Dreams that do come true can be as unsettling as those that don't.

[goddessnanshe.livejournal.com]

Wednesday, sometime, somewhere in Dream

Once upon time there was a beautiful princess. Her hair was the colour of jet and her skin was the colour of nutmeg, and each of her teeth were like pearls. Flowers grew where she walked, so that the fields around the tower that was her home was carpeted in blooms as white as snow. The princess was very happy, all save for one thing: her fear that one day the thorn of one of the flowers would prick her. Her servants combed the field for thorns every day, trimming the stems so that it would be safe for her to walk. But still the princess was afraid, and she neglected to notice that each month the forest encroached closer on her home, until one day, standing in her field of flowers, she looked up to see the trees looming around her, undergrowth thick with thorns. Frightened, she fled inside, and as she ran she began her first bleeding, and the blood that trickled down her thigh fell to the earth and stained the roses around the tower a deep and brilliant red.

Inside the tower the princess was afraid that she was dying, for her father had always insisted that royal blood was the most precious of all things and must never be spilled. Weeping, she showed the blood to her old nurse, who laughed and kissed her cheek and told her this was the secret gift of women, and now she was blessed. So the princess wiped her eyes, and was no longer afraid of bleeding. But the thorns of the forest came for her all the same.

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[lei-miao-shan.livejournal.com]

I have fallen, oh, wode tian, I have fallen and there are thorny vines twining about my arms, piercing my skin, drawing my blood. The golden man cries out, and the vines around him burst into sudden fire, and so do those around me. He offers me his hand, and his eyes are blazing like embers. "Don't be afraid, I would never hurt you. Let me lift you up and take you to higher ground."

I am trembling, and blossoms of blood are opening upon my robe. And at the tower door, I see Glas fall in a shower of stones and feathers, and the door fall open. I moan, deep in my throat.

Yeh-Shen! Yeh-Shen! I am coming for you, Yeh-Shen! I shall bring you home!

Yes, yes, bring me home, bring me away from all of this...but the golden man is offering me his hand, and I take it, and I grasp it, and how can I go home, and leave all of these folk in need?

I am coming, Yeh-Shen, I am coming...

[docconstantine.livejournal.com]

There is fear in her eyes when she looks up at me, but she takes my hand none the less, and I easily sweep her up into my arms. Without a thought, without knowing how to, I take all the little cuts into me so she feels no pain and the flow of her blood stops. It is an annoyance, but I have borne worse. "There, that should feel better." I murmur with a gentle smile just for her.

Seeing that people are scambling for the tower, I decide that we should head in there. I quickly pass the winged thing that seems as familiar to me as my own skin, and the one at the door whom I know as well, and we ascend the stairs, the beautiful woman a easy burden in my arms, until we reach the top and an open door.

[lei-miao-shan.livejournal.com]

I think that he is pulling me to my feet, but instead he sweeps me into his arms, and I cry out. My wounds heal, but I barely notice, for he is suddenly carrying me away, carrying me into the great tower at whose gates Glas was cut down. And in my head, a voice is echoing -

Yeh-Shen! Yeh-Shen! It hurts, Yeh-Shen!

"No! No!" I scream, and I struggle in his arms even as he bears me into a chamber crowded with many people. "Let me go! Let me go! I cannot be here!" My fish, my golden fish, he is dying, his blood dyes the river red, oh help me, I cannot help him, oh gods please -

[docconstantine.livejournal.com]

(con't in tower below)