by Jae
Jorie blinked. Was that it? Was that why she had rewritten some scenes half a dozen times just because they didn't feel right?
"And that's exactly how dream seeing works, isn't it?" Griffin asked.
"It's how it works for us Wrasa, not for humans!" Nella hissed.
"I know it turns everything we ever believed in on its head, but just consider it for a moment." Pausing, Griffin tried to get her mother to look into her eyes and see the conviction there. "If Jorie, a human, could really see us, make a connection with us in her dreams..."
The easy chair groaned as Nella sat back down with more force than necessary. "Nonsense," she said. "There are no human dream seers. If there were, don't you think we would have heard about it before? Why should she," Nella jerked her head in Jorie's direction, "be the first and only one?"
The same objections had run through Jorie's mind too.
"It's impossible," Nella said, sounding as if it was the last thing she wanted to say on the topic.
Jorie closed her eyes for a moment, then blinked them open again. The flickering firelight irritated her tired eyes and made her head pound.
"She's right, Griffin," Brian said. "You know that only Puwar ever had the gift. Not Syak, not Kasari, not Ashawe, not any other Wrasa — and certainly not a human. If she dreams about us, they're nothing more than regular dreams. Leigh told me the human had nightmares about being chased by Wrasa. It's to be expected."
"She dreamed about us long before she knew we even exist," Griffin said.
Nella waved dismissively. "Coincidence. She dreamed about the characters in her book, not about us. Or she dreamed about us after a traitor told her about our existence."
The discussion was going nowhere.
Jorie was sick of it, sick of being talked about as if she weren't present. The argument continued for a few more minutes, back and forth, back and forth, until no one knew what to say anymore. Jorie was thankful for a few moments of silence. Now that the rush of adrenaline had stopped and she was sitting down, exhaustion made her almost dizzy. Her head fell back against the couch. Darkness washed over her.
* * *
Griffin stopped in the middle of her argument when something softly thumped against her shoulder.
"Looks like your human dream seer was so interested in our discussion, so passionately convinced that you're right that she fell asleep on you," Nella mocked.
Ignoring her, Griffin looked down.
Jorie's dark head was resting against her shoulder. Maybe the crackling fire and the repetitive discussion had lulled her to sleep. More likely, she had just passed out from sheer exhaustion.
Griffin took a deep breath, trying not to lash out at her mother in frustration. A whiff of Jorie's scent tickled her nose, and she imagined strolling through the forest in spring. Dewy fern brushed against her bare legs, and birdsong soothed her rattled nerves. Tense muscles relaxed, and the thin line of her lips softened into a faint smile. "She's exhausted," she said, keeping her voice low as not to wake Jorie. "She hasn't really slept in more than two days." She wrapped one arm around the sleeping woman, settling Jorie's head against her more comfortably.
"We should take her back to Rhonda's," Brian said.
Coming here had been a waste of time. Griffin realized that now. She gave her father a nod, grateful that he was now looking out for Jorie too. Her worried gaze took in the dark circles around Jorie's eyes. They almost looked like bruises, making the old feeling of guilt flare again. Jorie needed to rest.
And you need some sleep too, she told herself. If you had been able to think straight, you would have known that coming here, trying to convince Mother that Jorie, a human, has Grandfather's skills was a really bad idea.
"Let's go," she said. She stood and prepared to lift Jorie into her arms to carry her back to the car.
"Wait," Nella said.
Griffin straightened and turned to look at her.
"If I disprove your theory, will you hand her over to the Saru and do everything necessary to get your career and your life back on track?" Nella asked.
Disproving Griffin's theory about Jorie's connection to the Wrasa meant testing Jorie's dream-seeing skills. It was exactly what Griffin wanted. Her mother was the only person left who knew enough about dream seeing to help her, and promising her whatever she wanted was the only way to get her to offer her knowledge. Bargaining and scheming like this was pretty normal for most Puwar, Griffin included.
