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May. 10th, 2008 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariWishworld, Prologue & Chapter One, Part One - Version 805.102017
Prologue
Anniversary, Shmanniversary.
All Jana knew was she was bored. Bored bored bored. What was it about grown ups that make certain dates so important that she had to get dressed up in uncomfortable shoes, sit quietly for an hour and be bored bored bored while they stared at each other over candlelight? She poked at her asparagus. Even the food was boring. There was so much for the eight year old to be doing right now than trying to figure out where asparagus came from. The back scales of some kind of reptile, she thought. Why couldn’t Becky baby-sit her today? They always had fun when she came over. Lots more fun than she could have had on that stupid date with her icky boyfriend.
She was looking up at the ceiling again, trying to make shapes in the stucco while waiting for the waitress to come around with dessert when her parents, for the first time since the main course, acknowledged her.
“I need go powder my nose, dear, do you need to go too before we head home?” Jana shook her head at her mother, anything to just get home sooner. Jana shifted in her seat, Momma never took too long in the bathroom and they’d be home pretty soon, as long as Dad didn’t get up as well.
Jana watched as Dad got out of the booth, and then, to her horror, never reached for his wallet. “I’m gonna go as well, kiddo. I’ll be right back.” As he shuffled off, Jana sank down in her seat, and poked the asparagus again. She’d be here a while.
“You’ll get more good out of that asparagus if you eat it. Pushing it around your plate is cute, but unless its running a race, it’s not gonna win any awards, hun.” Jana looked up into the friendly clear blue eyes of her waitress and smiled. At least she was paying attention. “Any room for dessert?”
Jana picked herself up. “Oh, yes. But I gotta wait for momma to say it’s okay.”
The waitress beamed, “Well, think about what you’d really like and I’ll come back with the check. Just have your folks ask for Sylvia.”
“Anything that I want?”
“Anything you’d like, hun.”
“I’d like everyone on the planet to get their wish.”
Sylvia, smirked. “That’s a tall order…I don’t think Earl in the back could cook that up.”
The eight year old smirked. “Then everyone in the restaurant.”
And with that, the world warped.
Chapter One
Jana first became aware she was laying face flat on the ground when she came to. If it wasn’t for the feeling of grass beneath her, it would have been that great feeling you have after a long sleep – the creak of freshly rested muscles, eyes firmly snuggled behind closed eyelids.
Jana raised herself to all fours and squinted her eyes open. Looking down at the ground all she could see was grass, framed by a mass of a mass of curly blonde hair. Her hair always did this until it was brushed in the morning. Momma would be mad if saw Jana outside like this.
And then it came to her…she wasn’t supposed to be outside. She was eating reptile scales of some sort with her parents in a diner. Jana stood up on long legs, straightening herself up, pushing the curls from her face, and looked around. She was standing in long ruined building, with hints that maybe it was a restaurant millions of years ago. Pieces of long faded tile and linoleum peeked through spaces in the dirt and grass, the ruined wainscoting were all that remained of burned and decaying walls. Outside, hints of asphalt were slowly being worn away by time.
Looking down past her chest at the asphalt also brought to her attention the fact that the world wasn’t the only thing that changed. Jana found a large shard of window somehow still in a window pane and looked at her reflection.
The face was obviously hers, but thinner, more mature. The tailored leather skins and beads covered up the frame of a shapely eighteen year old with a remarkably surprised look on her face, topped with a mass of curly blond spiral hair with the occasional tribal braid hanging off it.
Jana’s first thought was what a Halloween costume this would make. Her second was who those three people behind her in cloaks. Spinning around, she put her hand on a knife that sat sheathed on her belt by pure instinct. She knew it was there, and yet, didn’t know how she knew. A question for another time, these three could have answers to what had happened.
“You there!” The clear adult tone of her voice surprised her. “What’s happened here?”
The three men in cloaks were tromping down a large path that was probably
Jana cautiously sat, a few feet away. She couldn’t explain why she was worried about these people, just that she felt the threat it in her bones. “What happened here?”
“Vengeance wanted a feast for this evening, we were hunting out in the old
“
“Yeah, where old
“Cars. What happened to all the cars?”
