[ORIG][Fic] Angel Dawn, Chapter One
hcobb
By Henry J. Cobb, all rights reserved.
I think that the characters and situations presented here are
original, but I owe a heavy debt to my influences.
Chapter one: "Dawn of the Hunt"
"Father?" I floated into his study. I could not sense anybody there,
but there was a trace of his presence. I examined the trinkets he kept
there but then I drifted towards his scrying device. It was on. I
projected my senses into it.
It displayed a planet. I recognized that it was Earth from the many
lessons we had been taught about that special world. The focus was on
a city, filled with those humans. I hovered for a moment and watched
them stir from their rest as they began a new day. The city was lit
only by faint starlight and artificial lights, but this was no problem
for Father's power, which filled the scrying device.
I pulled back in shock then looked again and saw that one of the enemy
was there, on Earth. Why hadn't the alarm sounded? I extended my
Essence to focus the device on the intruder, but it slipped off. The
enemy had some sort of masking spell to hide themselves.
I looked around, but nobody else was nearby. Fine, I could deal with
this myself. Hadn't I trained for many years? I floated into the
device and followed the threads of its focus. I flew through its
spells towards Earth.
>From inside the device I noticed that it had an additional function.
It could grant human form. I activated this. It would be best to
blend in with the locals until I could confront the enemy. I gained
mass and fell.
I shivered from unfamiliar sensations as I felt a body encasing my
essence. A reflex triggered in the base of my new brain and I took a
breath. I opened my new eyes and beheld a wall. It was an artificial
structure of some sort, a large rectangle with smaller rectangles of
different materials within it. It was mostly white with an irregular
gray pattern over most of it.
I felt a cold dampness under my feet and looked down. I was standing
on a field of short green things. I could feel through my feet that
these were living things. That they had grown there. I looked back
up and froze. The gray pattern on the wall had shifted. I heard a
sound behind me and spun around.
Unused to supporting weight on legs I fell onto my backside and landed
on the green living things. I used my hands to help myself to my feet
and felt even colder from the dampness on my palms and backside.
There was an irregular structure standing in the middle of the field of
green. It towered over me. Carefully I stepped towards it until I
could feel it with my hand. Its surface was rough and hard, but it was
also a living thing. It had grown there in that one spot for many
years. Up above its branches moved slightly in the early morning
breeze. And far away the horizon brightened in anticipation of the
nearby star's appearance. It was dawn, an appropriate moment for my
arrival.
I felt a sadness from the tree. No, not from it, but a residual trace
left behind. I looked around and saw that the field was surrounded by
a fence that connected to the large structure. I went back to the wall
and placed my left hand on it. The hands of men had shaped this
material and put it into place. From within I could sense sobbing. A
noise some human in great distress made. I ran my hand along the wall
until I came to a different material. This was thinner than the wall,
could it provide entry?
I ran my hand along this smaller rectangle until I encountered a device
protruding from it. It was colder than the rest and shiny. As I
wrapped my hand around it I could sense that this metal instrument
would open the panel around it when twisted. I tried to twist it but
it resisted. There was another function to the device. Some other bit
of metal went inside it to activate it. I probed deeper and saw that
it had two states, locked and unlocked. I concentrated on the small
parts within and nudged them to unlocked.
With a twist of the knob the panel opened. It was darker inside and
slightly less cold, but the opened door provided some illumination.
Again I sensed the faint sobbing and followed it up a flight of stairs.
There was another locked door there and I used the same means to open
it, but it was quicker this time because I already knew the workings of
these locks.
Behind the door there was a room, but unlike the other rooms I had
seen so far there was a grayness. I reached out one foot and touched
the gray covering on the floor. It was dust that had fallen from the
air very slowly. No person had been in this room for months and yet
the sobbing was closer. I walked across the dusty floor and stood
before another panel. It was a door without a lock and instead of
swinging out it slid to the side. I moved it out of the way and the
sobbing stopped. There was nobody there that I could see, but the
small space was filled with things hanging from a rod. I reached out
to push them out of the way.
The thing I touched was some sort of covering. It was used to protect
against the cold. I was reminded of how cold I felt and I unhooked
the hanger it was on from the rod. I held the covering against me and
saw that it would only cover a fraction of my body. I ran my hand
along the fabric and could sense that it was meant to be used with
other items. I shifted the item to my right hand then ran my left hand
along the hangers until I found the other item that was most often used
with the first one. As I removed these from the hangers I could sense
that they were supposed to go over other items, but I could not find
these other items in this closet. I searched around the room and found
them in drawers that extended from a large box.
