Dreaming the Dream Attn Zierna

[WhiteWolf]

Owen had arranged to meet Zierna, a new Wanderer, at his house, an hour before, and was patiently sitting on the balcony of his tree house rewrapping the leather bindings on his sword hilt, when he was hailed from below. Getting up from his chair, Owen leaned over the balcony and shouted down to Zierna to come on up. The climb up to his house was not difficult, but could be unnerving seeing as his house was built in one of the tallest, and largest, trees in the forest. Eventually Zierna reached the balcony and Owen invited her to sit down in the chair opposite him and Owen poured her a mug of tea and refreshed his own, after putting his sword down. “Now before we begin I have to warn you that entering the Dream before you are prepared can be very dangerous. What happens to you there can affect you in the waking world. You can just as easily die there as you could here, and if you die there you die here as well, there is no second chance.”

Glancing at her face, Owen could see that Zierna was slightly confused, but this was to be expected, as this was here first lesson in the Wolf Dream. “It is easier to show you than to explain to you but first you need to know how to enter the Dream Don’t let it bother you if it does not happen at first. It is difficult at best to make yourself fall asleep. The best way is to focus on your breathing. Close your eyes."

 

After a moment’s hesitation Zierna did as he said.

.

"Do not try to force it. Just relax and drift. Feel your muscles relaxing; you’re breathing easing. Focus on this balcony and me." Owen kept his voice soft and quiet, not wanting to disturb Zierna’s concentration. Soon her breathing slowed and her body relaxed, slumping where she sat. Owen waited a moment, making sure she really was asleep, then he closed his eyes and stepped into the dream world.

 

Owen had deliberately selected his home as the place for them to meet in the Dream World, as it was an easy place to memorise. As he sat on his chair, Ice came out from the house and nuzzled his hand. Owen scratched behind her ears, and the two of them talked until Zierna popped into the Dream.

Owen

 

The White Wolf

 

Ranger Leader

 

Zierna was nervous, she was starting her training with Owen in the wolf dream which was strange just by its self since she had never known that it existed. Following the instructions she was given it took her a little while to find Owens home, she would have found it sooner if she had just looked up on a few occasions.

 

She shouted up to him when she finally realised where his home was and almost laughed when his head popped over the side of balcony and told her to come on up. She looked around and finally found how to get up there and climbed up to where he was at and sat down when he motioned her to. She took a sip of the tea he gave her and listened to him intently, there was so much that she still did not know and she did not want to do any thing wrong.

 

“Now before we begin I have to warn you that entering the Dream before you are prepared can be very dangerous. What happens to you there can affect you in the waking world. You can just as easily die there as you could here, and if you die there you die here as well, there is no second chance.”

 

His warning about the wolf dream gave her pause, she could understand why concentration was so important the smallest thing could cause large problems. It was just hard to actually visualise what he meant by it being a danger, his next words confirmed what she was thinking.

 

“It is easier to show you than to explain to you but first you need to know how to enter the Dream Don’t let it bother you if it does not happen at first. It is difficult at best to make yourself fall asleep. The best way is to focus on your breathing. Close your eyes."

 

When it was time for her to try and enter the wolf dream she closed her eyes and relaxed, allowing her breathing to slow. She could still hear Owen talking but it seemed more soothing and helped her to fall in to a sleeping state, what she was not ready for was popping in to the dream on the balcony and seeing Owen sitting there already. Startled she woke up and grumbled, there seemed to be a smile on Owens face that she ignored and tried to fall in to a sleep again. This time it was easier for her to fall asleep and when she popped in to the dream she kinda knew what to expect and seeing Owen sitting there did not brake her concentration.

 

She gave him a small smile and then took the time to really look around, every thing seemed so different. There was light every where but it did not seem to be coming form any real source and that was not some thing that seemed normal. In some cases the colors were more vivid that she had to shield her eyes occasionally at the brightness. It was some thing that had never happened to her, having her eyes be sensitive to colors normally it was just the light that was a problem. Relaxing she was not aware that her clothing seemed to be changing from one color to another while Owen's stayed as they were the whole time.

 

" It would be hard to believe that the wolf dream is real unless you have actually been in side of it and seen what it looks like. It is almost hard to tell the difference accept for the light that seems to be coming form every where and no where at the same time. Is it always like this?"

