*Chapter 8*
~Dreams~
Dreams are curious things. There are the waking dreams, the conscious goals and desires of men. Humans strive for these, sometimes all their lives, and are not guaranteed to ever realized them. Then there are the dreams of sleep, unconscious desires and wishes of people reside in these. Some are meaningless jumbles of images, others are terrifying possibilities, and yet others are pleasant. The meaningless may be amusing or confusing to the dreamer, a mix of fantasy and reality. The nightmares are always frightening as the sleeper is trapped within what they believe is reality or a terrifying memory of the past. The pleasant kind can be many things, they may be fantasies or much loved memories, but one thing is certain no one wishes to wake from them. And sometimes there is an ambiguous dream; it is neither amusing, nor terrifying, nor pleasant. It is all of these things and yet none of them at the same time. And this night Katharine Pryde had such a dream.
Katharine found herself in some sort of castle or large stone building; it was hard to tell as everything had a fuzzy quality to it. She wandered aimlessly as if searching for something but not knowing what it was or were it was. There were no people anywhere, no animals, and no sound save her own foot steps. She wandered through various corridors, chambers, and courtyards, never finding any sort of exit to this strange place. All the windows she looked through were either blocked or full of a pure white light. She felt as if she were in a maze and was completely lost. Shadowcat tried to phase through some of the walls but found that she strangely couldn't. Panic began to set in and Kitty ran as fast as she could in one random direction after another. After what seemed like ages she tripped and fell, she curled into a ball out of breath and close to tears. Then, for some reason, she looked up to see a floating sphere of light. Kitty felt compelled to touch it and, as her fingertips brushed its surface, a feeling of detachment swept over her and her vision faded into white.
~ ~ ~
Little Katharine's head hurt, a lot. It was a dull throb that pulsed just behind her eyes that spiked painfully whenever she heard a loud sound. Her whole body ached when she moved, even when she breathed. At times she was burning hot and at other times she was freezing cold. She felt faint and, if she wasn't careful, the room would start to spin, forcing her to lean against the wall till it passed. In short, she felt terrible, the worst she could ever remember feeling in all her twelve years of life. But she had no time to be sick, today was her mother's birthday.
She suppressed a groan as she trudged over to help her cousin, Jane, set the table. Was it her imagination or did the dishes weigh a ton all of a sudden? Jane yelled at her to pick up the pace, they had less than an hour till her mother would return. Mistress Pryde had asked they not throw her a party this year, so her family decided to do it anyway and make it a surprise. So now Master Pryde was out with his wife at a play, giving everyone time to prepare the surprise party. But time was running short and there was still much left to do. Katharine pushed herself on, the sooner she finished the sooner she could rest. So she obediently picked up the pace, pushing herself to keep going.
After setting the table and working in the kitchens for an hour everything was set and her mother would arrive soon. And Katharine felt worse than ever. Her head felt as if it was going to explode, the room wouldn't stop spinning, and now her throat hurt as well. As she carried a basket of flowers to her Aunt Agatha the feeling of faintness sharply increased and her vision began to blur. Her legs suddenly refused to support her weight and she sunk to the floor, her vision melted to black.
***
When little Katharine regained her senses she found herself lying in her bed with a damp cloth pressed against her forehead. Her mother sat by her side holding a cup of water looking quite concerned.
"Kitten, whatever possessed you to do all you did when you are this sick?" Mistress Pryde asked in a soft whisper.
"Today's your birthday Mommy. I wanted it to be special, I wanted to help." Katharine rasped miserably.
"That's a nice thought Sweetie, but you are too sick to be doing things like that. I know what it's like to be sick and I would have understood if you didn't help. Everyone would have, you didn't have to do anything." Her mother assured.
"But what about your birthday?" Katharine asked.
"Don't worry about it; just concentrate on getting well for me okay?" Mistress Pryde replied.
"Okay, I promise." Katharine said reluctantly.
"Good, now get some rest. Auntie Grace will check on you each hour to see if you need anything. I'll check up on you before bed, alright Kitten?" Her mother stood to leave, kissing Katharine's fevered forehead before moving to the door.
"Happy Birthday Mommy!" Katharine hoarsely called.
"Thank you very much Kitten, now get your rest." Mistress Pryde said over her shoulder as she walked out the door.
Little Katharine settled back on her pillow miserable as can be, not only was she horribly ill, she was also missing her mother's birthday party. Her only company was Lockheed and Auntie Grace which meant she was very lonely. Auntie Grace wasn't so bad, she was actually an adult cousin, but Grace had a bad habit of forgetting things when she was having a good time. The first two hours Auntie Grace remembered, she even brought some juice with her the second time. But after that the party must have gotten good because she didn't come. This left Katharine all alone for several hours with nothing to do and no one to talk to. Little Katharine tried to pass the time by playing with Lockheed or napping, but it wasn't enough. After nearly three hours she was about to try and get up to go down-stairs, at least she could watch everyone have fun. But before she could move her door opened. Katharine was prepared to yell at her Auntie Grace only to find that it was someone else. Kurt Wagner ever so timidly crept into the dimly lit room as if he feared waking her.
"You don't have to creep around like that, I'm awake." She croaked. Kurt jumped guiltily before he moved to her bedside and nervously presented her with a small piece of cake.
"I brought you some cake." He mumbled.
"Thank you I suppose." Katharine sighed. She propped herself up and tasted the sugary confection. It was a sweet white cake topped with fresh strawberries, her mother's favorite. "Have I missed anything interesting?" She asked quietly.
"Axel said something to Fräulein Grace and she slapped him." Kurt offered.
"Really? What else happened?" She asked, leaning forward with interest.
Kurt hesitated for a moment before he perched himself on the edge of her bed and recounting anything that was remotely interesting or amusing. He spent nearly on hour telling her the events that she had missed, sometimes asking her a few questions of his own. Near the end she became drowsy, finding it difficult to remain focused on what he was saying. Eventually she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of the party she missed as Kurt tucked her in and made his escape.
~ ~ ~
The blinding light receded and Kitty found herself back in the fuzzy stone building. The globe of light buzzed around her head for a moment then zipped through a window. Shadowcat scrambled up to see where the light sphere had gone to. As she peered out the window she saw it fly past a dark silhouette that was perched on a high stone wall. The shadowy, indistinct figure slowly turned towards her, its golden eyes searching. Then, without warning, there was a flash of light and the shadowy creature was gone.
A shiver raced down her spine at the sight. What was that thing? What was it looking for? And where the heck was she? Shadowcat wandered away from the window and down the hall. She came to a room with a bed and found she felt very tired all of a sudden. She gave into the urge and climbed on, swiftly sinking into a black, dreamless sleep once more. When she woke that morning she would not remember all of her dream, she would forget the mysterious shadow and misty castle for a time, remembering only the memory of her mother's birthday party. And she would wonder why she had dreamed such a thing in the first place, why?