Angel Fire, Valmore Daniels [rosie project txt] 📗

sometimes Butterfly Valley or Caterpillar Meadow, and whenever they saw smoking tracks, they turned the other way. They made music and they painted murals across the sides of cliffs and great boulders.

“I won’t flee that place!” Tasha said one morning, sitting in their kitchen, eating cereal before Cade had to leave for work. “It’s our special place, Cade. Remember that. I’m so happy there. It’s the only place I’m happy. Windwhisper gave it to us.”

Cade sighed and lowered his head. “I know.”

That night they met in Fruit Forest, where fruits of every kind grew. They ate pears, apples, apricots, kiwis, grapes, until they could eat no more. They lay upon a sunny knoll, watching the monarchs that flew above. Cade patted his belly, and Tasha wove flowers into a tiara for her hair.“When I die, my spirit is going to find this place,” she said, as she always said. “I’ll travel to Dream and be happy here forever.”

Happy here forever. Cade looked at the fluffy clouds, and his hands played with the grass. He opened his mouth to answer Tasha, and then a shadow fell upon them.

Oily fur loomed, a howl tore the air, and claws came down.

Tasha screamed and lashed her spear, but claws splintered the wood. Cade nocked an arrow, but saw only rotting fangs dripping saliva. And then he was awake in his bed, and he heard Tasha screaming in her bedroom.

He met her in the hallway of their apartment. She was pale and shaking, her hair tousled, her fingernails digging into her palms. Bloody scratches ran down her shoulder.

“Tasha, you’re hurt!”

She leaned her head against the wall, trembling. Cade rushed to her and held her.

“Cade,” she said, eyes huge and haunted, “we can no longer visit Dream.”

Tears filled her eyes. She spent the rest of the night weeping.

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