 

Zie

 

Owen watched as Zierna looked around, her reaction was typical of someone who was in the Dream for the first time, and it never failed to amaze Owen at the reaction they showed. It truly was a thing of wonder to enter, and the more you learned here the more wonderment you could find. But as with anything good, there was also danger, and that was enhanced in the Dream more so than in the real world, and the dangers here were much greater for the unprepared.

 

“It can be many things here, but there is always an ethereal quality to the Dream, we have to be careful to not let our curiosity get the better of us here, that can lead us into danger, sometimes that danger is so great it can cause us real harm, before we are aware of what is happening.” Owen stopped talking, allowing what he had said to sink in. Warnings were not always heeded by Wanderers, they had so much to learn in such a short period of time and many of them tried to run before they knew how to walk.

 

“In the Dream control is everything, and that is what you are going to learn first. Your first lesson will be to control your clothing, at the moment your emotions are interfering with your control. That is why you clothing flickers like it does. Now you need to hold an image of your self, and how you want to look, in your mind. Once you learn to do this then this will not be possible.” To illustrate what he meant,Owen concentrated for a moment, and suddenly Zierna’s clothing solidified into something that he was sure she would not normally wear, not even in her wildest dreams.

 

“Check your clothes now, Zierna, I think you might be a little bit over dressed for this occasion.” Owen had changed her clothes, and appearance, into something a Domani woman would have been shocked to wear in public, so shear was it. Owen did his best to suppress a smile at her reaction, but he did not try very hard. “This is your first lesson Zierna, and for now I want you to try and change your clothes and your appearance back to how you want. Concentrate on how you want to appear here, your clothes and your hair. Picture yourself in your mind and fix that image there. It will take you some time to be able to do this without conscious thought, but we have plenty of time for you to practice.”

 

Owen

 

The White Wolf

 

Ranger Leader

 

“In the Dream control is everything, and that is what you are going to learn first. Your first lesson will be to control your clothing, at the moment your emotions are interfering with your control. That is why you clothing flickers like it does. Now you need to hold an image of your self, and how you want to look, in your mind. Once you learn to do this then this will not be possible.”

 

There was something about what he said that caused her to pause, what couldn't happen? She knew that her clothing was changing, flickering between color and style of clothing regularly. While Owens clothes were constant and never changed unless he wanted them to change. Every time he talked about the dangers he spoke of control and staying in control of your emotions and thoughts.

 

 

“Check your clothes now, Zierna, I think you might be a little bit over dressed for this occasion.”

 

She looked at herself and blushed bright red, in all her years she had never thought that what she was wearing would ever be warn by any one. The only thought that made her blush even more was that Anton might like it, suddenly she understood his warnings, in the dream the smallest lack of control could cause major problems or even embarrassment. In this case it left her red in the cheeks and Owen not even bothering to hide his amusement.

 

“This is your first lesson Zierna, and for now I want you to try and change your clothes and your appearance back to how you want. Concentrate on how you want to appear here, your clothes and your hair. Picture yourself in your mind and fix that image there. It will take you some time to be able to do this without conscious thought, but we have plenty of time for you to practice.”

 

Zierna sat there for a moment and built the picture in her mind of what she looked like and how her clothes were normally. Once the picture was there she concentrated to try and change what she was wearing, at first nothing happened. Realizing that Owen had more practice she knew that it was going to take a few tries to undo what he had done to her. Closing her eyes she tried again, the picture came to her easier this time but she only managed to change just her pants. Sighing she tried again, the picture was easy and she worked harder on keeping the image and changing every thing back at the same time.

 

Again she managed to get half of her self changed back to normal but she was not going to give up, there had to be away to get all of herself in the right clothes. With each try she as getting better, more of her would change back to the original version. It took only about three more tries and she was able to get all of her to match the picture in her head, once she did it she practiced a few more times with changing color before stopping and looking over at Owen.

 

" It's harder that it looks to keep your clothes set to where you want them but I think I have the hang of it. Practice seems to make it easier but some things seem harder than others, especially when some one else changes it."

 

She started practicing again changing small things and then larger things about herself and her clothes. After a while it was fun to see what all she could do and the combinations that she could come up with, some made her laugh while others made her blush. Soon her clothes changed again back to her original set of clothes and stayed that way, she still had to work at it some to keep it that way but it was getting easier.

