CE Living Room - Laura the Doorkeeper

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I sit on the couch with a punch embroidery project in my lap as I watch one of my nutcracker videos. This may or may not be the last time I watch nutcracker this holiday season, so I'm determined to make the most of it.

As I am relaxing into the music and the repetition of the stitches, I hear a strange sound to my left. A metallic groan, almost.

My head snaps around to stare at what is that direction. Our front door. Which we never use for three reasons: It's broken and doesn't open and close properly, the couch is right in front of it and it opens inward, and it leads to a bank of dirt that's covered in weeds that are often as tall as I am. Use of this door is clearly out of the question.

So imagine my surprise when the blanket we hang over that door for insulation purposes lifts and is behind it where the door is supposed to be ...

"Laura," I guess immediately, no one else is capable of such an entrance.

"Hello Kendra," she whispers, as she climbs over the arm of the couch and sits down on it. "I'm glad to find you. I was ... uh ... lost."

My eyebrow arches and I try not to smile. "I thought you looked a bit young compared to the last time I saw you." I meet her blue-gray eyes, the eyes of a small, scared child.

"I am young," she whispered. "Though I'm probably older than you are by this point ... I'm going to live so long ... It's scary."

"Ours is a long, lonely road, isn't?"

My head jerks towards the door that leads to my parents' bedroom ... though that isn't the scene that is currently behind it. Currently, the door leads to a dark, dingy cave. Seated on the ground in front of the cave is a woman who looks like an older version of Laura ... probably because that's who it is.

"Oh!" the younger Laura exclaims, as she leaps from the couch arm and runs over and throws her arms around her older self. "I was hoping I'd find you. I'm ... I'm trying to get home again. I know that ... but Lucy's still there."

"Well, I happen to know that it'll be a few more doors before I found my way back to Lucy," says the older Laura, returning the hug. "However, I will take you to see Silver." She thrust a thumb over her shoulder. "It leads to Lintoalintae

The younger Laura frowns. "Is this before she ..."

"Yes, it's before she became the Dragon," says the elder. "Though she has only a few years left, but I think it's best that you meet her for the first time now. While you've met her before, you've never met her as the Doorkeeper."

I stand up and walk over. "If my name meant anything to her at the moment, I'd tell you to take a message to Amber. But since I don't start messing with her until she's in Rizkaland, she probably wouldn't know my name yet."

"No she doesn't yet ..." said the elder. She stands up, bringing her younger version with her, and holds out a hand to me. "But she's about to meet you."

My eyes widen as I stare at the cave behind her, and then I grin. "You mean, you're actually going to take me out of this world?"

Older Laura laughs. "It's not the first time. Not even for you." Then she nods towards her younger self. "Though for her it is. I thought you might want to meet her before she went all psychotic, and while I don't like calling her that, it is the truth. My poor, poor Silver."

I nod thinking of Ooladada. "Well, lets go."

With that, the three (or two, depending on how you think about it) of us enter Lintooalintae. I won't be there long, but I'm glad for the chance.