I opened my eyes and the first thing to register was confusion. The vast majority of the last ten years of my life had been spent with one single, constant view. And right now I was not looking at the far wall of the hospital room, plastered in colorful paintings. Mind you, my current view could be described as a painting.
The sky was above, but its blue and white vastness was mostly blocked out by a canopy of leafy trees. The branches clacked and swished in the wind, causing shade and light to dapple across my warm skin. It was warm and cool all at once. I turned my head to the side and saw that the trees were many, and between them grew other foliage, some thistly and others covered in delicate flowers. I was laying on a forest floor.
But how? I was very sure that illness had kept me paralyzed from the neck down and bed-ridden for the last ten years. I couldn't even remember the last time I was even in a forest.
Hoping to find answers, I turned my head to the other direction. And there I stared, confused and now certain that this must be some kind of dream. A very vivid and probably drug induced dream. I'd have to talk to the doctor about adjusting the dosage of my medications. After all, the little, three foot tall boy covered in fur with a bushy orange tail had to be a hallucination.
Fascinated by the dream, I studied the boy. He was knelt in the moss, head bowed to what looked to be some kind of small stone statue before him that I couldn't make out. He wore a loose fitted, baggy sleeved shirt of blue fabric and pants that were a brown linen. he seemed to have ginger hair to match his ginger tail, too.
I nearly laughed at the absurdity, and was about to call out to the hallucination when, by some unused instinct, I lifted my arm toward the strange creature. But it was then that I began to breath heavy. Why? Because it actually moved! I'd been a vegetable from the neck down for ten years, yet suddenly my body could move? No way. It wasn't possible. Even, by some miracle, I began to get feeling back to my extremities, surly I would have long lost the muscle mass needed for proper movement?
yet, I watched- awe struck- as I moved a hand so that it was held before my eyes, fingers wiggling just to be sure. Smooth and effortless, like I had never lost the ability in the first place. Shaking and both terrified that the drugs were working, and praying they kept working a little longer, I began to shift the rest of my body. Slowly, gingerly, I moved myself to a seated position and felt tears spring to my eyes. How?
So engrossed in the miracle that was my body was I, that I had completely forgotten the furry boy mere feet away. That was till there was a startled gasp that had me jumping. I swung my head back and saw the absolute oddest creature I had ever seen. The boy didn't just have fur and a tail; he was covered in orange and cream colored fur. It was over every piece of exposed skin. And his face! That was not a human's face. It was an animals face, and, if I had to pick one, I would have guessed a fox.
He stood about fifteen feet away and was staring at me with wide blue/green eyes and a muzzle open in shock. One furry hand was holding a woven basket while the other was clenched at his side. He stood at only about three feet, not including the fluffy ears a top his head. He was a fox person.
"A- a human?" Asked the boy making me blink in surprise. I didn't expect him to speak english. Then again, nothing about this could be odder, so why not?
"He-hello?" I stammered. Might as well talk to the hallucination if it was talking to me right?
The fox boy's eyes narrowed and I watched as he sniffed my way. The nurse had given me a sponge bath just a few hours ago, so I shouldn't smell too bad. I hope.
"What were you doing?" I asked, hoping to put the boy at ease. He seemed just as afraid of me as I was of him. More so perhaps, given I thought he was just a figment of my drug induced imagination.
The boy looked back at the stone- something- he had been at moments before, before shifting his eyes back to me. I didn't think he would answer but that little muzzle opened and he said. "I was making an offering." he said hesitantly, then elaborated. "To our land god, the great Aeros."
"O-okay?" I said, having never heard the name nor having any clue as to what a land god was other than it mostly likely being a god over this land.
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"You believe he is gone too, don't you?" Asked the boy. His face grew sad and worried. "That he is never coming back?"
"Er, in all honesty, I've never heard of him."
Now the fox boy was back to looking suspicious. I couldn't blame him. I was a strange woman who suddenly just appeared behind him while he was preying. I would be suspicious too. Then he looked a little worried, glancing over both shoulders and then setting those pretty eyes back her way.
"Are you alright, human woman? How did you get here?"
I shook my head. "I don't know... I think I must be dreaming."