 

Zie

 

Owen watched Zierna intently as she tried to change her clothes to the ones she wanted. It took a while, with many false starts, until she was absolutely satisfied with her appearance. But just as Owen was about to compliment Zierna on her performance her clothing changed, suddenly she was clad in armour, from head to toe. Owen waited until she had noticed this and Zierna had changed her clothes back to what she wanted. “What caused that Zierna?”

 

Looking slightly abashed Zierna said it had been a stray memory from her past that had caused the sudden change.” Actually that is a good example of what I have been saying. Concentration is everything here, if we allow ourselves to be distracted, even momentarily, we can be taken by surprise. Of all the lessons you will learn with us, the lessons you learn here could be the most important, please bear that in mind.”

 

Zierna looked crestfallen at Owen’s admonition of her, but she realised he was not being spiteful; merely helping her to understand this new environment she was in. Owen stood up, after Zierna had assured him she would try harder in future, Owen indicated that she should walk with him. “The next part of this lesson is slightly more difficult, but again at its core is control.” Owen showed Zierna a rock he had picked up. “Now what I want you to do is try and change this rock to something else, what it is, is up to you.”

 

Just then the rock in Owen’s hand changed into a lifelike image of a woman, complete with golden eyes. “Now obviously your first attempt will not be like this one, so I suggest you try something simple for now and see how you get on.” Owen handed the now normal looking rock to Zierna. “Now just picture an every day object, or an object that is very important to you, hold that focus as intently as you can, and aim it at the rock. This is not an easy task for someone who is inexperienced in the levels of concentration needed, but it is a task that helps one to learn the concentration needed to survive here.

 

Owen

 

The White Wolf

 

Ranger Leader

 

She was still thinking over her slip when Owen started talking about her next lesson, realising that what she had done was a challenge this next one was even more so. To be able to keep her clothes the same was just a matter of concentration and know what you wanted to look like, this was changing some thing in the dream world so that it was what you wanted it to be. Before even trying she thought about the different ways to aim and send your thoughts at some thing out side your mind which was not an easy thing since she had never thought about it. How was she going to get it done, it was probably some thing simple but required a lot of concentration.

 

Looking at the rock she tried to get it to change in to some thing simple at first, her favorite flower, but nothing happened to it while she stood there. Chewing on her lip a little she tried harder picturing the flower with great detail in her mind again, this time she felt a small tug and it wavered slightly before staying a rock. The more she tried the more it would shift but not stay how she wanted it to, rethinking the way that she was trying to get it to stay she came up with an idea. It could almost be though of as hunting, make your thoughts in to an arrow shoot them in to the object in order to change it. Wondering if it would work and stay that way she tried again to get the rock to change, this time it stayed changed in to a flower. The only thing that was off was the color and when she tried to adjust it went back to being a rock.

 

It was a lot harder than it looked but now she was starting to see what she had to do and the concentration to took to be in the dream world and make changes to it or keep your own clothing from changing. She was proud of herself when it came to her clothing, that at least had not change from what she had set it to be before they started the next lesson. Going back to the task at hand she continued to practice making the rock change in to her flower, after a short time it was easier but on occasion she still had to start over. Slowly she started to expand the image by adding to it, the leaves were harder to get to come in as she wanted them. The shadowing on them never seemed to be just right when it was a completed image in her mind. Working on it at a steady pace she was able to get the leaves and the flower to come in perfectly, not realizing that it was several hours later.

 

" Every thing that you learn here is some thing that you have to practice, once you get the general idea of how it has to be perfecting it and adding more detail comes with time. How long can you stay in the wolf dream? Is there any thing bad that can happen if you are in here to long?"

 

Zie

 

Zierna’s first attempt only lasted a few seconds and it was a flickering image not a solid one, this was to be expected, Owen was trying to get Zierna to master one of the more difficult and important skills the Wolfkin had to learn. Controlling now only your appearance, but the environment around you was essential in the Dream, and the more practice you had the more chance there was that you would survive in the Dream. Owen allowed Zierna to continue trying and she made small improvements with each effort, until finally she was able to make a flower appear. As this changed back to the rock she turned to Owen: “Every thing that you learn here is some thing that you have to practice, once you get the general idea of how it has to be perfecting it and adding more detail comes with time. How long can you stay in the wolf dream? Is there any thing bad that can happen if you are in here to long?"

