I felt like this might help... -- The Middle of Nowhere

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Date Posted: 18:15:11 01/02/03 Thu
Author: Me
Subject: I felt like this might help...

I returned to the dimly-lit, almost smoky room, dodging around the huge aquarium set in the middle of the oddly-shaped chamber, the carpet rough against my unshod feet. The little couch was set against the wall and I knelt before it, looking almost enrapturedly at the fish aquarium, with huge, brightly-colored, panicked fish swimming around in circles before I looked at him.

His long, silky, fluffy fur was grey and singed in appearance, and some had blackened - through age or through war I could not tell, though something in my heart told me he had not fought. The inexorable aging that seemed to be affecting almost everyone but me had hit him hard, and his blunt muzzle had silvered, though the wise brow that gave him such poignant expressions had darkened. His dark brown eyes were hidden in shadow, as the room was dim, and though he sat upright and comfortably, I could not restrain myself.

I cried, begging him not to die and leave me, and trembling I reached for his hand... He offered it, a short-fingered half-paw that I had never really looked at in great detail before, though it had oft guided me through my endeavors of growing up. I grasped it and sobbed, tears sliding down my cheeks, shoulders shaking, and tried to cope with the impending passing of my great mentor and friend. But it could not be done. I was going to fight! Outside into the nuclear-wounded world, to try and make things right again! He couldn't leave me, not now, not when I was about to fix things--

With a gasp, blue-grey eyes snapped open and stared into the darkness. Sweat-soaked and breathing hard, the girl gripped her quilt, trying to burrow into her covers and escape her dream. Why the war and pain had invaded her she could not guess, nor could she divine why a sheepdog anthro had been so close to her-- but the hurt was real and it pounded along with her racing heart. Brushing hot tears from her eyelashes, she tried to fall asleep once more, but the alarm sounded, and she had to get up. A return to the waking world... one that still had blue skies, untainted by nuclear war... and one that held little promise at the moment for one teenager who had suffered through her mentor's soon-to-be-passing with all the guileless tears of a small child.

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