I tried on the various items but found that the undergarment that was
meant to go over my chest would not fit so I left it behind. Feeling
much warmer I looked around the room then stood and listened. Nothing,
no trace of the tormented soul I had followed there.
>From the corner of my eye I saw some movement and turned towards it.
There was a human behind a transparent panel. I raised my hand towards
her and she copied the motion, exactly, but with her right hand rather
than her left. I moved to the side and so did she. Somehow she was
me. This was some sort of device that could show an image of whatever
it faced. Somehow light was reflected from the device instead of just
illuminating it. I moved my head closer and farther from it and
determined that the light was reflected at exactly the same angle that
it struck the surface.
I used this mirror to examine my new body. It looked a lot like the
various humans I had seen through Father's scrying device, but
something was off. I moved my hand up to the ribbon I had tied in a
bow around my collar and straightened it, then ran my hands through my
hair to arrange it, with a little touch of my will to force the stray
strands into place.
I stood for a minute longer then turned. There was a noise coming
from behind a glowing curtain that covered part of one wall. I pushed
it to the side and saw that the light came through a transparent panel
that was divided into frames. Through it I saw a wide flat path and on
the other side structures of about the same size as the one I was in.
The noise came from humans who walked on the path. Some of them wore
the same style of outfit as I had put on. They might know where the
enemy was.
As I turned to leave the room my hand touched the door I had entered
by. It had been closed when I arrived. Best to leave it in that state
so as not to raise an alarm. I swung it shut behind me then reached
into its mechanism and reset it to the state I had found it in.
Downstairs I considered the open door I had entered by. There hadn't
seemed to be any other exits from the yard, other than the sky. Could
humans fly? I seemed to recall this as being a point in some lesson.
Best not to risk it and anyway the humans I had seen earlier seemed to
be traveling somewhere and they hadn't flown. I closed and locked the
Door then turned and saw another.
I stepped outside and locked the door behind me. I walked out to the
wide path, but the humans had already left. Which direction had they
been walking? I turned at a sudden noise. A human was standing there
and making noises with his mouth.
The noises had a pattern to them. They were meant to be some sort of
a signal, a means of communicating with sound.
I walked up to the human, grabbed him with my arms and pressed my lips
against his. Yes, the lips were used to shape the noises, but they
did not generate them. I pressed my tongue past his lips and felt his
tongue. Again it helped shape the sounds, but played no major part in
generating them.
I moved my left hand up and felt down his jaw to his throat. There
the sounds were generated from air forced from the chest. I felt at
his throat, tongue and lips, exploring the complex patterns they were
meant to generate. It was intoxicating, an entire language full of
complexities and subtleties.
He shuddered and collapsed against me. I released my grip to examine
him. His cheeks where flushed and his breathing was heavy. Had I
injured him?
He got back up to his feet, said "Excuse me" and ran off. From the
speed he was making he seemed to be healthy.
As he left I realized that I had understood him and that the direction
he was traveling was the same as the others had gone before. It must
be some sort of gathering. Now that I could speak with the natives I
could inquire there.
Could I speak? I stood, closed my eyes and played the pattern of this
language through my mind. I looked around and saw no one so I took a
deep breath and forced air through my throat and past my tongue and
lips, "Excuse me. Nice day isn't this? Have you seen somebody unusual
lately?" Yes, the pitch was slightly higher than he had used, but the
patterns were the same.
I walked the direction he had, but at a more leisurely pace. I
followed the path until it ended 40 meters later. Well not exactly
ended, as two paths branched out from it orthogonally. I stepped into
the intersection and tried to feel the way the humans had gone.
Nothing. It was like no one had passed this way, ever.
Did they all turn before getting here and enter one of the buildings
along the way? It seemed unlikely. Wouldn't that building have been
filled with noises from so many?
I looked down at the path and it seemed to be well used, so why didn't
I feel anything? I glanced at my shoes. That was it, I wasn't in
contact with the path. I knelt down and touched my fingers to the
black surface. The humans had passed this way just a few minutes ago
and they had turned left. I followed them.
I repeated the procedure at the next two intersections then it was
obvious where the humans had gone. It was a larger building than I had
seen before, set in a huge fenced lawn.