 

“It is not a good idea to remain here too long, our bodies do not get as much rest when we are here, as they would do were we not here. This can creep up on someone and sooner rather than later, they will start exhibiting the effects of fatigue. Although the dream is a wonderful place, it has its price and there is no avoiding that I am afraid.” Owen stopped talking, considering her the other part of her question, there was a lot that could go wrong if you stayed in here too long, but he did not want to scare her away with any horror stories. “As well as the fatigue issue, the longer we are in here the more energy we expend, that means we need to eat more to help replenish that energy, if we are to be able to function properly in the waking world. I was once told that for every hour we spend in here, we lose two hours of proper sleep. It is something for you to consider when entering the dream.”

 

Owen had Zierna practice for a while longer then announced that the lesson was over for the night and that they would resume the next night. “Meet me here an hour after sundown and we will continue then, good night Zierna.” With that Owen sent her back to her own body and then went about his own business in the Dream world.

 

On their last night in the dream, Owen and Zierna were walking along a tree covered path, the branches of the trees forming a canopy above their heads and the light around them had a green tinge to it because of this. As they walked further along the path, Ice disappeared without Zierna noticing and quickly the female wolf made her way through the trees, knowing exactly what White Fang wanted her to do. Eventually she found a spot that would allow their plan to work, and made her way into the lower branches of the tree, laying full length along a branch and watching the trail. Eventually, Owen and Zierna came into view, the trail here had narrowed and Ice waited for Owen to pass before pouncing on Zierna as she passed under the branch Ice was on.

The weight of the wolf bore Zierna to the ground, and as Ice stood on her chest, her long red tongue came out and started to lick at Zierna’s face. All the time this was happening Owen stood off to one side, a smile on his face, although he and Ice played this trick many times, it never failed to make him smile as he observed the reactions from the one who had been pounced upon.

 

Owen

 

The White Wolf

 

Ranger Leader

 

It was not surprise that Zie felt a little tired as she walked towards Owen's home, being in the dream really did mean less sleep but it was still fun to learn about it. He was right about not getting enough sleep if you spent too much time in the world of dreams you started to miss getting a full night’s sleep. Her mind was on other things as she moved, wondering what she might learn tonight as they moved though the world of dreams. Control was some thing she was actually starting to get better at; nothing seemed to change her clothes once she had them set on entering the dream. Although she was not sure if a shock would cause her to falter, it was not as if she had any way to check that thought or prove one way or another.

 

In no time at all she was in the dream world and walking next to Owen, and for the first time they were just there. She thought it was a little odd that he was not explaining what the lesson was or telling her some thing important about the dream world. It was the first time she was able to relax some what while being in the dream world, as soon as she did there was a change in the feeling of the dream. A sense of peace and harmony, being one with the dream which was some thing she had not felt before this night. With a smile on her face she turned to ask Owen about what she was feeling when a shocked cry escaped her instead.

 

One moment she was walking along and the next she was flat on her back with a large wolf sitting on her chest.  Her first reaction was to try and protect herself but it happened to fast for her to actually do any thing about it. Surprise was written all over her face as she landed and was licked by a very long tongue. At least she had the answer to her earlier question, a smile came over her face as she realized that her clothes had not changed. Looking at Owen she could see that he was watching to see what her reaction was, and she was proud of herself since she did not panic.

 

“Would you mind getting off me?”

 

The wolf just looked at her, sighing her eyes went back to Owens and she waited for him to do some thing. The wolf that was happily sitting on her had to be one of his, the amusement she saw on his face was enough to have her pushing at her licker.

 

Zie

 

Owen was impressed by Zierna’s control, not every Wanderer he taught showed such control so early on in their training and once Ice had stopped showing her appreciation for Zierna Owen helped the young girl to her feet and the two of them, accompanied by Ice, continued their walk along the trail.

 

As they walked along, Owen continued to talk about the Wolfdream and explained as much as he thought was prudent about how things worked here. He realised that a lot of what he was talking about must have seemed very strange to her, but he reckoned that she was a fast learner and could possibly be one of the  few of his students who could grasp what he was talking about without then going off and getting into trouble by trying to [i[run[/i] before they could walk.

