Parable

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  Chapter 1

  That day, the coming of dawn was truly something extraordinary, as a finger of rose crept between the great crevices in the clouds lazily drifting above, casting the valley in its warm light.  It could almost be felt; a deep breath in the earth as it dispersed its gown of mist before the light.  Songbirds began twittering the news that the sun had risen far beyond the clouds, stirring the forests and fields.  Deer sought out the hollows in which they waited out the night, and the creatures of night disappeared from the plane of day.  Dogs sniffed among the dirt and grass, learning the new smells the nocturnal world had left to them, and the sound of wood splitting beneath the metal of man’s devising rang out in rhythm across the scape.   
  The world seem so eager to embrace the coming of day, so vivacious and cheerful after its long slumber, that many would hardly notice one who remained reluctant to let go.
  No one could explain why.  Such a beautiful morn was passing, a second consecutively, but still it tried to nestle in its dreams.  It didn’t care for what lay outside; it had nothing to do with that world.  Not yet.  But now, its dreams were slipping away, and it was waking.  She was about to find a new world.

  The girl stirred, groping in the darkness behind her eyes for the dreams that were growing more and more distant.  Hard as she tried, as much as she tried to calm herself, sleep refused to return.  She was faced now with the world of the waking.  And, slowly, she began to feel a new feeling pushing against her mind, trying to lead it away from sleep… curiosity.
  …Where?
  At last, she pushed the darkness away, becoming aware of the world around her.  It was warm.  Stillness filled the air around her, and no sounds grace her ears.  She shifted slightly, and felt something against her skin; soft, but a little bit coarse, draped over her lightly, seeming to trap the warmth.  Beneath her it fell similar, but for the fact that it seemed to support her gently, especially her head, which was held above the rest of her body.  
  She then took a deep breath, just to nearly cough it back up.  The air was indeed very still, and filled with dust, as if it had lain undisturbed for a long while.  She could feel now her curiosity growing, a blooming eagerness to comprehend where her life found her now; an eagerness to see.
Light slowed that desire, however, flooding her vision with rose pink and golden.  So used to dark, she slowly let the light filter in, until she was ready to take in her surroundings.
  She could not quite understand just what she was seeing at first.  It was light, seeming like a pale yellow, littered with brown lines that remarkably formed vaguely symmetrical patterns.  She let her eyes trace the trace the brown lines up and back down the walls, all the way around her, revealing to her a little more about her location; a four-walled room enclosed her surroundings.  The girl looked down to herself now, discovering exactly what it was that embraced her body; a large, brown sheet of cloth.  Reluctantly now, but also giving in to a newfound magnitude of curiosity, she slowly hauled her sleep-laden body up, to sit, the sheet falling away.
  She sat now, legs beneath her and hair falling to gently lick at her shoulders and neck.  A few moments passed, in which she felt a strange feeling coming over her; a feeling that slowly inspired an impulse, telling her to look down at herself, and as she did, she realized that she was only clad from the waist down.  
  This struck her as odd, not so much the fact that she was bare, rather that she would even notice such.  It just didn’t seem right that this would catch her attention at all, let alone the mere presence of a desire to don clothing.  Slowly and carefully, as if afraid the slightest breath might disturb the order of the world, she stepped off the bed, and, on unsettled legs, stepped forward to survey the room further.
  It was rather bare and still, and, it seemed like it had been so for a long time, as she could feel a fine layer of dust beneath he feet.  A large object, rectangular, made of wood, and bearing two large doors on the front stood in a corner nearby, along side the bed, with another one, similar in shape but low and wide running the length of the wall.  She knew what these too objects were meant for, but… it was troubling; she couldn’t recall their names.  In fact, she couldn’t seem to find a name for anything, apart from the fact that she knew what each detail was.  She stood for a while, stressing shortly over it, then abandoning it for a growing sense of curiosity.  Gently, after considering possible actions, she made for the object in the corner.  Standing before it, she pondered its working for a second.  She knew that the doors were meant to open, but wasn’t quite able to tell how.  Simply thinking about it made no difference at all.  
  She considered it for a moment.  It seemed like it was meant to open outwards.  A knob was set into the wood of the door, about nose height for her, gleaming golden in the light emanating from the widow.  
