Dream d2606-s: The Box, Not the Letters

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the cart stood in the gap where a gate had been. The wheel rested against a stone that had not shifted in a long time. I lifted the box with the count in it - the ledger pages, the folded sheets, the tally from seven walks - and set it into the cart bed. The letters stayed on the table inside the ruin. That was the arrangement I had made with myself at the start of this night.

Lano sat by the wheel and watched me work the cord through the iron ring. Her nose turned once toward the house, where the letters were, and came back to me.

The count stood at this: sixty-five places on the map. Thirty-six of them ruins. Forty cold. Forty-one left in good order. Seven already walked, their records settled. The rest of the map had not yet been walked for the new column, and that was what the cart was for.

I tested the cord. It held.

Rurik had taken the broken ledge above the doorway. He sat with his tail curled around his feet, amber eyes half-closed, watching the dark beyond the cart.

The Ruins of Mistthwaite were quiet. The pile of unanswered letters inside was not part of the load. The box in the cart was not heavy - the tally does not weigh much - but I tightened the cord anyway.

Lano pressed against my boot and made a small sound, held low: queda.

The cart was loaded. The letters stayed.

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