 

There was one more lesson that Owen had for Zierna this night, and as they walked the trail grew narrower and so Owen let Zierna take the lead. As she passed through the narrowest point in the trial, the trees on either side forcing her to squeeze through the narrow gap, Owen hung back, knowing exactly what was going to happen. It only took a moment before Owen heard Zierna’s cry of alarm. She was slowly sinking into the ground, already the quicksand had consumed more than half of her and she seemed to be at a loss as to what to do to escape.

 

Owen knew there was no real danger here, he could easily save, but a test was not a true test if there was not an element of stress involved so he turned hi back to her and started to walk away, wanting her to either ask for his help, or free herself. The first was the most obvious course of action for her, but Owen thought she would only take this route as a last resort.

 

Owen

 

The WhiteWolf

 

Ranger Leader

 

[zie]

Zie could not believe all the information that she was being given about the dream world, every time she thought that she had a grasp of it he would tell her some thing else that had her re evaluating what she thought. Some thing he told her caught her attention so much that she did not even realize that she was leading them down the path. Just as she figured out what he had said she gave a startled shout as she sank down in to the ground. At first she started to struggle, looking around wildly she saw Owen with is back to her and walking away. It did not take long for her to connect the dots and calm down; this was a test of her ability.

 

Since she was not sinking quickly it gave her time to think of how to get out of the bog she was in. Struggling would only make her sink more and she did not want to call out to Owen unless she had no other choice. There had to be a simple way to get out of this all she had to do was figure it out. Taking a breath she looked around the small area, there was nothing that she could grab to pull herself out with in arms reach. So that meant she had to come up with a more creative idea of how to get out all on her own.

 

Several ideas passed though her mind as she stood there, the first was to see if she could just make herself reappear on solid ground. Another was to try and float up above the hole and then walk back to where it was safe to stand. Pushing those ideas away she tried to make the ground hard under her feet so that she could walk out of the hole. The dream was resistant to her tries to solidify the ground which made her wonder about if it was a real hole in the waking world.

 

Frowning she started to rethink her earlier ideas, in the dream world you could change any thing about your self as well as the area around you. A slow smile crossed her face as she concentrated on herself and the ground under her feet. It took her more time that she thought it would but slowly she lifted out of the mud and was standing on solid ground. A second later she was in clean clothes and walking over to stand by where Owen was waiting.

 

“That was an interesting challenge, and a lot harder to change the area around me than what I thought it would be. Is there a connection between the waking world and the dream? What I mean is if the hole is in the both worlds does that effect changing it?”

 

[WhiteWolf]

Zie’s performance belied her relative lack of experience in the Dream world, and Owen was pleased to see how easily she coped with the pressure of the situation. Before answering her question Owen offered praise for her poise, but reminded her that it was easy to become complacent when things seemed to be going so easily. “I do not say this to lessen the satisfaction you should rightly feel. I only mention it to keep your feet firmly on the ground.” Owen smiled and then walked over to where a bench had suddenly appeared. Sitting himself down, Owen signalled to Zie to sit next to him, which she finally did.

 

“To answer your question? Well there is not firm answer, yes things here are as they appear in the waking world, but they are also different and have a way of changing each time we come back to them.” There was momentary confusion on Zie’s face, “That does not make sense Owen.”

 

“That is what I said when I was in your position. As a wanderer I was often confused by the similarity and the differences between the two worlds. Maybe if I give you a demonstration it will answer your question better than I can.” Owen reached out and took hold of Zie’s hand. “Do not let go Zie, I would not want to loose you, that would be most tiresome.” Before she could respond the forest winked out of existence and they found themselves standing in Owen’s office in the Rangers Barracks.

 

“This is where I do most of my work when it comes to the Rangers, where I keep records of who has done what and when, messages that have come in all sorts of boring and mundane tasks. Now, walk over to my desk and open the top drawer and take out the sheaf of papers that are in there.”

 

Zie did as she was instructed and removed the sheaf of papers, but left the drawer open. “Read the top piece of paper and remember what it says.”  Once Zia had done this Owen instructed her to replace them in the drawer, wait a moment, and then take them out again. “Now tell me what you see.”

