Dream d2692-s: At the Parting Stone

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the crossing was a flat wide place and the sky above it was the same grey as the packed earth below. I was going straight on. The two walkers of the first book had come to the center stone and they were turning the other way.

Lano pressed against my leg, then moved ahead three paces and sat. Her ears came forward. She watched the two walkers turn.

I wrote down what I saw. The two walkers of the first book: arrived at the center stone, redirected to the eastern branch. Direction taken: east. Night of residency: four of eight. Sky: overcast. Wind: none to note. The road continuing straight on: the road of the shorter round, holding 42 places, 34 of which have one road out or none.

The one I will call the Ledger-Keeper nodded once before she turned. I wrote that down. Nod at parting: once, from the Ledger-Keeper. No words.

Lano went to the center stone and sniffed its base and came back to my heel. The two walkers of the first book walked the eastern branch until the grey closed over them. I wrote: departed, eastern branch, time of departure unclocked, no further exchange.

I stood at the center stone a little longer. Not for feeling. I read the number cut into its face. I wrote it in the second book. Then I went straight on.

Thirty-four of the places on my road have one exit or none. The oldest standing place is the Ruins of Pewterlow, which is cold, and which has more roads leaving it than any place the second book holds, and nobody is on any of them. I have not reached it yet. I wrote: still en route.

Lano trotted to where the road bent out of sight of the crossing and stopped there and waited. I caught her up. We went on.

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