shelter

[benvyn]

Aramis wakes up in a dome with life teeming around him. In front of him, butterflies gracefully glide. Behind him, he sees beautiful plants from the old world: strawberries, grasses, even a lily of the valley! As Aramis stands up, still groggy from his slumber, a fox resting on his back presents him with a tender succulent. "We survived," she tells him. "This is our new home."

Aramis thinks back to the last memory he had before he fell asleep. The world was colder, darker, a barren husk of what it was before the dust storm. He sat with his mother on the final day, watching the crops blow over with the raging wind. Only a sapling remained in their garden. "Aramis," she said, "come with me. I need your help with something."

Aramis's mother led him to the big glass dome she covered the flowers with in the winter. "Help me take this to the sapling, please. We need to protect it before the wind takes it away too." Aramis helped drag the lantern to the garden, where his mother lifted the dome over the sapling.

The wind howled as dust blotted out the sky. "Light a lantern for me, please," Aramis's mother said. "I need to move the statues before they break." Aramis followed his mother with the lantern, illuminating every step she took.

"What about us?" Aramis asked once the statues were safely inside. "We blocked the sapling and the statues from the dust, but we don't have anywhere to go."

Aramis's mother lowered her head. "Maybe I don't, but you do. There's still enough room under the dome for you to fit."

"I need you, Mother! What's going to happen to you?"

"Elder Doe will keep watch until the flowers grow back, for she has seen many springs and the new life that comes with them. Uncle Bear will share the wisdom you need to be brave and true, just as he was taught before by others. Little Fox will keep the fire going, because as long as there is light, you will be safe." Aramis's mother lifted the dome one more time, and Aramis hurried underneath.

"I can't stay here," his mother said. "I need to seek shelter somewhere else." Aramis watched her walk into the dust until he could no longer see her. Then, under the vigil of the statues, Aramis fell asleep.

Over time, the dust settled. Rain washed the dust away, letting sunlight through the dome. The sapling became a sturdy tree that provided fresh air to everything near it. Rabbits burrowed in. Sprouts emerged from the soil. The garden grew back in and out of the dome, more colorful and lively than Aramis remembered it.

And now Aramis was awake again.

"Spring has sprung, Aramis," said the fox. "It's time for us to lift the dome."

(Story credit: @Chillyfoot)