Chapter 1: Dreaming
Someone screamed in agony, someone yelled in reply. Smoke filled her nostrils. She inhaled a breath to scream but it came out as a choked cough instead, as nought but the thick smoke had entered her unsuspecting lungs. She blinked her watery eyes, but it was no use. The smoke was everywhere. Blindly, she fumbled for the door to her bed chamber, then upon finding this, feeling for the latch, she drew her hand away and took her burnt fingers to her mouth, as the metal latch was white hot. Realising that the handle would be just as hot as the latch, she gathered up her skirts and covered her hand to first undo the latch, and then to turn the antique handle she had turned so many times before. Wincing at the heat she felt even through the thick silken petticoat, she quickly pulled the heavy door open, and a wave of incredibly intense heat mixed with still more smoke bit her face. Forcing her eyes open, she saw a hazy mix of red, orange and grey, which convinced her that she would find no exit here. Using all her strength to slam the oak door shut, she felt herself hurrying over to the window, running into a chair on the way there and momentarily tumbling. Forcing herself to rise, she limped unsteadily over to the window and ripped the smouldering curtains open. Feeling along her wall, she looked for the ivy growing along the smooth stone walls, now her only chance of escape. Finding this and stepping up onto her window still, she felt for a foodhold in the ivy, and transferred her weight onto it. Snap. She barely felt herself falling, and as the world turned black she vaguely felt herself land in something. Hay maybe? She blacked out.
Waking with a start, disoriented, sitting up and whirling around, Isabelle Therese Tropezienne realized that she did indeed smell smoke, from the small campfire next to her. She took in her surroundings, the tall, leafy trees around her, the moist grass which carpeted the clearing, the sound of a small river near her, that she had bathed in only the day before, the pink light of the awakening sun which defied the remnants of shadow. Checking her companions were still in the lands of sleep and dream, she quietly gathered up her clothes and her soap and tip-toed to the river she had heard. This particular dream always made her feel dirty, although the real dust and dirt had been washed off in the days following that terrible night.
Isabelle stripped off her shirt and breeches, sliding into the bitingly cold water as quickly as she could. She lathered the soap on her body vigorously, mentally trying to remove all traces of the dream. As she sat in the shallow stream, she wondered why, all of a sudden this familiar dream had started coming to her again so frequently. Sure, she had had it in the past, but maybe only once a week, or once a fortnight. Now it was coming to her daily.
People always set a great amount of store by their dreams, hell, thought Isabella, there are even people who make a fortune from reading them. Personally, she had never set a lot of stock buy these astrologers (A/N: is that what you call them? I wasn't really sure…. If someone could let me know….), but over the last week she had been beginning to wonder. Is there something in what they say? she pondered while quietly floating in her stream. She half-wished that she had listened when all her old acquaintances had talked of such things. But there was little answer in the past, Isabella had a funny feeling that she would soon find out why. After all, that is what Alisya had always told her, wasn't it?
A/N: hope you all enjoyed my first chappie!
Now puh-leaze press that gorjuz little blue button in the bottom left hand corner, and tell me!
Loving all reviewers till the end of time,
hj