NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/alt/callahan/17772

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-28 | 12.3 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Clive Grace)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Tanais's Dream ...
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 26 Jan 93 18:11:00 GMT
Sender: [e-mail]
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Lines: 210

Tais bustles into the Place, his grey trenchcoat flapping to the
gentle padding of his hind feet as he sleepily walks up to the bar --
he's just woken up. There is thick brown sleep around his eyes, he's
carrying a small brown paper bag with two buttered crumpets inside
them -- this fox has clearly just woken up.

 "Mike! Can I have a drink please?" He shouts, quietly enough to
still be considered 'polite' yet loudly enough to convey the fact
that that he needs a drink, and he needs that drink now. "Make it a
double strength Mocha coffee and then make it my usual -- I had a
very interesting dream last night..."

 At this, the patrons of the Bar quieten down. It doesn't seem to be
punday. Indeed, Tanais expected this sort of reaction as the time lag
between his cyberdeck and the Place may transport this story
smack-bang in the middle of punday. "If you're looking for a pun" he
said, "then look elsewhere". He shifted onto his seat as he put his
paper bag of crumpets onto the bar and took off his grey tenchcoat,
put down his fiddle case and brown leather satchel". He reached
inside the satchel and pulled out a damp blue face flannel and a
yellow and white box; on the side of the box was the brand name
'Tegretol' he took just one tablet (his morning dose) and closed the
box.

 "See these?" said Tanais, and he put the box on the bar for everyone
to see. "This is the stuff I tried to overdose on a while back. Now
the doc has given me more and now I'm stable and capable of looking
after myself. I'm just fine so don't worry.. It's not a 'heavy'
story", a hint of a smile came across Tanais' jowels, "indeed it was
the most wonderful dream I have had in a long time, ever since..."
Tanais caught himself, "...ah, but that's another story".

 The Cafetiere arrived, and he poured himself a steaming mug's worth
of thick, black Mocha coffee. Tanais sipped the mug and the black
points to his finely-chiselled red ears visibly perked up. He sat on
his stool -- a little less raggedly now and played with the face
flannel. He began his story.


 "Last night I had a dream, a very unusual dream because it pulled
together images and mythologies that I know nothing about -- that I
still know little about but I will learn more. I dreamed that I went
to Australia for a couple of weeks in the Outback -- more
specifically I went out there to experience something called 'The
Dreamtime'.

 "I know some of you here are from Oz so please forgive me if I get
the images or the names wrong. Remember this was a dream or I think
it was a dream. Anyhow..." and Tanais took a lump of thick brown
'sleep' from his eyes, it was not like the usual yellow crust he
normally has to deal with in the morning.

 "Anyhow, I eventually made it to the Outback. It was a late
afternoon or early evening and one of my close friends (from the
northland) gave me some magic mushrooms to eat upon my arrival. When
I took them out of the bag, they had turned into some sort of root --
I put the root in my mouth and chewed. It was bitter and my mouth
went numb but it tasted suprisingly good. I sat there looking at a
huge rock jutting out of  the earth -- the sun was shining on the
rock colouring it a deep rich red and as the sun slowly set, it
seemed to chang the texture and the 'shape' of the rock. All of a
sudden I felt aware of something behind me. I turned to see what
looked like a big kangaroo behind me. It was a she -- I knew that. I
know it may sound a bit silly but I had the feeling that the rock I
was looking at was the essense of all rocks and that the kangaroo was
the essence of all kangaroos. She made a motion with one arm and all
of a sudden I was climbing inside her pouch."

 Tanais took another lump of sleep from his eyes and gently washed
his face all over. "We started our journey. I knew we were travelling
back in time and space with each bound because as we leapt I saw
different animals, some now long extinct -- one that made the most
impact was a funny striped Wolf -- known as a 'Thylacine' there were
hundreds of them when we leapt back far enough. The landscape hardly
changed at all, but nevertheless I felt the Earth get 'younger' with
each bound". Tanais, amazed at the amount of sleep in his eyes,
finished cleanining himself and sniffed. "But something strange
happened. The more we leapt back, the more I became aware of a low
humming noise... it started as a really deep 'throb', but as we went
'further back',  the humming turned into a singing, until every rock
and every pebble -- even every grain of sand seemed to be singing...
weird huh"?

 Tanais sipped his coffee and nibbled on one of his buttered
crumpets. "If you thought that vision was strange, then just wait to
hear what happened next. Anyway, the kangaroo I was sitting in turned
and made a huge jump -- I instinctively knew this was a leap into the
future, I couldn't see where we were going as the sand was blowing in
my face and getting in my nose, my mouth and ears and I tried to
clean it off as quickly as possible so that I could see things from
the future (who wouldn't?), but by the time I was able to at least
see my surroundings, we had arrived, the singing of the rocks was far
away and the sky was dark. It was night and overhead there were
stars, huge red and dull yellow stars. I felt that the universe was
old -- extremely old. I could only see the outline of Kangaroo but it
seemed as if she was talking to me but the sounds came from inside my
head."

