The Spider Caught

Oh, the sweet atmosphere of the night. When half the world is sleeping and dreaming-this is when I am overjoyed to be here. Truth, the daytime holds many dreamers still, but it is not the same. At night the visions within mortals' minds speak truer, more from the soul.

As my work winds down, I find time to sit and watch my 'children' take shape and substance within the dreaming. To see what makes minds work, to feel the dreamer's pain and ecstasy-this is what makes it worth the interminable years.

Look at him-his dreams are filled with messages of pain and suffering that would make Prometheus thank the gods for his fate. Creatures form nightly and assail him to no end. Every morning this one wakes up with a scream on his tongue and sweat on his brow. Of course, he does not let this dissuade him from his work. Dedication.

Ah, here she is. Adrianne. She is one that could truly be called beautiful. Her dreams are works of art in themselves, but she will never know who gives them. She dreams nightly of a shadowy lover who is come to carry her away from her life, to make her feel wanted. It pleases me to give that to her.

Every morning, she awakens-refreshed and pleased by her nightly dreaming, wishing that her dark benefactor to come to her in the waking world. Perhaps someday she will get her wish, but not today.

As the night wears on, I look at others' dreams but return to hers often. No others have the combination of innocence, purity and joy that hers do. Adrianne is too good for the life she leads. If the Twelve were still in existence, she would be a target for the jealous rages of Hera, to be sure. She has the rare combination of intelligence and beauty that would have attracted Zeus in a second.

Back in the days of the Twelve, she could be added to the ranks of the immortals by tasting the ambrosia in the halls of Olympus. But to think of that is to be a dreamer which rivals any mortal. The Twelve are gone, whispers on the wind-and with them, so is Olympus and the ambrosia that could add her to our company.

Not that I would, of course. To add her to the company of immortals-something that I had criticized others for often-would be a travesty. Were she meant to be a goddess, she would be. By the machinations of Fate, if not by birth.

Although-would not it be a working of Fate if she were made a goddess by something other than birth? I must remember to ask Lachesis when next we speak. Who would know better than the Fates themselves?

Ah, to watch her brings happiness to one unaccustomed to it. If only the Twelve were here to bring her into the company. How could one not be honored to be added to a troupe of immortals? Ah, it is not worth speaking. The fact remains that it is impossible, however much I may wish it. She is set in her lot in life, and can only dream of something more. And dream she will.

Dreams that should be storied shall come to her. Her shadowy consort shall become known to her as real-perhaps she will attempt to search him out, to find this dark being of whom she dreams.

Author's note: I don't like this one much at all, to tell the truth. It's too contrived, and I had to take allowances with my Morpheus character that weren't there. It's forced, and it reads like it. ©1998, Cameron Wm. Akers