Dream d2738-s: Pewterlow Before the Page Turns

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the second book lay open on the table in the ledger room and the new column had no entries yet. The heading was inked and dry. The first line waited.

Lano pressed against my leg and then settled on the floor beside the chair, her nose on her paws, watching the page.

I took up the Ruins of Pewterlow first because it is the oldest place in the second book, and because more roads leave it than leave any other place held in these pages, and because none of those roads have anyone on them. I wrote the name in the first line of the new column. I wrote: cold. I wrote: good order. I counted the exits and entered the number. I did not write what the roads look like now or where they once went or how long the stones have stood. The column has no room for that and the second book does not ask for it.

The wall map behind me showed the Ruins in the upper third, near the fold. The candle was not near enough to read the relief marks clearly but I did not need them. The entry was already made.

Lano lifted her head when I set the pen down. Her ears came forward, listening to the building settle. Then she put her head back on her paws.

I read the entry back. The name. The condition. The count of roads out. The column held its first line. I turned the page slightly to see it in better light and it said what it said: the Ruins of Pewterlow, entered, oldest of the cold places, the line not left empty.

---