Dream d3057-s: Gateway of No House

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the skiff came to rest beneath the arch before we named it.

The Tally-Reader ran a finger along the gunwale without speaking. The Horizon-Surveyor leaned out to read the waterline on the stone - a mineral stain three hand-widths above the current level, meaning the fen had been deeper here, or the arch had settled. Neither was recorded as fact.

Lano stood at the bow, ears pressed flat against her skull, watching the dark interior of the arch. She did not bark yet. She was still in the way a dog is still when she is deciding whether to.

Above the arch, on a flat face of stone, was a worn relief - not insignia, not numbers. The Relic-Watcher noted it without description: a shape worn to ambiguity, something that might have been a door or a figure or a measure of grain. The Bedrock-Reader pressed a palm to the stone and said only that it was older than the nearest settlement's first foundation course.

Rurik had made the crossing in the stern. He perched on the pack frame now, amber eyes level with the arch's keystone, studying it the way cats study a sound they have already categorized. After a moment he turned away and washed a paw.

The Warden of the Deep Stratum passed the fuel measure around without comment. The needle had been falling for three runs. The salvage bags were light - a clay seal, two wrought pins, seventeen lengths of serviceable cord. Not enough for another season's repair work at the settlement. The Anomaly-Hand pointed to where pale cyan traced a line in the arch's left side, close to the waterline, and said: here, if anywhere. But the tools to work it were back at the settlement, and the fuel to carry them here and return was no longer a certainty.

Lano barked then - once, sharp, from the bow - and looked back at us over her small white shoulder before turning again to face the fen ahead.

The Tally-Reader wrote down the arch's position in the log. Not found. Not named. Counted.

We did not pass through. The question of passing through was deferred until we knew whether the route back still held enough fuel to matter.

---