Not this time. Jorie's life wasn't a bargaining chip. Griffin had no intention of handing Jorie over to the Saru should her theory be wrong. Sure, she could lie. She'd done it before if her job made it necessary.
This was different, though. If she lied about this one critical thing and tricked Nella into revealing her dream-seeing knowledge to a human, her mother would never forgive her. Neither would Jorie.
"No," she said firmly.
"No?" Nella repeated with a frown. Apparently, she hadn't expected that answer.
"I won't save my own life at the expense of Jorie's," Griffin answered.
Her mother's amber eyes widened in disbelief. "That's crazy, Griffin. Why are you doing this?"
"Gus has a theory about that," Brian said, stepping closer to look down at the sleeping Jorie. "He thinks our daughter is in love with the human."
What? Griffin whirled around and glared at him. "I'm not! I'm trying to save Jorie because it's the right thing to do." Why didn't they understand that there was no personal gain involved for her? Why was it so hard to understand that a human life was worth as much as her own?
For once, Nella agreed with her daughter. "Gus is getting sentimental in his old age," she said. There had always been some hostility between Nella and Gus. "Tell him not to spread around such nonsense about Griffin. Griffin let herself be manipulated by the human because she thinks there's some kind of connection between them, but it's not love. Griffin knows better than to fall in love with a human." She sent Griffin a sharp glance, willing it to be so.
"You can't choose who you fall in love with, Nella," Brian said softly.
Look at that. The tough, old tomcat has a soft side too. Griffin watched her parents look at each other. A hazy mix of emotions was coming off them in waves, overwhelming Griffin's already taxed olfactory system. Are they still in love with each other after all these years, after everything that happened? Then why did they just give up and go their separate ways? she suddenly wondered. She had always thought they resented each other, but she realized it was just her own assumption. This was the first time she had seen her parents directly interact with each other.
Finally, Nella looked away. "Fine," she said. "We'll do it your way. I'll show you that the human doesn't have any potential to be a dream seer so that you can get that crazy notion out of your head and start thinking more clearly." She jerked her head in Jorie's direction. "Wake her."
Very conscious of her parents watching her, Griffin reached out and shook Jorie's arm. She wanted to be gentler, wake her up more gradually, but she didn't want to give Brian and Nella a reason to think that Gus was right about her being in love with Jorie. While she did like Jorie, she was doing this because she was beginning to realize that killing humans was not the way to save their species. It only brought them one step closer to losing themselves. She wanted to believe that she would have done the same for any human.
When Jorie didn't stir, she shook her again.
Jorie jerked awake, almost falling off the couch.
"It's just me," Griffin murmured. She wrapped her arm around Jorie, steadying her, then removed her arm when Jorie sat up straighter.
"So, had any nice dreams?" Nella asked with a smirk.
"Oh, yes." Jorie stopped rubbing her eyes and looked directly at Nella. "I dreamed that Griffin's mother treated me with the same respect and friendliness that her daughter does. But I guess that was just a silly dream, not a prophecy, huh?"
Brian lowered his head to hide a grin.
Laughter bubbled up
in Griffin. She squeezed Jorie's arm and stopped when she realized what she was doing. "She's got you there, Mother. Stop being such a bitch to Jorie."
"Your life is on the line here. There's no time for politeness." Never even looking at Griffin, Nella fixed her glance on Jorie and came closer. "Move away from her, Griffin," she ordered.
Griffin hesitated.
"I won't hurt her," Nella promised.
It was the truth. While Nella wasn't a big fan of humans, the biting scent of open hostility was absent.
Griffin moved to the end of the couch, making room for Nella to sit down next to Jorie.
Slowly, Nella lifted her hand and poked Jorie in the chest with her index finger. A smile spread over her face when Jorie didn't flinch. "You are pretty gutsy for a human," Nella said, this time managing to make it sound more like a compliment than an insult. "Let's see if you are gutsy enough to try something with me."
"Try what?" Jorie asked. Apprehension wafted up from her.
"Close your eyes," Nella said instead of answering.
