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The fact that everything was drenched in gold was really the only thing that gave her a clue it was a dream.
They were walking, as they sometimes did when the mood struck her. The fields around Baia were lush and full this time of year, just before harvest. Wheat grew above Paul's head in not just a few places. It reached Viktoria's nose in the highest places, tipping into the path to the tickle at her. She swatted it away each time, brimming with typical teenage angst and not seeming to really enjoy their liesurely stroll.
Olena chuckled each time, walking forward with her face back to her children as it always was.
Olena was a good girl. She had suffered through too much in her days, and sometimes the creeping thought that she had made a misstep somewhere tickled at the back of her mind. She brushed it away each time. As she had told Dimitri when he was questioning his future as he left for his new American post, there was no way to know anything for certain - you simply made your decision and that is what it is.
As it was, Olena was born for motherhood. Of course she was her own person, and she got plenty of opportunity to explore her interests. After all, dhampirs even in Baia still went to the Academy - even if they did not do anything with their battle training after graduation. There they stayed for a large portion of the year for much of their young lives. And of course after graduation they were fully grown adults. Though they did not leave the home, they still did not require Olena's full undivided attention as they had as babes.
Olena truly outshined everything around when she doted on her children though, heedless of their age. Even at her most exhausted with the babies, she'd shined so bright that Yeva had needed to avert her eyes at times, so to speak. Even when Rose had come, she had shined through the murky waters of her grief when Rose allowed her to dote - to nurse, to feed, to fuss, to comfort. That was Olena's nature, and her nature would certainly not be put aside by the fact that Dimitri hadn't brought her home himself.
Turning away from her daughter to face the path before them, she mused on the dream. They had taken many a walk like this, but the light was just off slightly. Just enough that she would notice, tinging the sky, fields, ground and the trees of the forest in the distance all the same shade of gold. She wasn't sure what the gold meant, but it had a warm feel which was generally not a bad thing. Usually. She could never make assumptions about these things.
The path they were on, if she was correct, led to a small group of homes, not even large enough to be called a village, a small ways into the forest ahead. She thought the chatter in town had been a large family had moved into town and built up out there. That had been the chatter when she was young though, and it had been chatter about an unknown number of years before. There could be anything awaiting them at the end of the path.
Sonja and Karolina were arguing over the placement of a couple songs on the most recent Top 40 Countdown on the only radio station that got decent coverage at home. It occured to her, at the sound of their voices, that this was a real and current argument that they had had, just the other day in fact. She had them doing the dishes, and the argument had rung clear all the way to the backyard where she'd been directing Paul in cleaning up.
It also occured to her that it was truly rare that the entire family went for a walk anymore.
She glanced behind her, taking in everyone. Of course, Dimitri and Rose were absent. Dimitri was far beyond their reach now. And Rose had either gone home to America or on to whatever lay ahead of her on her path. Olena hemmed and hawed, but Yeva did not contradict her whenever she tried to tell herself that Rose had gone home, 'duty to inform them' fulfilled. It would do no good for her to grieve them both, which she undoutedly would were Yeva to divulge her own beliefs. If not grief for Rose's life, then undoubtedly grief for her bright future.
The whole lot of the Belikov family took up the entire path, trudging along in mostly-pleasant interaction with each other. They looked like a healthy, happy family. Mothers, sisters, children - the entire clan one unified front. One that was not reeling from grief. Yeva had seen so much more in Dimitri's future. She wondered sometimes how she could have missed the signs, but she knew better than anyone that sometimes the signs were so well hidden, you never would have guessed. And that sometimes, there just were no signs at all. You couldn't always get a heads up in life, that was true with everyone.
She hoped the image they made on their trek meant good things were coming, though she knew not to expect. She would hope, but still prepare for other outcomes. As always.
They had continued on their walk for another ten minutes or so when Olena stopped, holding up the children behind them. Looking over at her, Yeva saw she was no longer watching the children as she always did in her dreams. Instead she had turned her head to the side, looking out into the lush field beside her. They had just passed a ditch in the field that ran all the way through as far as they could see. The ditch meant the wheat here was a bit shorter than the rest, Paul's head just peeking over to let him see the tops.
Olena looked out, but coming to stand next to her, Yeva was unsure why. She sat silently, not encouraging the dream in any way. She would let the message come to her in it's clearest form.
True to form, the dream proceeded whether she demanded answers or not. Olena reached out, smoothing her palm over the top of the wheat. She stepped forward, lightly creeping into the field and leaving the old, beaten-in dirt path behind. As her second foot found the soft ground amongst the wheat, she turned back to them, smiling as radiant as she ever had before, a halo burning behind her. It was so bright, Yeva wondered if it could be the sun and squinted in it's blinding light and warmth.
"This path looks so nice, Mama," Olena's eyes twinkled, arms spread wide around her to bury her fingers in the wheat. A wind had picked up from somewhere, blowing her brown hair all around her. She looked a stunning picture, and Yeva saw flashes of her as a young child, smiling up at her with all the wonder of a child. She didn't understand what it meant.
Childhood joy? Incredible bright warmth that sat in opposite to everything she'd seen since Rose's news? The whole family together on a trek? Did the hint to their current events meant whatever it was, it was happening now? The field, just before harvest? The golden hue to it all? And now, the path that wasn't a path at all? She had no idea how she was meant to interpret all these clues.
They stood just like that as she processed, frozen in the odd way that her dreams sometimes did. They would wait, wait for her to make a choice. She had had a few dreams before that ended before she ever made a move, left her to wake up and continue the debate in her waking hours.
