That same dream again, the same one I've been having for years. A forest somewhere, painted in bright autumn colors. The wind whips playfully around me. I'm alone here, it's relaxing. I can hear the sounds of a brook not too far off and the songs of the winter birds in the trees. Not that I actually know what birds are winter birds and which aren't.
Something was different today though, something was off and I couldn't quite place it. Time seemed to be moving slower but that wasn't so very out of the ordinary. No different bird sounds, no major shift in the topography of the land and nothing else that I could find. Infuriated I nearly turned to go, to wander anywhere but this valley, this place that made me feel so uneasy today when my eye fell on a patch of solid green cloth. Frowning I approached it. This wasn't supposed to be here, I mean, it could be, it's a dream after all and I'd seen a singing codfish not a month ago in this same dream but that hadn't produced the sense of wrongness that this green cloth did. Holding it tightly I forced my way through a thick bramble, the thorns making my skin sting with a thousand small cuts, until I reached the other side and came up short.
There was a person; a male by his build, tall and lithe but dangerous looking never the less. Even squinting hard I still couldn't make out his face and finally gave up. It was rare that I could see the faces of people in my dreams anyway, there was often a just a knowledge of who they were. Though I couldn't place this person or see any of his features I could feel his gaze upon me, staring at him in a way that was most un-dream like. Frowning I moved closer and took a harder look at the rest of him.
"You're hurt!" Any unease that had been with me vanished as I hurriedly knelt down next to him. He shrank back against the tree on which he was resting but still did not speak. This close his eyes finally came into view, an almost painfully vibrant shade of green. His gaze startled me, I admit but it was my dream after all, if I wanted some random guy in the woods to have green eyes I wasn't going to argue. Shivering once to throw off the feel of his gaze mantled across my shoulders I returned my sight to his left arm. Reaching out I touched the slit cloth as gently as I could, moving it aside only far enough to see that there was damage beneath.
His eyes were so filled with venom and distrust, why would my own dream have such cause to hate me? I frowned as I inspected the wound closer and eventually leaned back on my heels. Stretching out my hand to my side I twisted my wrist and fingers until my apartment bathroom came into view. Giving one hard yank I pulled the image right up close to me and though it felt like moving through molasses I managed to stand and get the first aid kit from beneath the sink and turn back to the man who was bleeding all over my nice golden leaves.
"Let me help you." My voice was as soft as I could make it, as nonthreatening as possible. The eyes narrowed and without a sound his left arm was held out to me. Grasping it lightly at the wrist I looked it over from shoulder to fingers. There was a long slice on his upper arm that seemed old and yet still bleeding. Frowning I pushed the soaked and sticky cloth away from it to get a better look.
"You're in luck. It's a clean wound. Nothing embedded in it that I can see." Biting my lip I lowered the arm carefully and stood, turning away from him again. My bathroom yawned back into my view. With as much haste as I could muster I filled a bucket with hot water and grabbed several washcloths. My return to my forest was marred by the feeling of time go pear shaped for a moment, blackness threatening to creep in on the sides of my vision. Shaking my head I allowed myself to fall back on my knees scuffing them as I forced a smile onto my face.
"I'm going to have to cut the sleeve off alright?" I held up my hands and frowned, I had thought I was holding scissors but there were none there; with a snap of my fingers they appeared. "There we are. I'll try not to move your arm too much okay?" With the barest nod of consent from him I felt the forced smile on my lips fade to something gentler. Carefully I cradled the crook of his elbow lightly against my side, cutting away the silken fabric of what must have once been a very nice shirt at his shoulder before placing the scissors down and even more carefully pulling the remains of the sleeve off and dropping it on the ground. My look quickly soured, I could feel the frown lines forming between my eyes and around my lips as I watched bright red blood bubble up and ooze across skin so pale that I could have sworn the dream man should have been passed out from blood loss. Wetting the first of the washcloths I brought it down close to the wound and he winced and recoiled from me, leaving me holding his wrist instead of his elbow.
