August tale 2021

Hello! If you're new here, here's how this works: in the beginning of the month, I ask a question. I get answers from people, hopefully. I take one of those answers and write a short story based on it, then put it out on the last day of the month. Sometimes they're actually pretty good, and sometimes they're a real mess. But at least every time I put some words on paper. Screen. Whatever.

Here you can find that story.

Which, for the record, I literally wrote in less than three hours on the last day. That means that while it's not very good, I'm kind of impressed with myself. Not for my procrastination, but for the fact that I managed to write 2600 almost decent words and then cut a hundred words off all within three hours.

I also read it into an audio format, if audiobooks are more your thing than actual written words.

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What’s the strangest country you’ve ever been to in August? Why?
Scotland. It’s the strangest as many people outside the UK don’t see Scotland as its own country (answer from Anne)

Serina was doodling as they talked, tracing lines of the blue back, the curve of the unfamiliar face, the shape of the horns. She had always been like that. Easier to focus on other things when a part of her mind went into the strokes of the pencil instead of being free to wander around. They were chatting about nothing. Evelyn was telling them about some fabric she had found at the market and the others were all suggesting what she could make out of it. At least they were, until next to Serina Jenna looked down at her doodle.

“What,” Jenna asked her, derailing the whole conversation, “is that?

Serina shrugged, then lifted it up so the others could see it too.

“An animal of some kind,” she told them. “I saw him in a dream last night?”

“That’s no animal I’ve ever seen,” Evelyn said.

“Well, it is a dream animal,” Serina said, “So it doesn’t matter if it’s not like any animal that actually exists.”

“I think it looks like a deer,” Jenna offered. “Or maybe a fox?”

“You remember your dream well enough to draw something in this much detail afterwards?” Emma asked.

“I guess usually no,” Serina told them. “But this was a pretty weird dream. My family was trying to travel south in a big hurry, it was like we needed to get away from something quickly, but we couldn’t find transport, and every time we did something happened and one of us wasn’t on it so the rest of us got off too to find the missing one. It’s not even that this animal was in a big role. I think he was just hanging out at a meadow we were passing through at one point, and he just stuck with me.”

“He?” Emma asked. Serina shrugged.

“Yeah. It’s just one of those dream things, when you just know, even though it doesn’t make any sense that you do.”

“And he’s blue, so clearly a boy,” Evelyn said.

“Being blue makes you a boy?” Emma countered. “Does wearing whatever you’re going to make out of that fabric make you a boy too, if blue is the deciding factor?”

And so the conversation made its way back into its old rails.

***

Serina is making her way through the forest, looking for the train. It’s right around here, but somehow she can’t seem to find it. So she keeps searching. Up that hill? No. In the valley? No. Why? It should be here. She was told it’s here. She needs it to get out of the forest.

The blue creature finds her before she finds the train. He wanders into her path, looks at her for a moment, then continues. The last thing she sees of Ketill is the tip of his tail, and the end of his antler as he disappears among the trees.

The train. She’s looking for the train. She needs to go to the train station to find one, right? So that’s where she goes, heading down the street, and there it is, waiting for her. She sighs in relief and gets on the train.

***

“You’re drawing the same creature again,” Jenna pointed out.

“Oh, yeah. I’ve had a couple more dreams with him in them,” Serina told her. “I don’t remember ever having dreams of the same thing, but somehow he’s been popping up a few times in the last few weeks.”

“It’s like you have your own dream mascot. That’s kind of cool,” Jenna said. “And he’s really beautiful.”

They were quiet for a moment.

“Is he actually blue?” Jenna then asked. Serina had to actually think about it.

“Yeah,” she finally decided. “He doesn’t look blue, necessarily, but he is. The same way sometimes people don’t look like themselves at all in a dream, but you still know it’s them.”

Jenna nodded.

“It’s good luck you remember the dreams he’s in,” she said. “I usually don’t remember my dreams at all. Or if I do, it’s only just after I’ve woken up and they’re gone by the time I’m having breakfast.”

“Well, obviously I don't know if I remember all the dreams he’s in. He could be in a bunch that I’ve forgotten. And there’s been others that I also remember.”

“What’s happened in those?” Jenna prompted. Again Serina had to think.