On the one hand, everything was so beautiful and peaceful here. The world was warm and bright and the clear path lay before them, even though the end was unknown. On the other, she could hardly resist Olena's radiant aura, the unmarked and completely unknown path be damned.
That was really the decision, though. She had no other thoughts that were full in her certainty than that - she would follow Olena anywhere if she looked happy like that. That was a mother's purpose in life, in some ways. She had always been ready to sacrifice for her family, as was the way of dhampirs (whether they became guardians or stayed home to raise the chidren). And truthfully, this was two generations of following. Of course, the children agreed with her. She could feel their restlessness at her back silently urging her forward. Their mother was a mainstay for them, unlike many other dhampir mothers in the world. They would never even question her decision.
Stepping off the path, Yeva found the ground just as soft as it looked, but not at all unsteady for her to walk on. The embrace of the wheat was soft, and warmed from the sun. It felt like down feathers brushing against the bare skin of her hands and arms. The low level of the wheat was basically a path of it's own, leading into the unknown. No forest in the distance in this direction, and looking back she realized with a start that the dream gave her an answer of sorts this time.
Looking down the original path to the forest now, her skin prickled with the familiar feeling of goosebumps. The forest was almost unnaturally dark, and she got the feeling as if the shadows between the brightly-lit trees on the outskirts were teeming with dark, evil things. They had been headed to that dark place if she had made the wrong decision. Here in the wheat, the light touched every crack and crevice, lighting everything in gold. She turned back to her daughter, and the path before them now.
They moved onward, the group seeming unfazed by both her assessment of the forest and the fact that they weren't truly walking on a path. They made one as they went, cutting a path through the wheat, occasionally picking a piece to play with, tickling Viktoria teasingly, or tossing Zoya into the air and catching her, or throwing Paul a little ways into the deeper wheat and letting him cut his way back to them. The image of her family, making their own path stuck with her, and she turned her eyes to the sky.
So they were to... do something outside the norm? That was really the only clue she had. Still, she would keep watch as always. And she would act with certainty when the time came. There was only one path to take, and she would make certain they were on it.
Olena's laughter brought her eyes back to the ground, leveling her head to where Olena stood before her. She led them onward, shining at the helm of the family ship in uncertain waters. Yeva stepped forward, attempting to see what had captured her fancy. She wouldn't be surprised if the dream would refuse to show her in an attempt to keep at least some of its secrets.
It didn't, though.
Before them in the far far distance were two figures. At first she thought they were scarecrows placed in the field. They were too close together in such a large field though, and Yeva realized with a moment's careful watch that one of them was moving, the one closer to them moving away, closer to the other.
In the odd way of her message dreams, suddenly the figures were too far away to make out a single detail and, at the same time, she could clearly make out their familiar features.
Rose and Dimitri stood in the distance down the path. Too far to call out to still, but Dimitri was the furthest of the two and he wasn't moving. He stood tall as always, a proud air about him even from here. His eyes were on Rose running to him, and she thought she could see the anticipation there even from her vantage point.
It occured to her that anticipation wasn't truly an emotion so to speak, not the same as happiness and sadness as far as Strigoi were concerned. She was still surprised to see it so clearly. She had expected to have dreams of him. Expected all the horrific things that could be thrown at her in her own mind. None of them included him looking... Well, as if nothing had happened. He too was bathed in the same golden glow as everything else, and stood there looking like he belonged there, with Rosemarie under the unnaturally golden glow of the maybe-sun.
Olena moved again suddenly, breaking out into a jog towards the two. It made sense, all of the sudden. She had never seen Olena look anywhere other than the children in her dreams. She hadn't here, either. She had simply been looking to Dimitri and Rose. And found them.
----
She awoke with a jolt, the dream clear in her memory as all her message dreams were. She forgot regular dreams, but not these. They never faded.
Sitting up, she sighed and pulled on fresh clothes slowly. The meager light breaching through the window told her it was early still, and the stillness of the house around her told her it was too early for many. Sonja might have been still sleeping or already at work.
Finished dressing, she made her way into the hallway and toward the top of the stairs before she realized she was slightly off in her assessment - there was one person awake, clanking away down in the kitchen. She entered the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water and sitting to the table where Olena was just setting a fresh loaf of bread and some butter. Yeva sliced off a thick piece and coated it in butter, taking a bite before speaking.
"You're up early, and making a feast it seems," she said in a questioning tone, gesturing behind her at 4 other loaves of bread and two large pots boiling away on the stove. Olena ducked sheepishly, turning back to the soup and whatever else she had over there. She responded with her back turned.
"I don't know, I just.... I woke up and felt like I should be preparing for something." Her voice sounded vaguely concerned, and Yeva made note that Olena had only made Dimitri's favorite bread. They would eat it, surely, but. Five loaves. An awful lot unless you were expecting to feed, say, your entire family including two fully-fledged guardians. She doubted Olena had even noticed what she made though, simply falling into unconscious instincts from some dream of her own. Olena had always had vague feelings, but never the clarity of Yeva's dreams. Or perhaps she had them and simply did not remember. Her unconscious mind knew though, no doubt.
"Indeed. It's a morning that seems to call us to the future's doorstep. Who knows where the path will lead, but it feels hopeful doesn't it?" She agreed. Olena turned her head to regard her and after a moment, nodded.
They stayed there together in silence for the next hour. Olena continued her tasks, turning her attention to whip up a breakfast feast that she was just finishing as the sound of Sonja slipping down the stairs alerted them to the awakening of the house. They shared a final quiet moment before the first of the children entered, bringing all the noise of a healthy, happy family. Exactly like her dream.
They were already on the path, Rose running far ahead of them.