There were multiple doors in a row, so I tried one at random and it
was unlocked, held shut by a spring rather than a latch. Inside there
was a long corridor and an open door revealed several rows of these
humans sitting at desks. I looked inside.
There was another human, somewhat taller than myself standing at the
front of the room. He turned to me, "Are you new here?"
I thought he meant to ask if I had just arrived so I answered, "Yes, I
am."
There was a sudden clamor of noise from the seated humans. The
standing human looked at them at then back to me, "Are you from another
country?"
"Yes, I have just arrived."
"And did you learn Japanese from a boy?"
"Yes, I," I saw the human I had absorbed the language from seated in
the room. He looked away from my glance. Had he told them? Was the
secret of my nature revealed already?
"Your Japanese is excellent, but you are speaking with a masculine
accent. You are not on my list so you'll need to check in at the
office."
"The office?"
"Four doors that way," He pointed down the corridor then turned back
to the other humans.
I counted down the corridor and opened the fourth door. It was a
smaller room and there was just one human there, seated behind a larger
desk than the ones I had seen before. She looked up as I entered, "May
I help you?"
"I am new here."
"Do you have your paperwork?"
"Paper work?" I tried to connect the two concepts together.
Just then another human entered by the same door I had, moved to and
opened the back door in the room, then turned to look back at me. He
studied me for a few seconds then pointed to the open door, "This way
please."
I stepped into the room then stood there as he closed the door and
took a seat behind the desk there.
He looked at me for a few more seconds then tossed me an object, "What
was this last used for?"
I caught it and turned it over in my hands. It was a thin cylinder,
slightly longer than I could stretch my hand from thumb to pinkie,
"You removed this cap," I repeated the motion, revealing a pointed
end, "And made some sort of symbols on paper."
"Show me," He handed me a piece of paper.
I took the device and copied the motions he had made some hours ago.
Then I looked at what I had drawn, "These symbols have something to do
with you?"
He took the paper back, "An exact match to my handwriting. Yes, this
is my name, Satoru Himoto. What brings you to Earth?"
"How can you tell that I'm not human?"
"In my hour of greatest despair, another of your kind came to me and
told me to await another of his kind and place myself at their bidding.
So what mission brings you to Earth?"
Why was I there? Oh yes, the enemy, "There is a demon nearby."
"Oh? Who is it?"
"I don't know. They are cloaked."
"Will it take you some time to find them then?"
"I think so."
"Very well, I will provide you cover. By what name are you known?"
"I am the angel Dawn."
"Dawn is fine, but let's not mention the angel part. You will be Dawn
Himoto, my niece from Brazil. My brother's death is well known and
the circumstances of it will explain your reluctance to speak about it.
Would it be a grave inconvenience to your mission to attend classes
here?"
For all of my existence it seemed I had just taken classes so a little
more couldn't hurt, "That would be fine."
"Follow me then."
We walked back to the first room I had stopped at and Mr. Himoto spoke
to the human at the front of the room, "Mr. Kuroyama, this is my niece
Dawn Himoto who is staying with me now, can she sit in on classes today
while we get her paperwork in order?"
"Yes, of course."
Mr. Himoto left and I took the seat indicated.
Mr. Kuroyama wrote with a white substance on the black surface on the
wall behind his desk. I copied his motions on my desk and found they
were the same language as the symbols I had written before, only
reversed white for black. Then he asked a student a question and they
replied. Suddenly I realized that the instruction was about
mathematics. Strings of digits were used to represent numbers and
symbols where used as placeholders for numbers that had yet to be
specified. But with this extra complexity you could easily write
statements that were not true as well as those that were and how could
you distinguish between the two?
"Ms. Himoto?"
"Yes?"
"You seem quite excited, perhaps you can tell us what the solution for
this equation is?"
"Oh, sorry. As a second order equation it has two true substitutions
of numbers for the symbols. The first of these is... How do you say
the number that when multiplied by itself is negative one?"
"Just the real number solution please."
"Real? All numbers are real."
"The solution that does not require the square root of minus one."
"Oh, the equation is true when X is three and Y is forty three
tenths."
"For equations of this sort we use decimal notation and so would say
that Y is four point three. And your answer is correct."
A short while later that teacher left and the students started to talk
amongst themselves, but they quieted down as another adult entered.
It was another teacher. He asked me if I knew English and simply
nodded when I said I didn't know that person, but the other students
made some sounds at this. He then proceeded to give a lesson about how
to convert sentences back and forth to an entirely different language.
