulders and hugged him.

"Why so sad, little brother?" she asked in a whisper. He shrugged. "Sad about leaving the Free-dom and everyone in it?"

"Yeah, and about changing. Changing and not fitting back into the Free-dom."

"Don't worry about it, Dizzy," she told him. "After all, Zach still fits in well with the Free-doms and he's been traveling for his whole life."

"Yeah, but that's the only thing he knows and the only thing anyone knows him for. But peaople here know me for what I am. What if I change and they don't like the change?" He looked up at her plaintively for reassurance.

"Well, that's the great part about the Free-doms,"she said, smiling encouragingly. "No one here judges anyone else and they'll love you no matter what." She kissed his forehead lightly. "Now, eat up. And remember, it's your choice if you want to come along and me and Skitch will understand no matter what you choose to do. I love you, little brother." He smiled and returned the affection, reassured.

"Okay, and don't worry, I'm still coming." She hugged him again and took a bite of food. Zachalope sat down in the space between her and Drummah as she chewed.

"So, Skitch told me you wanted to talk to me about something," he said. "Is it about what you guys were talking about this morning?" Cactus shot a glare over at her sister, who smiled innocently.

"Yeah," Cactus replied, "on her behalf as well as mine and Dizzy's." He nodded, wondering what possible direction the conversation could go in. "So, the three of us, starting with me this morning and now these two want to come along, were wondering if there was maybe perhaps a slight possibility of you letting us come along when you leave?" She smiled questioningly at him. "Maybe?" she added. Zachalope was completely stunned and it showed. Cactus, taking the surprise the wrong way, began to babble. "I mean, you don't have to, of course, but-"

"No no! Of course that's okay! I just never really have people asking to come along with me. Most people just want stability these days. And understandably." Cactus sighed with relief and Skitch seemed to glow with happiness. "Is this what you were hinting at this morning?" he asked the younger, remembering what she had said about mate and drinking partners.

"Yeah, and you didn't suspect a thing, did you?" He shook his head, making her smile broadly. "Yes! I'm the greatest hint dropper in the world!" Dizzy laughed.

"If you were a great hint dropper, people would be able to take the hints." She thought about that.

"Touche."

"Okay," Zach addressed them, "do you have bikes?" Cactus nodded.

"There's about ten in the inventory," she said.

"Excellent. So, if you're really serious about it, we can get you bike tomorrow. Here's what you'll need for supplies: a sleeping bag if possible, otherwise just blankets, some extra clothes, whatever toiletries you use like a toothbrush and oil of oregano or something, hair brush if you want. That's pretty much the basics. You'll also want to bring some fire-making things, matches or whatever, some candles and a sewing kit. Though I do have one of those and it is fairly extensive. Then we'll pack up our water and food portions. we'll need about six water bottles each."

"Great," Skitch said loudly, "so, when will we be leaving?"

"Leaving?" Creampie, who was sitting on her other side, asked. "Are you planning on going somewhere, Skitch?"

"Yeah, the three of us are thinking of going with Zachalope when he leaves."

"Oh," he said, bewildered. "But, well, why?" She shrugged.

"Y'know, to see the world in it's new-found glory. Visit the other Free-doms and meet a ton of people." She smiled at him. "I've always wanted to travel, you know."

"Well, why are Cactus and Dizzy leaving?" he asked, still wondering why one of them would want to leave, let alone all three. He had had a bad experience before coming to the Free-dom, though, having been chased out of his town with his brother because their parents had been stealing food, and he was fairly suspicious of the rest of the world except the other Free-doms.

"Same reason as Skitch," Cactus said. Creampie turned his blonde head to Dizzy.

"Well, when am I going to get another opportunity like this?" Dizzy said. By this time, Coconut, his little brother, and the people within their immediate vicinity were listening intently to the conversation.

"Well, I suppose this isn't too surprising," Bamboo said. "After all, the three of you have been here since the very beginning. It's really only natural that you'd get curious eventually." He looked over at them and smiled and they thanked him silently for putting a positive outlook on their departure. The rest of the people who had been listening smiled, picking up on his positivity. "Drummah, why don't you start up on a happy farewell beat? We might as well give them one helluva farewell party."

"Farewell party?" Sarah, who was across the circle, asked. "Who's leaving?"

"Cactus, Skitch and Dizzy," their side all replied, simultaneously.

"Well, then, I'm going to get the guitar," Angora said. "Rake, wanna go get the trumpet and the pic?"

"I'll go!" Spam said, jumping up and running up the stairs. Rake smiled and pulled his pot canister and pipe out of his pocket.

"Thought I'd need this tonight," he said and everyone laughed as Drummah took up a beat.

"Huh, they all took to it better than I expected," Dizzy told Skitch.

"Well, we're all understanding people in the Free-doms," she replied with a grin.

"So, when are you guys planning on leaving?" Spade asked, walking over to them form his place across the circle. The three siblings looked over to Zach.

"Well, I was thinking two or three days," he replied. "That'll give me a chance to tweak up their bikes and get some supplies ready and whatnot."

"Cool. You know," he said, leaning in conspiratorially," I'm not really surprised that you're leaving."

"Really?" the three said.

"Yeah, I had a dream a few nights ago about you three going on a journey." He laughed. "I wasn't exactly excpecting it to come true, though!"

"That's really weird," Drummah said, head cocked to the side. "I had a dream about that exact same thing." They looked at each other eerily, then laughed. "I guess we must have been on the same brain wave after jamming."

"I'd say. I wonder if anyone else had dreams like that?" Coconut shrugged.

"I suppose you could always ask around," the younger boy said.

"I could," Spade replied and soon walked back to his bench. Others came to them throughout the night with similar questions about the trip and by the end of the night the three of them felt they had gotten enough 'good lucks' to last them a lifetime.

The music that the villagers played that night was almost all up-beat and wild, and no one could resist the pull to stand up and dance around the fire. People wove in and out of the smoke like specters and a few people, Rake, Angora and Bamboo, mostly, leaped over the flames, singing wildly. In the midst of the frenzy Skitch sang a bit, conveying excitement and danger in her words. The four orphans ended up falling asleep together under a bench, curled like kittens. They were eventually joined by Spam Can, Barbberry and Spellcheck. It took almost five hours of hard dancing for everyone to collapse and another hour for anyone to muster the energy to climb up to their beds. In the end, only about half the villagers took the climb and the rest just lay beside the fire.

The morning sun broke through the trees, dazzling Skitch awake. She flung her hand up in front of her face and groaned. She had fallen asleep leaning against a bench with her feet towards the fire. The people to either side of her stirred a little and she checked who they were. On her right Dizzy was snoring, mouth open a little, head back, just like he always was. She looked over to her left and jumped a little. Smear, who had just woke up, looked over at her in the same as she turned her head.

