A different kind of dream (1)

Emma had dreamt many things during her past few restless nights. Even though the dreams were a jumbled mess after she woke up, there were scenes in them that stuck with her. She honestly hadn't thought it was possible to cram so many events into just one nights worth of sleep. And a recurring theme was that life there in dreamland was just as difficult there as in real life.

In one dream she was a poor and impoverished girl, who was sold into slavery to raise some money to feed the family. She became a maid servant in a rich household. When her young miss married a young lord, she was brought with as dowry. Unfortunately, the young lord was more interested in her than in his wife. The jealously of her mistress and attentions of her new master earned her a permanently disfigured face, and eventually an early, violent death.

In a another dream, she dreamt that her whole family was killed in a purge following a palace coup. To avenge her family she became an assassin to avenge her family, but ended up being captured by a man she was sent to kill. The man then took a fancy to her an forced her to become his concubine.

Emma thought that she maybe should stop watching historical dramas, as it was clearly messing up her head. Clearly her head had taken inspiration from it and mixed it up with her own worries and experiences.

For instance, there was one thing that recurred in all the dreams she had. In each of one there was a Mr. Long-like character, who kept messing up her (dream) lives through his obsessive behaviour and overbearing personality. She supposed she was subconsciously still worried about Mr. Long's behaviour the night he made his 'offer'.

Another weird thing about her dreams was that, for some reason, her 'dream'-selves always ended their lives by burning to death, engulfed in flames. Emma wondering if her subconscious was obsessed with fire, just like how it seemed to be obsessed with historical dramas.

However wierd her dreams had been before, the one Emma had on this night was a different kind of dream.

...

She glided on the wind, her silver-white wings spread wide. There was no dragon chasing her this time, only the pure joy of flying high among the clouds. Ah, was there anything better than soaring high in the air?

A wolf's howl pierced the air, reaching her ears even where she soared far above the clouds.

A spark of excitement and joy made her heart skip a beat. She knew that howl. It belonged to someone very dear to her, and they were calling to her, summoning her.

Pulling in her wings, she plunged through the clouds, dropping towards the ground like a stone. But there was no fear, only excitement and anticipation. The one she wanted was waiting for her below.

She exploded through the underside of the cloud cover like a bullet, causing whisps of white to trail after her in spirals.

She unfurled her wings somewhat to slow down her rapid descent.

Searching for the source of the summons, her eyes soon zeroed in on a dark speck below, small from this height, but her keen eyes could clearly see the outline of an enormous black wolf contrasted with the surrounding field of grass and flowers.

She let out a joyous screech in greeting, her excitement and anticipation making her talons curl. Then she dove again, the wind rushing past her sleek silver-white body, heading straight for the wolf below.

A second before she would have smashed into the earth, she spread her wings wide. With one powerful beat of her wings she halted her descent, hovering for a second in mid-air and causing powerful whirlwinds to sweep across the field.

As she dropped through the air again, she transformed into human form. Falling from the sky, her arms still spread wide like was a bird, she collided with the large furry creature. She squealed in delight as they tumbled around several times, flattening a large swat of grass around them.

Panting with delight and excitement, she lay on her back and squited up at the black outline of the wolf above with a wide smile on her face. The wolf was standing over her with his jaws open in a wide, toothy grin, panting happily. He barked once, skipped around in a circle, and lay his forelegs down flat on the ground with his butt sticking up in the air, and his tail wagging excitedly.