Elfborn

Chapter 10: Power Renewed

Naneen shuddered as the thick darkness clung to her, pressing tightly against her body, a cold, slimy mist that bit through her clothes and deep into her bones. It was Death itself, coming for her. Silently she screamed, clawing at the dark mist that threatened to overwhelm her. But her strength was sapped and she could feel the darkness push her hands away, letting them fall uselessly to her side. 'This is it!' she thought wildly. 'I'm done for!'

However, just as she felt her last strength slip away and the darkness swell to swallow her whole, it began to melt away like an early autumn frost beneath the burning rays of the sun. Thinner and thinner the darkness grew, weaker and weaker its hold on her until, with a gasp of relief, she clawed it aside.

To find herself sitting in a small, enclosed wagon which, by the gentle sway she was feeling, was moving. The interior was almost crowded with racks of what looked like spice and herb jars, a long counter on the left with a second enclosed area beyond that, which she couldn't see into. The air had a hint of freshness, like after a rainfall, a sense of life and healing. Naneen couldn't quite describe it, but it invigorated her nevertheless. Smiling, she stood.

And almost immediately she snapped her fingers. The indirect lighting, the lack of regular, day-to-day sounds, the simple dress she wore ... she knew these things. She was in the dream world! 'Well, it beats being dead,' Naneen thought practically. Stepping to the door set in the right hand wall, she turned the handle and stepped out.

Rather, she was about to step out before she saw the ground moving beneath her outstretched foot.

"Oops," she said softly, drawing her foot back in with a frown. It had taken her quite a number of dream walks before she had managed to master the knack of stepping from a moving wagon onto the ground without dropping to plow the dirt with her nose. To do it even now took a bit of concentration.

Resetting herself, the young farmgirl took stock of the situation. 'As far as I can tell, I'm in some kind of covered wagon moving relatively quickly along a back road of ruts and dirt. Regardless of where we are, we must have survived the orc attack on the Cignet. And thank the Maker for that! I thought those brutes were going to drown me after we fell into the river.' She frowned. 'That also probably means that either Max or Ollie, or both survived as well. I couldn't have gotten here without somebody helping me with the orcs.'

Naneen sighed and shook her head. 'But I don't do so well with situations that I don't understand! I wish Gillian were here to help me.' Unfortunately reason told her that her noble-blooded friend was probably as far away from this wagon as possible in the time they had been apart and help would definitely not come from that quarter! 'If I'm going to get out of this, I'm going to have to do it by myself.' She shivered. 'I just hope I can!'

Taking another long breath in and blowing it out slowly, Naneen gathered herself as she concentrated. In order to find out what was going on, she would have to step outside. And that meant walking on moving ground! Swallowing carefully as she grit her teeth in concentration, she stepped out, willing her feet to move quickly enough to keep pace with the moving wagon.

At first Naneen stumbled and a cold wave went through her as she clutched desperately for the edges of the door, which now smacked mutely against the side of the wagon. But then her feet, remembering how they managed to speed run before, regained their footing and she sighed with relief to find herself running smoothly beside the wagon.

And she almost laughed out loud when she discovered that she wasn't going faster than a light jog! 'All that worry for nothing!' she laughed to herself. 'I could have hopped out of the wagon in the real world at that speed and suffered less.'