Dream d3448-s: Low Walls, Long Quiet

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the path to Tamarackcroft was soft underfoot, the kind of soft that gives a little at each step and takes an impression without complaint. Lano walked beside me, her nose working the edge of the path where something had moved through the grass not long ago. The croft walls rose to the height of my shoulder, no more. I could see over them without standing on anything - could see the low roof of the building inside, the patch of ground that had not been turned in some time.

The entry-keeper stood at the gate with the register open but not writing. The relay clerk waited at a distance, unhurried. A keeper of the place moved somewhere on the far side of the wall, checking something I could not see from where I stood.

I carried the notebook. It was there in my hand, closed, and I was not looking for anyone to read it.

The tamaracks at the edge of the croft had begun to drop their needles. Not from sickness - they do this every year, a slow letting-go that is not dying. The needles lay across the soft path in small clusters, rust and umber against the dark ground. I looked at them for a long time.

Lano sat down near the gate and watched the keeper moving on the far side of the wall. She did not bark. Her ears moved once when something rustled in the long grass beyond the croft, and then settled again.

The condition of Tamarackcroft was dormant. Not abandoned, not finished - dormant. There is a difference and the place held it without needing to explain. The walls stood. The gate was shut but not locked. The ground inside had that particular stillness of a place waiting without impatience, a place called on many times in the record and asking nothing back from those calls.

I stood at the gate and let the register stay closed. The entry-keeper did not prompt me. The relay clerk did not approach.

Lano got up after a while and pressed against my leg, warm through the fabric. I put one hand on the top of the wall and felt the roughness of it, felt how solid it was at shoulder height.

The tamarack needles lay across the path.

The croft went on.

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Artwork instructions

IMAGE PROMPT: pixel art a human figure at the soft path to Tamarackcroft with the croft walls at shoulder height, The path is soft and the croft walls stand to the height of a shoulder., muted moss and umber, warm amber accents, 8-bit style