Why did humans have two different languages? Hadn't everybody I had
met so far understood the same language?
The next lesson was even more shocking. It was about the history of
something called the Crusades. Humans killing other humans at God's
command? I must have misunderstood somehow, but the teacher continued
on the same topic and none of the students seemed to be bothered by it.
I sat for a minute after the teacher had left with my head bowed in
thought. I concluded that the teacher must have been the demon I was
looking for. Didn't demons have the power to confuse mortals with
their lies? That must be it.
I looked up and saw I was surrounded. Several of the boys from the
class were standing around my desk. I looked around, but the boy I had
first met had already left the classroom along with most of the other
students.
The boys must be under the demon's spell. I considered how I could
escape from or subdue them without injuring them or revealing myself.
I remembered from my lessons the importance of observation. As my
teachers had said, "All demons are by definition broken things. Watch
and let them strike first and their imbalance will be revealed for you
to exploit." I sat quietly and waited for the first blow. I just
wished I had been a better combat student.
The boys stood silently for a few seconds and then one said, "So Dawn,
what are your plans for lunch?"
"My niece is with me today," It was Mr. Himoto, standing in the
doorway.
The boys moved back and I walked over to him, then followed him out of
the building.
He stopped by a structure larger than a human, if not as tall, but
much smaller than the buildings. He opened one of the doors and sat
inside it, then opened the other door, "Get in."
I entered and took the seat next to his.
"Close the door please."
I reached over and pulled the door shut.
He activated a device and the entire structure made a quiet roaring
noise and started to move. It traveled out into the street and was
soon moving faster than the humans had walked. It turned a corner and
it was moving alongside other structures of similar types.
"Is this your first time riding in a car?"
"Yes."
"Don't gawk. You draw enough attention as it is."
"Oh, sorry," I looked straight ahead and thought about the demon
teacher. How had he operated in the same building without Mr. Himoto
noticing?
We drove for several minutes to a place where the buildings crowded
together and blocked out the sky except for narrow channels. Mr.
Himoto stopped his vehicle next to one of these buildings and got out.
I operated the latch on the door next to me and stepped out of it, then
closed the door behind me. I followed him into the building.
He walked past stacks of books to the back of the building then spoke
to a man who was operating some sort of machine, "The visitor has
arrived."
That man wiped his hand on a cloth then held it towards me, "Is this
the one?"
I grabbed his hand with both of mine. He was filled with emotion,
"There is a great sadness to you. There was a short person, a boy. He
liked to kick a sphere. One day he did not arise. With this hand you
touched his forehead. It was quite warm -"
He yanked his hand back and rubbed with with his other hand, "I see
that she is. What can I do for you Miss?"
"She needs an identity."
"Some orphan's?"
"She will be my niece, Dawn Himoto. She will have been born in Brazil
seventeen years ago to my brother who was living there at the time,"
Mr. Himoto turned to me, "What is your birthday Dawn?"
"I was shaped into being at a time when this world's equator faced the
dawn and the north pole was tilting towards the Sun."
"Look up the date for the vernal equinox for that year."
"Will do. Follow me Miss Dawn," The man gestured for me to stand
before a white panel as he adjusted a device, "Smile please."
"Smile?"
"Like this," Mr. Himoto raised the corners of his lips.
I copied the motion. The box gave off a very short burst of light. I
looked at it. Was this some sort of attack? No, it had just been
light.
"And I'll need your fingerprints also Miss."
"Finger prints?"
"The patterns on the ends of your fingers."
I raised my hands in front of my eyes. On one side of my fingers
where my fingernails and on the other side were small ridges and the
patterns on each finger were different.
Later as we drove away something occurred to me, "That metal item he
wore on a chain around his neck. It had the same proportions as the
symbol of my brother."
"Do you need one of those?"
"I would not want to single out one of my kin and if I were to wear
all of their symbols the load would be considerable, especially if I
included all those who have been lost."
"Do angels die?"
"There are many who have fallen and many more who have been lost and
many who are missing and yet there remain many who I have met, who have
known them all."
"Do you have a symbol Dawn?"
"I have not earned mine yet. There are many who have not. If I am to
gain mine, I hope it will not be in such a terrible way as my
brother's. He used to have another symbol, a fish."
"Speaking of fish reminds me that I pulled you out of lunch. I know
this great ramen stand if you don't mind?"
"Ramen?" It was in the vocabulary I had acquired, but I hadn't seen
anything that matched the term so it remained abstract to me, "Yes,
show me."
