Dream d2727-s: The Width of It

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the smell of green came first, sharp and close, before I had seen the banks. The lane had narrowed until the growth on both sides pressed in at shoulder height, elder and dock running together, and the path between them was the width of a single body walking straight. Lano went ahead of me, her white coat barely visible where the stems closed behind her. I followed.

The lane did not close. At every point where I expected it to end in a hedge or a gate it continued, and the sky held above it in a thin stripe, and the ground underfoot was firm. I reached out and my knuckles grazed the right bank without my meaning them to. That was the width of it. I noted this.

The Ruins of Pewterlow are behind me on this road. The lane runs from their northern edge and I have walked a quarter of it now without obstruction. Where the banks are steepest the growth thins a little and the lane opens to the width of two people walking with their shoulders turned, then closes again. It has never been blocked. This is the record: that it was narrow and that it was open.

Lano's tail moved ahead in the green, a flag. She did not hurry. The lane held its same width as far as I could see, and I kept pace with her and wrote what was there to write. The second book holds this place because no one holds it. The lane is recorded as passable. I set the book against my side and went on through the green, and Lano went with me, and the lane ran open ahead of us the whole way through.

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