"That was a little creepy," she told him.

"You're tellin' me," he replied, smiling. "It's a good thing we didn't both wake up staring right at each other. I probably would have jumped right out of my skin." She just laughed. Some of the other villagers started stirring, though none of them seemed quite as inclined to wakefulness as the young couple. There was a clang from the kitchen followed by and 'Oops!' and a bit of muffled laughter, telling them that Yuki and her daughters were awake and already making breakfast.

"Do you think we should go see if they want any help?" Skitch asked Smear.

"Maybe," he shrugged, "Yeah, why not? I haven't cooked in quite a while, anyways. But I want to check the chore tree first."

"All right, we can do that." Smear stood up and pulled her up and into a tight embrace. "Well, good morning to you, darling." He laughed and they walked to the tree, arm in arm. It turned out they were both on gardening, even though the gardens were almost done until after winter.

"We'll probably be helping with making preserves, again," Smear said when Skitch asked what the point of working in a garden without any vegetables was. "And we have a lot more people this year, so we'll probably have to do a lot more preserving. Well, you might not. After all, you're not going to be here this winter."

"You sounded a little wistful, there, love," Skitch noted, making him snort derisively.

"Well, I'm gonna miss you. It's gonna be so lonely without you three here, you know. After all, you've been here right from the beginning." He smiled, then. "But I know you'll have fun, so I won't try to stop you or anything. When you get back you'll have to tell us all about your crazy adventures."

"At least a hundred times, probably" she joked, putting her arms around him.

"Ha! A hundred times just to me. Probably closer to four billion for everyone else."

"Or maybe I'll just never stop telling the story of how I left the Free-dom to explore the dangerous world outside," she said, laughing. Smear chuckled and gave her a quick kiss before they walked back to the Platform and entered the kitchen. Yuki and Lina were washing dishes while Janae took bread out of the oven and Serena chopped fruit. Serena looked up when Smear closed the door and smiled at them.

"Good morning," she said brightly.

"Good morning, Serena," they both chimed.

"We were wondering if you needed any help with making breakfast," Skitch told her.

"Certainly! Can you put some water on the stove for drinks?" They nodded and hopped to. In a few minutes they had the water boiling and the two teens brought the drinks out to the serving table. There were about ten people up by that time and they lined up as soon as they saw Smear and Skitch with the water and bags of mate and tea. They put the things down and started up a mate circle with Greece, Bamboo and Laura. Zachalope, one of the few who had made it up to a bed, soon walked down the stairs and sauntered over to them.

"Morning, all," he said. "Did you all sleep well?" He was answered by nods and 'yes's. "Excellent. So Skitch, cutting right down to business, do you want to find some bikes after breakfast? We should probably have some time to check the condition, so the sooner the better, right?"

"Yeah," Skitch replied. "Breakfast should be ready pretty soon, here, and it's just fruit and porridge so we can carry it to the inventory with us.

"All right, that'll be great." He sat down and Smear filled him a bowl.

"So, Zach," he started, "where are you guys gonna go first?"

"Well, I was thinking the Rocky Mountain Free-dom, first. That way we won't be in the middle of the Pacific when winter starts. We don't want to get caught in a winter storm," he said, "they get pretty nasty."

"Where will we go after that?" Skitch asked.

"We'll have to see when we get there," he said, "but probably down to Mexico City Free-dom. But we'll see which direction they want us to trade in."

"How long until we end up back here?" she asked.

"Well, that all depends. definitely a few years, but with the varying schedule it's hard to get a specific date. It's four months to Rocky Mountain Free-dom and another six to Mexico City Free-dom, so if you want to see the world it's gonna take some time.

"So most likely I won't see you until you're eighteen," Smear said wistfully to Skitch. She drank the mate and handed the bowl back to him.

"And if you're still with me by midsummer in two years you can come to the messenger meeting at the Caspian Free-dom," Zach continued.

"A messenger meeting?" Skitch repeated, surprised. "I didn't know we had those."

"Well, they were started after the cataclysm so we can keep up with what's happening in other places. There's one every three years from the summer solstice to the second new moon after and this next will be our second."

"So it's a month and a half long, then," Skitch said. "Why so long?"

"Well, people are coming from all over the world and it does take a fair bit of time to get from one place to another. Unless you take the Shanghai-ways," he added thoughtfully.

"The what's?" Bamboo asked.

"They're currents and prevailing winds that run from about Shanghai to either the tip of Africa or the Australian coast, depending on if you take A or B. Our sailors found them a year after the cataclysm and they've turned out to be very effective.'

"It seems like there's a slight lack of communication between Free-doms," Skitch remarked dryly. Zachalope laughed.

"Only between messengers and villagers," he said. "The messengers don't stay around for very long and the villagers are very rarely curious. Except you and Cactus and Dizzy," he added, smiling at Skitch. She grinned back.

"It's always been like that," she said. "You wouldn't believe how curious I can get, sometimes." Smear nodded his head emphatically and she gave him a playful shove. Then the breakfast crew stepped out and the meal bell was rung. They all lined up and Zach and Skitch ended up waiting for Cactus and Dizzy to get food as they were in the middle of the line. After a few minutes they were stepping into the winter house, where all the community owned things were kept.

"All the bikes are kept in the inventory room, probably right at the back because we never use them," Cactus said.

"Well, only one way to get 'em," Zach said and Cactus grinned and walked to the storage room. She opened the door, revealing a closet only slightly larger than a bedroom in a city house and packed full of things that the villagers either had for winter, emergencies or just didn't use very often. Hanging from the ceiling were thirty seven lanterns, baskets full of candles and hanging shelves full of preserved food. Food also lined the walls in shelves alongside tools and unused things that refugees brought with them but decided not to keep when they moved in. At the very back, stacked on top of each other, were seven bikes. between them and the door was at least a meter of foraged building supplies.

"So, it turns out I was right," Cactus said. "They're definitely right at the back." Zach rolled his eyes and started helping Skitch find the easiest route to the bikes. It turned out that there wasn't one, really, and in the end they just pulled all of the materials out into the winter house and rolled the seven bikes out after. Zach checked the bikes over and got rid of the two children's bikes then organized them into a line from most-in-need-of-work to least. The three siblings tried out all of the bikes to see which ones would fit them best. Cactus ended up with the last on in the line as it would fit her fine with a slight seat adjustment, Skitch took the third and Dizzy the second.

"Okay, roll those on up to the Platform and I'll grab my tools," Zach said. "Then you can come back down here and find any bike racks or anything that could be made into bike racks." They did as they were instructed and Zach spent well into the morning oiling chains, tightening brakes and checking the bikes over for any major hazards. Before lunch Cactus and Skitch had brought him about ten bike racks of different sizes and designs and a few old panniers they had found in the storage. When he finally finished checking them over, he attached the least rusty racks, one rack in the front and back of each bike, and hooked on the bags. All in all, he thought the bikes looked pretty good and they would definitely function on the journey. He rolled them each over to where he had left his own bike and went to find the other three.

