The Key to the Sun - p4

Oco lay in bed, eyes shut quietly, his nose peeking from beneath the blankets, watching, as Sleep came to him. Sleep came softly to his bedside, sitting, she set up her palette of paints, of colors both vivid, soft and subtle. Flourishing her brush with slight haste she began to paint dreams behind his eyelids.

Oco woke to the dream. The wind whispered softly through snow laden trees. "You have to get to the top." He was in a snow covered forest and before him was a flying tree. It flew as high as the birds without taking flight, without leaving the ground, like an eagle, it soared, high above the other trees. Like an upside down broom it seemed to sweep aside the clouds as it touched the sky.

Oco felt a sense of urgency. It sat, perched menacingly, on his left shoulder. He pushed it off and began to trudge quickly towards the tree. He had to get to the top, the ground around him seemed to be rising. He saw frosty eyes and teeth peering from snow drifts and ice-covered vegetation. The clouds glowered six-sided resentment at being swept aside and the snow began to blizzard down.

Oco began to run. His long candy-cane striped hat flying behind him as he hurried towards the tree. The key to the sun began to glow brightly around his neck. Wind and snow swirling and whirling around him. "To the sky." As he began to climb, Oco looked up, squinting through the falling snow. The key glowed brighter. He had to get it to the top of the tree, to the sky. Climbing higher, he found it suddenly hard to hold on, the world around him seemed to sway and shift, to drip and grow distorted. He began to fall, the wind and the snow, now more like ice, swirling about him seemed to form an icy grip around the key to the sun, attempting to tear it from his neck. The edges of his vision began to blur, and the colors all around him seemed to blend and melt...

Sleep, breathed softly in irritation. Eyelids aren't the best canvas, the colors always tend to run.

Oco woke with a start. Touching the key to the sun, in reassurance. It still hung in the form of a talisman around his neck. Climbing quickly from bed he got dressed, throwing on his coat, boots, and mittens, and grabbing his red and white stripped hat with it's long trailing end he put it tightly over his dark unruly hair, which was still yawning and stretching in the early morning hour.

He had to go but he had no idea where the soaring tree might be. Then he remembered something his grandfather was always reminding of. "Keep your wits about you Oco m'boy. Keep your wits about you." Oco ran back to his room and grabbed a small dusty box shoving it into one of his coat pockets.

Pushing his hat down tighter on his head, and looking down at the key to the sun. "Now I'm ready to go." Opening the door with both mittened hands. He stepped out into a dim but deceptively calm day. The key to the sun lighting the way, his hat's end trailing in the snow behind him. He headed into the depths of the forest. To find the tree from his dream. The tree that touched sky.