Opening her eyes, leaving the bed, waking up - for Leila, those were three very different events. They occur one by one, in succession but usually with long intervals inbetween. A fourth event, no less distinct, is her actually realizing she had woken up.
Leila did not dream the night after the events at the lake.
She sat still in bed for quite a while in the morning, the old, warm blankets wrapped firmly around her body. Her eyes - if anyone minded to observe them - were aimed idly at the empty space in front of her position on the lower bed of one of the bunks. As there was a difference between waking up and being lucidly awake, there was difference between looking at something and actually seeing it. Leila, in this case, was not even making an attempt at looking at anything at all.
The lack of a dream made it considerably harder to distinguish between dream and reality.
Not like it was an easy task otherwise, anyway.
She felt a bit...frustrated, to be honest. Confused also, to some extent. To be exact - well, she soon realized there was no way for her to accurately describe how she felt at the moment. The only phrase in colloquial lexicography that fell reasonably close to her state of mind and emotion would, perhaps, be that she felt
absolutely horrible.
Several of her fellow humans seemed to have awoken beforehand, since she did not remember being conscious enough to notice them leaving their beds.
A dull, swelling pain occupied the left side of her head. Leila wondered is she had perhaps caught a cold during the events last night. She reluctantly climbed out of her fortress of a blanket sheet, exposing to the morning air all of her skin except that was covered by the simple shirt and shorts she was wearing - a piece of clothing she collected from the cabin itself as her old clothing were soaked from her falling into the lake.
It did take a while for her to figure out how buttons were supposed to work.
Every bone and muscle, every part of her consciousness in her body protested as she stood upright in the bedroom. The sour sensation of aching pain crept throughout her body every time an attempt of movement was made. Her mind assembled the bits and pieces of the environment she sensed to create a coherent picture, yet every step in the process it was broke off and she involuntarily reminded herself of the fears and the illusions she had experienced during his time in Nowhere. She screamed internally as her perception of reality, just as the structure of her body, felt like it was falling apart much faster than it could be repaired.
She did not know how she managed to to gather the strength to pull herself to head to the dining room, where most of their band of humans were already collected, for breakfast.
* * * * *
The eeriness of the town that morning was much reduced by the absence of fog and the presence of sunlight. The open field the meeting took place upon was much reminiscent of the style of The Sound of Music, contrasting strongly with the haunting mist and Siren song in last night’s memory. The air was just as chilly, but in a comfortable way, compared to the skin-piercing iciness of the air above the mist-covered lake.
The environment made her feel a bit, if not significantly, better than she did in the morning, although the dizziness persisted. She focused, at that moment, on breathing in the morning air. It smelt of vegetation, and soils. It was every bit as foreign, for the girl who had been living in a metropolis for all seventeen years of her life, as any other part of the dreamy realm of nowhere; but for once Leila decided it was enjoyable.
It also only occurred to Leila later that
spare clothes existed in the items the group was carrying.
She recognized Cello, the cat-eared guide that guided the other group the first time. The other guide with attire that reminded her of frogs she didn’t recognize. And beside them, two human additions to the group, introducing themselves as Leon and Ace. Their personalities shined through their greetings and conversations: one curt, formal, without excess content, and the other rambling on endlessly, beaming with energy.
Also, feather earrings.
As the others greeted the newcomers and the guides waved them goodbye, Leila stood a few steps behind Hakuren - the two of them Dissonance waving particularly hard at. Hakuren himself didn’t seem to be making much of an effort to socialize just yet. Leila herself decided to take a couple of steps forward and nod - more ceremoniously than out of genuine concern, as much of her learnt mannerisms was - at the newly arrived couple.
Elliot. She remembered another Elliot who was in the group, back on the Star Fisher. What happened to him? Leila didn’t remember. Perhaps it happened while she wasn’t conscious. Or was that before they boarded the Ship? She fought to remember, to no avail. She found her memories a spinning blur instead of the lucid images she was used to. What happened? How long ago? Where were they? Questions flooded her consciousness, all without answers, nor enough information to construct answers from. Questions, questions about questions, and questions about those questions about questions. It was only amusing that Leila’s state of mind was summed up by one inquiry voiced by the energetic newcomer:
"So...What is this investigating about?"