Sometimes you wake up, just gradually, and keep your eyes closed as long as you can. Just lying there…wondering if you slept in, what time was it now? Should you stay a bit more, under the cozy blankets, head buried in your comfy pillow…
This was the state Hawn found himself in now, but with an unsettling layer of a half-remembered dream. Chasing through the forest at night…a dark tunnel…then…
He blinked, opened his eyes. Both parents were standing right there, though their backs were turned and they were talking softly, seriously. He strained to hear.
Something about her parents must be so worried, and what could be done- he sat up, and let them know he was awake- he wanted to know what was going on.
By the time fifteen minutes had passed, he wished he was still asleep.
His parents related how the group of friends had been found, each of them, asleep in the forest just beyond the housing plan. None of them were hurt, but all had been asleep for days. Elleriuv had woken first, he was back at school now. Aelbia had just woken up this morning, Hawn was the last…because Asphaella hadn’t been found.
Confusion wracked his brain- what was a dream and what had really occurred? She couldn’t really be gone, right? He had so many questions…
When he tried to tell his parents his version of what had happened, they were incredulous and angry. Super-fast gnomes? An ancient secret tunnel that led to a mysterious underground city? They tried not to be mad, they knew he was just having a psychological reaction to the trauma. It was hard on everyone.