It is very dark here, but the type of dark that seeps and bends, full of shadows that move around you on an unseen wind. There is a light in the distance, but it is difficult to discern if the light is a point, or an aura. It beckons to me.

Moving is easy, it is almost as if I float, but my growing weariness proves that I move on my own energy. It is cold. A chilling, biting, cold that seeps to my bones, although there is no wind or other visible source. It grows colder as I move toward the light. Ever towards the light.

Are those voices? I can hear the rising pitch and tone, then as I turn my attention to the source, they fade and disappear. I continue on my journey.

One voice rises above others, growing louder, more distinct. Even though the voice is clearer, it remains much to low to truly decipher the message I am told. Only a few words are easily understood.

"Stay.... Don't go...Need... Miss...."

The voice is definitely feminine. An Elven accent, speaking in common. No. Elven now. Straining now to make out the message. It is no use, the voice is lost in the shadows.

How much further? I wonder aloud in a low voice, ever pressing onward to the light. It grows no closer, and I am so weary.

I should rest, but somehow the idea of standing still in this darkness impresses me that it would consume me. It occurs to me that I cannot remember how it is I became in this place to begin with. I spend what I believe to be a considerable amount of time trying to recall that very thing, as I continue to march on.

Something brushes against my leg and I stop, suddenly very alert. I can feel the creatures weight on my foot, moving and sliding across the boot, then between my feet and moving along. I hear the voice again, "No, he is mine."

Quickly I turn my head in the direction of the voice, and see nothing but shadow. I snap my head back in the other direction when I hear the response, masculine, deep, "For now."

Gathering myself, I begin again. The shadows recceed and I see the Fortress City of Ta'Vaalor rise in the distance. I know this road, I have walked it often. Up ahead there is a bundle of linen tossed to the roadside. As I grow closer it moves, and the sound of a crying child is heard from within, I hasten my steps. As I draw closer a woman and a man at the rise of the road, Faendrly Ef, and Human, walking this way. I recognize them at once. I raise my voice to cry out, but no sound escapes my lips before the shadows fall around me again.

It is still cold. The light I follow seems further away. I begin again. "You should have known." The feminine voice again, just at my ear.

Snapping my head around towards the voice, nothing there but more shadows.

Very tired now. My legs move as if through knee deep snow, my feet are anvils. The cold is unbearable, through to my bones. The light grows no closer, the shadows encroach.

"Think of all you have, and at what cost." The voice in my ear, or is it my head? I do not know any more, only that I must walk onward, ever onward, to the light.

I trudge slowly toward light, my limbs are numb from the cold. I am weak and my will to continue wanes. A new voice raises within my head. Also feminine, softer, and somehow kinder. "You are safe now."

The kind voice turns firm, and suddenly louder, commanding, the voice proclaims that, "No, this soul is under my protection!"

A blinding flash of light surrounds me, I take a deep breath, almost as if I have never breathed before, and awake.

Startled, shaken, alive.