He was expecting them to have been finished a while ago and to be off doing other things, but he ended up having to go back to the winter house and saw that they were only three quarters done. This, he saw, was because Dizzy had taken charge of his older sisters and they had all completely reorganized the store room, making it much neater and easier to get at things. The building materials had been sorted and placed in different sections of the room with paths running between everything and the shelves had been rearranged into something much easier to follow. He whistled in awe as he walked in.

"We've been a little busy," Cactus said, turning away from the shelf she was stocking. She rubbed her arm across her forehead. "I've been stacking bottles for almost an hour, I think. It's a hard job, especially when you're too short to reach the top shelf."

"You want some help?" he asked.

"That would be appreciated, yes," she replied, smiling. Zach spent the next hour putting things on the top shelves and by the time they had gotten everything moved back into the inventory, he was exhausted from all the bending and reaching.

"Well, good job, team," Skitch said when she had placed the last bag of plastic bags in the inventory. "Shall we go see if supper is almost ready? I'm starving."

"Me too," Cactus concurred. "It looks pretty good in there, though. We work well when we have the time." They walked back to the Platform, chatting idly. Supper was almost ready, they found out, and they only had to wait about fifteen minutes before Janae rang the bell. By that time it was too dark for the three siblings to find what they needed to pack, but they did decide that, if they could get everything together in time, they would leave the next day. That night there were two drums and three didgeridoos plus Spam Can practicing the piccolo, and although the music was still up-beat there wasn't quite as much festivity in the air as the night before. Halfway through, though, when no one was focusing on him, Smear walked over to Skitch and whispered something in her ear. A moment later the two of them slipped away from the crowd. He led her by the hand across the Platform and down the ladder.

"Where are we going, Smear?" she asked.

"Just wait a second," he replied. "You'll love it. It's just up ahead. I found it a couple nights ago when I couldn't sleep and I've wanted to show it to you, but I never had the chance. Besides, tonight could be the last chance we get for a while." He stopped a few meters later. "Okay, close your eyes and I'll lead you there." She closed her eyes and felt him pull her forward slowly. He gave her a few directions along the way, but they were mostly silent, listening to the night sounds. After about two minutes, he stopped.

"Can I open my eyes?"

"One second." He kissed her lightly. "Okay, open them." She did and looked around. They were standing in the mouth of a giant tree that had fallen over and had been hollowed out by animals, weather and insects. The entire inside was covered in moss and fungi and the roots from the plants growing on top of the tree were hanging down like streamers. But, most remarkably, scattered here and there in groups of seven or eight, were mushrooms glowing a bright, fluorescent blue. "What do you think? It's neat, right?"

"Oh my god, Smear. This is amazing." She stepped forward, feeling the moss squish down under her feet. She reached down and pulled her shoes off, leaving them near the entrance, and walked forward to examine the fungi. "I wonder what kind of mushrooms these are?" Smear joined her.

"I don't know. They're probably some new species that appeared after the cataclysm."

"Maybe we should name them," Skitch mused. "We could call them Jellyfish Mushrooms. They kind of look like crazy glowing jellyfish. Or night light mushrooms."

"I like that one. Night Light Mushrooms."

"Yeah? Well, that's what we'll call them, then." She smiled shyly over at him. "Thank you, Smear. I'm really glad you brought me here."

"Me too. I just wish you weren't leaving," he said. "I'm gonna miss you so much."

"I'll miss you too," she reassured him. "You know, you could always come with us. I'm sure no one would mind if you did." He shook his head.

"I'm settled here," he told her. "I was out in the world for a year before I found the Free-dom and I don't have the courage to face it again just yet. I think I can probably content myself with just listening to your stories when you get back." Skitch sat down in the middle of a clear space on the floor and ran her fingers over the nearest mushroom.

"They're really delicate looking, aren't they?" she asked, changing the subject. They had slender stems and small, flat caps and stood at about four inches high. Smear sat down near her and just smiled, though she didn't look up to see him do it. They sat for a few minutes in silence before Skitch crawled over to him and he pulled her into his lap. "I don't have to go if you don't want me to," she whispered.

"I'd much rather you go because you want to than stay because I want you to," he whispered back. She leaned against his shoulder and sighed. "Skitch?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you." He murmured that quietly into her ear and she almost though he might not have spoken, but a moment later he kissed her softly on the side of the face, then the mouth.

"I love you, too," she said back, and kissed him passionately until the world melted away.

Cactus was frantic the next morning when she realized that Skitch was nowhere to be found. She had gone to bed somewhat early that night and more than a little high after having some farewell pot with Rake and Bamboo so she had fallen asleep immediately, thinking that Skitch and Dizzy were still downstairs. When she woke up the next morning, Dizzy was in bed so she had gone down to see Skitch and drink some mate. Only Skitch wasn't on the Platform and no one else that was awake had seen her. She raced up the stairs and woke her little brother.

"Dizzy! Did Skitch come up last night?"

"No, I don't think so. Why?"

"Because she's not here!"

"Did you check if she's with Smear?" She hadn't, so she raced over to the house he shared with Foundling, Simmer and Drummah. Drummah was getting dressed when she knocked so she was let inside quickly.

"Is my sister here?"

"Not that I know, but I wasn't really looking. I can check if her and Smear are upstairs." A moment later she was back again. "No, they're not there. I don't remember Smear coming back last night, either. Maybe they decided to spend the night alone. have you checked the winter house or the gardens? They could be there." Cactus thanked her and raced off to check, first the gardens, then the winter house. But they weren't in either. By the time she was back on the Platform she had worked herself into such a frenzy that she could hardly sit down for more than a second. When Dizzy came down he shook his head and made his way over to her.

"You still haven't found her?" She didn't answer. "Well, I saw them slip away last night, even though they didn't think anyone had noticed."

"Which way did they go?"

"That way." He pointed toward the ladder. "Maybe they went to the ground for the night."

"They better not have! It's dangerous to be on the ground at night. What if there was a raid party that was lurking around out there? Or they accidently run into a bear? What on earth were they thinking?" She had stood up and was nearly yelling, so Dizzy grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back onto the bench.

"Cactus, relax. They're fine." She started to ask him how he knew that, but he cut her off. "I just saw them start up the ladder." She looked like she was going to explode for a second, and then she seemed to deflate. "Are you good, now?" She nodded. "Okay. So, don't chew either of them up for it. It was maybe their last night together, so it's perfectly understandable that they would want to spend it alone. Right?"

"Yeah, I suppose," she agreed sullenly. She was still brooding when, a minute later, Smear and Skitch walked over to them, smiling brightly.

