Good Morning Raven
Warmth… Comfort… Security… Sensations coming slowly, unfiltered by logic or meaning. Only sensation, nothing else. Slowly they came, briefly flitting in and out of awareness. Soon they began to come quicker and in greater detail. A wonderful warmth all around her, soft comfort enclosing her, and a deep and abiding feeling of security like she had never known.
For a moment she just reveled in the feelings provided by her senses. With no will of her own to resist, she had no cares, no concerns, no worries. She drifted on the edge of consciousness, perilously close to tipping back off out of awareness. Her other senses began to come into play. The soft shaggy texture of her firm pillow. The sound of her slow gentle breathing.
A conscious thought began to surface slowly to the forefront of her mind. 'This feels nice' she thought. She was warm and comfortable. Most mornings she woke cold and cramped. Cold from having kicked off her sheets as she tossed and turned in the night. Cramped from said tossing and turning. It was hard for her to sleep through the night. She would always wake up cold, cramped and alone. Nightmares could do that.
The merest thought of her nightmares threatened to give rise to anxiety and dread. But something held this back. Maybe it was the unexplained feeling of security she was experiencing. 'Why would I feel safe?' her awakening mind questioned. She normally awoke feeling vulnerable and frightened.
With this question the gears of her vast intellect began to turn. Shaking off the cobwebs of sleep her mind began to ponder this query. Nothing had been special about last night. She had gone to sleep in her room like always, not a single thing done differently.
Just then she registered several critical realizations. Firstly even with her sheet and blanket she shouldn't be this warm. Next, she realized that her pillow was soft and filled with feathers, the one he had her head on was firm and slightly shaggy. And finally she registered not only the sound of her own gentle breathing, but another's as well.
The first realization puzzled her. The second worried her. And the last one sent up a large red flag. It was definitely time to wake up.
Raven opened her eyes.
Light was coming in through a curtained window, the first rays of the morning sun casting long shadows in the dim room. Large unidentified shapes loomed on the floor and in the corners while various objects hid in-between them and lurked in their shadows. The floor seemed abnormally distant from her vantage point.
A white cotton sheet was drawn up over her, the bed she was in was lumpy, as was her pillow. She shifted slightly, and then froze. The sheet was not only covering her, but someone else as well. Her pillow was not a pillow at all, but rather a shoulder. It wasn't this fact that caused her to freeze. It was the fact that the shoulder in question was green.