He parked by a small building and went inside I followed. I saw that
there was writing on the building that included the word Ramen.
As we sat down at a table inside the building he asked, "Are you a
vegetarian?"
I pondered the unfamiliar term, "I don't think so."
"Good. They've got a seafood ramen that's to die for."
"They kill people here?"
"Only metaphorically. Wait here a moment and then I'll explain," He
walked over to the counter and talked with the man there then returned
and explained the concept of the metaphor.
Later the man came out from behind the counter and placed a tray with
a bowl in front of each of us.
"Do you know how to use these?" Mr. Himoto held a pair of sticks in
his right hand.
I saw a pair of sticks like those next to my bowl and picked them up.
I read that they had been held in a way like his grasp and so I
adjusted them in my left hand to match. He used his sticks to reach
into his bowl and grab something that he placed in his mouth. I copied
the motion. The item was intensely warm. I bit into it and released
some more of its flavor as I chewed it.
"Oh sorry, was that too hot for you Dawn?"
I swallowed to clear my mouth, "No, it is quite pleasant."
"Then dig in. We need to get back to school."
We ate our meals without further conversation until I placed my empty
Bowl down.
"Good?" He asked.
Of course I was, but his question seemed to be about the meal. How
could a mundane thing choose to be Good or Evil? It must be one of
those metaphors, "It was very nice."
"I knew you'd like it," He placed some pieces of paper on the table
then stood.
I followed him back to his car and we drove back to the school. I
rode in silence then spoke, "This metaphor, it deliberately confuses
two things together. Isn't that a form of deception?"
"We humans are limited creatures. Sometimes we only see for something
for itself when we consider it in place of something else, "He stopped
the car in front of the school, "Come to my office after your classes
please."
I followed him into the school, turned at the classroom and saw that
it was empty, I turned to Mr. Himoto.
"They'll be in the gym now, down that way."
I went the direction he pointed and arrived at a door with noise
behind it. I opened it and saw a room much larger than any I had seen
before. The students from the class where there, but they had changed
into different outfits. Shirts without collars and short pants in
place of the long pants or skirts they had worn earlier. By not
changing I had become different.
"Dawn!" One of the girls from the class waved at me.
"Miss Himoto?" There was another man standing there, "Please have a
seat," He pointed to series of long benches where each row was
connected to and slightly higher than the one in front of it.
I sat down in the first row and the girls resumed an activity that
seemed to consist of passing a large orange sphere back and forth
between them. It was too large to carry in one hand so they bounced it
against the ground as they ran along.
I saw that the boys were on the other side of the room engaged in a
different activity.
"Dawn! Look out!"
Look for what? I turned back towards the girls and saw that the
orange sphere was heading towards me. I waited for it to get within my
reach and clapped my palms on either side of it to stop it. I read the
sphere. It was called a ball. The objective of the activity was to put
it into a net held up in front of a board that was attached to a pole.
I balanced the ball on my left palm and mimiced the action I had read,
tossing it upwards and guiding it with my fingers. The ball followed
the path I had given it, arcing up and passing through the center of
the metal ring and then being held by the net before falling to the
floor.
The girls watched the ball bounce on the floor then turned to me.
They all stood there for a moment and then one said, "She did that
without even standing up."
A cool breeze swept through the room and carried a strange voice, "No,
she just sat down right afterwards."
The girls all blinked as one, then the first one continued, "Still,
that was an amazing toss. We've got to have to have you on the team."
"Just be more careful please," The man tossed the ball to the girl
who had spoken.
At the end of the period the girls went to another room, but the man
told me to return to the classroom.
The rest of the class returned to the classroom shortly thereafter, in
the same outfits they had worn that morning.
The next period had the class reading passages about a prince. It
must have been about some historical event. I remembered the tales I
had been taught about the time before The Fall, before The War. Yes,
there was a war on and I needed to find the enemy quickly.
The next period had a woman teacher. She asked if I'd like to talk
about the creatures of Brazil. I covered for my ignorance by saying
that I didn't know what the words for them were in their language. It
wasn't a lie, as I didn't know what this Brazil was or where it might
be, but it felt deceptive.
She apologized for forcing the issue before I was ready and talked
about a place called Okinawa.
After the class the students left the classroom. I followed them, but
they split up and some of them started walking away. The classes must
be over for the day. I walked back to Mr. Himoto's office and the lady
in the room in front of it waved me in.