"Good morning," Dizzy greeted them. "How was your night?"

"Where was your night?" Cactus muttered under her breath.

"It was good," Smear said.

"It was really good," Skitch added.

"Good to know. Where'd you go?" her older sister inquired harshly.

"That's none of your business, Cactus," Skitch told her. "It was a place on the ground that Smear found and I'm not going to tell you any more about it."

"Be nice, love," Smear said quietly to her.

"Well, I have to say I'm a little-" She broke off when she noticed Dizzy staring at her pointedly. "Never mind. I'm going to get some tea." She left abruptly for the serving table."

"What's her problem this morning?" Skitch asked her little brother who shrugged.

"She worked herself into a frenzy because she couldn't find you. I told her not to harass you, though." He smiled. "So, where did you go? Unless you really don't want anyone to know."

"Just a place, little brother. Maybe I'll show you one day." She paused. "But probably not." Dizzy laughed.

"Well, I'm glad the two of you got a chance to say your good-byes."

"Me too." She looked up at Smear. "I love you." He just smiled and kissed her.

"Well, you're relationship has progressed," Dizzy noted. They looked at him quizzically. "A day ago you probably wouldn't have made that kind of public display of affection and I can't recall either of you admitting to love," he explained dryly, making them both blush a little.

"Let's go see if someone has a mate circle started up," Skitch suggested and they walked over to the benches. Krill and Chill were sharing a bowl and Chill passed it over to Smear as they sat down without even stopping their conversation.

"Well, if we pick up any more refugees we may have to relocate for the sake of water," Krill was saying. "After all, we may not have enough just from rain water." His twin sister nodded her head in agreement.

"However," she said, "we do get quite a bit of rainwater and I have no doubts that we could make more rain barrels."

"What about food then? We'll need to get bigger gardens if we take in too many more people. The year we got here we made it through with a litle bit left over and last year we were stretched thin by spring time. Who knows? Maybe this year we'll have even less to go around."

"I think you just want to build a new house, Krill. We could always add on more gardens in surrounding trees or if things get safe enough start some on the ground."

"Ha! We'd have to assassinate the Vancouver dictator for that to ever happen."

"Speaking of Vancouver," Dizzy put in, "when was the last time we had scouts come back? It's been a few months hasn't it?"

"Yeah, I suppose it has," Chill said, accepting the mate from Skitch and refilling it. "Who did we send out again? It was some of the newer refugees, right?"

"Yeah, Darla and Coiner," Smear said. "Do you think maybe they've decided to stay in the city? They were fresh to the wilderness, after all. Maybe they felt uncomfortable living the woods life."

"Either that or someone killed them," Krill added. "They're probably still trying to use money so they could have been killed for that, or for food or water or something. Or just because. People went pretty crazy after the cataclysm." The others nodded solemnly.

"Well, it's a good thing we're in the Free-dom, then," Dizzy said, lightening the mood. "And I'm sure they're fine. They survived for three years in the city before they found us so I'm sure they can stand a few months." Chill passed him the bowl of mate and he drank it quickly. They talked for a few more minutes and a few other people joined the circle before breakfast was served and everyone got to work. Cactus, Dizzy and Skitch walked back up to their house with Zach to pack what they would need for the journey. They quickly loaded up their clothes and toiletries and a few personal items. Skitch brought two notebooks, erasers and pencils, Cactus packed three books that she had saved and Dizzy took a few of his treasured crystals. Then they put in some small lamps, matches, Dizzy's flint and steel, some first aid supplies and a small sewing kit. There wasn't much in the panniers when they brought them down to the Platform, but by the time they had finished in the kitchens they were quite full. Zach, being the expert on bicycle travel, directed them to find oats, honey, cheese, mate, several different types of tea, a few loaves of bread, some yogurt and various vegetables that they would either eat later that day or would keep for a few days.

"After we eat them, though, we'll have to do more foraging," he said, when they had packed the last of the food into the bags. "Hopefully we can catch some of the late plants. Though we may not have a lot of time every day if we want to make it far enough south before winter hits."

"That would suck a lot to get stuck on a bike in a blizzard in the mountains," Skitch agreed.

"We may have to pedal pretty hard, but we should be able to make it. Now, we need to find you guys some water bottles. You'll want about four or five each, or more."

"Let's go check the storage room," Dizzy suggested. The others agreed and they made their way down to their handiwork. Once there, they found twelve metal water bottles of various sizes and shapes and a few water skins. The divided them up, filled them and attached them to the bikes with hemp rope, carabiners and the water bottle holders that were already on Cactus' and Skitch'sbikes. "So I guess that's everything," Dizzy said when they had finished and were standing back to admire the bicycles.

"Yep. Are you guys ready to go?" Zach asked. "Though I do think we should probably wait until we've had lunch. Then we'll be all stocked up and you can get a big farewell from everyone." The nodded and dispersed. Skitch went to her chore, gardening, and Dizzy and Zach went to the kitchen to help with lunch. Cactus, not wanting to do any work, went to visit Itch again. He was sitting up in bed, reading a book that someone had given him.

"Hey, you're looking much better," Cactus said as she entered. "How are you feeling?"

"Pretty all right," he replied. "You haven't come to visit me much. What's with that?"

"I was packing and working. Sorry."

"Packing? So you're really leaving us?"

"'Fraid so, man. You don't mind right?" He grinned and gave her a wink. "I thought you wouldn't." They both laughed and talked for almost an hour before the bell was rung for lunch. "So when is Yuki gonna let you walk again?"

"She said a couple more days because I'm apparently healing pretty fast. I'm allowed to get out of bed and walk to the bookshelf, though, so that's a good thing."

"For sure. But, I should probably go eat lunch. We're going to be leaving right after so..." She leaned down and gave him a hug. "I'll see you in a few years, man. You better be better by then."

"You better get back here in a few years," he laughed. "Have a really good trip, Cactus. I hope you come back with amazing stories." They let go, said a last good bye and Cactus walked down to the Platform feeling pretty good. There were slightly teary farewells going on when she reached the bottom, and she was immediately pulled into a billion embraces and given even more good luck than she had before. Someone shoved a plate into her hand and she ate quickly as she tried to find her family and Zach. When she saw them, standing beside the bikes, she took her last mouthful, put the plate down and walked over to them. Before she made it though, she was spun around and hugged by Drummah.

"Have a good trip, girly," the black girl said. "We're gonna miss you so much, so you had better come back with some truly epic stories to tell."

"It's funny, Itch just told me the same thing." They both laughed, hugged again and Cactus took the last few meters to the bikes. Smear and Skitch were talking quietly a few feet away and Zach was making sure everything was good with the bikes before they lowered them.

"You ready, sister?" Dizzy asked.

"Absolutely. You?" He thought a moment.

"Yeah, I think I am. After all, now is as good a time as any to travel, right?"

