Dreamers, Awake!
an excerpt

They thought she was asleep. Maybe she was. Kat was in that comfortable place where she could still hear everything going on around her but couldn't move if she wanted to. Her body felt comfortably weighted by the blanket. She was home. Safe. Secure. The sound of Jacen's voice filled her with a longing that she could lie there and analyze or not. Listen or not to the conversation around her table. Right now they were discussing her, which of course made sense though it bothered her a little that they would do so with her only three feet away. I'm right here! But the words would only come in her mind at this point.

I should just let go...sleep...

“Care to explain a few things?” Bear sounded mad. Maybe she shouldn't have stepped into his fight. Kat was pretty sure he would have been more than capable of dealing with it if Joe's fear hadn't been making it stronger. Men's egos were funny things.

“Explain what?” There was a bump and scuffing noise. Kat pictured Jacen at her table, his feet propped up on the edge. He'd moved, was standing now. Sure enough. Boots against the floor told her he was where...her window? No..the fire. There was a thud as another piece was laid on the flames. A moment later another scent joined the woodsmoke in the room. His pipe. Kat inhaled deeply, smiling slightly as she burrowed down further in the covers. Why was it that she found comfort in that smell when she knew all the statistics about smoking...knew just how bad it was for him.

Because it's part of him...like the way he tugs on his mustache when he's uncomfortable. The way he calls people 'sugar' and makes them feel special every time he does it...

“How you happen to be here for starters?” The edge to his voice told Kat that Bear was losing his patience. Which was saying something.

“Kirei wrote what happened. I came.”

“And those two Riders I saw behind us?”

Riders? Kat hadn't noticed anyone but then she hadn't been noticing much on the walk back to her place. Suddenly her city was feeling very crowded.

“Nothing you need worry about.”

“Nothing I need to worry about...” No, Bear certainly wasn't happy.

“That's right.” The were sounds of objects being picked up and handled, moved around on the shelves by the fire. “I don't suppose she has any coffee...”

“How...How did she turn that branch into the staff...and then the sword?” Joe seemed hesitant to ask, not that she blamed him. The testosterone levels in the room were definitely a bit high.

Jacen sighed. She was sure that was him, having discovered that no she did not have any coffee. Poor man, he lived off the stuff ever since he'd discovered it in her world. Unfortunately in this world only the El Hanu cultivated it but it was expensive and hard to find. If I'd known you were coming, Jacen, she thought humorously, slipping further towards sleep.

More footsteps and the sound of the chair scraping against the floor. “She wrote them.”

He was going to tell them? Kat caught herself, forced herself towards wakefulness. Jacen, don't tell them..don't please...don'
t...
“Wrote? I saw no paper...”

Jacen was quiet for long enough that Kat began to relax. Maybe he wasn't going to explain it to them after all.

“This has to do with the battle in her own world, doesn't it?” Joe asked suddenly.

“Some. In that battle...Kat was up against another writer. Another one who could write the way she does. Or did. There came a time in the battle when the book and pen were wrenched from her hands and I saw her Write. Without them.”

“How...?”

It was Kat who answered Joe's questions. “I saw the words in my mind...wrote them there.” Kat sat up and looked at the three men seated at the table. Yes, just as she pictured it. Bear in the far chair where he'd sat when he came. Joe balanced on the trunk against the wall. Jacen with his feet propped up on the table, pipe in one hand.

“How?” Bear prompted, his expression unreadable.

In spite of the fire, Kat was still cold. Keeping the blanket around her shoulders she got up. Jacen watched her but didn't move. She was aware of his eyes upon her as she crossed the room to the shelf where she took down a sack full of dried beans and a pencil that Shan had brought her once. She turned the sack until the paper label she'd stuck on it showed and then, writing as she walked, she scrawled the word 'Coffee' in thick black letters above where it simply said 'beans' before. Without pausing in her step she dropped both the bag and the pencil on the table in front of Jacen and climbed back into bed. It was Joe who reached for the sack and opened it. The room filled with the aroma of fresh coffee.

“Thank you, sugar.” Jacen said after a moment and got up to put some water on the fire.

Bear crossed his arms and stared at her. “You can do that. But you say you won't write.”

Kat flushed, fully aware that she'd been showing off with her little transmogrification. “No. I won't.”

Jacen had finished the preparations for his coffee and came over to the bed. With one hand he carefully probed at the lump on Kat's head. “That needs ice...” he prompted.

Kat pulled the blanket around her tighter and shook her head. She'd had her fill of parlor tricks for one night. “No.”

He sighed a little, his fingertips moving gently through her hair. “Then get some sleep. We'll be quiet.”

Why did he have to touch her? She ducked her head, breaking the contact. “I'm not going to write for them.”

“No one is going to ask you to.”

No they weren't. Yet. That word hung unspoken in the air between them. He'd sent Bear to come fetch her...and then came himself because that's exactly what they wanted her to do.