Now the fox boy looked alarmed and more than a little concerned. he took a few hesitant steps my way and, I- so confident that this was all a product of my imagination- didn't even flinch away. I watched, fascinated, as he stretched out a small, reddish gold, hand that looked a little more paw like than human like. He placed those little toe beans on her fore head for a second.
"You don't have a fever..." he said softly.
I actually chuckled. "Until just this moment I couldn't even move my arms. Even if I had a fever, I think I would be okay with it. So far this is a pretty good dream."
And it really was. The air was pleasantly warm with a cool breeze, I sat on a soft moss and I could feal every inch of my body. I was tempted to stand, to run or jump, or even climb one of these near by twisty trees. But I feared that if I dared to move too much, too fast, then the hallucination would break and I'd once again, be trapped in my hospital bed, alone and sickly.
"Um... I'm Ozzie. What is your name?" asked the boy, once again checking over his shoulders before sitting in the moss before her. I knew he spoke in a tone that meant he was seriously concerned for my mental state, but that was okay, I was worried I might have gone nuts too.
"Enna."
"That's a pretty sounding name. you claim you don't know how you got here?"
I shook my head. "I haven't the foggiest idea. Like I said, I am pretty sure that this is a dream or something."
"Hmm. Well what is the last thing you remember Enna?"
I opened my mouth to say that I'd been in my hospital bed. Where else would I have been after all? but something made me hesitate. What was my last memory? A sharp pain passed though my head making me flinch and place a cool hand to my own brow. I felt afraid for some reason, and a little stomach sick. "I- I don't know..." my peacefulness now a little shattered, I began to feal a panic set in. If this was a dream, should I not have woken up by now? Weren't you supposed to wake up once you started to suspect a dream was real? And wasn't pain supposed to wake you up too?
Needing to distract myself from the rising trepidation, I decided to ask the fox some questions too. "Wh-why were you praying to that god you spoke of?"
"Oh! Aeros? my people are in a tough bind right now and I had hoped to gain a little favor to our side." he got a little sad, his paw-hands fiddling with the hem of the baggy blue shirt. "My family and the elders think that our god has long since abandoned us to our fate. but I figured it couldn't hurt to send up a prayer. He may be listening after all..." He sounded about as confident in that as I was about this dream.
"Where I come from there are people who believe in gods." I told him, eyes settling on the stone statue near by. It looked a little like a tiny stone house with a grey figurine of a small animal inside. "But I'm not one of them. And if I am wrong, and there are gods, then they are jerks."
"Are you from one of the neighboring countries then? Pern maybe? They are the closest to us here."
"Ah, I really don't know how to tell you this but... I think I may be from a place much farther away. Cause, where I come from, there is no such thing as little fox boys." I added the last sentence with a feint smile as I did not want to offend the boy. But at the same time I was beginning to really worry now. This was a dream right?
"I am not a boy!" Huffed the fox. "I happen to be six teen thank you. I am a man know. And I'm not a fox either. I'm a monster known as a foxkin if you must know." He replied rather hotly, patting one of those paws to his chest proudly. "We are hunters and live in a small village near by."
I chuckled. I really couldn't help it, he was awfully adorable after all. "Sorry. Well, I have never heard of a foxkin before. And where I am from monsters are just pretend. Hence why I am pretty sure this is just a dream brought on by my medication."
"I don't know what to tell you miss Enna. This is no dream. And as far as I know, every country has at least some monsters." Perhaps seeing the fear and rising panic in my eyes, Ozzie grew somber and gentle. "Look, I really am not supposed to bring humans to the village, but you seem in a bad way miss Enna. Why don't you come back with me and we can see if the elders can help?"
For the first time, I looked down at myself. I was seated on the moss in a soft white dress that flowed out around me. But my body was not the one I knew. No longer was I bone thin and weak with my condition. I had muscle on my legs and arms, my skin had a healthy glow about it too. I was not wearing shoes.
"I-" I hesitated as the young foxkin got to his feet- that I now saw were also paws and had the added joint that his natural cousins possessed. "I don't know if I remember how to walk..."
Ozzie looked confused but held out one of those tiny paws all the same. "Let me help you."
I reached out a hand and held to the the offered paw. As my fingers slid over fur and those little toe beans, real worry finally began to set in. It all felt too real. way too real.