Coconut Grove standing so incredibly still, i become invisible to the eye

Dream sequence for a sleepy @Hemlock.

Lotte stomped into the sandy grove where Hemlock slept, a generous roll of fog surrounding all but a clear ring around the fox-furred Kali woman. Bordering the ring were six dreamlike blossoms — five whose filaments and antlers glowed and shimmer-shifted in a kaleidoscopic rainbow, and one that was gray and appeared made of stone. It was annoying that the tread of her paws bore no sound no matter how hard she stomped, so she grumbled, more for show than out of real irritation: “Why must you sleep here? There is so much sand here.” She made no mention of the fact that her beloved also lived on an island surrounded by the dreadful stuff — she didn’t want Hemlock to regret her choices.

“Where are we going?” she asked blithely, turning off her bad mood in favor of seeing the Hinterlands again. Now that she knew all four of her children were alive and safe, living their respective lives as they were meant to, she had few worries — only Mallaidh and her demons, Hemlock and her heart, and Arturo. It occurred to her now that she had not visited her husband, but his grip on reality, she’d seen, was so tenuous — if she came to him, would she not risk the rise of the Witchdoctor? She had to love the Witchdoctor, as he was part of Arturo and she loved everything about her gangster king, but it was an act of gravely painstaking labor and practiced action instead of an effortless desire.

It was by unspoken contract that during these visits, Lotte concerned herself only with the dreamer — glancing regretfully at the flowers, she summoned up a smile for her wife. “The weather is warming,” she added conversationally. “Your world will grow green again — didn’t I tell you it would be so? — and more beautiful every day, like you.”