HOME, SWEET HOME — Awakening at home

When she woke, she recognized the room.

Light streamed through the crystal walls, casting colors across a surface she remembered touching many times. Everything was in its place. Only then did wonder catch up with her: she had no idea how long she had been away.

She sat up.

Her body no longer had scales. She was a slender, airy figure of iridescent blue light, like the others in her star family. She looked at her hands. Moved them slowly. For a moment she expected claws to appear.

‘I dreamed I was a dragon.’

The thought seemed so reasonable that she almost accepted it.

Aurora came into the room before Skyblue could get up. She, too, had left her winged mare’s body behind. Her form was like Skyblue’s now, but she hurried over to embrace her with the same familiar eagerness.

“At last! I’ve been in to check on you so many times.”

“I’ve had the longest dream.”

Aurora sat beside her.

“A dream?”

“I was a dragon. I lived in a tree and traveled through these realms… You were there too.”

Her friend smiled, in no hurry to correct her.

Skyblue ran a hand across the surface where she had slept. She remembered that surface. She remembered the room. At the same time, she could feel Ernesto’s bark and the snow beneath her paws.

“I’ve come back,” she said at last, trying out the meaning of the words.

Aurora nodded.