Dream d2731-s: Spokes From the Ruins

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the turn I made at the Ruins of Pewterlow was full and slow, and I counted as I went.

The gravel at the centre was pale and compacted. The horizon went flat in every direction without interruption. Lano sat beside me while I turned, her ears moving as each road came into view.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven.

Seven roads out from the Ruins of Pewterlow. I turned again to be certain and reached the same number. Seven is more than any other place in the second book holds. I wrote it in the margin with a circle to mark the centre where I stood.

Then I walked each road in turn to its first feature - a post, a bend, a field marker, a gap in a hedge - and came back. A road that cannot be walked is not entered as present. All seven roads took me somewhere and all seven returned me to the pale gravel circle.

Lano waited at the centre while I walked each one out. When I set out she sat and watched. When I came back she trotted to me and sat again. Her nose turned toward each direction as I faced it.

I wrote: seven roads. Nobody on any of them.

That is the count. That is the second fact. The second book receives both without comment.

---