  It’s pretty, she thought, turning her head to one side.  She wondered what it would feel like to the touch, so, just to quench new curiosity, she reached out with an unsure finger.  
  It was cool, cold and smooth to the touch, crested at the top by a fine layer of dust, similar to everything else around her.  She trailed her finger across it for a time, feeling the cool against her finger, as the metal slowly began to take a little of her warmth.  As she did so, a thought came to her.  Applying another finger and thumb to the small piece of metal, she slid them behind the widest point of the knob, and, gently, retracted her arm.  The door opened.
  She could see now what lay within, and gladly, what she had been looking for; a long, grey cream shirt.  Gingerly, she took it from where it hung within the wooden container, and held it out before her.  Once again, she was faced with a lack of understanding.
  She knew what this object was for as well; to cover her torso and abdomen, but she couldn’t tell how that was accomplished.  Holding it up against herself and looking down, she surveyed its size; it would work well enough, but she was still without a means of putting it on.  She held it out again, studying it closely.  
  This shirt was long, made of a coarse fabric, and, holding it straight before her, she traced its borders down to a point well below her hips.  A small hole in the top led her to believe this was where her head was to go, opposite a much larger hole on the bottom.  At the top and on either side, two long tubes of cloth were sewn to the main piece.  
  She looked it over once more, then, first envisioning it within her mind, she began to put it on.  She held it upside down before her, then, slowly, brought the bottom over her head, and let it fall down her body.  She had been successful in getting her head through, but now a question remained; how was she to use her arms?  The garb, though unable to clear the unusual width of her hips, was far too long; if she tried putting her arms out through the bottom, it would ride up upon them if she happened to raise them, which would expose her chest and back.  This wouldn’t work.
  She looked it over once more.  The tubes of cloth, she now noticed, were open at their ends, as if something were meant to pass through them.
  Perhaps…
  She tested her theory.  First, working slowly, she pressed one hand against the inside of the fabric, allowing space for her other arm to rise to her shoulder height.  When she found what she was looking for, a gap in the cloth, she slid her arm down it as far as she could, and held her arm up.  The fabric fell down around her limb, and, at last, she could see her hand.  She couldn’t help but smile a little at this minor triumph.  Repeating the process for her other arm, she then looked down at herself.  The hole for her head was nearly too wide, and one pale shoulder gleamed in the drifting from the window behind her.  She pondered whether or not it should concern her, but decided against that much; it did what she wanted it to do, and that was enough.  
  She looked around once again, surveying her environment, seeing if there was anything she missed in her initial scan, but there was little she had missed.  The only thing of any note was a door, set into the wall left of the bed and at the other end of the room.  The handle gleamed in the light from the window, but not the same color as the knob she had studied earlier.  It was almost pinkish as it glowed in the warming light of morning, leading her to wonder just what it was made from.  
  She looked it over.  It was round, much like the other, yet it was set out away from the wood of the door, rather than right up against it.  Convinced of the similarity, she placed two fingers and a thumb around the handle, and pulled.  The door didn’t move.  She kept her hold on the handle, beginning to study this new dilemma.  
  She knew now that it wouldn’t open just by pulling, so it was now left to her to find what did.  She tried first pushing against the door.  Nothing.  She tired pushing on the knob itself, but that didn’t do any good either.  A few more tests of the device finally provided her the answer; twist the handle and pull.
Slowly, she opened the door, sticking her head out to find a scene much like the room she had just left; a hallway stretched away to the sides, roofed by thatch and floored with wood.  After a few moments of consideration, she set down the hallway to her left.  She stepped, trailing one hand along the wall and holding her baggy shirt in place with the other.  The floor creaked ever so subtly as she padded along, trying to take in all of her surroundings.  She didn’t know what to think, whether to be cautious, optimistic, or perhaps let her curiosity lead her completely.  And as she rounded a corner, a question became exceedingly clear in her mind, burning like fire across the midnight sky.  But it never lasted.
  As she rounded the corner at the end of the hall, what she saw next made her heart skip a beat.  A smile spread across her face as joy flooded her body, ebbing into every possible corner of her being, turning her face a light red, raising her shoulders and drawing in a great breath.  And for one small moment, she wondered if she had awoken in a paradise.
  It didn’t take long for him to notice her either.