 

Owen

 

The WhiteWolf

 

Ranger Leader

 

[zie]

Zierna wondered if she was ever going to understand the dream world or Owens explanations about what was happening in it. When he grabbed her hand and told her to hang on she was about to ask him a question when the area around them shifted and she was standing in an office. Still a bit dazed she did as he asked her with out even thinking about it, which really made things snap in to focus a few moments later. The letter she had read was a simple report but the next one that she looked at was a note from one of the sages about herbs. It had changed from one moment to the next and all she had done was wait a moment as he has asked her to do.

 

She was tempted to think he was tricking her, and just to see if he was she picked up another one. This time it was a note about a heard being seen several miles from the stedding and moving away from it. There was a comment about hunting them for supplies since they were getting low on meat. She looked back at Owen while putting the paper away.

 

“I think I understand, the dream is a shadow of the real world and it changes because the real world is never the same. Time changes and things happen every minute so the dream can only be a shadow and mirror parts even as those parts change. It still gives you clues or maybe a taste of what has happened in the waking world.”

 

Smiling she sat back in the chair and though about all the things that she knew about the dream and realized its why some things were easily seen and others weren’t. One example was a camp fire, some times it was there and others times not but if you were looking for some one camped in an area then finding the camp fire would tell you roughly where they were in the real world.

 

“ Owen can you find people in the dream?”

 

[WhiteWolf]

Zie’s attempt to explain her understanding of the Owen’s explanation was correct to a certain degree, but not entirely correct. “You are almost right Zie, but not quite. In my experience I would say the dream is much more random than that and is almost impossible to describe in terms that you and I can fully comprehend. To say it is a shadow of the waking world is true, but also is not true.” Suddenly Owen grinned realising that trying to explain how things worked in the dream was about as easy as trying to find a particular drop of water in a lake, while blindfold. Realising that Zie was looking at him with a curious expression on her face Owen started to explain why he was smiling.

 

“When I was going through the same lessons you are now I asked similar questions to the ones you are asking and received answers much the same as I am giving you now. They left me feeling dissatisfied, much as I guess you are feeling now. So much of what we know about the dream is trial and error and that leaves huge gaps in our knowledge. As I just showed you, one minute you can open that drawer and one report will be on top, the next minute a totally different report or letter will be on top. Trying to explain the why of that will keep you awake and cause you headaches until you head is about to explode, like one of the Illuminator’s fireworks. The easiest course of action is to accept that that is the way of things here and to always remember to be careful, or at least as careful as you can be.”

 

Zie seemed to consider Owen’s words for a moment and then, as was the wont of Wanderers, asked another question.

 

“ Owen can you find people in the dream?”

 

It was a moment before Owen replied, knowing that the answer he was going to give would not be the one she more than likely wanted to hear. “It is possible to find people in the dream yes, but that is not only difficult, but also very dangerous. For now it is above your level of skill and is not something that you would be capable of handling at this time.  May I ask why you want to know this, is there someone you are trying to find?”

 

Owen

 

The WhiteWolf

 

Ranger Leader

 

[zie]

“It is possible to find people in the dream yes, but that is not only difficult, but also very dangerous. For now it is above your level of skill and is not something that you would be capable of handling at this time.  May I ask why you want to know this, is there someone you are trying to find?”

 

Zie turned slightly away from Owen, since she had come to the stedding she had not told any one about her brother accept Anton when they were traveling to the stedding. She felt ashamed that she had forgotten him while adjusting to her new life. Taking a deep breath and  shoving her feelings of guilt to the back of her mind she looked at Owen with sadness in her eyes.

 

“Before Anton found me and brought me here I was searching for my brother, he was taken from our home in the middle of the night. The last clue that I found was that he was being taken to Andor’s Capital, by some men who…..”

 

Her voice faltered because she was not sure if she could say what they were suspected of doing. Thoughts and worries started to swirl around in her head, he could be any where by now and being forced in to doing horrible things. A tear slid down her cheek, absently she wondered if crying was possible in the dream world. It took a few moments for the thoughts to slide away to where she could finish what she had been telling him.

 

“They were over heard saying that he would catch a fair price.”

 

Her eyes met his and she could tell that he knew what that comment meant for her brother. It was more than a need to find him, he was her twin and she felt like part of her was lost since he was taken. Not knowing what was happening to him or what had been done to him was the worst because the mind was a powerful thing. So was imagination, she was not even sure that some of the things she had imagined were physically possible.

 

“It’s not just a need to find a brother, he is my twin Owen.”