(XVI): The Dreamwalker

"What kind of tea did you say this was?" asked Thaddeus as he took his first few sips.

 

Shiro placed the tea kettle back over the fire, "Tumeric and Nutmeg, a family recipe. Helps with sleep…and dreams…"

 

As Thaddeus drank the tea, Shiro had offered him, a sudden, heavy calmness washed over him. His eyes grew heavy as he was pulled into a deep sleep. But something wasn't right. Just as soon as the tea had warmed him, it grew cold, very cold. Thaddeus felt his fingers and toes going numb, and shot upright in fear. His eyes squinted open into a frozen wind that chilled him to the core. Snow surrounded him on all sides. "W-what? W-where a-am I?"

 

"In your dream…" said a familiar voice from behind him. It was Shiro. "That's what the tea was for."

 

"w-why?What' are we here for?" he shivered.

 

"I'll tell you when we find out. "

 

A sudden whinny of a horse startled them. A white horse pulling a wagon appeared, with two cheerful men looking their direction. They galloped pass them, as if neither man was there. Thaddeus watched them as he sat, "Didn't they see us?"

 

"No," said Shiro as he helped him to his feet," They are dream walkers like us, but see only those that are lost. We are not, you are not lost, and as long as we keep moving we won't be…"

 

Thaddeus staggered off through the snow behind Shiro in a world he had conjured, and wasn't even awake to see it...

Done