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.