Dream d2756-s: The Road Rounds the Bend

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I came to the milestone at the bend and the road went on past it into ground no column on the drawn sheet covered.

The stone was weathered. Someone had cut the distance into its face from a place I was no longer near. Lano pressed her nose against the base of the stone and then sat beside it, her tail still.

I spread the sheet on the flat top of the stone. Sixty-five places ruled in columns. Nine of them carried a light. I looked at the nine, then folded the sheet and put it away.

The full accounting came to two hundred and seventy-four. A hundred and sixty-nine of those had no column and no entry on any page I carried. Of the unwritten places, fifty-six had received work in the last thirty rounds of the sun. Among those fifty-six, twenty-eight held a light burning now.

Seven entries on the sheet named places I had no road to from where I stood. I looked at those seven and then at the road ahead. They did not correspond.

Rurik had gone past the milestone before I opened the sheet. He came back around the bend now, looked at me once with amber eyes, and turned and went ahead again.

The newest place beyond the drawn edge was called Quillvale Town. It had been standing one day. It had no column.

I picked up the sheet. Lano got to her feet and pressed forward. The road went on past the stone, and the ground it crossed had not been written down.

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