poemtry and prose

She slumped against the heavy wooden door. It felt cold on her back and Kaylee could feel the tears welling up stronger and stronger in her eyes. They too made her eyes and face feel cool and wet. "Damnit," she said under her breath. "Now what am I going to do? This sucks."

She swang her right arm and it hit the door with a loud thunk, and then a light clicking sound appeared. Kaylee turned around and thought, "Doors do not click unless they are unlocked."

She stood up and looked at the door, expecting the worst. She still did not hear anything coming from the other side of it. "Well it is a now or never sort of thing. I can stay outside and free my ass off all night long or I open this door and see what is inside."

Kaylee held her breath and gently pushed on the door. It gave easily as if the hinges had been freshly oiled and well taken care of. The whole place had that feel to it, actually which surprised her quite a bit for being seemingly out of nowhere. She silently prayed that she was not going to get busted for tresspassing and entered the inside of the spherical cottage.

The door swung open without a sound and Kaylee felt the hot, heated air from the fireplace, escape from the other side. It sent a warm shiver of goosebumps down her arms as she entered inside and gasped. The inside was sparse but well kept and clean. She closed the door behind her and leaned once more against the door to survey her surroundings.

A nice sized fire was burning in the fireplace, which sat across the room from her, as if it had been going for awhile. There were no cobwebs or dust on the hard, bamboo-like floorboards. A rug made of maize and otherweird fibers had been thrown down near the fireplace. A strange, yet familiar, pattern of spirals was weaved into the fabric and Kaylee struggled to recall where she had seen the image. Near the fireplace was a ladder that lead up into a loft. Under the loft was a cabinent made of wood. It appeared to have a rounded back so that it could sit flush against the wall. Kaylee made a mental note of it and decided to investigate it later. She did not want to get caught snooping through someone else's belongings. But images of food or books or fresh clothes danced through her head and gave her hope that there was more to this place than met the eye.

Kaylee wandered over to the ladder and took a peek onto the platform, hoping to thank her savior if he or she was on top of it. No one was there, save for a platform bed. It was curved and attached itself to the wall. She was not sure but it appeared to have hand woven blankets made from plants that she could not identify. They were dyed a light green and complimenmted the floorboards of the loft nicely. A similarly woven pillow sat atop the matress. Nothing was underneath it, no shoes, no bags, nothing to give away the owner of this place.

A table and two chairs sat up against a wall to her right. They were made of solid light colored wood, perhaps pine. One edge of the table had also been cut to match the inner curving of the cottage and almost seemed to melt right into it. There were no plates, or adornments sitting atop the table. Which was strange considering that if a fire had been made in the cottage then Kaylee expected to see bowls or other signs of inhabitance. And other than the prescence of the bed and the table and chairs there was none.

She sat up in the loft for awhile. Two small round windows sat high up in the dome of the cottage. Both were place along an East-West alignment so that the sun and the moon patterns could be tracked. Her legs swung a bit as she waited and sat in silence, enjoying the fire.

"Huh," she thought to herself. "How long do I wait. I am very tired but if the owners of this strange little place appear soon then I might need to leave. And I really do not want to spend the night in a bed that belongs to someone else. So yeah, I guess I will just wait a couple more minutes."

The light from the moon grew brighter as it rose higher into the air and closer to the East window. Finally, as light streamed into the window, and the warmth of the fire heated her skin, Kaylee crawled into the bed and promptly passed out on top of the sheets.

That night Kaylee dreamt that she was walking in a strange house with David. It had large vaulted ceilings in the living room downstairs and large walls that she thought that would make wonderful bookcases. Strange three dimensional murals etched into the plaster and they were talking about all the cool things they would do to the room if they were able to afford it. There was a stairwell up and off to the left that went into a half floor. A dining room table made of heavy black wood and marble, big enough to have place settings for eight people, sat in the middle of this floor. A long, glass cabinent sat behind the table completing the set. Behind them on this level was another stair case that led to the second floor with two bedrooms and then winded its way up higher into a third floor attic.

At this point Dream Kaylee noticed that the stairs were not carpeted but made of wood and were very slick. She even noted this to Dream David who agreed and cautioned her to be careful as she made her way up to the attic. The attic itself was very odd, for it had many vaulted walls and ceilings. It was cold and the floors were wooden but Kaylee instantly liked it, for it had a unique and wonderful charm about it. "Think about all the things I could do up here," she said to the Dream David. "I could hold rituals and make things and use this for a really nifty bedroom. What do you think?"