Jorie hesitated. Her gaze strayed toward Griffin, and when Griffin gave her an encouraging nod, she finally closed her eyes.
"Lean back and relax," Nella said. Her voice was now soft and soothing, all traces of her former hostility toward Jorie gone.
Jorie leaned her head back against the couch.
Nella watched her closely. "Relax your body," she said.
Easier said than done. Being in a room with three predatory shape-shifters, sitting next to the most hostile one with your eyes closed wasn't a very relaxing activity. The tension didn't dissipate from Jorie's body.
"Relax," Nella murmured. "No one will harm you in any way. Griffin will make sure of that, right, Griffin?"
"Right," Griffin rumbled forcefully, letting it serve not only as an encouragement for Jorie but also a warning to her mother.
Finally, most of the tension left Jorie's body.
"Now envision yourself strolling through the forest on a warm spring day," Nella said. "Imagine the sunshine on your skin, the scent of freshly growing grass and the first blooming flowers, and the gentle twittering of the birds in the trees above you."
Automatically, Griffin closed her eyes too. A faint memory of her grandfather testing her in the same way came to her, but she brushed it away to focus on the present. She imagined strolling through the forest side by side with Jorie. The image came easily since it was the mental picture that Jorie's scent always evoked. Had Nella chosen that image because it was the way Jorie smelled to her too?
"Can you see it?" Nella asked.
"Yes," Jorie murmured. Griffin heard the smile in her voice. "It's nice."
"Good. Allow the images to flow through your mind as you relax deeper and deeper." Nella's voice had an almost hypnotic quality now.
Griffin felt her body get heavier, knew she was close to giving in to her own exhaustion. No! Her eyes shot open. She was here to watch Jorie, to protect her, not to fall asleep.
"Then," Nella continued, "just as you fall asleep, focus on one of the details you can see in the forest and imagine yourself jumping into the image."
Jorie didn't answer this time. She lay with her eyes closed, her chest moving softly with her slow breaths.
"What now?" Griffin whispered. Awe filled her as she watched Jorie.
Nella smoothly got up. "Now we let her sleep — and dream."
* * *
Loud noises pulsated around Jorie. She tried to move, tried to make out where they were coming from, but her vision was hazy and she couldn't move. Only gradually did the world around her sharpen, and she could make out the details of the forest.
The heaviness lifted from her body. She could move again and started to stroll through the forest. Her fingertips trailed over ferns and green leaves.
The birds above her fell silent.
Someone was walking behind her. "Wait up, girl," she heard him grumble. "My old bones can't move as fast as yours."
The voice was familiar.
She turned to wait for the old man until they were walking side by side as if they had done it a hundred times before. Maybe they had. From time to time, she felt his large hand on her shoulder when he helped her duck under low-hanging branches or climb over a fallen tree.
"Almost there," he said after a while.
She turned to ask him what "there" was.
"Pay attention!" the old man said. "You're walking right into..."
Something slid along her face as she turned back around to look into the direction she was going.
"...a spiderweb," the old man finished his sentence.
"Ew." She closed her eyes and tried to brush the clinging cobwebs off her face. The sound of the wind rustling through the trees and the old man's voice grew dimmer. The forest faded around her.
With a jerk, Jorie opened her eyes and found herself back on the couch in Nella Westmore's cabin.
"Close your eyes again," came Nella's now gentle voice.
Jorie wanted to look around and make sure Griffin was still there, but she did as Nella told her.
"Don't move. Relax again. Now tell me about your dream," Nella said.
"I was —"
"Use present tense," Nella interrupted. "Describe it as if you were still experiencing it."
The images from her dream flickered around Jorie, soothing her. "I'm walking through the forest. It's spring, and the birds are singing, just like you described."
"What else did you see? Did the images change? Did you find yourself in another location?" Nella asked.
"No." The forest filled Jorie's mind.
"No?" There was a frown in Nella's voice, but then she moved on. "Was there someone there with you?"
"An old man is walking with me," Jorie said, again feeling his large, warm hand on her shoulder. "We know each other."
