Ch.2 Bit and Bridle

The cage fell quickly to me and Shift, revealing a city.

The city was lit by what seemed to be noon day light. Buildings rose to either side and above them towered power lines and radio towers. I watched people walk to and from the buildings, cars and along the sidewalks in amazement. Glass windows in store fronts revealed products as diverse as shoes to bagpipes.

Cars zoomed past on the roads and splashed water on the walkers, who cursed and spewed threats at the already vanished vehicles. They then continued on in their sopping clothes, umbrellas still held up to repel the rain.

The rain itself was warm and I held my face straight up into it, letting the drops hit my eyelids and wash away all my thoughts. It seemed so real, except for one thing.

Everything was blue.

I walked the streets and all I saw was blue. People were blue. Cars were blue. Cement was blue. It was silent, like the cage had been, with far off snatches of sound. First I heard a scream, then the sound of metal colliding with metal. The sound was deep and echoed across the city, then faded to nothing.

"What is happening Shift? I thought that when we got out of the cage, I would be free."

Yes, when you are out you will be free! But we are still inside. We need to find the way out!

I searched around me for anything that looked like a way out, but all I saw was the city. I looked up and saw a dark blue sky with tiny silver stars that cast the city into a noontime light. It seemed as though the people around me didn't see me, so – to test it – I stepped in front of a man.

He past straight through me, his form dissolving where it touched me and reforming on the other side. It left me feeling sick and I retched into the street gutter. Even my vomit was blue.

I looked at my hands and saw that my veins were all popped out, showing dark blue between the normal colored skin segments. I twisted and looked into a blue tinted glass, to see that I was affected by it all across my body, but the thing that caught my attention the most was my eyes.

Normally they were two separate colors, one a brown so dark that it looked black, the other a gray so light. I stared back at the now blue irises and marveled at how the color went from light blue in the center and rippled into a darker color near the edge. I ran a finger across the bottom of my right eye and leaned in closer, taking in my almost normal appearance.

I smiled at my reflection and watched as I walked away, not taking my eyes off of it until a car dematerialized around me and I fell to the pavement, gasping.

When I looked up again, the city was different. It seemed older somehow. There were no power lines or radio towers. There were far less blue people and far less cars. I looked around at the two and three story buildings, a familiar feeling overtaking me as I watched the panorama change in the distance to woods and a moor. I listened, and this time the distant sounds were closer. I heard the shifting waves of an ocean and turned, marveling at the broad expanse of blue water.

I then realized I was in Hescombe.

I looked at the street and saw that I was indeed on Shaker Row, and standing in front of number three. I opened the door and walked inside. Up in my room, it was exactly how I had left it. My figurines sat on their shelf, and – though blue – still gave me the happy memories of my mom giving them to me before disappearing.

I left those behind and walked down the hall to Father's office, opening the door and looking at the mess of papers and computer hardware that littered the floor. I had only been in there once, retrieving a flash drive for him while he made dinner, but it looked exactly the same.

I glanced back to the door, wondering if Father was here at this moment in time, and if he were blue like every thing else in this strange dream.

I didn't know when I had decided it was a dream, but I knew for sure now that it was. I mean, Kullervo had been defeated a month ago! I walked down the stairs and heard a laptop humming while smelling the cooking bacon. Since this was a dream, I would eat every single bit of it, vegetarian bacon or no!

Dad turned as I walked in and smiled. Is mouth moved but no sound came out. I nodded, guessing that he was asking if I had been taking good care of myself. It was the question he always asked.

I sat and had a plate of blue bacon and eggs placed in front of me. I laughed, remembering that Mom always used to read me 'Green Eggs and Ham' when I was a child. Now I got the first hand experience of finding out if the color really changed the taste.

After polishing off the full plate I could say that – if anything – they tasted better! I waved a goodbye to Dad and walked out the door, wandering the streets of Hescombe. I silently wondered at the detail my dream had, as I now walked past the old tea shop and saw Lavinia sitting in it and sipping tea with Col.

I wondered if it was one of those dreams where you could do anything and decided to test it at the most viable place I could think of.

Mallin Woods.

I looked at the swaying blue trees and swyed my head with them.

"Blue Spruce!" I shouted out, startling some silent birds as I laughed.

In the distance I could again hear the clang of metal and found it somewhat sooting, though I had no idea where the sound was coming from.

I halted my thoughts and brought to the fore front my task at hand. First test. Did I have super strength?

I walked over to a boulder that was just of the path and tried my hardest to lift it. Exhausting this choice I tried to push it, but failed again. I guess that answered the question of super strength.

"Next! Lets see... Mind reading!" I said to myself, finding comfort in the noise.

I snuck up behind a bird and concentrated on it, trying to get a sense of something from it. Maybe the tiniest bit of emotion, or a picture, but it failed. I moved on and found a dog that seemed to be sleeping. Maybe I could listen in on its dreams?

I tried, giving myself a headache in the process and finally gave up, rubbing my temples. Nope. Couldn't read thoughts!

"Flying!" I shouted, waking the dog and causing it to run off in the other direction. I remembered flying with Shift as one of my lessons and I glanced around, wondering how I should do this. There was a clearing that was filled with blue flowers and I stood at the center. I lifted my arms and tried to will myself off the ground.

Failing, I then tried jumping, then jumping while flapping my arms. Maybe I needed a start with momentum? I ran around the clearing and started jumping and flapping, sweat pouring down my face and grunts escaping my throat.

I sat hard and tried to think of the problem logically. Birds were mostly able to start flapping and lift themselves, due to their hollow bones and such. Dragons could do the same, but whenever they could, they started at a high spot and used the momentum of a fall to sweep themselves into flight.

I laughed in joy at the thought and started talking the plans over with myself. There were plenty of trees around. All I needed to do was climb as high as I could and jump! I started on a tree that had many low branches, but then climbed between it to another when I saw that the upper branches were sparse on my first choice.

I looked down after awhile and marveled that I had climbed so high. The I took position and jumped.

For a second I hovered in the air and I thought I had succeeded, then I fell. Branches whipped by, a couple causing scratches as They hit my face. I felt my stomach drop and my mind went blank as I watched the ground quickly approaching.

Pain exploded in my body and bounced as I hit the ground. I moaned out and cradled the back of my head, lifting one hand away and staring at the blue blood that seeped from the cut. I was breathing hard as I tested the rest of my limbs, finding that nothing was broken.

At least I knew one thing. This wasn't a dream.