The pathfinder pulled back his cloak, revealing the face of a older man whose beard was grey with age. “There’ve never been cars here, young lady. There’s never been a 1604 or
Jana’s curiosty allowed her to relax slightly. “There were cars. There was this restaurant, there were cars in the parking lot, on
“You’ve had them too, girl. You’re lucky. We don’t all share the dream.”
“It wasn’t a dream! It was real.”
“Perhaps, but it’s not what matters now.”
The pathfinder stood up, causing Jana to tense back into her crouch. “Vengeance doesn’t want a midnight snack, boys, the buffet’s waiting on us.” The two men reached for the dead doe’s litter as they raised up the hoods on their black cloaks. “You be careful girl, these aren’t safe roads to travel alone. Not all of Vengeance’s friends are as tired as we are.”
Guiding his way down the remnants of the road, she watched them recede into the the distance. She gave them what felt like an hour and left in the opposite direction.
Jana had been walking for hours up what was probably Broadway, but she’d never paid attention to the roads as a little girl. If she ever left the path, she’d never know how to get back. And even then, she only knew Broadway back to the shell of a burned out restaurant that wasn’t going to provide much in the way of shelter.
Jana flopped down on a rock. She hadn’t eaten in a while, and while the leatherskin boots kept the cold out, but weren’t very cushioned. And it was kinda chilly. And getting dark. The threatening feeling had left her as she made distance from the three men, vanishing the warrior Jana, and leaving just the confused thoughts of the eight year old Jana inside the eighteen year old body. With nothing, absolutely nothing, recognizable, the eight year old was wanting to cry badly.
“You’ll catch your death of cold out here in that outfit, hun.” Jana spun around, jumping at the voice. “Why don’t you come inside. You look like you could use the rest.” What Jana saw melted the eight year old’s heart: A woman, robed all in purple, a witches hat upon piled up red hair. But what brought on the broad smile were the friendly clear blue eyes of her waitress at the restaurant.
“Sylvia! That was your name! Sylvia!” She rushed up to crush the one thing she recognized in a great big bear hug, but slammed into what looked like a transparent gold wall. After stumbling a few steps back, Jana saw it fizzle away into nothingness.
“I said come in from the cold, not rush me with that knife on your belt. Now come inside. Leave the knife on the coffee table.”
The old oak cabin wasn’t far from the road. Far enough to be invisible, close enough to be convenient. Inside lamps and glowing balls of some kind of gold magic dimly lit the one room house. Jana moved the candle on the table to one side to see her hostess, sitting directly across from her. “I know you.”
Sylvia nodded. “I know you, too.”
Jana’s eyes widened in anticipation.
“I’ll get right to the point. You’ve been hunting rabbits in my begonias, stomping through my gardens and making a mess of the flower beds. So if you don’t mind, please stop, and I’ll show you how to build a proper rabbit snare.”
Jana cocked her head.
“A rabbit snare?” Sylvia repeated, attempting to get the girl’s synapses to fire. “Rabbit trap? Thing for catching rabbits?” Jana's wide stare gave her little hope. “You do know what a rabbit is?”
“I’ve never killed a rabbit. Ever.” Jana wasn’t so sure anymore, though. She’d never killed a rabbit, ever, but something was leaking through out of her subconscious. An idea that maybe she had killed a rabbit, and how easy it was to skin one once you’d killed it. Cooked just right—. She shook the memory out of her mind.
“Oh, dear. A lie. Well, I was hoping we could have had a nice talk over some tea and stew, but I guess we’ll need more drastic measures.” Sylvia stood up, and a globe of glowing gold began to form up in her hand. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but maybe a few years as a rabbit might drill some sense into you. And it was such good stew, too.”
She had to remember, thought Jana. Something. Anything. And she couldn’t convince the former waitress as a rabbit. And then it came to her.
“You’ll get more good out of that asparagus if you eat it! Pushing it around your plate is cute, but unless its running a race, it’s not gonna win any awards, honey!”
Sylvia froze, her globe of gold magic popping like a soap bubble. A memory replayed in her mind, clear as day, of a small girl sitting in a diner, playing with her food.
“You were my waitress. Your name was Sylvia. And I was playing with the green spikey things.”
Sylvia dropped back into her seat. “You know. You know about the old world. You remember it.”
“I was in the restaurant. You offered me dessert, and asked me—”
“What you wanted.” Sylvia interrupted. “And you asked for everyone…to get…YOU!” Jana startled back in her seat. “You were the one who started this whole mess! You destroyed the old world!”