"Now then, that's no way to act." My voice was harsher than I'd intended and I sighed and wrinkled up my nose for a minute with my eyes closed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap." His eyes regarded me again though his hand stayed still. "Please. I know it's scary but I have to clean it up as much as I can before I can bind it. It looks like you were lucky. It's a deep wound but it's just in the muscle, it didn't cut anything important. You'll probably have a scar-" What was I saying? Like dreams could scar- ugh - whatever dreams are as they are. "But you'll have full use of the arm… I don't know how to stich flesh closed and I don't have anything to numb you so I'm just going to use butterfly sutures. Here-" I reached down and found a decently sized stick. "I'm sorry but this may hurt and I can't have you pulling your arm away each time. Open." I opened my mouth as I said it and for a moment his mouth came into sight.
"Bite" I placed the stick between his teeth and watched, startled at how white they were as they grasped the branch. "I promise" I could feel him snort as though that meant little. "I'll be as gentle as I can." His arm moved almost imperceptibly forward and I grabbed the crook of his elbow with a firm hand, bringing the washcloth farther away from the wound at first, removing layers of dried blood and dirt, until I was close enough to lightly bring the washcloth over the wound itself.
He snarled and tried to take his arm from me again. This time I was ready and held on tightly pulling his forearm against my side to hold it in place. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'll try and be softer. It needs to be cleaned though. Please bear with me." I moved as quickly as I could after that, bringing the wet washcloth to his arm again and cleaning the wound until I was satisfied. Throwing the cloth in the bucket I grabbed the first aid kit and found what I was looking for, laying suture after suture on skin that was getting progressively colder. "Those will hold the wound together, here." I pulled a bandage out and placed it over as much of the cut as I could, grabbing another to cover the rest. "Hold that please." His other hand came up and rested on the bandages I had placed there. "Here we are." I pulled a tightly wrapped strip of gauze out and moved his hand, holding his elbow again. Placing the end down I began to wind it around his arm taking care to cover everything completely until it was all covered in white.
"There you are. That wasn't so bad was it?" I smiled and I could feel myself slipping from my dream back into the darkness.
. . .
I woke, still smiling, though that quickly faded and groaned. "Really universe? I couldn't get one night of full sleep?" I rolled over and flailingly reached for my phone to check the time.
"Of course. Half an hour before I had to get up anyway. Fine. Stupid sleep failing." With a grumble I climbed out of bed and hissed as my feet found the freezing floor. "I really should get a rug." I muttered and pushed myself to stand, my legs aching as though I'd spent hours on my knees. "Ugh, stupid winter, stupid cold muscles. Move already damn you!" I growled and stumbled my way to the bathroom. I was certainly nothing to look at this morning with my hair all over the place and with a grumble I turned the shower on as hot as it would go. "I should have used salt or honey." The voice was mine but the thought was … well probably also mine but it took my conscious brain several seconds to catch up to what I was talking about. "or lemon… what the hell am I on about? That was a dream... a dream where- hmm" I frowned as I got in the shower. I couldn't seem to remember. Just that salt or lemons, or honey wouldn't have been useful. It was like a dream I'd had before I was sure of it but as the morning dragged on the details of it muted and eventually faded away leaving me shaking my head since those three words sat burned in my mind. The shower burned me it was so hot, turning my skin pink and leaving me wobbling once I finished, my head swimming from the heat. With a snarl I turned up the heat in the apartment, it would be expensive but worth it to not have to heat myself up in the shower like that again, my vision darkened a bit at the edges and then receded leaving me shaken as it always did when I raised my body temperature too high.
The only plus side to waking up early was the fact that I actually got to eat breakfast for once instead of scarfing down terrible food at the hospital where I worked. Work was dull as always but I hadn't been expecting anything else. One can only write so many excel sheets on the different information in a clinical study before they get terribly boring. The only small blessing was that the day went quickly. I was able to chat with a friend about anything that wasn't excel sheets which was nice. No one bothered me at lunch and traffic was at a minimum on the way home. All in all my day was probably as satisfactory as it was going to get. The night closed in again, early as always in the winter and I snuggled myself happily in bed, eager to catch up on the sleep I'd lost the night before.