“You were learning to ride a horse in one, I think. And I was competing to be the world’s best fencer.”

“Details!” Jenna demanded, grinning. But Serina shook her head. She didn’t remember.

***

The sink isn’t working. Which sucks, because she really needs to wash her hands. They’re covered in dough. But if she licks them clean, the dough will kill her.

“I’ll get it fixed,” her partner in crime assures her, but when she comes back, the sink still isn’t fixed.

“I need to wash my hands!” she tells her partner, who only shrugs.

Ketill appears from behind the shed, running off to somewhere. Maybe he knows where she can wash her hands. She follows him, but soon loses sight of him. He’s disappeared behind the walls of the lost city. She blinks up at it, and enters. It’s exactly like in the books, moss and vines growing over thick stone walls of great buildings. There used to be a wooden temple there, but now it’s collapsed, after a corner decayed away from underneath it. Serina can still tell it was once yellow and red and black and beautiful. The kind of temple worth any god who was worshiped there. It was made of wood and not stone, because even though stone lasts longer, it’s cold where wood is warm.

She wants to go in, but she still has her dignity, so she moves past it and deeper into the city. There’s a park with a golden pond, and tall pyramids that look like the homes of kings, because a city this great would need more than one, obviously, and a small stone building with a huge hearth that once belonged to a baker.

***

Ketill is running away from the people she was just talking to. They clearly don’t like him. Serina doesn’t understand why. She doesn’t know him very well, but she thinks he’s kind. And at the very least, he doesn’t want any harm to anyone.

***

“You still have fox-deers in your dreams?” Evelyn asked.

“Not fox-deers,” Serina corrected, emphasizing the s. “Just Ketill.”

“Ketill?”

“That’s his name.”

“How do you know? And what makes you think it’s the same one every time?”

“I just do. It’s always him.”

“And what does that even mean, the same fox-deer?”

“Ketill,” Serina said. “And what do you mean what does it mean? It’s him every time the same way it’s you every time when I have a dream with you in it.”

“But this creature isn’t real. It’s just imaginary,” Evelyn argued. “An imaginary thing can’t be the same, because it isn’t actually at all.”

“Well, the you in my dreams isn’t really you either, is it? And it’s still always you.”

Evelyn was quiet for a moment.

“I guess not,” she finally admitted.

***

The sunrise is unusually beautiful this time of year. It’s the beginning. Ketill walks over and sits down, a few meters away from her, looking at the sunrise as well. He looks happy too. Or maybe that’s Serina projecting her own happiness on him. His animal face isn’t as easy to read as human ones are.

They simply sit for a long time until Ketill gets up and wanders off. That’s okay. Serina has some shirts to shrink anyway, so she gets up too and walks back to the well. It’s her responsibility, after all, to get these shirts to fit those cats. No one else is going to do it, and the cats are going to freeze during the winter without them. So she gets to work.

***

“How’s Ketill doing?” Jenna asked her in the morning.

“He’s good. I think. We sat together watching the sunrise for a bit in my dream,” Serina told her.

“It’s nice that you have a dream-friend.”

“We're not really friends,” Serina said. “He just shows up in my dreams sometimes. Usually it’s somewhere in the background. I’ve never interacted with him.”

She stopped to think.

“Actually, I think he’s in my dreams every night nowadays. Like I said, usually somewhere in the background, but sometimes he comes closer.”

“You remember dreams from every night?” Janna was genuinely surprised.

“I don’t really remember anything else about them,” Serina admitted. “I just remember seeing Ketill. Seeing him through a window, or behind some building or trees, or crossing the street, or wherever.”

“That’s weird.” Janna sips her coffee a couple of times, thinking. “So he’s there every night, and you always remember him, but not anything else about the dreams?”

“Seems that way.”

***

Ketill’s horn peeks from around the corner, and Serina catches the tip of his tail as he turns and heads the other way. He appears after a little moment again, stops, and looks at her. She pulls treats from her pocket and puts out her hand. Ketill’s eyes go to her hand. He smells the air, and comes a little closer.

He’s shy about coming very close. He inches closer, unsure, but finally reaches her hand, snatches his treats, and darts away. But not very far. He stops at a short distance and eats his treat. He seems to almost nod before disappearing from view again.

