Friends of Nimrodel: Tapestry of Dreams

[littlemanpoet]

Raefindan limped alongside Aeron, who had helped him pack, and reminded him of the word he had hauled out at need, not having remembered it until that moment: kleenex. He thought about it as best he could as he sniffed and sneezed and limped along as best he could, feeling as if his waterlogged head was still underwater with that merchant. Kleenex. When was the last time he had used the word? He could not remember when, but he remembered the look of the place he had been...

.... a small room with a bed far more comfortable than any he had slept in during the last few weeks... soft curtains on windows, the glass panes of which were thin as the morning's hoarfrost; here windows were at least an inch thick. A cold. That's what it was called.... to catch cold....blow your nose into a kleenex....what a strange word, and a strange spelling! The meaning was Clean, but ex? He couldn't place it.

"What was that you said, Raefindan?" Aeron asked him.

"What? I said?" He had been mumbling without realizing it. "I rebeber the place I was last wed I used that word, kleedex. It is a fidne, thid, soft sheet folded over od itself, about the size of a sball parchbet, ad you use it as a dose rag."

"Ugh! You would get it all over your hands! It is too thin!"

Raefindan laughed, which turned to a coughing fit. He groaned, and the ache in his left hip felt worse than ever.

"Oh, what I woudd't do for sub cough medicid."

"Medus - did?" Aeron asked. "Who is Medus, and what did he do, and what has he to do with coughing?"

"A healig draught, to you. It's a codcoctiod-" Aeron looked at him blankly "-ub, it is a bix of wud herb's juice ad other thigs, and drickig it bakes the coughig stop for a little while."

"Ah," Aeron nodded wisely. "You want an herbalist."

"Doe kiddig."

"Now you have turned the offspring of goats into a thing you do! You turn what is said on it's ear, Raefindan!"

He smiled for sheer pleasure. "Aerod, you bake be forget by cold, ad that's sayig subthig!"

"Of course, it is. Why would it not be?"

Raefindan laughed again, which turned to a fit of sneezing, seven in a row. That had to be significant for something, he thought to himself ruefully. Ah yes, significant. That confounded dream. He would have to tell Melonnin about it at some point, when he was ready.