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~ To Sleep, Perchance to Dream ~
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'Though I trudge from day to day,
I find happiness when in sleep I go away.
And if I dream perhaps I find,
that though in life I'm lost, I know my mind.'
*W.H.1492*
~|:O:|~
The white horse moved gracefully, it's hooves delicately kicking up shimmers of diamond for the morning light to shine through, refracting and sending them wheeling into the air. A haunting, beautiful melody came to her ears. Where did it come from? How would it go? For she knew that in dreams all things must go away. . . Nothing wonderful lasted forever. It was a cruel and beautiful truth. Like the snow-white charger prancing through her soft, cloudy vision; all too soon it would vanish into shadows like a shooting star in the velvety expanse of the heavens.
The dainty yet mighty creature paused in its elegant paces, bowed it's head and tossed it's neck, silver mane catching early morning sunbeams. The horse snorted, pawed the sparkling ground and turned its head.
No, not a horse, but a Unicorn.
The azure horn rose up from the center of its forehead between wide cerulean (but kind, never hard) eyes edged with long white lashes. She laughed, for she could in this state, and the sound of her silver voice echoed into the soft winds and pale blue of the shining morning. The Unicorn snorted, but the familiar sound was muted to her; the only sign was the misty plumes from its nostrils rising and vanishing into the crisp sky.
Tossing its noble head once more until its long forelock shadowed its wise gaze, it turned and pranced again across the snow-covered land in small and wide circles, always keeping in her sight. Now she waited, for she had dreamt this dream before. Always at this time, and it brought her peace as nothing else could possibly attempt to.
And sure as morning light breaking across forests leaden down with heavy white snow, there came a thick-furred wolf, it's pelt so pale it seemed the creature was made of the very substance it stepped upon.
The Unicorn bowed low, casting its beard into the frothy snow so that when it lifted its fine head, ice caught over all the shimmering silver hairs. The wolf responded, and they danced anew across the beautiful space, twining in circles and wandering in a rhythm she wished with painful longing she could recall. The light of the morning sun filtered across the wolf's coat, brightening silver hairs until the animal shone like a silver figurine brought to life.
All at once, the scene was disturbed again, but it was not agitated with frustration, more with another dance partner come into view. A white lioness, her claws flicking showers of snow under her belly as she ran to join her dance fellows. The creatures frolicked and spin on nimble legs, each of a height yet seeming almost complete though they were not all the same.
She wondered how they could tolerate the other, predator and prey together.
But even as she pondered this strange oddity, a new visitor entered into her sight. A white doe on long, lithe legs. The deer nimbly leapt among her fellows and cavorted with breathless grace.
How she wished she might join them, to dance among their number and laugh until she had no more breath to laugh! But, try though she might, she could not move toward the silent yet merry dancers. They frolicked, and seemed to slowly slip farther away into the climbing sunrise across the snowy landscape. She yearned to cry out, to stretch her hand toward them and beckon them to wait, to let her go with them wherever they went beyond the sun. But she could not find her voice.
And she despaired.
The creatures danced in endless beauty, becoming smaller and more like figurines with each step they took. At last, not even the morning light could pierce the growing shadow that came at the end of this strange dream. She sighed, and her breath seemed to carry on and on into the lengthening dark. Her heart wept, but from her lips no sound escaped. To wake now was all she wanted, as she always did once the vision of morning and magic was concluded.
Because she could, so she did.
Wake up, of course.
~|:O:|~
The woman gasped as she rose sharply in her bed, sending the sheets tumbling off. Always such a strange dream.
"Deer and wolves and lions and mythological beasts to not frolic together in the snow; what an absurd notion! I must have heard such a silly story from Lu," she murmured. "Silly girl and her silly fairytales! If she hadn't insisted on playing them and dragging everyone else into them, then perhaps they wouldn't have . . . gone," she whispered to herself, rising from her bed when she noticed the morning light filtering through her bedroom window.
Slowly she walked to it and peered out. A light snowfall had come during the night, she noticed, layering the world in a pristine layer of white. She smiled, absently touching her fingertips to the cold windowpane. This landscape reminded her of something faintly, just like the strange dream did . . . and it was always around Christmas too. Oh, why could she not grasp the answer? She struggled to understand, but her mind soon drifted to other things.
Aunt Alberta and Uncle Harold would be coming soon, so she must ready the house. Also father and mother's old friends. . . Maybe some of the Professor's too. They didn't want her to feel "lonely," though she had told them many times that it was nine years since the crash. She was fine now, she had got used to the quiet and the solitude of being alone.
Now if only she could understand why she felt this way! But nothing came to mind, and soon she went to dress for the day, tying back her ebony hair and powdering the dark circles under her eyes. . . she never slept well this time of year, when she dreamed that queer dream. She felt restless as she sat there, fixing her hair, but she couldn't divine the reason as to why. So she resolved to ignore the feeling and finish preparing the house for that evening's Christmas party. Maybe a logical conclusion to the dreaming would come to her while she dusted.
She hadn't time for wishful thinking and childish inclinations this morning.
A/N: The poem at the beginning symbolizes that Susan's lost sight of Narnia in her daily life, but in her dreams she "knows her mind" or she subconsciously knows that Narnia was real, and she still longs for Aslan and all those "childish fancies" she chided her siblings for remembering and playing even as they grew up.
The unicorn symbolizes Peter, since unicorns have this sort of unspoken magnificence about them (at least to me!). The wolf represents Edmund, since they are cunning and cautious creatures (not to mention loyal protectors of their families). The lioness is Lucy (playing on the line "if you were any braver, you'd be a lioness!") and the doe is, of course, Susan (for a doe is gentle and beautiful, but fearful and flighty when faced with something they do not understand). Two of predator and two of prey, I thought it was fitting. A nice balance, if you will.
This little vignette is supposed to take place after TLB and just before Christmas. The dream signifies Susan and her siblings in Narnia, and the morning light is supposed to be Aslan and how their rule brightened the dismal snows of an Eternal Winter. Or something to that effect. . . I lost the true meaning behind it after I started writing, sorry!
Please tell me what you think! (Have a great weekend and Merry Christmas!)
WH