by Duke Kittle
Chapter 7
Tina awakened. Her eyes opened slowly. Her sleep had been dreamless. However long it had been in reality, it felt as though only an instant had passed in her mind. Though her body felt refreshed, she still felt mentally worn out. It would not do.
Rising from the bed, she realized she was still wearing her robes. She pulled them off, knowing that after all the crawling and trudging around in the dirt she had done they were filthy. She let them hang from the footboard of the bed. Seeing how dirty her robes were made her think she probably needed a bath as well. She tried to recall the events leading up to going to bed to figure out why she hadn't taken care of either of those things before sleeping. But her head hurt when she tried to concentrate.
Tina crossed her legs into lotus position on the bed and closed her eyes. She took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. For awhile, she needed to think of absolutely nothing. The tuft of fur on the end of her tail flopped slowly back and forth with the calm beat of a metronome. Her mind remained dark as she breathed with a steady, slow pace. She let her grip slip away freely to abandon higher thoughts so her mind could do what it needed to recover.
Time became imperceptible as she drifted into the hypnopompic space between the waking world and dreams.