Dream d2769-s: What the Rise Shows

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I climbed to the rise above Junipercombe with the sheet folded under one arm and found I could see further than it said. Lano came up beside me and stood with her ears lifted and her nose working at the air coming up from the valley. Below, the roofs were scattered across the low ground in the way they are when a settlement has grown without a plan to it.

I unfolded the sheet. Sixty-five places named on it, and nine of them showed a light when I looked down. I held each of the nine in my count and did not write them there; the sheet does not change in the field.

Rurik had gone ahead to the highest point of the rise and sat with his amber eyes on the valley, his tail wrapped around his paws. He did not look back at me.

The round I carry holds two hundred and seventy-six places in all. Of those, one hundred and seventy-one appear on no sheet. Fifty-eight of those were walked within the last thirty days, and from the rise I could see twenty-seven of them lit against the middle of the day.

Seven marks on the sheet point at ground no reader can reach from this position. I noted each of the seven and did not count from them.

Lano settled on the grass near my feet and lay with her chin on her paws, watching down the slope. The newest place past the edge of the sheet is one day standing. It stood last night and the sheet has not heard of it yet.

That is what the rise shows. I held the count and looked at the roofs, the lit and the dark, the inked and the country running past the line.

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