***

They’re at the lake, her and Janna. Her uncle has a house there that no one ever knew, but now they now, so there they are. And there’s a rumor about a treasure in a cave, so they set off to find the cave and the treasure. They follow the shore, walking easily through the thick bush, but the cave is harder to find than they expected. They know the potato they have with them should work, but it doesn’t. They don’t know what’s wrong.

She catches Ketill’s blue coat among the bushes. He stops too, when he sees them. He looks at the potato in her hand. It’s almost like he rolls his eyes. He jogs a little way away, then stops. He looks back at them.

“He wants us to follow him,” Serina says, and they do. Ketill leads them through the forest, away from the shore, and up a steep cliff. They have to climb, but they’re good at it. Serina almost slips and falls, but Janna catches her just in time.
Finally they come to the cave. It’s almost in the middle of the cliff, with an excellent view over the sea. Ketill is sitting at the edge, waiting for them and watching over the sea. And there they find the treasure, a huge, huge pile of hats. They dig in, trying to decide which one looks best on either of them. By the time they find the ancient scroll of writing neither of them know how to read, Ketill has already disappeared.

***

“I had a dream about Ketill last night,” Jenna told Serina.

“Really?” she smiled. “What happened in it?”

“We were on a treasure hunt, for some reason, trying to find this cave. But we were going in a completely wrong direction, because we were trusting a potato to lead the way,” Jenna laughed, and didn’t notice the look on Serina’s face. “I think the potato was really trying, but it just wasn’t working. Ketill showed up, and yeah, I know it’s weird to know it was him, but I do, dream logic, I guess, and he led us up this cliff and into the cave. You almost fell on the way… What?”

Serina had gone from surprised to stunned, and Jenna was starting to notice.

“Hats.” It came out barely louder than a whisper. Jenna stared. “The treasure was hats. And under them, an ancient scroll. But we never found out what it said.”

There was a long, stunned silence.

“Did we have the same dream?” Jenna finally managed.

“I think we did,” Serina said.

“How is that even possible?” Jenna asked. Serina didn’t have an answer.

***

It’s late, and Serina is sitting in the castle yard, enjoying some great salmon toast. The tribe has always been great at cooking, even if she doesn’t like them much otherwise. Something blue catches her eye and she turns to see Ketill coming towards her. He sits next to her for a moment, letting her scratch him behind the ear, but then gets up and heads the opposite way from where he came. He stops at the wall and looks back at her.

She stands up and begins to follow. They float down from the wall, and he runs ahead, always waiting for her before getting too far ahead. They go through Serina’s childhood neighborhood, and into the forest she used to play. They come to the shore where they went to on one trip far north, and Serina follows him into the sea. She breathes underwater just as well as on land (why wouldn’t she?), and they soon reach an underwater village. Ketill takes her to the smallest of the houses by a marketcircle and stops outside a window.

“...causing all this trouble,” Serina hears a voice from inside.

“I think you might be exaggerating,” comes another voice.

“He’s screwing up the whole dreamscape,” the first voice insists. “He makes the memories of their time here more solid, I’m almost certain of it. There’s not other way they would be clearly becoming friends over time, because there wouldn’t be over time if the forgetfullness worked as normal.”

“One person remembering more of their time here is hardly a disaster,” says a third voice.

“A bit ago he visited them when there were two of them. What do you think will happen when they realise they both remember the same thing from their time here?”

That plunges the conversation into silence.

“If he keeps going, they’ll soon figure out this isn’t all in their heads, and that will throw all the worlds off balance.”

Serina takes a step back, confused, but her movement catches the eye of the people inside.

“He led her here,” the first voice hisses. “We need. To get him. Now.”

The people (they look odd, somehow, don’t they?) stream out of the house as she turns to flee. She doesn’t know where she’s going, only that she needs to get away from them. But time slows, and so does her running. It’s no use. A blue tail disappears behind a corner as they catch her wrist.

Serina jolted awake. A nightmare? She hadn’t had nightmares in a long time. She tried to remember what the dream was about, but couldn't. That was odd. Usually you remembered the dreams you woke suddenly from.

Didn’t matter, she supposed. It was just a dream anyway. It was still dark outside. She turned to her other side and fell back asleep.