A/N: Here's another story in my SA&D series. This one is for all those who have reviewed my other stories in this fandom. It's about Dot this time.
Hope you enjoy it!
Shifting Grounds
This is horrible!
She flipped through the second exercise book, wincing at the purple prose that covered the pages.
I cannot believe I wrote this!
Dorothea Callum sighed. She had been hoping to find some inspiration among the tattered notes of long lost childhood, but instead, the words mocked her, full of irritating spelling, punctuation, and history mistakes.
Not to mention the terrible self-inserts!
She shut the book and turned to the last one of the three.
This one's battered cover proudly proclaimed to the world: "The Outlaw of the Broads, by Dorothea Callum"
This one had been the best of the best, in her mind. And as she read the scattered storyline, she remembered the good times she had had, reading bits and pieces of it out loud to the Coots, the Swallows, and the Amazons.
She turned the page and saw the hasty sketch that Tom had made for her, one long ago sunny morn. It was of the Outlaw himself, in the forest. A sword swung at his side, and his clothes were tattered and worn. He was gazing around alertly, trying to find something—a sound? A swift movement in the brush?
But a girl's face in profile peeped out from behind a tree, and the girl's face was her own, the eyes dreamy and unfocused, a book lying forgotten in her lap.
A new idea began to blossom in her mind as she stroked the worn pages. What if...one could find in an old book a portal to times lost and untold? A picture came alive? A song floated out from the pages into the world of the living?
She tapped her fingers against her lip, descriptions and dialogue forming in her mind.
"Dot? Dot! Come on, it's time to eat, and Joe, Pete and Bill got up quite a feast!"
She turned. Tom Dudgeon was waving for her at the top of the hill. "I can't believe you forgot your own 16th birthday party!" he panted, coming towards her.
She smiled. He really is quite handsome...
"Here. It's a present. I hope you like it," Tom handed her a rolled up sheet of thick paper.
Dot unrolled it. A girl and boy smiled up at her from the paper.
"Tom...are they...us?" she whispered.
"Yes. Do you...do you like it?" he answered slowly.
"Yes...I do."
And time stopped for two young people.