“Not on purpose!”
“Not on purpose?! Do you realize what kind of hell you’ve put us through? The lives we’ve had to rebuild?” Sylvia’s blue eyes flashed gold, for a fleeting second.
Something awakened in Jana at that point. The same feeling she got when she saw the three men in her reflection. That same something sensed the threat of this person and was beginning to take over. Her wide eyes squinted down to a peer, and her muscles tensed.
And then Sylvia softened again. “No. You probably don’t realize what’s happened. You were only eight. How could you have known.” Sylvia put her head in her hands. “I’m sorry, this is probably as hard for you as it is for all of us.” She recomposed herself, pushed back her seat and headed for the back door. “We’ve got a lot to talk about…I’ll get the stew.”
“So you see, Jana, you got your wish.” Sylvia served up another mug of tea. “We don’t know why or when, but when you asked for everyone in the restaurant to have their wish, they got it. No matter what it was, they all received it. All the changes around us are the twisted reality of these wishes in those people’s hearts.”
Enraptured by the story, Jana asked, “What happened to the city?”
“Someone in the diner wished for some kind of fantasy-world empire, and he got it along with a new name. ‘Vengeance.’ It warped the city into his perfect city-state and everyone within it changed.” Sylvia gave a slight smile as she tugged at her velvet purple robe. “It made me a bonafide witch. Sure makes a nice change from serving food for tips.”
“But, you aren’t a witch, really. Are you?”
“I am, actually. Well, I am now. I was born in this little cabin, I grew up in a family where my mother was a witch and my father was a woodsman. Mother taught me her craft, and in time, I was doing magic alongside her. She’s long gone, though. Father, too.
“It’s all a lie, though.” Sylvia added. “I have these memories, but they’re not real. What’s real was that, once upon a time, I was a waitress raising two sons on her own, in a city in
Jana began to realize the extent of the damage her small words had caused. “And your sons?”
“I don’t know.”
Jana ached at those words. A feeling she’d never considered before, but in her new world, one she somehow knew: the feeling of a mother who’d lost her children. A feeling Sylvia was also having. The witch attempted to change the topic.
“So…you’ve certainly grown up into a fine young huntress. How old are you now? Sixteen? Seventeen?”
“I’m eight. I just don’t look it, anymore.”
“Eighteen? You look just right, to me. So about ten years has passed now?”
“No, I’m eight. Not eighteen.”
Sylvia’s eyebrow arched up a notch. “You’re….eight.”
“Yes. I’m eight and a half.”
Sylvia put her head back in her hands, rubbing her eyes. “Okay. You’re eight. What’s the first thing you remember after asking about everyone getting their wishes?”
“I woke up a few miles away. Where the restaurant used to be, I think. Then I saw these three men who—“
“And how long ago was this?” She’d dealt with eight year olds before, and knew they loved going off into tangents.
“Dunno. A few hours ago? I don’t have a watch.”
“But definitely today?”
“Yes.”
Sylvia sat back and considered the ramifications of this revelation. She’d known about the
One thing was sure, Jana couldn’t remain eight years old in this world. If Sylvia could get a hold of some of Jana’s reconstructed memory, maybe she could mature her up a bit.
On the east side of the cabin, were Sylvia’s prize begonias. The two walked up to the flower bed, Sylvia pointing out a rabbit path heading to them with a golden trail of magic. “You were running down this path, chasing a hare yesterday.”
“But I didn’t.”
“Hear me out, Jana. The rabbit came this way, right into the flower beds, then took off along the side of the house. You came the same way, tromping right into the flower bed, and along the cabin.”
“But I didn’t!”
“You see this mashed up part here?” She highlighted a spot in the begonias which had been mashed down. “Put your foot there and see if it fits.”
Jana looked over at her cautiously then back down into the flowerbed, and put her booted foot in the crushed begonias. It fit perfectly.
“It’s your foot alright. Can you remember anything about that chase?”
Jana stared into the flowerbed.
“Anything?”
Jana stood completely motionless.
“Jana?”
Suddenly, a rustle came from the far end of the bed, and a rabbit poked up its head. And like an arrow finally being let free from a pulled bow, Jana and the rabbit took off down the side of the cabin. Sylvia rubbed her forehead a headache began to form. “Right through the begonias.”