"Right. Are we ready to lower, Zach?"

"Yes indeed," he replied, standing up and stretching. "Can you hand me that rope, Dizzy? Thank you." He tied the rope securely around the first bike. "Okay, one of us needs to go down first so we can lower the bikes to them."

"I'll go," Dizzy said and immediately clambered down the ladder then motioned for them to go ahead and lower. Cactus took the rope tightly in hand and Zach slipped the bike over the edge of the Platform. Cactus jerked forward a bit even though she had braced for the weight, but she caught it and began sliding it smoothly to the ground.

"Okay, Skitch, get over here and help out. I think you two have had enough time to say good-bye," Cactus drawled. Skitch made a face at her back and turned back to Smear.

"Safe journey, love," he told her.

"I'll see you in a couple years. I-" She took a deep breath. "I was going to say something, but there's no need, is there?" Smear shook his head. "Okay. I love you."

"I love you, too." They kissed for a long moment, enticing a few 'awe's from the villagers, and broke away. Smear stepped back with a smile and Skitch helped to tie the last bicycle and lift it over the edge. Then she and Zach climbed down and he rolled the bicycle over to the trunk and leaned it as they waited for Cactus, who alighted on the ground a few moments later.

"Okay, let us be off," she said, smiling hugely. Skitch was instantly infected by her cheerfulness and smiled broadly as well, all her sorrows at leaving Smear wiped away for the moment. They wheeled their bikes onto the faint path, mounted and started pedaling. The villagers of the Haida Gwaii Free-dom looked on, shouting farewells and singing as the sunlight streamed down through the leaves and their friends disappeared into the growth.

Magnets, Post #1

Prologue:

Oh man, what a rush!

But and evil rush, he reminded himself, a rush of horrid temptation.

Still…

He didn’t exactly understand why they wanted to destroy it, but he supposed it was worth it to have the ride of a lifetime.

“All right, soldiers,” the captain said, “when we get to the beginning you need to get straight to your battle stations and start shooting.” They all nodded and the captain went back to the cockpit to talk to the captains. Every five minutes for the past hour he had come back to tell them that exact same thing. It was his only show of nervousness.

“Ten seconds,” the pilot told him.

“Eight.”

“Seven.”

“Six.” The others took up the quiet chant of numbers.

“Three, two one.” They braced themselves as the pilots turned off the sensors.

Nothing.

They all looked up and out the sides of the craft. They were still moving.

“What’s going on?” the captain asked, incredulous.

“I don’t know!” The pilot.

“Maybe a sensor malfunction?” the co-pilot suggested, a slight quiver to his voice.

“Well, whatever it is, I can’t pull out.”

“Wait, if that’s the beginning, how far are we going to go?”

“I can’t pull out.”

“How far can we go?”

“I can’t pull out.”

“Where the hell are we going to end up?

“I can’t pull out!”

BANG.

The Free-dom, Post #3

The sun rose above the trees and mountains to light upon the serene face of Zachalope, who was sitting on the edge of the highest garden, legs crossed, palms up, eyes closed. He breathed in slowly, filling his entire stomach to it's full capacity, held it for a moment then breathed out slowly. For nearly an hour he had been repeating the process until his mind was completely clear and he was aware of his entire body and every thought.

A flash of the dream he'd had that night went through his mind and he hooked it and began exploring.

There were five of them, being pursued through a half barren city by men with no eyes. The buildings all looked exactly the same and they were soon lost in the maze of streets. Finally they came to a large building, the only one with no windows. They ran inside and down a long black hall. At the end of it they could feel a flickering presence. After a few moments they entered a large space with a dark, purpley-blue mass in the center, glowing too faintly to illuminate anything but itself. He tried to see his companions, but could make them out in the dark. He felt the sudden urge to touch the swirling light and stepped forward, feeling the others do the same. Their hands stretched forward...

And the dream ended. For a moment Zachalope sat, eyes closed, still breathing evenly. Then he sighed and opened his eyes. The sky was turning steadily lighter, yellow where the sun was peeking over the trees then fading through orange and red to light blue. A few wisps of cloud crossed the sky in front of him, tinted gold on the left and red on the right. Zach savored the beauty for a moment, but eventually stood up and stretched himself out. He looked at the sun once more before descending to the Platform.

Yuki and her daughters were in the kitchen making breakfast and a few early risers were standing by the table, drinking tea or yerba mate. Sitting a little out of the way and sipping absently from a mug, was Cactus. She stared straight ahead, lost in thought. He got himself a cup of tea and squatted down in front of her.

"How are you feeling?" he asked kindly, leaning forward to look into her face. He had dealt with plenty of trauma victims in his travels and found that someone to talk to who didn't push was what they usually needed.

"I', okay," she replied, though she took a deep breath in as if to calm herself. "I dreamt about it last night, though. I could hardly fall asleep because his face kept popping into my head." Zachalope put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"It'll take a while to go away," he told her, "but it will eventually. Things sometimes need a little time to fade." She nodded sadly and took another sip of tea. He decided the best thing to do would be to get her talking about something different. "So, how are things working in this Free-dom? Everything seems to be moving along pretty smoothly." She looked at him gratefully as he sat down beside her, understanding his method.

"Yeah, it runs pretty well. Most of the systems came into play after we all moved in. Of course, at the beginning there was only about ten of us. Me, my brother and sister, Drummah, Doreen, Rake, Spade and Lynx. Okay, eight. We built the place at first and made all the connections to other countries. Doreen and Drummah moved in before the cataclysm and the rest of us came along right after. Then we started picking up refugees and here we are with over forty people." She smiled ruefully. "Though I can't deny things can get a little dull with so little variation."

"Well, that's pretty much how it is in all the Free-doms," he told her. She snorted.

"That's reassuring. Sorta takes the mystery out of life, doesn't it?"

"Ah, there's plenty of mystery left, the Free-doms are just a little less mysterious." They laughed quietly at that.

"What are the other Free-doms like? Are they anything like this one? Well, what you've seen so far." He thought for a moment.

Well, the majority is built in trees like this one and there are a few that are out in remote mountains or deserts. The Glacial Free-dom in Norway is built, well, on a glacier and the St. John's Free-dom is inside aves that used to be hidden by the ocean. The only one that isn't reclusive is New Island Free-dom but that's because everyone who survived on the new island wanted a new beginning so they joined the village."

"Have you been to all the Free-doms then?" She looked up at him curiously.

"All except the Free-dom Down Under and the New Zealand Free-dom. Though I have been to both countries before." She raised an eyebrow in question. "My mother and I did a lot of traveling. So much, in fact, that I don't have a house or a birth certificate, so I was never technically a citizen of anywhere." He smiled on his memories of his mother and all the places they had been. He had been born in the basement of his grandparents' house in a small town in Saskatchewan and though they had tried to make his mother stay, "for the baby's sake" if not her own, she was gone within the week, bicycling to Vancouver where a friend was waiting to ferry them over to China. Zach's first words had been in Chinese and as soon as he started speaking they had sailed to Japan and then to Thailand, Africa, Australia and as many other places as they could. By the time he was sixteen he could passably speak almost every language in the world.

