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DRAGONMOUNT

A WHEEL OF TIME COMMUNITY

You know I need someone...(Attn: Covina)


Muirenn

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Help! I need somebody,

Help! Not just anybody,

Help! You know I need someone,

Help!

 

When I was younger, so much younger than today,

I never needed anybody's help in any way,

But now these days are gone and I'm not so self assured,

Now I find I've changed my mind I've opened up the doors.

 

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down,

And I do appreciate you being around,

Help me get my feet back on the ground,

Won't you please please help me?

 

-"Help!", The Beatles

 

 

Iriana stepped outside of her room on her way to another useless day in the gardens...and stopped when she took a good look at her surroundings.  It was another of those too vivid dreams that seemed to happen when she was under stress--which seemed a near constant lately.  The colors were bright and there was a strange sense of light, even though none of the lamps in the hallway were lit.  Not to mention the awareness that she had fallen asleep and that this was indeed a dream.  It had been more than a bit strange when she had realized that awareness of her dreaming state seemed to have little impact on the situation.  Unlike in a usual dream, she did not wake at that realization, and somehow, she could still feel a part of herself was deeply asleep.  Well nothing to do but go ahead.

 

As she walked, she thought about the problems that had brought her here, yet again.  It had been nearly a month since she had passed her test for the Shawl, and then been unable to attain it because of her cursed inability to speak a few simple words.  She was worthy, she knew she was, and the rest of the Tower knew it too, but there were rules to be followed.  Aes Sedai were very fond of their rules.  After several hours of discussion between the Mistress of Novices and the Amyrlin, Iriana had been given a status of something more than an Accepted.  She could choose how her time was spent and no longer was required to do chores, she could wear any dress she wanted, and she had been moved to a room away from the others in the Accepted Quarters that had been given completely new furnishings.  A large step up, to be sure.  But she could not choose an Ajah or have the other privileges that came with being a sister.  Surely the Browns would find a solution soon!  She needed some way out of this.  She closed her eyes and clenched her fists in frustration as she thought that living the rest of her life at a step above the Accepted would drive her slowly mad. 

 

She started as a blast of heat hit her, and when she opened her eyes she was certainly not in the familiar hallways of the Tower.  Well.  This was new.  Always before her especially vivid dreams had all been in places she knew.  Most often in the Tower, but sometimes in the city of Tar Valon, and sometimes in her childhood home of Arafel.  But never in a place like this.  She looked around at the barren landscape of cracked earth, short scrub brush, and withered trees.  Where was this place?  Far to the south?  She had never been farther south than Tar Valon, and she had heard of people speak of the swealtering summer heat of Illian and Tear.  But those were port cities, and this land certainly had very little in the way of water.  Odd.  She took a few steps and nearly scared herself half to death with her own shrieks when she almost stepped on a small mottled brown snake.  She flicked a weave of fire at it and watched it burn with a very satisfied hiss.  "That for ill dreams!" she said, enjoying the feel of the words in her mouth.  Her dreams were the only place where she could speak, if only to herself.  If only there were someone else around.  It would be nice to have a real conversation.  She did sometimes, often really, in her usual dreams.  She dreamed of teaching a class without having to resort to akward gestures or frantic scribblings, to be able to answer a question in a class, or to just gossip with a friend.  But there was never anyone around to talk to in these sort of dreams.  She sighed and kicked at the corpse of the snake in frustration.

 

-Iriana Tenialle

Something more than Accepted

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  • 3 months later...
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The endless black of twinkling light no longer felt strange to Covina. Its sight no longer brought wonder and speculation as it once had. It seemed to her that time for questioning was over and had been since she’d become the first among the Wise Ones.  In a world that was rapidly changing she was left no choice but to change and adapt with it or be left behind. Being not only a Wise One, but married to the Clan Chief she was not allowed the luxury of the latter, so while she was still young in truth she took on the responsibility of her role with a grave seriousness.

 

If she’d had a back in place she would have been knuckling it now as she floated through the dark watching small specs of light fly by on all sides. There was only was dream she sought, but it was not to be found. Meaning that Ghaul, her husband and Clan Chief, was once again leading the raid. With a mouth she did not have Covina sighed and completed the step she’d started when she’d first fallen asleep.

 

Suddenly she had arms and legs and a mouth and she was in the World of Dreams. It was a place she knew as well as her own hold, and in a flash she was taken there, standing outside on one of its many ridges. It was an apprentice’s mistake to let her mind wander, but tonight she had been unable to focus. Her midwife said that her time was near, and Ghaul was still away. It was troubling that he might miss his child’s birth. Feeling lighter Covina looked down and to her shock she could see her feet. In her own body her stomach had stretched so far it had been a month since she’d seen the ground.

 

Upset with herself and her childish mistakes she fixed her own image; complete with swollen ankles and a stomach that made her twice as wide. She was about to step back into her own body for sleep when she heard a voice. It was not uncommon for people to dream themselves to this place, but who would dream themselves here, to the very edge of their hold. Walking the few feet to peer around a large rock she was surprised to see a girl here who was not disappearing on her own. Stepping closer she could feel the ability to channel in the woman and suddenly wondered if she was Aes Sedai, though she did not have the face.

 

Stepping fully from around the rock Covina called out. “What business do you have hear child of the dream?”

 

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  • 1 month later...

Iriana turned in surprise as she heard a voice behind her.  Her wide brown eyes grew wider still as she saw, of all people, a pregnant woman behind her.  This was decidedly odd.  She knew she had never before seen anyone like this woman.  Her mind did play odd tricks on her at times.  And what had the woman called her?  Child of the dream?  What did that mean?  She was no child!  Not anymore.  Of course, what was she to become now? 

 

"I am not...what you said," Iriana replied.  "I left childhood behind a long time gone."  Her features flickered with the ageless look of an Aes Sedai, to a woman in her sixties and back to her usual face.  She did not appear to notice.  She looked troubled now, "I cannot say that I like this dream very much.  Just a month out of the testing and not to be given the shawl now, and this is what my mind chooses to dwell on.  I should think that getting myself out of this predicament would be far more important than a fantasy jaunt to whatever wasteland this is.  And here you are," she cocked her head to one side, her neat brown hair falling about her shoulders, and then suddenly caught up in a bun at the back of her head.  "Why would I dream about someone like you?  I left dreams of a family behind long ago too.

 

"Well, dream, I am Iriana Tenialle.  Who might you be when you're at home?"

 

-Iriana Tenialle

Quite Confused

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Covina’s expression never changed as the girl chattered at her. She was of the Tower, but obviously still a child no matter what she claimed. She refused to acknowledge the truth because it was different from what she’d always known. What could be more childish than that? Only children denied the obvious.

 

Covina pulled her shawl tighter and crossed her arms beneath her breasts; a pose she was often forced to take with Ghaul when he was being particularly stubborn. “My name is not dream, nor am I some figment of your imagination. I am Covina Targaryen, Head Wise One to the Dragonmount Aiel” Keeping her eyes locked on the girls she pictured her in short cut off skirts that stopped well above her knees, with two braids twined with ribbon and a doll at her bare feet. “You claim to be a woman grown and yet you are foolish beyond reason. You dabble in things you do not understand, and yet deny their presence in your own mind.”

 

“You are acting a child and so you shall be a child until you have learned enough to be grown.Do you still deny that I am real?” Staring at the child Covina waited to hear the next foolish word from her mouth.

 

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