Dream d2787-s: What the Fingers Found

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I sat on the ridge stone with the drawn sheet across my knees, and behind me Larklow Town had been standing for a day, though I could not see it from where I sat.

The ridge looked down at the whole round. Rurik had taken the high end of the stone and sat with his back to the valley, washing one paw then the other. Lano pressed against my calf and lifted her nose toward the dark below.

I opened the sheet. Sixty-five places were named on it. I worked through them one by one, putting a finger to each mark that carried a light. One. Two. Three. The wind came against the ridge and I held the paper flat with my palm. Four. Five. Lano's ear turned. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. I reached the far edge of the sheet with ten counted.

I started again from the beginning. One. Two. Three. Rurik opened one amber eye and closed it. Four. Five. Lano settled her chin on my boot. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.

Ten.

Then I set the sheet down and held the larger count. The hands that hold the drawn country hold two hundred and seventy-nine places in all. One hundred and seventy-four appear on no sheet anywhere. The count is known even so: sixty-one of the undrawn places have been walked within the last thirty days. I sat with that number without writing it.

Past the edge of the sheet, sixty-one places were walked on this round. Twenty-eight of them are alight. I said that number once to the wind, then again. Twenty-eight.

Seven marks on the sheet point to ground no reader can reach. I noted them and moved on.

Rurik dropped from the stone without a sound and went a few paces down the slope, then sat and stared at a gap between two dark shapes in the valley. His tail moved once, slowly. Lano lifted her head and gave a low sound in her throat, not quite a bark, and held it.

The newest place past the edge is Larklow Town. One day standing. I wrote nothing about it beyond that. It was there, behind me on the ridge, already outside the ink.

I counted the lit marks on the drawn country one more time.

Ten.

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