 Tanais shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Basically, I can't
remember what she said because it wasn't in any language that I knew
of, but I got the essence of what she was saying. She basically told
me that the human race had chosen to walk the earth like a ghost --
that all the rocks and the stones and trees and animals experienced
the Dreaming all of the time, that they only existed amongst the
human sphere of perception (what we ironically call the 'real world')
as shadows of what they really are and that we only percieve them as
we want them to -- as dull, aimless creatures, whereas they really
walk through the dreaming according to a plan that was laid out long
ago when the world began further than she could leap back. She told
me that 'Some humans are part of the Dream, albeit a small part and
some humans who aren't part of the dream sometimes experience it as
well'.

 "Kangaroo looked at me quite impartially, and I remember these words
quite clearly". Tanais paused to finish his coffee and to get this
part of the story exactly right. "Kangaroo looked at me with these
beautiful rich brown eyes and said 'sometimes it's a gift', she said
'sometimes humans stumble on it by mistake and are so affected by it
that they become more 'real' and then they become part of the
Dreamtime themselves -- however, some people who are part of the
dream lose their way and are no longer part of the dream anymore'.

 "Well, I looked at my body and noticed that I was my Fox-like self.
I had at some point turned from being Clive (my real-life self) into
Ro' Tanais (my virtual persona). She then stepped aside and this
really really weird guy with an eagle's face and strap-on wings made
of feathers of thousands of colours (I know, it sounds silly, but it
seemed to fit at the time) came up to me and took from a parcel made
of leaves a small amount of brown paste which he rubbed into my eyes.
I knew I had to keep them open and it stung like hell, but I
instinctively knew that if I shut my eyes, what he was going to do to
me wouldn't work. I blinked to clear my vision and heard the bird-man
grunt his approval and saw him look at kangaroo and nod. He then
stepped back into the darkness.

 "As my eyes cleared, Kangaroo took me by both hands and looked
'into' me with serious eyes and with great ceremony -- as if what she
was about to say she had said many times before -- she charged me
with a vision 'of what humans could do to the world if we let our
dreams guide our way'. I looked around and slowly shadows seemed to
appear and become part of the surroundings -- there were more humans
there as well". Tanais turns around to hunt out Kitten and the Didi
sprite.

 "Kitten? Didi? I think you were there as well -- dancing together
under the light of a full moon. It was a strange and wild dance that,
as you formed symbols in the sand, pure hot magma welled up in the
cracks and dried to form patterns that in themselves were deeply
magical in some way. I don't know how or why, they just were.

 Kangaroo looked at you both with a gentle, almost motherly smile and
said that 'you were giving thanks to the moon by presenting her with
signs of earth magic that the moon had not seen' and she nodded her
approval at the dance -- but more importantly as you danced I noticed
that the song of the rocks and pebbles came back -- louder than ever
this time and the land looked more alive. The few plants seemed
'greener' under the light of the full moon. The universe was so old
it was unimaginable but the earth seemed young and still full of
life."

 Tanais sighed at the beautiful image in his mind's eye and a furrow
appeared across his brow. "I also saw how the world would be if we
didn't dream, if we lost the power to wander in the Dreamtime and
Kangaroo again charged me with a solemn oath not to tell humans or
what she called 'halfwalkers' -- ( I think they are people that use
their dreams for their own gain) what that time was like or what we
specifically did to stop the Dream. Again, I remember her words quite
clearly 'in every human is the power to stop the Dreamtime from
happening' I saw what we were doing to the earth, the rocks and the
animals, sapping their 'song' -- it was horrible. Kangaroo told me
that we 'all had to find our own way to keep the Dreaming alive' and
that 'if I told other humans or halfwalkers how the dreaming could be
stopped then I would remember the Dreaming but I would lose the
experience of the magic'".

 The red glow of the fire reflected in Tanais' eyes and a hint of
wildness moved across his face as he slightly hunched and the back of
his neck and tail bristled in fear. "Now, I think about what I saw
and I think to myself how awful it would be if I remembered all of
this without experiencing the magic all that wonderment. So I shall
keep my charge -- to tell you all the essence of my dream, but not
the story itself -- I've got a feeling that those of us who can
expreience the dream have all got to experience that in our own way".

 The fire in his eyes passed almost as quickly as it came and Tanais
straightened a whisker that was drooping with half congealed butter
running down it. "I climbed back into Kangaroo and she turned and
jumped, it was a huge jump, so huge that I startled back in bed and
woke up. The moonlight (although not a full moon) was shining on me
from a break in the cloud and our cat Cicero was looking at me
throbbing with love and warmth as if to say 'heh, you're back then...
what do you think?'.

 "That's when I decided to put on my robe and get myself a coffee,
and get the hell down to the Place as soon as possible, to tell you
of the story, to tell you what happened." Tanais smiled at the
patrons of the bar and then looked more carefully at the brown gunk
on the flannel and showed it to an uncharacteristically fazed at Mike
Callahan whose stogie was hanging from his mouth in a most unusual
manner. "Anyone care to say what the hell happened to me last
night?".

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|  ..    "When I grow up, I want to stop being a computer journalist|
| .OO.    and learn how to write."                                  |
| O/\O                                                              |
|  --                              Tanais - friend to all furkindred|
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