... in dreams she slept in that very chest. In dreams she danced along a river way, soft sounds of leaping water at its banks. In the distance the sound of something making a quick movement in the water, breaking the surface only to again fall back in it's own glittering wake. The river held fish! At her feet a piece of wood, or so she though. Poked it a bit with her toe to find it wasn't just a stick or twig. Reaching for it, and picked it up; a wooden sword! She held the thing high in the air much like the comic book characters do and cried out, 'Shazam!', then giggled at the idea.

The weight of it, the feel; turned it over in her hand and noticed a dragonfly sitting on the underside. With a gentle and slow finger she reached to touch it. It began to grow! The size of her hand, the size of her arm, and it began to flap its wings. Now the size of her, yet no fear she had. She reached out grabbed hold of its back and they both began to fly. Higher and Higher far down that river way then as if signaled by something else far away, the dragonfly began its descent down. Down, down, down in ever smaller and tighter circles, round and round and round....

She could feel the effects of dizziness, as spinning will sometimes do. Forced herself to open her eyes, only to receive the stabbing pain of brightness. Oh, she had been dreaming and whatever caused the dizziness must just be the effects of coming back out of the dreamland, but....

The world again took a spin, and she noted her clothes and skin were a bit damp. It must have been a fair sized dew which appears from time to time to remind you these warm summer days will at some point move into a cooler fall.

She moved her arm, and heard a dull clunk as the wooden sword rolled off of her sleeve fell to the floor of the chest. 'How odd!', she thought, but it wasn't the first time she had seen something in a dream only to find it was something around her. She sure didn't remember seeing the wooden sword there before. As she slowly moved to sit up, she continued to think about what brought her here. Reaching in the bottom of the chest for..

The floor of the chest wobbled and she had to work at it to steady herself as she continued to try to sit up. Eyes now beginning to focus, she took in trees, lots of trees lining on either side. Finally sitting up, she peered over the side of the chest to find she sure wasn't in that grassy field any more. Sloping banks, sounds of bugs busy with their daily duties. Oh no, she was in the middle of a river, and judging from the way the chest moved as she shifted her weight. A deep enough river to allow the chest to float along.

Slosh, kerplunk, came the sounds from the far side, and she grabbed her wooden sword. Jumping swiftly to her feet. She used the side of the chest to keep both her and the chest steady, gazing over to where the sounds had come from. Small movements was all she could see, down the way in the thickets on the riverbank. She though maybe nothing more than turtle enjoying the day. A massive shadow moved out of the thickets, very dark, in the water and coming straight for her.   (Aine 2010)