Dream David opened his mouth to answer her but no words came out. Before he could answer her at all, Kaylee's eyes snapped awake. It was morning. Something hard and lumpy was digging into her chest. She sat up and placed her hand on her chest and felt the medicine bundle that her Gran had given her the night before. She stared up at the rounded dome and recalled the events of the night before. Sun poured in through the lights and cast strange shadows about the room. The room smelled of dying fire and burnt wood bits and gave the whole place a rustic feel to it. Kaylee sat up and stretched her body. Her muscles were sore from having done all that walking. She had no idea how long her journey took her but felt as if she walked further than any hike she had ever taken.

Slowly she moved from the platform bed to the open space below, expecting and hoping to see some movement below. But there was none. Save for herself, the cottage was empty of any life. Her stomach growled at her and she wished that she had some food to feed it. She wishfully looked over at the table and noticed a bowl sitting atop the table. "Someone was here," she said outloud and moved down from the loft to the table.

The bowl contained a goopy substance that looked like a cross between cream of wheat and oatmeal. A small wooden spoon sat next to the bowl. Kaylee moved over to the door and opened it up. A quick glance around the room revealed no one nearby.

"Thank you," she mentally scanned the horizon before going back inside to sit down at the table. She was so hungry that she ended up eating the whole thing in just a few bites. She expected it to not be as filling as a true breakfast but was surprised that it had filled her stomach up so it would stop complaining.

She sat for awhile longer at the table and stared around the small cottage again wishing that something would tell her what she was supposed to be doing next. But nothing did. She then remembered the rocks in her bag and decided to take them out and examine them closer. She carefully removed her pouch from around her neck. Then she fumbled about opening the leather wrap that held the small bag shut. Finally, she freed the stones from their container and slid the out from the soft leather.

Four stones made a clinking sound as the skid lightly onto the table. They were almost all the same size but each one was uniquely shaped as well. Etched into them were the four ancient symbols of the elements that her people held in high regards: Dirt, Air, Fire, Water. Kaylee ran her fingers over the stones. The felt cool and smooth to the touch. She picked one up and held it in her hand. It had small cracks and grey miscolorations in it. The next one was longer and reminded her more of an arrow head than a divination stone. The third one was almost clear and had a few dings and scratches in it. And the fourth one was the roundest of them all ad reminded her of the cottage she now sat.

"Okay, so Gran gave me these last night. I know they are supposed to help me but I am really not sure what I am supposed to do with them. Letsee here, The long arrow-like one is supposed to be fire, right? It looks like a flame. And this round one, the one that appears like the cottage, is water. It has three lines as if someone was pouring water out from a bucket into a lake. The third one, the see through one is air. The wavy lines look like how many cartoon artists draw wind blowing in the trees. Which makes this last one, the D shaped stone, dirt."

She smiled at the feeling of having recalled this knowledge. She took all four stones back up into her hands and held them there. She closed her eyes and tried to feel the stones and their vibrations. It was something she used to see her gran do, when she was trying to communicate with the elemental forces. Kaylee steadied her breath and focused on the stones, concentrating and hoping with all her body that they would give her the answers. She imagined them vibrating in her hands and almost heard a small low pitched vocal intonation from them.

She then gave the stones three solid shakes, stirring them around in her hands. And all at once she released them, allowing them to drop on the table. All four of them landed face up. She sat there, staring at all four stones, her mind desperately trying to recall which of the sixteen possible messages this meant. "Crap," she said.

"Okay, calm down Kaylee. You can do this. Letsee here, they are all face up. That means they are all present." She laughed. "Doy of course they all are around you. If this is where you think you are, it is the culmination of ALL the elements and directions. This IS Vellum Hollow, after all, where food appears out of nowhere just like this structure. Now what IS it telling me to do first. The perfect balance of elements. Harmony. Hmmm, is this telling me that all of the directions are open for the work? I guess so. So this is a good thing."

She sweeped up all the stones and put them back in the pouch, "Okay, so I am doing this right. Now all I need is to pick a direction."

She held the pouch close to her heart and thought about her mission and all the things her gran had put her faith in her for. Then she held her breath while carefully drawing out a single stone from the bag. The small ovular stone appeared out of the bag. She flipped it over and the symbol for dirt appeared.

"Okay, then. i head out to the North today, which is the association with Dirt or Earth. I wonder how long it will take me to find a gift of the ancestors for my bag and what the next step is."

Kaylee stood up and returned the little stone back to her pouch. She then made her way out of the cottage and into the world to start her quest.