"Who is he?" Nella asked.
Jorie tried to remember a name. It lurked somewhere in the back of her mind, but she couldn't grasp it. "I don't know," she said.
"Do you remember anything else?" Nella asked.
Jorie shook her head. Exhaustion trickled through her blood like lead. She wanted to keep her eyes closed and go back to sleep, but even more than that, she wanted to know what was going on. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes and sat up.
Nella was now standing, and Brian was leaning against the far wall, but Griffin was still sitting on the other end of the couch. Her eyes met Jorie's and then squeezed shut in a catlike smile of encouragement. "And?" Griffin asked, expectantly looking up at her mother. "What does the dream mean?"
"I don't think it has any meaning at all," Nella said. Disappointment and relief warred with each other on her face. Maybe a part of her had hoped that Jorie was indeed a dream seer and that her skills would save Griffin's life. "She just dreamed about the image that I used to get her into the dream. For a true dream seer, that's just the starting point. The dream itself takes place in other locations. I think she just dreamed about whatever was on her mind when she fell asleep, and her imagination made up the old man."
Jorie nodded. It sounded plausible. She often dreamed about the things she thought about while she fell asleep, sometimes even about characters from her novels.
Only Griffin didn't seem ready to believe in the simple explanation. "The old man... was he Wrasa?" she asked.
She really wants to believe that I'm some kind of dream seer, connected to the Wrasa in some way. Yes, I had some very unusual dreams in the past, but with my overactive imagination, that's to be expected, isn't it? She wasn't ready to believe she was a shaman or prophet to a species of shape-shifters. "I don't know," Jorie said. The old man had looked like a normal human. "I don't think so. I got the feeling he was a relative or friend of mine, so he was probably human."
"Hmm." Griffin rubbed her ear. "And dream seers... they don't always have precognitive dreams, do they? Sometimes, they dream about things that are just meaningless and coincidental too, right?"
"Yes," her
mother said. "And sometimes, even people who are not dream seers have dreams that might look like the dreams of a maharsi — even though they aren't." When she looked down at Griffin, a hint of sympathy glittered in her eyes.
"I'm sorry," Jorie said, gently touching Griffin's forearm. She knew Griffin had hoped that her being a dream seer was the explanation. "Maybe I would have had another dream or seen more details, but I think I woke myself up when I walked into the spiderweb."
Griffin's head jerked around. Her pupils widened. "You walked into a spiderweb?"
"Yes. Even though the old man tried to warn me." Jorie rubbed her face, where she could still feel the sticky strands of the spiderweb.
Griffin moved closer. Warmth penetrated Jorie's leg as Griffin's knee touched hers. "The old man from your dream... what did he look like?" Griffin asked breathlessly.
The image was slowly coaxed from Jorie's memory. "He had a gray beard and tanned, leathery skin as if he spent a lot of time outside. He was very, very tall, but I think that's distorted. I think in the dream I was a little smaller than I really am." A sudden thought occurred to her. "Maybe I was a child in my dream." She opened her eyes and studied Griffin, who looked deep in thought.
A quick glance passed between Nella and Brian. They didn't believe her dreams held any meaning.
"He was taking you somewhere," Griffin said. It was a statement, not a question.
"Yes, but that doesn't make much sense. What place of interest could there be in the middle of the forest?" Jorie shook her head. It had just been a dream, not the meaningful prophecy that Griffin wanted to see in it.
"And he repeatedly told you to slow down and wait for him because his old bones couldn't move as fast as yours," Griffin said.
Her breath caught, and she felt herself starting to tremble — or maybe it was Griffin who trembled next to her. "Now who's the dream seer," she joked shakily. "How do you know what he said to me?" Had Griffin somehow built a connection and shared her dream?
"Because he didn't say it to you. He said it to me." Griffin looked up and met her mother's gaze. "Remember the day Grandfather took me to one of the sacred spots in the forest to test any dream-seeing potential I might have? I walked right into a spiderweb because I was too nervous to pay much attention to where I was going."