Ok, on the last two chapters I didn't have any author notes. Why? I have no idea; it just seems like a good idea not to add A/Ns on Dream chapters. Anyway, hope everyone had a happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or whatever you celebrate around this time of year and are having a good start to the New Year! Welcome to the first chapters of 2005! And remember, in this story I own almost nothing!
Kilana opened her eyes. There was something hovering above her face, but she was unsure of what it was. After a blink or two she realized what, or rather who, it was.
"Claire?" she asked. The other girl was sitting to one side of Kilana because her eyes and mouth appeared vertical.
"You're alive!" Claire threw herself down and grabbed Kilana into a very awkward hug.
"I should be." Kilana said. She was very confused. Claire let go and sat back on her knees.
"But in my dream you died! I killed you!"
"You killed me? Thanks."
"I'm serious! You and Becky ran into a lamppost and died! And…" Claire trailed off as she remembered the first part of her dream her eyes fell tot eh floor. "Never mind. ((shakes head)) Did you have any interesting dreams?" She looked up some.
"Yeah, you and everyone else left me in a tunnel filled with a million spiders!" Kilana replied in a mock angry voice.
"Sorry." Claire looked up a bit more showing a smile tugging at one side of her mouth. She looked up all the way after a moment and looked around. "I wonder what time it is." The room they were in had, of course, no windows so how early or late it was couldn't be told.
"Morning." Kilana said as she sat up. Claire gave a quiet laugh in response and stood up.
"I'm going to go find out." Quickly changing into a clean shirt, Claire opened the door to the old storage room and left in search of people. Kilana shut the door and pulled on a clean shirt of her own before following.
((As the saying goes, 'if you don't drop dead, you haven't been trying hard enough.'
-From The Cat Who Robbed a Bank))
Kilana found everyone outside in the garden. Claire had already been recruited into helping weed a patch of crops located over by the shed. Sarah was the first to see the new girl and called out a happy greeting.
"Kilana!" Bringing her watering can with her, Sarah walked briskly over to meet Kilana. "Yay! You're awake! Now all we have to do is finish gardening."
"What time is it?" Kilana asked as she looked around. Todd was supervising those weeding and Alicia was helping those watering.
"Almost noon." Alicia supplied as she watered a small patch of barley grains.
"You guys really slept in." Kanji said as she upended a basket of weeds over a compost pile on the far side of a makeshift fence.
"But they had a reason." Alicia said as she walked toward a well beside the backdoor.
"And if you haven't figured out what that reason is we'll tell you later." Todd had come to empty his own weed basket. "For now help us do a little work. There's a watering can over by the shed, help Alicia."
And so everyone worked quickly and efficiently to finish de-weeding and watering the garden. When that was done Alicia brought out a simple lunch for everyone to eat. Once that was done and the dishes had been set in a bucket to soak, Alicia told everyone the surprise.
"Now that we've done our work, we get to have fun. Not far from here there is a waterfall, on one side there is a lukewarm pool where the guys can relax and on the other is another pool, slightly warmer and larger, where us girls can relax. No one can see the other side because of the waterfall so it's very private."
"If everyone is ready to leave in the next 10 minutes, we'll go. If not, we can hang around here and do more yard work." Todd added. Everyone was ready to leave in 8 minutes flat.
((Come with us or be sucked into my hand.
-Miroku in and Inuyasha movie, Affections Touching Across Time I believe.))
"Wow…" That was the most common comment when the ladies saw their side of the waterfall. The water ran down under a tree and if you walked through it there was a large cave in the rock with the tree roots creating a lovely ceiling that even allowed some light through. There was a rock shelf that ran to about the halfway mark on each side. Alicia had brought candles so the place wouldn't be too dark. The guys were on the other side, shaded from passers-by by a series of weeping willows that formed a ring around a 4 1/2 foot deep pool on the other side. The tree roots out there had twined together to form underwater benches and chairs for resting on. The girls all agreed that their side was much nicer.
"It's all about 4 ½ feet deep except for where the ledge stops, anything after that is between 5 and 7 feet." Alicia said as she pulled off her skirt and carefully folded it up. Claire was setting candles around the side of the ledge she was on while Erin came behind her and lit them. Once half of her candles were gone, Claire took off her own skirt and then waded over to the other side where she placed the remaining candles. Clara touched her bare toes to the water's surface.
"It's warm!" She exclaimed.
"It should be perfect." Alicia had taken off her shirt and was now sliding into the water. When it reached her collarbone she stopped and sighed. Turning she addressed the girls. "Well get in."
"Naked?" Kanji asked.
"No, you can leave your shirt on if you want."
"I am." Claire said as she absentmindedly wondered into the deeper water. "It's fun, watch this." She pulled the edge of her shirt up over the water and then brought it back down under. This created a pocket of air that amused Claire for a moment before she forced the air out. In turn, this made a large bubble of air come up and pop on the surface.
The other girls slowed opted to keep their shirt on or off and then spent a good half hour or so just floating around. The guys on the other side did likewise, thought most of them went shirtless.
(A/N-If any of that sounds perverted, I honestly didn't intend for it to be that way.)
After a while Sarah swam over to her skirt and produced from one of the folds a box of pocky. "Pocky!" She said happily.
"You have pocky?" Kanji, who was close by, asked.
"Yes, I have pocky!" This was said slightly louder and most everyone heard it. Suddenly Sarah had 7 girls looking at her with some form of 'can I have a piece?' in their eyes. "My pocky!" Sarah held the box to her chest but then opened it and gave everyone a couple pieces. Alicia, Sango, and Kagome even got some.
"What is this?" Sango asked when she was given a stick.
"It's a biscuit dipped in chocolate." Kagome explained as she took a bite of her own.
"What's chocolate?" Sango asked. Kagome sweat dropped and tried to explain what the foreign food was. While this was happening Claire and Kilana got into a splashing fight that spread to Erin and Yuki, then Clara, Sarah, and Kanji, until all the girls were trying to soak each other/
((Though I'm not likely to grow anymore, except sideways.
-Pippin in Return of the King))
As the light filtering through the tree roots started to fade, the girls started to pack up. Kilana went around blowing out the candles and picking them up and Alicia handed thick dry cloth pieces to the girls so that they could dry off some. Running under the waterfall, the girls noticed that the guys had already left so they headed back as well.
Back at Todd and Alicia's place they found the young boy who was supposed to come and work for the jewelry he had been given for his mother slumped against the wall out back. Alicia stayed out to talk to him and the girls went inside. Most changed back into their shirts from the day before to sleep in and those who had wet shirts put them outside to dry overnight.
Anyone who was hungry got something to eat and then everyone said their good nights and went to bed.
There! My second chapter of the New Year! Sorry if the ending there sorta sucked. Please excuse any grammatical errors, I don't feel like looking it over right now. Hope you all enjoyed it! Please leave a review on your way out!