Thank you all for your support.
I'm writing this to help myself process my divorce. It's totally killed my creative mojo. And I needed to do something to help get it back. I obviously hope you like it. But if you don't, please don't be mean about it. A lot of this comes from a very real place.
Genre warnings: SHAMELESS self-insertion. If that bothers you, don't keep reading.
Thank you, please enjoy
Alanna came back to consciousness with a complete collection of a headache, stomach ache, and some very strange memories of a dream. The last of which had been someone scooping her up and carrying her over a dreamy threshold as she succumbed to a wave of fatigue and dizziness. Resolving never to drink again, she closed her eyes tightly shut and pulled the covers over her head to shield her from the effervescent light of day creeping through the window. Somewhere from nearby, she heard a door open and shut.
Tom
Habitual instinct told her that her husband had just come home. Maybe he'd forgotten something. Or maybe, maybe he'd come back. More maybe still, it had all been the worst kind of impossible dream and she'd return to a life full of love and promise. A split second of confusion and hope blasted through her as she ripped off the covers and sat up straight.
But the room was not their bedroom from their cute apartment on Samantha St. It was modest and comfortable, but rustic. Like a log cabin in one of those historical recreation parks. In a large space, four warm wood walls housed a bed, desk, small sitting area, and what seemed to be an old-fashioned woodstove that was made of not iron, but stone. One medium window looked out into the leafy green world from above a sink and countertop that jutted practically out of the walls. Hope vanished, but the confusion doubled.
An impressively annoyed yowl sounded from just below her feet.
Suddenly the headache was gone and replaced by frantic alarm as she sat very still, looking at the huge panther sleeping stretched out at the foot of her bed. It gave her something like an indignant look before seeming to decide that this occasion called for a bath. And set about licking its massive, strange, blackish- bluish-purplish paw without paying her any more mind. His mannerisms were instantly familiar.
She raised her hand halfway to her lips as if to stop the absurd question that came tumbling out, but failed entirely.
"M-Mormabath?"
The Moon Panther, an emissary of the moon goddess and denizen of the moonlight realms, raised his intelligent blue eyes to her and ceased his nervous bathing. A low rumbling purr answered her question as he rose, stretched, and lumbered rather funnily over the blankets toward her. His affectionate headbutt nearly knocked her over, but she embraced him tightly anyway. Giggling like a madwoman, she began to fawn over and stroke him like any other house cat.
"I've cracked! How splendid, this has gotta be the nicest padded room I've ever been in. Can't wait to see what happens when the drugs kick in."
Morambath gently bapped her on the nose and she felt only the merest hint of a great claw on her skin. But even so, he let out the most insulted hiss she had ever heard, and he bared his great teeth.
"Watch your language! But, I can't think of how else you or I came to be here..." She trailed off as memories began flooding back. The man of her dreams, with a thousand honey brown promises in his mismatched eyes. One of them, fulfilled.
"It was real? I'm really here?"
Morambath, clearly annoyed, left her to her catatonic state of emergency and leaped off the bed. Padding over to a dark wardrobe. He sat regally on his haunches before it and let out a commanding growl.
The brass latch clicked, and the doors swung open, revealing a small blue scaley something tumbling out in an avalanche of pure bedlam. Morambath pulled back the tips of his paws as if to prevent himself from touching the offensively disorganized pile. He was the very spirit of condescension as the chaos settled, and he quietly looked down upon the small creature struggling to hike up to the top of the newly formed mountain of fabric and trinkets.
It was either a very ambitious lizard or, a very small dragon. His tiny wings fluttered with indignity as he reached the summit and reproached the great cat.
"Ahem! Whooo disturbs my slumber?!" a wheedling falsetto popped from the dragons throat, completely negating anything that might have resembled a threatening tone in his voice. The panther merely flicked his tail and turned his eyes over to the bed.
Following his gaze, the would be Hoard-Master Onyx noticed Alanna staring at him. Pure unadulterated joy dawned over his features "Mistress! You're awake!"
He started to scramble down Mt. Chaos, his wings fluttering again in excited attempts to fly to her. But being a youngling still, he only managed some very enthusiastic hops.
She leapt from the bed and met him halfway, scooping him up off the floor and swinging him into a big hug.
"Oh Mistress, isn't this simply divine? The tall man said I could have the privilege of guarding the closet. And worry you not, Morambath has already done three whole perimeter checks! He was unseen, of course. Oh, it is a fine little estate, Mistress."
"Where are we?" she whispered in awe, settling Onyx comfortably on her shoulder.
Morambath rubbed up against her legs and loped over to the open window in the kitchenette. Following him, casting her eyes over the Forget-Me-Nots blooming in the windowsill, she had her first look into their new world.
They were not alone. That much was obvious instantly. People milled around outside engaged in a hundred chores within a great courtyard surrounded by tidy little renaissance looking tenements like her own. She was on the highest floor, looking down on them.
People, that was the second thing she noticed. All of them were surprisingly very human. All dressed in simple but well-made clothes that were fairly durable and not terribly unattractive. Looking at herself, she noticed she too wore a long tunic of pale blue, brown cotton breeches, and sturdy leather shoes. She still wore the King's emblem, shimmering in the sunlight. However, there didn't seem to be much deviation in the levels of finery on the people. Glancing about it seemed all of them were of similar wealth and class. Comfortable, but not noble. In fact, her necklace was the finest thing she could see.
On impulse, she hid it under her tunic.
"It is a sort of halfway house, Mistress," Onyx explained.
"Halfway between what and what?" she murmured.
"We are in the Underground, but not yet within the Labyrinth. It's like an Aboveground embassy of sorts. Many humans have come to the Underground over the ages. So many humans were born here. And they have their own community. And this is it! It's called Skyhaven. At least, that's what we've been able to find out so far. We would never truly venture out without you, Mistress!"
Alanna gave them both rewarding scritches behind the ears."I appreciate that, boys. One thing's for sure, I sure don't want to do anything rash. Well, more rash than wishing myself away to a Fae Lord's dominion that is. I haven't decided whether I'm the luckiest woman alive, or the most foolish. But I sure am glad to have you two here with me."
For several long and silent moments, she simply watched the goings on from the safety of that window. Amiable people going about their day. Smiling at each other, trading harmless gossip and mostly good news, being polite and predictable. She had the slow, strange sensation of having been dropped into one of those picturesque snow globe villages.
It was normal.
It was safe.
It was clean.
It was wrong.
Familiar lilting ghosted across the shell of her ear.
"Let's have a game, shall we?"