A Waking Dream

Chapter 3: Marian

Okay. First of all, what the hell is going on? At this moment, I am the most confused person in the world... Where am I? Why am I in a forest and what is that thing sleeping over there? It's ginormous! Why is there a lady that looks like something from Lord of the Rings? Omigoshomigoshomigosh... what happened? I'd have to say that my first thoughts after waking up from a beating ever so artfully crafted by a werewolf were not so collected, but, hey, if the world you woke up in were far different than the one you went to sleep in, wouldn't you be concerned? Exactly, so you can stop judging me now.

Then it all came back to me: where I was, or rather, was not; what had happened... everything. Wow. So the thing was almost like a werewolf and it had attacked my best friend... Where was Deirdre? I looked around our little makeshift “camp” and found her, over in the very corner, away from the three of us. What was that on her stomach? She had what looked like white linens wrapped around her, and was that blood? Okay, seriously, whoever did this to her is going to have hell to pay... 

It was then that Deirdre woke up, and no, I wasn't insane, that was blood. Yes, this person would pay dearly. Then Deirdre started to argue with the LOTR lady. Wow, that lady can be aggressive. Sheesh. They were just in mid-argument when that thing woke up. If I have one thing to say about him, it is that he is the biggest spaz that I have ever laid eyes on, I mean seriously, this guy woke up and flailed. Yes, flailed. If you have never seen a 6'11” werewolf flail, you ought to, it's great entertainment. So, Deirdre and I sat there, barely suppressing uproarious laughter when elf-lady got the dog to sit down. In all of his flailing, he hurt himself further. He told us the story of why he had attacked us and how he got messed up in some problems with some Dark Lord Lazarus or other while I made plans for his utter destruction at my hands for causing my friend so much pain, because sometimes “sorry“ really doesn't cut it. Then Brisen (the elf-lady) suggested that we all get some rest. 

The dog (Devland) and Brisen slept well, leaving Deirdre and I some time to scout the area and talk about how we were going to get out of here. 

“Deirdre,” I said, “ have you given leaving any real thought yet?” 

“Of course I have.” Deirdre said, and pulled out a giant, ancient piece of stationery.

“Where'd you get that? Or do I even really want to know?” I asked.

“I stole it from Brisen's bag. I don't think she'll mind; I'll have it back before she wakes up.” she told me. Somehow this did nothing to calm my nerves. Two days in this place and already stealing... I wondered how we would keep from jail at this rate. "So, how it looks on here is that we'll have to cross this entire...place, for lack of a better word, to get to this place over here," she made a vague gesture at the other side of the map, "and if we do that, we have a good shot at getting out of here." I looked at her in disbelief. "Oh, come on, do you have any better ideas?" My look of disbelief vanished as quickly as it had come.

"Fine, but what makes you so sure that going over there will magically solve all of our problems?" I asked through gritted teeth. 

"Well, judging by what I've heard from conversations," (silently adding this to her growing list of various offences against these poor people), "that writing refers to a forest." 

"And?"

"It's called the 'Forest of Awakening'."