"Where were you born then?" Cactus asked.

"Saskatchewan. I've never been back to the prairies, though. We left when I was less than a week old for Vancouver. Biked there, actually." She stared at him, astonished. "It's true. And when we got there a friend sailed us across the ocean to China."

"It's no wonder you're a messenger, you were practically born traveling. It must feel as natural as breathing for you." She gave him an admiring look. "I'd love to travel. I've never been anywhere but B.C. and I thin it would be great to see other parts of the world."

"Apply for the next trading party. That'll at least get you over to the next Free-dom."

"Maybe," she conceded. "But I think I'd like to go on an adventure." She smiled childishly. "Or at least go see some of the new wonders that must have popped up when the world changed." Zach smiled a little.

"I feel the same way sometimes," he admitted, "though I suppose my desire would probably be a little dulled down from the traveling I've already done."

"Could be." They fell silent until the bell rang and breakfast was served. The two of them stood up to help themselves to bread, fruit and oatmeal and within moments most of the Free-dom was up and eating, then heading to their various chores. Zachalope went with Cactus to the gardens and they spent the day harvesting.

That being Zach's first time to the Haida Gwaii Free-som, he marvelled at the enormous vegetables that the other Free-doms didn't have. He liked the Jack Beans the most, as he had loved the story of Jack and the Beanstalk as a child. The day passed lazily away and the sun set as they climbed down for supper. The fire was lit on the Platform and many of the villagers were already eating and talking. Skitch, Cactus, Zachalope and Dizzy sat down jut after Drummah took up a beat to their left.

"Is this your normal supper entertainment?" Zach asked Dizzy, who was seated beside him.

"Yep, Drummah always has her drum at supper." He took a mouthful of potato, chewed, swallowed and continued. "We have more instruments playing during celebrations, of course. Cactus and Bamboo have drums and Skitch and a few others have didgeridoos and Angora has a guitar. I think Tick is making a didg pretty soon, if she can find enough beeswax. And Rake has a trumpet and a piccolo. He's teaching Spam Can to play the pic. She sounds pretty good so far, too."

"So, what sort of things do you celebrate?"

"Lots of stuff. Solstices, Equinoxes, changing seasons, injury recoveries. We have celebrations of people's lives, too. Anyone who dies gets a celebration of how they lived. They're sad and happy at the same time." He smiled with more years than he had.

"We sometimes have random jam sessions, too," Cactus added from his other side. "We'll bring down the instruments just for the sake of making music. It's usually quite a lot of fun." She laughed and added, "They're usually caused when Rake decides to smoke a few of our lovely hemp buds." Zach raised an eyebrow questioningly. "That's not all we use it for. We use the fibers for textiles and the seeds for eating, too."

"I'm sure the smoking factor contributed to the planting, though." Cactus rolled her eyes.

"All right, that was a big part of Rake's decision to stay."

"And Angora's," Tick said from behind Cactus. Angora looked up from a few seats down.

"What are you saying about me?" Tick told him. "Hey, I thought of the practicality, too, when we got here," the shaggy man said.

"No doubt about it," his sister replied, "but you thought about smoking it the most." They all laughed, Angora included. Then he stood up to address the rest of the Free-dom.

"Members of the Haida Gwaii Free-dom, and our guest, of course," he said, bowing exuberantly to Zach, who gave him a salute, "I suggest we have a celebration in honor of hemp and it's many uses, practical and more practical!" Everyone laughed and cheered and several people ran to their houses to get instruments. Drummah and Sliver, who both already had drums, started on two fast beats while Rake stuffed a pipe with marijuana. In a few minutes there were four didgeridoos, six drums, a guitar, a trumpet and a piccolo playing and anyone who wasn't playing was singing, dancing, smoking or talking.

"Well," Cactus said to Zachalope while beating steadily on her drum, "you asked what kind of celebrations we have. I guess you know now." They laughed, breaking Cactus' concentration on the beat. "Do you want to play for a while?" She held the drum out to him. He smiled and took it. At first he played a simple, steady best, boom da boom da boom da, and gradually he slipped in to a more complex rhythm. It didn't take long for him to get lost in the music and the haze of the fire and the faint pot smoke and he only resurfaced from semi-consciousness when the wind instruments and the guitar stopped, leaving the drums to tap out a slow beat. Then someone to his left began to sing in a language he didn't understand but which left him full of understanding.

"Mayam tol kae siiiaaa. Yemba co ul tam. Nada al coiiiaaa. Ayam mae ta am. Kee san goanda pell ka wavin tam no say. Yer pol casti con tar noi canatayonam." He looked over and saw Skitch rocking back and forth, eyes closed but her face displaying emotions like a painting as she sang. All around the fire people began humming along, rising and falling with the drums. Greece played softly on the didgeridoo adn soon Spam Can fluted incredibly high notes on the piccolo. Zachalope closed his own eyes and began humming with the rest, still beating slowly. One of the other drummers started with a more complex beat, following the complexity of Skitch's singing.

"Nao a kay amta, ye koheldi ah! Seh tamoyempa kal no, no sa la te ya!" The note she held then was high, clear and sweet. Everyone stopped a few beats before her, letting her fade out like mist. He took a deep breath, hearing and feeling everyone else do the same, and opened his eyes. Every face around the fire wore a serene, and sometimes surprised, expression and he could tell they had all felt the same connection to the music, each other and the world around them that he had felt. They all sat in a circle for a while, not thinking, just enjoying the moment. Then, very slowly and in silence, they left to go to bed. After a long while of staring through the flames with an empty head, Zach looked up to find that he was one of two people left. Skitch was sitting a few feet away from him, hypnotized by the fire. She looked slowly over to him as he stood.

He put out a hand and helped her up. The two of them walked silently to their beds.



Purple.

Purple.

Purple.

Why was everything purple?

Purple sky, purple water. There were even psychotic purple penguins! Hmm. Wasn't there a name for it? His sisters would know. They knew everything. He turned around to ask them, only they were gone. That was odd. Hadn't they been standing there a moment ago? And why were the trees dying? Purple (what was it called?)wasn't really their color but grey looked much, much worse. Someone tried to grab him from behind, whispering things he couldn't understand but didn't like. He started running only there were grey stone penguins grabbing at his legs and all the purples ones were diving into the purple oceans. Finally he managed to jump into the water and he marveled at the landscape under the waves. It was all in different shades of that same beautiful purple. Or was it blue? It seemed to shift constantly there. He looked back as he swam and saw legions of stone creatures marching off the cliff and falling into the water only to sink to the bottom and disappear. A few of them turned purple as they sank and they swam past him, deeper into he ocean. He stayed and watched as more of them sank and could feel others watching with him, only he couldn't seem to turn his head to look at them. Something started boiling under his skin, an odd feeling of liquids and gases roiling about and he lifted his hand to see.

