The Kingdom of Waking Dreams
"I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was." – A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 4, Scene 1
Chapter One: Fortune
The paint brush swept over the pale canvas, leaving a streak of translucent gold in its wake. The fairy's wings were made golden, the pale color of the watercolor making them look more like the shimmery wings of a dragonfly. When the artist was pleased with her work, she cleaned the brush in a jar of water and switched to another color. She leaned back to take in the full image of a beautiful fairy, dressed in spring greenery, lounging across a toadstool as her kin fluttered around her like fireflies in the twilight. She smiled as her creation took form before her eyes. Each added color breathed more life into it. She gave the fairy's skin a soft pinkish skin tone. Her eyes she made a lovely emerald green. Her hair became a tumble of fiery coils. Wild flowers dotted her mane here and there, their stems woven through the tangled locks.
"I see the new painting's coming along."
The artist plunked her paintbrush into the jar of water and smiled coyly at her observer. A tall man entered her small studio, carrying two plastic bags full of savory goodies from the Chinese restaurant around the corner. Strands of his long inky hair fell loosely over his shoulder as he closed the jade green door with his foot.
"It's getting there." The artist sighed, bashfully toying with the streak of dark purple hair that hung around her face, forgetting all about the paint smeared on her fingers. "Did you get my sweet and sour chicken?" She asked, hopping up from her stool.
"I wouldn't have dared to return if I had forgotten." He chuckled with a broad smile. He handed her a styrofoam takeout box that smelled distinctly of her favorite Chinese meal. Reaching into the pocket of his leather jacket, he pulled out a handful of plastic wrapped fortune cookies. "I also conned them into giving us all of their fortune cookies." He placed the handful on top of her box.
"Thanks for this, Rune. You're a life saver. I haven't eaten since breakfast yesterday." She mumbled around a mouthful of rice as they sat around the paint splattered work table that took up nearly the entire floor of her studio.
Rune flashed her an exasperated look, obviously suppressing a sigh. "Johanna, you need to take better care of yourself." He scolded her like a worried parent as he stabbed his chopsticks into a piece of mu shu pork. "I swear if it wasn't for me, you'd never eat…or bathe." He illustrated his point by picking a piece of dried paint from her flamboyant black and purple hair.
Johanna rolled her eyes at him as she took another bite of her chicken. She hated when Rune pointed out her lack of care in herself. When she had told her parents of her plan of moving to the city to become a professional artist, they had all but laughed at her. They had been confident in the belief that she wouldn't be able to exist on her own. In a way, they had been right. Although she usually made enough money doing commissions to pay her portion of the rent, she often neglected the basic necessities like eating and bathing regularly. "I can't help it. Sometimes I just…I get these ideas for pieces and I have to get my ideas onto the canvas before I forget them. When I'm working on a painting, time gets away from me."
"I know." Rune chuckled. "I remember the last time I visited my parents. I was gone for four days. When I came back you had done that huge water dragon painting and hadn't eaten, slept or taken a shower since I left." His silver eyes darkened, as if tarnished by time. "Sometimes I worry that you might…fall apart without me."
"That's ridiculous." Johanna huffed. "I survived before I met you, didn't I?"
"Yes, you managed, but as I recall you only weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet by the time we crossed paths. Now, thanks to me and my daily take out runs, you have some meat on your bones."
"Thank you for helping to fatten me up, Rune." Johanna remarked sarcastically. Closing her take out plate, she stabbed her plastic fork through the lid and tossed the whole thing into the garbage.
"You're welcome." Rune smirked in that teasing way that he knew made Johanna angry.
Their dinner finished, the two set to work on the fortune cookies. They divided them up between them and ate through the whole lot at an alarming pace, paying little mind to the folded pieces of paper within them. As Johanna came to the last cooking in her pile, she actually read the fortune. "Hey, Rune, listen to this one. The kingdom of waking dreams shall soon be opened to you. What the hell does that mean?"
Johanna noticed Rune's eyes slightly narrow as he glared towards the paper in her hands. "That's a…odd fortune." He said in one long breath. As if trying to quickly change the subject, he snatched up the last fortune cookie in his own pile, broke it and read the fortune. "You will soon be faced with a tough decision. Thank you, mystic fortune cookie, for your wise council." He said, sarcasm dripping off his tongue.
Rune tossed the fortune aside and got up. He stretched his arms and back like a cat. "It's getting late. Go take a shower. I'll clean up."
"Thanks," replied Johanna. As she left the studio to retreat to her bathroom, she tossed her own fortune into the garbage.
Her bathroom looked like she'd had a psychotic episode when she was painting it. On each of the walls, were swirls of color. Blues, purples, pinks, and yellows were mixed together in various nonsensical patterns. She had done it all with her bare hands, dipping her fingers into the paint and just smearing the color however she saw fit. It was a good thing her landlord was also Rune's uncle and he was just as crazy artistically as she was. Otherwise, they would have been evicted from the converted mansion ages ago. The painting of the water dragon that Rune had spoken of during dinner hung over the toilet. Johanna admired it as she washed her hair. A rainbow of colors washed out of it, coloring the floor of the shower like a bag of Skittles. The water dragon was serpentine in shape, its head was angular and despite its mouth full of razor sharp teeth, his eyes was thoughtful and a bit too human. It was covered in metallic silver scales that she imaged would sparkle in the sunlight like glass if it were out of the water. It slithered through a dark blue ocean, with beautiful black eyed mermaids swimming all around it, beckoning to him as if they were leading him to some fantastic feeding ground.
