Memories, Of Childhood, of A Lost Dream

"What happened? Why is my room torn apart?" I was addressing the whole room as my eyes rolled over the sight of my room. I say room but House could create spaces that boggle even our minds. My living space was the size of most peoples houses and plot of land. Complete with a fire pit and the illusion of rolling clouds and winking stars. My fire pit never needed wood, or cleaning, nor did it need to be put out. My favorite feature of the fire that House always provided for me, was that ,not only did the fire put out heat but it took in heat and radiated cool air. It's a perfect life sister, Karen stocks my tiny pond with fish, crab, etc. Just enough for me to lay back and cast a line into the waters for a nice simple surprise without having to get House to wake up the kitchen. I just clean whatever I catch and cook it on a small spit over the fire.

What was ages ago at this point I remember going up Salmon river with my aunt and uncle and cousin to a small fishing cabin the family had. The waters were fresh waters as all rivers were in our area. The waters were clear, evidence that it was largely untouched by human life. Other than fishing few people had reason to travel this far up the river. The boat was a simple, wooden craft. Just large enough to fit the four of us. I watched as the river and grassy tundra passed us by. Small schools of fish swimming through the glass like water, the summer sun tanning my skin in the warmth of June. Uncle was working the oar and auntie was sitting watching the world in her silent nature. I never really knew why she was so quiet. She was just as stoic as Aunga, my grandmother was. June, my grandmother had lived a silent life, she had a wicked humor unlike her sister. Still most of her time grandma was silent. I wished many times that she had become immortal like my siblings and myself. Sadly she passed on a common human ailment that maybe in modern days could have been treated but at the time could only be observed and the symptoms mitigated with herbs and magics to keep her comfortable. Thankfully being a magical family she visits often from her perch in the after life, often giving her unwanted and unsolicited opinion on the matters at hand for the family. I don't remember why this trip was just the four of us, she would have enjoyed the quiet place of the Alaskan river wilds.

The boat pulled up to the shore just close enough for my cousin,aunt, and myself to waid our way the foot or two to the tundra slope. A lodge sat atop a tire just high enough to look out over the waters below and the never ending green and gold flats of tundra surrounding us. The lodge still stands to this day, though its material has changed from logs and dirt to plywood and nails. I haven't been to that fishing hole in what must be centuries now but it was a lovely place to spend a few days building memories. Before the spell took effect that grew me to adulthood and robbed me of my childhood as many "childhood," memories were forced on my life. I don't mind looking back at it now, those little moments built so much of my being today and only added to the story that sustains me when other stories fall short of my needs. During our fishing trip uncle paid us in sweets for every guppy we caught to use as bait to fish with. While we waited knee deep in cool water bent watching just under the rippling surface of Salmon river auntie was cleaning fish on a flat stone as a table, her Ullu slicing the gray metal skin into the pink flesh. We dried our fish then, a lot of our people still do but as most of us do, I romatices the memory of that fish, shriveled and made reddish brown by the sun, flies kept away by the modest fire near the flesh. I still remember the rich, smokey flavor, made all the richer by the condensed oils of the dried fish. The only thing better is black meat from seals, something cherished due to the small amount each seal had, but it was thankfully shared among everyone in the villagers. Time can steal a lot of things but the stories or our past are forever ours, ready for our minds to feast on for our entire lives. There are days even now, after millenia I wish I could recapture just a second of those feelings lost to the ages of my life.

As I sat there looking at the collection of my family I recalled my dream, I couldn't place why it was so familiar to me. It was like I could remember the dream actually happening, like it was part of my actual story but a part of my story that I couldn't feast on now. I had to call in my essence, the dream had woken the core of my being so completely that I was terrified in a way I had never been and it must have leaked out into the waking world disrupting every spell and every expression in my room. As the rawness of my essence dissipated into the either of the universe my forest of a room came back into completeness, the flames of my eternal fire slowed and danced more regularly. "I'm so sorry, I have no idea what came over me." I apologized to my family. "I was dreaming, or a memory maybe, it could be an artifact of my memory at the very least." I said to my family as they gathered around the fire at the center of my room. I took my place at their sides. "Do any of you remember an owl mask when we were children?" I asked as I looked at the familiar face around me feeling safe and secure again. For a few moments we sat there in the silence of the night, the crackle of the fire and a light ripple from the pound were the music of the moment. Suddenly a fish jumped from the pond and the most unexpected thing happened. A hawk swooped down and snatched the fish up. "Well let's not all speak at once." My sister said and for some reason we all found the moment overwhelmingly funny and laughed and laughed. As the roar calmed down I wondered how a bird got into my sanctuary? "Do any of you know why a hawk is in my room?" I asked over the fire. Stranger things are happening now that Steven is back. My essence should not have affected the House so badly, I should have had more control in my dream and no one should have been able to get into my room without permission.``Steven, did you bring something back from the other realm?" I wondered out loud. Steven had said he couldn't touch anything but there might have been something no matter how small it was that Steven could have brought back with him. I mean no experience leaves us untouched.