For the first time he realized he was white, not purple, though he was somewhat transparent. But beneath the layers of skin on his palm he could see a squirming layer of colors, all moving around like snakes...

The morning light shining through the window played across his eyelids. The flickering shadows of the rustling branches made the redness roil like snakes.

Snakes!

And color under his skin! Dizzy shot up in bed and looked at his palms carefully. No colors. Relief and disappointment combated for precedence on his face. He was glad he didn't have the colors, but they had been so beautiful...Skitch murmured from across the room and he looked over at her, gradually realizing that it had been a dream, not reality. His sister opened her eyes slowly and smiled at him. She tried to say something, but all that came out was a croak. Dizzy laughed.

"Good morning," he said, his own voice a little hoarse from sleep. "Did you sleep well?" She only smiled contentedly and slid out of bed. "I'll take that as a yes." A moment later Cactus rolled over and stared at him.

"You know," she moaned, "it's a miracle the whole village isn't awake. You're incredibly loud for a quiet kid."

"My guess is you didn't sleep very well," Skitch said, pulling on a shirt and pants. Cactus shook her head.

"I had a horrible dream. And it left me with a pounding headache as a reminder." They both gave her sympathetic looks, which she smiled wanly at.

"What happened in it? Sometimes it helps to talk about nightmares," Skitch told her.

"Well, it started off just like the dream I had the other night, with me running through a forest and something chasing me. At first it seemed like a -a far away danger, but it started getting louder and closer and...thicker. It's presence, I mean. That was when the dream got different. In the other one I turned around and saw a raid coming at me with guns but in this one I turned and saw the forest dying, rotting on itself. I turned around and kept running, but it swallowed me up." She shuddered. "It was terrible, being surrounded by pure death like that. And then I woke when you started talking." The dream didn't seem particularly frightening to Dizzy and Skitch, but they both knew how bad it could be for the one having it. :But what about you two? How did you sleep?"

"I slept all right," Skitch said. "I had a dream that was the complete opposite of yours, though." Cactus cocked an eyebrow. "I was standing in the middle of an abandoned city, chanting in the same language I was using last night and all of a sudden all of the buildings were rapidly growing into trees and there were plants everywhere and it became a huge forest in a matter of minutes. Then I looked up at the sky and breathed deep and when I opened my eyes I was awake." She looked contentedly into space. "How about you Dizzy?"

"Well, I dreamed as well," he said. "There were some crazy purple penguins in it. And purple trees. And purple water. And then everything started dying, like in your dream, Cactus, so I followed the penguins into the water. Then all these stone animals were marching into the water, whole legions of them, and they sank and disappeared, except a few that turned into purple things and swam away. Then I felt something moving under my skin and I looked at my hand. I was sort of transparent and I had colors moving around under my skin. And that was when I woke up. I thought it was real for a minute or two," he admitted. Then the meal bell rang and the three of them filed out of the house. Zachalope was already awake and he caught up to them as they climbed down.

"Where were you at?" Cactus asked him.

"Up in the gardens," he answered. "I was meditating on a dream I had last night, trying to pick up it's message."

"Really? What did you dream?"

"It was a dream I've been having for the past few nights, now. It starts off with me and a few people being chased through a city that seems only half lived in. Then we come to a completely abandoned building and go inside. We start walking down a hallway and at the end there's this big, blueish, purpley mass of stuff. Then we all stick our hands in it and I wake up." He frowned slightly. "I know it has a message, all repetitive dreams do, but I have no idea what it could be."

"Maybe breakfast will loosen you brain matter," Skitch said, flashing him a broad smile. He smiled back as they stepped onto the Platform, smells of breakfast wafting towards them.

"Actually, it's more likely that food would make your brain more congested and less easy to think," Spellcheck said from behind them. Skitch shook her head and Cactus rolled her eyes.

"Thanks for the correction, Spellcheck," Dizzy said.

"That's why you named me," she replied with a shrug. Dizzy stuck out his tongue at her and she chased him across the Platform, Spam Can, Barbberry and several of the younger kids joining in when they saw them. The other three joined the line-up for food and the day settled into the usual routine. That day Zach went with Skitch and Desmond to the loom room and worked on making blankets with Doreen, Angora, Greece and Drummah. He spoke a lot with Doreen as she was one of the few people that knew how to weave before she ever came to the Free-dom and she taught him a few simple techniques that he could use while traveling.

"And it's fairly simple to make a loom if you're out in the middle of nowhere and need to weave a scarf or something," she told him. "And if you don't want to do that you can just carry around a pair of knitting needles." Zach smiled

"Or make some from sticks that I find lying around," he added, making her chuckle a bit.

"Yep, you could do that too." They listened for a moment to the groan of the trees and heard the meal bell ring. The seven of them stood up and went down for lunch. When he reached the Platform he noticed Yuki beckoning to him from the kitchens so he left the others and joined her.

"Would you like someone to go with you to pick up your bicycle?" she questioned.

"How did you know I have a bike?" he asked, startled.

"We have had messengers come through before. And we were the first Free-dom, so we set up the whole system. I know all about it even if I wasn't here from the beginning." She smiled. "I do wonder why you haven't gone down to get it yet, though." He shrugged.

"If scavengers were going to get it they would have gotten it in the first night, so I'm in no rush. I should go check if the bike is all intact, though. Perhaps I'll head out after lunch, if it's no problem that I take someone away from their chores, that is."

"As long as it's only one person, go right ahead," she replied. Zach gave her a smile and walked to the food. When he'd dished up a plate he sat down between Cactus and Rake. He ate quickly and addressed Cactus.

"Hey, do you think you could guide me back to where I left my bike the other day? It's not far from where you were picking mushrooms, but I'm not completely sure how to get there." Cactus chewed thoughtfully for a moment.

"All right," she said after she had swallowed, "anything to get out of gardening all day." Rake grinned.

"Shirking your chores, Cactus?" he said. "Yuki'll have your head for that."

"If that was the case," she laughed, "I'd have been dead a long time ago. So, are we heading out soon?"

"Right now, if you're ready," Zachalope said. She nodded and they put their dishes away and walked across the Platform to the rope ladder that led down to the ground. Cactus set off to the left as soon as her feet hit solid earth and Zach followed easily. They chatted lightly the whole way to the spot, which was still full of mushrooms, and they made very good time. Cactus paused a moment between the trees, remembering how innocent the day had seemed. She shook herself out of the memory as Zachalope walked forward.

