As We Go Along, Ch. 13

 When I woke up, I wasn't on a horse, and the trees weren't whispering. That's an improvement, I thought. How did I know I wasn't on a horse? Well, I was lying on my back and staring at wooden beams and peeling plaster--a ceiling. My head throbbed as I sat up. I was on a little bed, wrapped in a rough blue blanket and white sheets. I reached up to my forehead and winced as I touched a giant goose-egg. Add head trauma to the list of reasons I'm insane, I thought.

I looked around the room. It was tiny and rough. The ceiling was low, the floor bare boards, and the window glass dirty. There were two pieces of furniture, the bed and a dilapidated overstuffed chair in a faded floral print. I stared at that chair for a while. Something was off. It sagged too much, even for a hundred-year-old piece of junk. The seat was so deeply indented it looked like someone was sitting in it. Maybe someone was.

"Am I invisible, or are you?" I asked the air.

"You are," Colin said. "The others told me to wait for you to wake up."

"Okay," I said. "Wait--do I look really creepy, with just the blanket floating in the air?"

"I guess," said the chair.

"How did I turn invisible?" I asked.

"I don't know. You just did, right after you passed out."

"Can you turn invisible so I can see you?" Wow, that sounded really weird out loud. Maybe I was crazy.

"No. You turn visible again," he said. "Do you remember how to do it?"

"Yeah." I think about being a four-year-old ballerina. I closed my eyes and focused on the memory.

"You're humming again," Colin said. "You can open your eyes now. You're visible."

I opened my eyes and maybe blushed a little. Oops. Well, how should I have known? "Thanks," I said.

"For what?" he asked.

"For teaching me how to turn visible. And for watching me to make sure I woke up."

"No problem," he said. He stood up. "Do you feel okay?"

I touched my forehead again. "Yeah. How bad do I look? It feels big."

"It's about the size of a half-dollar, and purple," he said, "but other than that you look fine."

Lovely. I glanced at the door. I didn't hear anyone outside... assuming it led outside. "Where are we?" I asked.

"An inn," Colin said. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Why do you keep asking?" I said. "I feel fine."

"You fell off a horse, you turned invisible without trying, and you heard the dryads before I did," he said.

"I'm FINE," I said, "though confused about the dryad thing. Why did I hear them first? And why were they so loud?"

"I don't know," he said. "Ask Vesperzo. Do you feel okay to get up?"

I nodded, which hurt, and got out of the bed and onto my feet. That made my head hurt even more. I felt a little wobbly, but I stumbled to the door and caught myself on the knob.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Colin said. "Sit down." He pointed to the chair he'd vacated. "I'll get the others."

He was being very talkative all of a sudden. Had something happened while I was knocked out? I remembered what Braydon said. Colin talks to me, but not to the others. I staggered to the old, overstuffed chair and sank into it. Colin eyed me, then opened the door (it led into a dim hallway) and left to find the others.

As soon as he was gone, I started to hear whispers again. But they definitely weren't trees.

Hello, Madalyn. I've been waiting for you.