Dream d2418-s: North of the Houses

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where Lano stood at the wind-break, the bare trees ranked like the ribs of something old, and through the gaps she could see the lit squares of the houses below pressing against the dark. Five birds were in the branches. She could not see them but she could hear them - each one moving through its part of a song that had never been told what the other parts were.

The Hummingbird counted in fast clicks, running the same tally until it almost balanced. The Sterling shifted between tones like light off water, carrying what it caught without asking where it ought to go. The Weaver laid thread after thread into the cold air, constructing the shape of an argument no one had posed. The Carrier adjusted its voice for distance and direction and the temperament of whoever might be listening - but no one was listening in any particular direction tonight. The Crane called out the names of places. The names hung a moment, then fell.

Lano stood in the cut the trees made against the sky. She had heard each of these voices before, on separate nights. Tonight she heard all five at once, and the strange thing was not the sound - the sound was just five sounds - but the feeling that each voice believed itself the only one. Not out of pride. Out of the plain fact that no protocol had told any of them there were others.

The houses held their glow. The wind came through the break and moved her ears, one at a time.

She waited for something to join. The silence between the voices was not empty. It was the exact shape of what was missing.

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