Introduction + rose?
Rose is seven when it’s discovered that the curse designed to keep her mother a prisoner inside her own head has given her another ability entirely. She wanders right into her mother’s dreams, remnants of the sleeping curse’s hold over Briar, and wakes screaming about dragons and fire at the other end of the castle. It takes Merlin to realise what happened, the only other authority in New Camelot with enough magical knowledge to link Rose’s terror to the sleeping curse, with its creator dead.
And so lessons begin with the magician, designed to allow Rose a chance to control this new power. Dreamers, Merlin tells her, were once common in Iyshe, their abilities highly respected. Yet the skill had died out, or was so rare that nobody really knew what the power could do any more. Briar’s sleeping curse had awakened something in Rose that hadn’t been seen in centuries.
As her power grows, Rose learns how to slip into another’s dreams as though she was never there, soothing her mother’s when she senses the same nightmares that had revealed her abilities, playing with her brother in worlds of their own creation. It’s only later that curiosity pulls her to wander further away from home during her night-time wanderings. Many dreams in New Camelot are perfectly normal dreams, and she does what she can to soothe those plagued by shadows.
Yet it’s a dream world she stumbles into quite by accident that surprises her more than anything. She’s only dimly aware of a blaze of colour before she finds herself in a forest of mushrooms in every colour she could possibly imagine. Rose has never seen a dream quite like this before and she can’t help but laugh as a huge butterfly with light brown and orange wings alights on her hand before flitting away into the bright blue sky.
“They don’t usually pay attention to visitors,” comes a voice from behind her, and Rose spins to find herself staring at a girl her own age standing atop a nearby pink mushroom, dressed remarkably plainly for the riotous colour of this dream world. She’s never known someone who could sense when she was in a dream like this, and she’s not sure wether to be unnerved or fascinated, “Who are you?”
“Rose,” she replies, and she suddenly realises she’s still staring, a flush of embarrassment races straight to her cheeks. Rather than being angry, the other girl laughs, jumping down from her perch to walk over and link arms with her as though they’ve known one another for years.
“Well Rose, I’m Bethany. Welcome to Wonderland.”
