The dreamscape descended once more.
Effiona found herself wrapped in the abyss, trying to comprehend its meaning. Dark shapes, somehow distinguishable from the blackness of the dream, swirled around the void like wind-swept dust.
A sound began, softly at first and then building in volume. It was slow, like the rhythmic pounding of her heart echoing through her head.
No she thought as the pace quickened. It wasn’t her heart, it was the drums again.
Yes, it was the same dream she’s had the other night.
And the night before,
And before that.
But it wasn’t the same… there was more than just the drums now.
Slats of light appeared; a flickering yellow glow, very faint at first but growing steadily brighter.
The dark shapes between the slats of light became trees as Effiona willed her mind forward. The trunks she passed were so large she doubted she could reach around them, their numerous branches vanishing into the darkness high overhead. Their numbers seemed to multiply around her by the instant.
So many trees, she thought, what an oasis this must be.
She pressed onward toward the light, an ethereal form moving through undergrowth and wood thicker than existed anywhere she knew of. In the depths of her mind she could feel the coarse leaves as they brushed against her fur. She took a moment to look down at herself. She wore a brown dress with brightly colored designs for trim, and little strips of loose cloth hanging off the edges. It looked to be handmade, but was like no clothing she had ever seen. Though she moved forward, she wasn’t walking, at least not that she could tell. Her lower half seemed to disappear into the darkness of the undergrowth.
The drums became steadily louder. She could feel the beat pulsing in her chest.
The flickering light became still more shapes; animated, convulsing shapes.
She moved into a clearing and was met by a tribal ceremony of some sort.
Dozens of figures, canines, dressed in garb as foreign as the trees that surrounded them all moved as one in a great circle around an altar. She looked down at herself once more and saw it was their clothing that she was dressed in. Her feet were bare and she wore little trinkets of a brilliant teal stone around her ankles and wrists.
Before them all stood a single male, who appeared more insane than any in the way he moved. He was robed in a much more decorative fashion than the rest, with plumes of feathers about his head and back. They swayed back and forth as he gyrated and convulsed, throwing his arms about wildly in the air. The light from torches set all around the circle danced in time with the beat, sending embers flying away in the wind.
Effiona moved toward the circle.
The wind, she thought.
The clothing of all the canids present billowed as if caught by the breeze, the colored strips of cloth tied around their arms flapped. But nothing moved on Effiona, she could feel no wind against her bare fur, her clothes sat simply as if there was no movement at all. She pushed her way through a gap in the circle, making her way closer to the male with the feathers on his robes.
The figures all danced and whirled around her, most of them with their eyes closed, she noted. No one paid her any attention as if they were all ignorant to her presence. This was one of her visions, she reminded herself. She was not playing a part in this and could affect nothing.
........

Love the background on this fun little YCH piece from  twilightsparrow

The blurb is a bit of story from "Alesia" that I felt fit really well with the setting.

Effiona is © myself
Artwork by TwilightSparrow