A Winter Dream
Chapter 1

After watching the snow fall for a time, Lila couldn’t stand the biting cold inside her bedroom any longer and dove under the blankets. She settled in her small but comfortable bed and pulled the covers over her head, mussing her long brown hair in the process. Even under the weight of the four layers of mismatched quilts, she shivered almost violently.

It wouldn’t be long now. She’d fall quickly once the heat of her body filled the pocket of the blanket under which she huddled. There was no heating in the house ever since her mother, Dana, had lost her last job at the diner.

Lila thought about how faded and sick her mom had looked for several months now. She was overworked and underfed, but that didn’t account for the slightly gray tinge her skin revealed no matter how much makeup she wore.

Though Lila wanted to get a job to help her exhausted mother, said mother wouldn’t allow it. She’d made a vast number of excuses that were, frankly, all garbage as far as Lila was concerned. Once again, she was considering defying her mother and dropping out of community college in favor of working and earning money. She let the thought float about in her head as her shivering finally dissipated and she drifted off to dreamland.

Lila’s eyes fluttered open within her dream and then widened suddenly. She was lying in a blanket of white snow that, strangely, didn’t feel cold. She sat up and placed her hands in the white dust on either side of her legs and squeezed it between her fingers. It crunched up into icy balls, just like snow should, but it was a neutral temperature, if that were possible. There was no cold or heat emanating from it.

The dream felt more real than any dream she’d had before and for a moment she wondered if she were dead rather than dreaming. That couldn’t be it. Other than being a little cold, she’d felt perfectly well when she was lying in bed waiting for sleep to come.

Having decided she wasn’t sitting in the afterlife; she raised her head to look around her. She couldn’t see much. It was if she were seated in a white cloud of snow dust and the surrounding fog prevented her from observing her surroundings.

The other curiosity was the absolute silence that surrounded her. The lack of sound felt disturbing and yet peaceful. The contrast of these two impressions left her feeling disoriented and too alone. Just as the burden was baring down on her with too much weight for her to carry, a rustle sounded in the distance. It echoed around her in a soft and muted way and at first, she thought she’d imagined it.

She hadn’t imagined it. The sound was drawing closer, but the reverberating made it impossible for her tell from which direction it came.

Lila drew her legs under her and sat up on her knees, craning her neck left and right and over her shoulders. She still couldn’t see anything but the white fog that settled around her in a ring that began a meter away in all directions and continued for an unknown distance. She hurried to her feet and spun in a full circle as the rustling was joined by rapid light crunching sounds as if a small pet were hopping through the snow.

The sound grew louder and closer, and Lila clutched her hand to her chest, the fear beginning to crescendo, pushing her towards panic. Just as she felt she couldn’t take it anymore; she suddenly found she could barely make out the shape of a small figure bounding in her direction. As the shape neared, Lila realized it was much larger than she’d assumed from the small, muffled noises that first reached her ears.

She watched in horror as the creature continued running toward her and grew larger and larger. Knowing not what was beyond her circle of clarity, she couldn’t decide which was worse – to wait for the creature to come into view, or to run away into the white void.

She blinked and then gasped as a large white animal leapt into clarity and skidded to a halt at her feet. Lila was breathing heavily, her senses heightened, as she stood frozen staring into the eyes of an enormous creature that could only be described as some sort of wildcat. It stood with its head at shoulder height to her. The eyes of the creature were the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen. They were a pale gold and seemed to be gazing at her in surprise and delight. Maybe it thought she was a lucky meal it happened upon and would devour her, but it didn’t move for some time.

The golden orbs roamed her figure from head to toe and then drew it’s focus back to her eyes. The stare became intense, as if it were trying to communicate with her.It made no physical move to come any closer and didn’t appear to be in a pouncing position, so Lila felt a little less frightened and free to observe the incredible animal.

It was extremely large compared to her curvy 5’7” frame, and the beauty of its existence was almost painful to her. It seemed like a cross between a lion and a tiger. It was large and beefy but it’s true bodily form wasn’t clear since it was covered by a very thick, very soft looking coat of fluffy white fur. The tail was like a tiger, but there were no stripes. The face was like that of a lion, even boasting a thick white mane of hair, but the ears were larger than a lion’s and in the shape of a tiger’s, poking out above the mane. Huge white paws rested in their own prints in the snow and Lila was amazed out how such large ones made so little noise as they had leapt forward, running through the white crunchy powder.

But the crowning glory of the creature before her was its eyes. They were not cat eyes. They were intelligent and similar to human eyes with more intensity of color and a larger size.

Lila didn’t know if she was an idiot, but she gave herself a pep talk – a reminder that this was only a dream, however real it felt in the moment. She raised her hand slowly and reached out to the creature, the sudden desire to know the softness of the fur becoming a burning need in her bones.

As she placed her hand on the soft cheek of the wild thing and slowly curled her fingers into the fur there, a purr began to rumble through the creature’s chest and a melodic, deep male’s voice moaned, “Lila.”

Her eyes opened with a start, and she found herself awake and lying in her own bed. The act of being wrenched away from somewhere she desperately wanted to be stirred a feeling of grief in her chest.

“What the heck was that?”