[Eveningsdawn]: 317.Vreaming2

Part 2 of Vreaming. Girl's POV.


Girl.

“I still think it’s risky.”
“’Salright, boyo, you’re not the one doin’ it, only me.” I pulled on my surskin gloves and straightened up, bringing the vidscreen into view. He had a worried look on his face, a little line between his brows that made me laugh. “Ah, c’mon, alls I’m doin’ is takin’ it on a test run over to your house, takin’ the long route. Mebbe forty minutes.”
He scowled as I pulled on another layer and snagged my ‘specs from the table. I fiddled with the connecting wire as my boy continued sulking quietly, and then went on, “Beast took hers for a dry run yest’day – the mods all worked fine. I’ll see you when I see you. Kisses.” I blew a kiss and shut down the vidscreen, snorting under my breath. I flicked on the ‘specs – the vreamers now, with their mods – and put them on before pulling my facemask on over my head. It was bright today, but bitingly cold, and I’d need all the layers I could get. Since I was still indoors, everything was the same through the vreamers, only in grayscale; I’d yet to config the inside of my house, though the outside had the look of a desert dwelling.
I stepped outside, feeling one blast of cold air before the techie gear took over. The world shimmered once, reddish sand overlaying starkly white snow, and then all I could see was desert, and all I could feel was the sun on my body. I glanced down at my hands, checking the ‘skin’ I’d made for myself. It seemed all right; tanned skin, a snake bracelet curling around my right wrist, long fingers. I looked up and around, at the low mud brick houses and the path that would take me out of town. There were two paths to the boy’s house, one short and quick, the other looping around, out into the shimmering desert. That was the one I chose, as Beast had run the vreamers in town the day before.
The heat was intense, but it was a thousand times better than the usual bone-numbing cold. I could feel the sand under my bare feet; it was still early in the day and the chill of night clung to the sand. The desert was quiet, not the dead quiet of snow but the living not-quite-silence made up of the tiny noises of myriad creatures going about their lives. It was much easier to listen to, this silence, and Beast agreed, for all that she is bred for a snow-bound world. As I walked, I met only one other person, a tall woman with intricate black tattoos winding around her arms and along her collarbones, clear even against her dark skin. She nodded at me, but said nothing, and so I had no idea if she was another vreamer like me, or if the program had supplied her. I shrugged to myself, and went on.
I was well out of sight of the town now, with only the desert in front and behind, a seemingly endless vista of red sand. Suddenly, a glint to the left caught my eye, perhaps ten yards off the path. I hesitated only a moment, and then turned off towards it. I didn’t have time for a Vreamer’s Quest right now, but if the glinting object seemed interesting, I’d come back for it later.
A mirror lay in a little hollow in the sand, the sun gleaming off the surface like tamed fire and sliding over the simple polished-wood frame. I crouched down, changing the angle so that the sun didn’t reflect quite so strongly and I could see my face. I grinned, seeing my new features for the first time, the dark blue tribal tattoos on high cheekbones, the dark, slanting eyes, the full lips. I reached out to touch it; the iridescent surface seemed to pull me towards it. There was a cry from somewhere to my left, but I ignored it.
The instant before my fingertips could brush the mirror’s glass, something, moving fast, slammed into my body with a roar. I hit the sand hard, and the Vreaming’s sensations were briefly replaced by the unyielding cold of the real world’s frozen earth and snow. Although what I saw didn’t change, my vision blurred for a moment, then cleared. I struggled to sit up as the creature that had knocked me over rolled off of my body, and then crouched next to me. I stared into its golden eyes.
“Who…” I gasped out, furious and more than a little scared, “who t’hell are you?”