"Have you got any extra bags on your bike?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I should, why do you ask?"

"Well, we should probably pick some more of these mushrooms, seeing as we're already here." He nodded in agreement. "I'll start while you find your bike." And with that she crouched down and started gently pulling mushrooms. Zach walked a ways through the bush and looked for where he'd dropped his bike. It took him a few minutes of searching, but he eventually found it half under a log down a little ways down a hill. He pulled it out, checked that it was still in working order and rolled it up the hill. He extracted a couple of cloth bags form his paniers and started picking with Cactus.

They left most of the smaller ones and it didn't take them long to fill both bags. When they had as many as they felt was good, they headed back through the forest, stopping a few times for more foraging. Cactus took his paniers up when they reached the ladder and Zach pulled the bicycle up beneath him with a length of rope. When they were both at the top he sat down with his bags and took an inventory count while Cactus swept the Platform.

"Okay," he said to himself, "the list says half a bag of mate, dried chiles, and a bag of herbs; chamomile, fennel, cannabis, cardamom..." He perused his list, checking thing off and by the end he was completely surprised. "All still here. Wow. Well, continuing on; Personal effects. Tarp, rope, tool kit, matches dishes, herb guide, sewing kit, basic first aid. Check check check check check check check check. Huh, so nothing at all lost. Well, praise the Universe."

"I take it things are good," he heard from behind him. Yuki squatted down beside him a moment later.

"Yes, everything is here still," he told her. She nodded.

"We should bring the food into the kitchen, then." And with that she picked up the bag of chiles and the mushrooms, leaving Zach to pick up the rest and saunter after her. He had been in many Free-dom kitchens before, but it always came as a shock to see how sophisticated they were with no electricity. On the far wall from the door was a large fireplace with two roasting racks and a huge brick oven. Along the left side were several wash basins for hands and food as well as a large rain water barrel for drinking and cooking. Down the center was a table covered in knife marks, stains and burns. In the center of that was a large hole to brush compost into so it could be used in the gardens. Hanging above it were three spice racks, dishes and various pots, pans and roasters. Supper was being prepared by Conk, a young girl with short brown hair, Serena, Yuki's youngest daughter, and Toni, one of the surprisingly few black people in the Free-dom. And Yuki herself, of course, as she ached to much to go up the stairs and do anything else.

"Put the mate in the cupboard above the barrel," she directed him, "and whatever spices you don't want you can put into the racks." She put the chiles up in a cupboard and started chopping onions at the table. He was kind of surprised by how easily she moved in the kitchen, just barely showing that she had weak knees and a back problem. "If you wouldn't mind, Zach, we could use some help chopping vegetables." He nodded, put his things away and picked up a knife to shop some garlic. Twenty minutes and eleven giant garlics later, he scooped the slices into the pans so Serena could sauté them with the onions. Twenty minutes after that he aided in carrying all the food out to the serving table. Conk ran up the steps on top of the kitchen and pulled the length of rope that was attached to the meal bell.

The first people to dish up were Tick'lish, Goner, Cracked and Shimmy, all orphans who were being taught whatever things people thought they should know before they started working, and the people who were teaching them that day, Rooster and Doreen. Then came the returned foragers, Dizzy, Chill, Tick, Sarah, Spellcheck, Barbberry, Lina and Cathy. The next to show up were the weavers, Siren, Coconut, Simmer, Angora, Skitch and Laurence. The last people to come down were the eighteen gardeners, Penguin, Sliver, Drummah, Lynx, Spade, Rake, Hannah, Smear, Sam, Janae, Laura, Mark, Bamboo, Jack, Greece, Spam Can, Krill and Seth. The only people missing were Cactus and Itch, but that was because Cactus was taking him his supper. Zach lined up with the four cooks to get his share of the meal.


Itch was awake when Cactus walked into his house, her tortilla and his bowl of soup in her hands. He smiled weakly as she sat down on the edge of his bed.

"How are you feeling, man?" she asked, returning a smile just as weak as his. Itch shrugged a little.

"I've certainly been better," he replied. "I can't sit up yet and can only eat the soup that you've so kindly brought me. It's a good thing Yuki knows how to make some damn fine soup." They both smiled, but a somber silence soon followed. "How are you feeling, Cactus?" he asked, giving her a look of an understanding that only they had. She returned the look sadly.

"I've been all right physically, but I'm, sure the dreaming is going to drive me insane and it's only been two days. You'd think my subconscious wouldn't have wanted to go through it once, let alone replaying it like it is. But I guess it must be otherwise." Itch nodded knowingly, confirming that he, too, had been having nightmares. Cactus abrubtly changed the subject, but neither of them really put much effort into talking, prefering to follow their own thoughts.

"Well," Cactus said when she had finished spooning him the soup, "hurry up and heal. We're really missing you downstairs." Then she stood and walked out of the house he shared with Sliver and Barbberry.

She hesitated on the landing, not sure if she wanted to have supper with the others on the Platform or find some place quiet to eat. When a burst of laughter reached her ears from below, she chose the latter and started up the stairs to the gardens. She sat down on the edge of the tallest, legs dangling over the side of the walkway, and watched the darkening forest sway in the light breezes. Before her father had left them, when she was about four, he would take her out on windy days to ask the trees to stop shaking and making so much wind. He would lift her up onto his shoulders to let her try to still the branches, or they would 'warm' the trees by hugging them.

"They're so cold they're shivering," he would tell her, even if it was a beautifully hot day and nothing could possibly be cold.

"Maybe we should put some jackets and mitts on them," she would say, then. He would laugh and proceed to carry out the boxes of winter clothes so they could dress up the trees, usually with Skitch riding inside of it. Clothes bins or old boxes used to be her favorite place to sleep. Then the three of them would laugh for hours on end until their mother would call them back in. She smiled as she remembered her dad, but that slowly turned into an expression of sadness when she thought of the fighting and the day he had left and not come back. Eventually her mother told her that he had mailed divorce papers and when she signed them he never talked to them again. Her mom said she regretted it every day, but Cactus never once believed her.

The sound of didgeridoo and drum floated up through the branches, mixing eerily with the wind and the growing dark. She had never realized how comforting a fire could be when people played natural instruments. She looked down and saw the faint glow of the fire. She couldn't make out any individual people, but she somehow knew it was Dizzy playing the didj that time. Something in the style, she supposed.

Out in the distance something caught her eye and she pulled her gaze away from the fire and out over the forest. For a moment she thought it was nothing, until she saw a pale blue light flicker into existance, like a light bulb being turned on. She stared at it in alarm at first, wondering if it was a raid camped in the forest. but soon enough more were popping up, too many to be raiding parties unless they were planning a full scale assault on the forest. She wondered if Zach knew what they were and stood up to go ask him.

On her way down she decided she really would sign up to trade with the other Free-doms.