Jana sped through the front yard with the speed and grace of a seasoned hunter dashing after the rabbit, never once losing sight of it. After two tight zigzags Jana had moved into position, and pounced on the rabbit. With no knife, she broke it’s neck to silence the screaming.
Running after the huntress, Sylvia huffed her way to where Jana laid holding the now dead rabbit. Jana looked at Sylvia with eyes much older then before. “There should be enough here to feed two, if we add it to the stew stock for the morning. I’ll skin it before then.”
Sylvia sat down on her knees. “How did you do that, hun?”
Jana smiled at her with a grin that made Sylvia uneasy. “I’ve been alone in the forests for years, you learn these things.” As Jana stood up with an almost animal like grace, Sylvia decided that she would probably want to keep Jana on her side and agreeable as long as they were together.
“But you just got here, didn’t you?”
“Well, yes…I just….” And the connection broke. “I just…got here. I…” Jana looked at the dead rabbit in her hands. And the hands that killed the rabbit. It fell to the ground. “I killed it.”
“Yes. I’m sorry.” The witch put one arm around the shoulder of the now crying Jana, and with the other, placed a protection spell over the dead rabbit. She would come back for it after she had put Jana to bed.
Jana’s sleep was interrupted by fitful dreams. Images of playing in her old front yard with plastic dolls danced across her eyes. Dreams of bike riding down streets with friends, playing house under the trees in the backyard intermingled with images of living in the forest, foraging, escaping slave seekers, and keeping out of the many eyes of Vengeance.
And with each dream, the new world firmly latched into her psyche. Each memory door opening brought a bit of her new history back to her. And as she assimilated all the varied images, her unconscious made note of two omissions – no mother. Not a single memory of either of her in this new world, only memories of a father as a blacksmith, hammering a something into shape.
It was a long and uncomfortable sleep.
“Stupid stringy rabbit,” Sylvia cursed under her breath. She was never good at skinning animals. She preferred heading into town to the cutcher’s for a good clean cut of anything, over skinning her own anyday. “Dad made this look so east. Why won’t you just come away clean?!”
“You’re cutting along the tendons.” Jana sat up rubbing sleep from her eyes. “It’s faster and cleaner if you cut against them.” She walked up to the cutting shelf, taking the rabbit from Sylvia. “I’ll show you. Watch.”
Sylvia watched as Jana skinned the rabbit with a skill and grace she didn’t have yesterday. “How old are you, Jana?”
“Eight.”
“And you’ve skinned rabbits before?”
“Many times. You can’t live in the forest without learning to skin well.”
Sylvia examined Jana. She didn’t have a far away look in her eyes like before, or the frightening mannerisms of the savage. “You killed that rabbit like a professional, last night.”
Jana dropped her head and looked down at her hands. “I know. I know.” She went back to skinning the rabbit. “Last night, while I slept, some of memories you talked about came to me. They taught me to skin a rabbit. They taught me a lot.” She grinned at Sylvia. “And you were wrong. I didn’t run down that path into your begonias. I ran up it the other way.”
As Sylvia began serving up plates of the rabbit stew, there was a knock at the door. “Get that, Jana, would you?” Dutifully, Jana opened the front door to see a heavyset Japanese man at the door, dressed in trading furs.
“I’m looking for Sylvia. Is she in?”
“We’re not interested!” she shouted from the back of the cabin, wondering if “No Soliciting” signs would be any good in this world.
The trader moved his gaze back at Jana. “I’m not here to sell anything. There was a merchant down the ways that said Sylvia had an open door policy to travelers. I was hoping…”
“…she might feed you?” Sylvia crossed her arms behind Jana. “My hospitality is getting a little too well known.” She waved him inside. “I’m going to need to have a little talk with Colin, that little blabbermouth.”
“He also said…you had…memories.”
Jana sat back down to her bowl, as Sylvia served up another bowl of the rabbit stew to the traveler. “Why does it seem no matter where I go, I’m serving up food?”
“Is this rabbit?”
Jana smiled proudly for a second before remembering how they got the rabbit in the first place. “Fresh.”
The trader sighed. “Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.”
Sylvia frowned. “I’m sorry, but it’s all we’ve got.”