The idea for that painting had come on suddenly, a swift, fleeting dream, the kind that come when your eyes are still open. At once, inspiration seized her. She fled into her studio, locked the doors and windows and flung herself at the canvas with her weapons of water color paint and an army of variously sized brushes. The dragon roared as it sprung into life, demanding to be finished, so that he could truly live within the world she painted. She sat at her stool for hours on end, stopping only when her body could take no more. She would take momentary rests, but sleep wouldn't come. Her mind was in a whirlwind of thought and try as she may; it would not let her sleep. Before she knew it, days had passed. She had only moments before swept on the final brush strokes on the bubbling water when Rune had returned. He found her slouched at the canvas. Dark circles were around her eyes, making them seem sunken. As soon as she saw Rune, her paint brush slipped from her hand and she tumbled off of her stool. He caringly put her to bed and, after forcing her to eat a little, he let her sleep through the next day. When she awoke, she found that he'd framed and hung the water dragon painting, where they'd be sure to see it every day.
Rune was thoughtful, like that. He did small things that made Johanna happy, like making sure that she had eaten that day or simply giving her a hug when she needed one. It was one of the reasons why he was her best friend and why Johanna sometimes wondered if they could ever be more than that. "He's right." She laughed bitterly. "He is always taking care of me. Without him, I don't know what I'd do." She smiled weakly as she shut off the water and stood there, enjoying the coolness of the room. After a moment, she grabbed a fluffy towel, dried her hair, and wound it around herself. Who am I kidding? She wondered. As she blow dried her hair, she thought of her roommate. He was very tall, wiry and graceful. He had pronounced cheekbones and long raven hair that made her think he might have some Native American blood, although his skin was pale porcelain and his eyes were silvery. Rune would never be interested in me. She mused miserably. I'm not his type. In fact blonde and perky seemed to be his type, not short artistic madwomen with hair that changed colors with the seasons. When you look like a male model and lack the arrogance that often comes along with it, you have no shortage of girls pining for your attention, but Rune actually dated rarely and even so he was always the pursued, not the other way around. He never seemed particularly interested in dating, though Johanna was absolutely certain that it wasn't for the lack of being interested in women. It wasn't a problem of sexuality. It was more like he was more comfortable with being by himself.
Donning a baggy t-shirt and flannel pajama pants, Johanna headed to her room, as she crossed the hall, Rune ascended the stairs and passed by her on the way to his own room. "Good night." He said softly. "Get some sleep tonight, okay?"
"I will. Scouts honor," said Johanna, vowing with a hand over her heart. Johanna lingered in her doorway for a minute, watching Rune's back as he disappeared through his bedroom door and it closed behind him.
Johanna buried herself under her plush comforter. On her hot pink walls, hung several paintings of fairies, dragons, and beautiful princesses with golden hair. In the corner, was a bucket full of paints, brushes, and stained rags. Having had little sleep the night before, she closed her eyes as soon as her head was on the pillow and dreams bombarded her.
Her consciousness slipped into that faraway fantasy world where all of the creatures and people that she painted, lived and breathed. She found herself walking through a city of sparkling jewels. The people in the crowd around her were draped in rich, brightly colored fabrics. Their faces of some were ethereally beautiful, others were grotesquely ugly, and most were in-between. She wandered through the city, she herself dressed in a bell sleeved dress the same color as the fairy's hair in the newest painting. On her hand, glimmered gold and silver rings and around her head was a heavy circlet, encrusted with a dark purple jewel. Her vibrant hair was very long and hand been wound into a loose braid that hung down her back and trailed behind her as she walked. In the distance was a palace. It looked like a twisted, hollow tree. Its branches made its towers and through small cracks, she could see light spilling out from within. Spherical jars, containing orbs of golden light, hung from the tree's branches. At night, the tree palace would be aglow while the rest of the city was bathed in darkness. She continued on her path, feeling that she must get to the palace soon. There was something…someone there…waiting for her. What or who it could be, she did not know. Suddenly the scene vanished, replaced by the eyes of a cat, gleaming at her through the dark night. Its luminescent green eyes burned at her like fire, its slit shaped pupils glaring dangerously, sharp as daggers. A voice burst through her, as if it were her own. It was not her voice, but she could feel the rumble of the sound in her chest. "Welcome to the Kingdom of Waking Dreams." It said and the cat smiled a needle filled grin.
Johanna shuttered awake, her eyes blinking up at the ceiling where the glow in the dark stars had been pasted soon after she'd moved in. Turning on her lamp, she snatched her sketchbook from her bedside table. Madly, she scribbled the ideas that now flooded her mind: a jewel kingdom, its streets crowded with creatures, the tree castle, its limbs filled with flickering light, and a cat's fiery eyes, a pleased smile stretched too widely across its face.