He wrote on some papers then looked up at me, "Time to go home."
"Go home? But I haven't found the demon yet."
"Let us go to my home, where you will be staying until you do. I'm
afraid I don't have much at home. Do you like Thai?"
"Thai?"
"I keep forgetting that you're not from anywhere around here. I think
you'll like it."
We walked to his car then drove to another building. He went in and
returned holding a sack that he asked me to hold while we drove away.
We arrived at a street that looked like the one I had first arrived at
and pulled up on a very short street that ended at what might have been
the first building I had entered.
He used a small piece of metal to open the door and he flipped a
switch on the wall inside and a fixture on the ceiling generated a
light that filled the room.
Was this the same building as before? It was hard to tell with the
different lighting.
He took off his jacket then took the sack from me and put it on the
table. He pulled bowls and more eating sticks from shelves behind
small doors.
He divided the contents of the boxes from the sack between the two
bowls, first noodles then a thick fluid with various items in it.
"Ramen?"
"A different kind of noodles. Like I said, it's Thai," He indicated
for me to take a seat. We ate the meal.
"Good?"
"Yes," I was starting to feel a contentment from the sense of being
full.
"Here, watch the news while I fix up my daughter's room for you," He
activated a small device and a box at the side of the room lit up and
started to make sounds.
I watched the box while he went upstairs.
He returned a short time later with a large cloth tied held in front
of his clothes, "Dawn, were you here earlier today?"
"Yes. I arrived there," I pointed towards the tree in his backyard,
"I found these clothes here. Do you need them back?"
"No, I'm sure my daughter wouldn't mind. Actually I think she would
mind. She wasn't a perfect little angel like you Dawn. My greatest
failing was as a father. But I'm sure she won't object. It's good to
see that her clothes fit you."
"There was one piece that didn't fit. The part that went here," I
started to unbutton my shirt to show him.
"Stop. I know what you're talking about. We'll pick that up tomorrow
morning. But being delivered to my house only shows that I am on the
right path to assist you in your mission."
"Oh," I redid my buttons. Had I made some mistake? And as for a
mission, there wasn't one. I had just stumbled here, or had I? Hadn't
I adjusted Father's device more or less randomly? How could that be
determined beforehand?
Mr. Himoto returned upstairs and there was a soft roaring sound, but I
ignored it. The lady in the box had just mentioned one of Father's
names. I tried to understand what she was talking about. The terms
were strange but the message became clear with images of blood soaked
clothes, humans with missing parts and bodies being carried on sticks.
When Mr. Himoto returned I had drawn my knees up to my chest. I
turned to him, "Humans killing humans at God's instruction? There has
to be some misunderstanding."
"Usually both sides will claim they are doing God's will. One or both
must be mistaken. But don't worry, Japan hasn't been a part of that
lately."
"Japan?"
"This country. Here, let me show you," He walked into another room
and returned with a sphere on a stand. It was about the same size as
the ball from before, but in many different colors instead of just
orange and black.
I recognized the blue patterns on it, "That is an image of Earth, this
planet."
"Yes, and here is Japan," He rotated the sphere to show a chain of
islands marked Japan, "And this is Brazil," He rotated the sphere to
show a land mass that had the word Brazil on it.
"There is some mistake."
"Oh?"
"These lines," I traced the ones around Brazil, "They're not there.
And this area should be mostly green, not orange."
"The lines and colors are used to distinguish countries."
"Countries?"
"Different administrative regions, with their own governments."
"Like dominions?"
"Yes."
"And then where is the council chamber where the leaders of the
dominions come together and resolve issues?"
"The United Nations is here in New York, but they don't resolve much."
"This is a strange world."
"I can't argue that point, but keep this globe in your room for now.
You'll need to know something about this world while you're visiting."
"My room?"
"The one my daughter had. I saw your footprints in the dust. Come
up, I've cleaned it up."
I looked around the room. The gray dust was gone.
"My room is across the hall. Knock if you need anything," He left
and closed the door.
I placed the sphere on a small table then looked around the room and
noticed a switch like the one he had used downstairs. I activated it
and the room became dark. I stood there for a minute. Most of the
items were now somewhat familiar, but there was a large, low rectangle
that took up much of the room. It had a smaller rectangle placed on
it. I picked this up. It was very lightweight. I read it's use. One
placed one's head on it. I lay down on the large rectangle and tried
this. I felt a strange sensation and my sight grew dim.
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Next: Dawn of the Dream.