Dreams -- Fiction; Fantasy fiction; Prehistoric peoples -- Fiction
This dream, in which I was quiescent and which was more like a
condition than an experience of action, I dreamed very often in my
early childhood. But suddenly, there would rush into the very midst of
it strange forms and ferocious happenings, the thunder and crashing of
storm, or unfamiliar landscapes such as in my wake-a-day life I had
never seen. The result was confusion and nightmare. I could comprehend
nothing of it. There was no logic of sequence.
You see, I did not dream consecutively. One moment I was a wee babe of
the Younger World lying in my tree nest; the next moment I was a grown
man of the Younger World locked in combat with the hideous Red-Eye; and
the next moment I was creeping carefully down to the water-hole in the
heat of the day. Events, years apart in their occurrence in the Younger
World, occurred with me within the space of several minutes, or
seconds.
It was all a jumble, but this jumble I shall not inflict upon you. It
was not until I was a young man and had dreamed many thousand times,
that everything straightened out and became clear and plain. Then it
was that I got the clew of time, and was able to piece together events
and actions in their proper order. Thus was I able to reconstruct the
vanished Younger World as it was at the time I lived in it—or at the
time my other-self lived in it. The distinction does not matter; for I,
too, the modern man, have gone back and lived that early life in the
company of my other-self.
For your convenience, since this is to be no sociological screed, I
shall frame together the different events into a comprehensive story.
For there is a certain thread of continuity and happening that runs
through all the dreams. There is my friendship with Lop-Ear, for
instance. Also, there is the enmity of Red-Eye, and the love of the
Swift One. Taking it all in all, a fairly coherent and interesting
story I am sure you will agree.
I do not remember much of my mother. Possibly the earliest recollection
I have of her—and certainly the sharpest—is the following: It seemed I
was lying on the ground. I was somewhat older than during the nest
days, but still helpless. I rolled about in the dry leaves, playing
with them and making crooning, rasping noises in my throat. The sun
shone warmly and I was happy, and comfortable. I was in a little open
space. Around me, on all sides, were bushes and fern-like growths, and
overhead and all about were the trunks and branches of forest trees.
Suddenly I heard a sound. I sat upright and listened. I made no
movement. The little noises died down in my throat, and I sat as one
petrified. The sound drew closer. It was like the grunt of a pig. Then
I began to hear the sounds caused by the moving of a body through the
brush. Next I saw the ferns agitated by the passage of the body. Then
the ferns parted, and I saw gleaming eyes, a long snout, and white
tusks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account