The traveler put on an apologetic smile. “Oh, no, no, no. This is fine. It’s just that I can’t seem to get away from rabbit. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.” Sylvia sat as the traveler continued. “Rabbit stew is fine. What I really came to see you about, were. Well.” He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Memories.”
“Of?”
“You know. Where we were. Before.”
“No idea. Do tell.” Jana looked at Sylvia quizzically. Why would she lie about the memories?
“My name is Jin, a trader in this area of silver. I own a mine out in the west, which is how I met up with your friend Colin. I was selling him some ingots for his jewelry shop when I mentioned to him that my wife had a beautiful pair of silver earrings. I don’t have a wife. At least not here. I didn’t mean to really say anything to him, but Colin figured out what I’d meant. He told me to see you.”
Jana tried her best not to look completely enthralled by his story. Whatever Sylvia had in mind, she didn’t want to blow it. Sylvia considered Jin’s story for a second, before responding. “What was the last thing you remember in your other memories?”
“I was sitting in a restaurant with my wife, celebrating her birthday. She’s gone, though.” He waved his hand towards the surroundings. “Somewhere out there.”
Jin stared into his bowl of rabbit stew. “You know…I remember I ordered the liver and it was terrible. I’d seen a menu item for rabbit in butter sauce. I’d wished I had that instead.” He pointed at the bowl in front of him. “Every day. Every meal. After a few years of this, that liver seemed so so good.”
Sylvia stared at Jin for a bit, reading his face as best she could. He seemed genuine, and Earl’s liver wasn’t his best dish. “Jin? Meet the person who is responsible for this rabbit dish, and probably all the others you’ve had.”
She motioned to Jana, just turned a bit red and tried to make herself smaller in her seat. “I’m sorry.”
“Well, you came to the right spot,” Sylvia interjected. “Those other memories are real. You were at a restaurant where I was a waitress, and our huntress here was there as well.”
Jana waved sheepishly. “Hi.”
Jin breathed a sigh of relief. “You don’t know how nice it is to know there are other people who are having the same memories.” He shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “Now, how do we get back?”
“We don’t know. I may be a witch, but not much of a seer. The only thing I’m sure of is we haven’t been here for long. Maybe a day at the most, if Jana’s memory is right. I think we’re in this for the long haul.”
Jana stared at Jin’s untouched bowl. “You don’t want your rabbit anymore, then?”
“Jana.” Sylvia threw a scolding look over at Jana.
Jin just sighed. “No, I don’t want rabbit anymore. I don’t want rabbit ever again, to be honest.”
Suddenly, with a flash of light flashed in the room, as Jin threw his head back and his back arched. Sylvia and Jana jumped to their feet, protected by a gold magical shield conjured up by Sylvia’s reflexes. The flash concentrated at Jin’s chest as a small turquoise and purple gem floated out from his chest. It floated gently about a foot in front of him before the flash faded, and the gem fell to the table with a thud.
Jin had passed out after the ordeal, but seemed otherwise fine. The gem’s exit from his chest left no marks or wounds, and it took the two of them to drag him over to the bed while he recovered.
Sylvia was more worried about the gem on her table. She’d put a protection spell on it almost immediately, more for their protection than the gem’s. She waved Jana back, away from the table. She sensed magic from it, but not at very high levels. She removed the spell and picked up the gem. Not very heavy, not very powerful. There was a design inside the gem, but she couldn’t make it out.
“It’s a rabbit.” Sylvia turned to her. “You see the two ears? And the whiskers? There’s a rabbit in there.” She stared at it a bit longer. “I’m pretty sure it’s his wish. He wished for a rabbit dish, and then gave it up just before this thing came out.”
“There’s something to be said for possessing a child’s imagination.” Sylvia said. Jana smiled. She popped the gem into the air, caught it, and put it in a pocket in her robe. “But if all you had to do is give up your wish, why hasn’t this happened in the past?”
“You said we’ve only been here a day. Maybe no one knows this can happen yet?”
“Maybe. But if you’re right, we have the key to getting our world back. If it really is Jin’s wish…we only need to get Vengeance’s wish back. And then get all the gold in
“What was his wish?”
“Vengeance runs this city state. I’m pretty sure he’s the one we’ll need to convince to give up all this. If that’s even what this gem is about.”
“Not his. Hoffa’s?”
