The stage lights were dazzling. She was completely surrounded, blinded on all sides by the spotlights, as she looked out at where the audience had to be. But she didn't need to be able to see them to know they were there. She knew her parents, her siblings, her friends and her teachers were out there, on the balconies beyond this circular stage, in this grand theatre. They had come to hear her perform, and she was very nervous, so much so that she couldn't bring herself to speak. The words died in her throat as she tried to thank them for coming and say she hoped this would be good enough. So she didn't say anything, and hoped they understood. Instead, she lifted her instrument and started to play. It was a beautiful piece of music. She'd written it herself, with a little help. It was, in turns, energetic and melancholic, despondant and victorious, magnificent and humble, cynical and naive, up-beat, down-beat, major, minor, sharp, flat and all points inbetween. She poured all of herself into the music, her heart and soul, the performance of her life. And then it ended. She didn't understand why, but she simply ran out of notes, forgot the rest of the score. So she stopped. She could tell the audience was unsatisfied, but she'd played all she could, and she had the feeling her music had touched each of them in some way. She set her instrument down and took a step backwards. The bed was behind her, a narrow stretcher covered in fresh white linen. She climbed on top of it, laid down and went to sleep under the theatre lights. As she slept, she had a dream. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Young Feather" A Haibane Renmei fanficton by Steven Scott steven@imdanet.com This story draws on the same continuity as my previous story, "A Good Luck Haibane" which is available at the Old Home Bulletin Boards (cff.ssw.net/forum) and on Fanfiction.net in the Haibane Renmei category. Reading it should not be nessecary though. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012 In her dream, she was underwater. She panicked when she realised this, until she realised that even though her lungs were full of liquid she wasn't having trouble breathing. This was puzzling, and her mind set to work with surprising clarity for a dream. This water had to be heavly oxygenated. Perhaps it wasn't even water at all. It was slightly cloudy but neither stagnant or viscous, and it tickled her nose and tastebuds. For a moment she worried about how she got here. She couldn't remember anything about being brought here. Then she recalled that this was... HAD to be... a dream. Worrying about how dreams start was pretty silly. She looked around at her surroundings. Green and grey walls surrounded her on all sides, and by the look of them they weren't metal, plastic or stone. She drifted over to them, and picked at them with her finger, and was surprised to see her first thought was true. They were some kind of plant - soft dark flesh with green veins and tendrils running though it. "This," she thought to herself, "is definitely the strangest dream I've ever had." But she wasn't afraid. Rather, she was consumed with a strange feeling of warmth and safety, and paradoxically a growing urge to leave. There had to be something on the other side of these walls. She hated the idea of staying in a cage, however comfortable it might be, when there was so much more to learn outside. As she was thinking this, she dimly became aware of a voice, just on the cusp of hearing. It was too faint for her to make out what it was saying, but as she followed her ears over to the opposite side it grew louder. It was a girl's voice, and it sounded a little sad and nervous, like the girl was apologising in advance. "Hello?" she said. It felt strange and uncomfortable trying to talk with a throat full of water but she was able to make a little sound. "Can you hear me?" she asked again, but there was no reply. The other girl immediately fell silent. "Can you hear me?" she asked again. "Let me out of here! Let me out!" There was no reply. She dug her hands into the soft flesh of the wall, tearing it away like a handful of earth and revealing a smooth grey shell beneath it. Surprised, she started scraping away more, revealing more and more of the shell. A dim red light filtered though it, flickering and swaying, and she knocked on the shell. It sounded thin, and brittle. She could probably break though, if she wanted to... After a moment's thought she grabbed hold of some vines to brace herself against and kicked the shell with the sole of her foot. The shell did not shatter like she'd hoped, and she hurt the ball of her foot, but a few small cracks appeared and bubbles of air started to trickle in through them. "I hope this is a good idea," she thought to herself as she kicked out again. The cracks widened. "I suppose it doesn't matter. This is a dream, after all." She kicked out again, and now great bubbles of air started to flood though the cracks as they disintegrated into a gap. Water started flooding out though the hole, and the sound of distant yelling reached her ears. Suddenly she was being dragged toward the hole, an irresistable force pulling her back toward reality. She must have passed out at that point, as she hit the cold air and her lungs struggled to expel the liquid that filled them.