It was dark, and very cold, and someone was hurt. Someone needed help.
But she was terribly tired.
Her eyelids fluttered and opened and that took care of the darkness. As for the cold... she was bone-cold, freezing. And no wonder; there was ice all over her.
Somewhere, deep down, she knew it was more than that.
What had happened? She'd been at home, asleep - no, this was Founders' Day. Something happened. Something... bad?
It was too much to cope with; she couldn't think. Faces floated in her mind. She was so tired.
Better go back to sleep then. The ice wasn't really that bad. She started to lie down, and then the cries came to her again.
She heard them, not with her ears, but with her mind. Cries of anger and of pain. Someone was very unhappy.
She sat quite still, trying to sort it all out.
There was a small movement at the edge of her vision. A squirrel. She could smell it, which was strange because she'd never smelled a squirrel before, especially from this far away. It stared at her with one bright black eye and then it scampered up the willow tree. She realized she'd made a grab for it only when she came up empty with her fingernails digging into bark.
Now that was ridiculous. What on earth did she want a squirrel for? She puzzled over it for a minute, then lay back down, exhausted.
The cries were still there, growing louder with each breath she took.
She tried to cover her ears, but that did nothing to block them out. Someone was hurt, and unhappy, and fighting. That was it. There was a fight going on.
All right. She'd figured it out. Now she could sleep.
She couldn't, though. The cries beckoned to her, drew her toward them. She felt an irresistible need to follow them to their source.
And then she could go to sleep. After she saw... him.
Oh, yes, it was coming back now. She remembered him. He was the one who understood her, who loved her. He was the one she wanted to be with forever.
His face appeared out of the mists in her mind. She considered it lovingly. All right, then. For him she would get up and walk through this ridiculous sleet until she found the proper clearing. Until she could join him. Then they'd be together.
The very thought of him seemed to warm her. There was a fire inside him that few people could see. She saw it, though. It was like the fire inside her.
He seemed to be having some sort of trouble at the moment. At least, there was a lot of shouting. She was close enough to hear it with her ears as well as her mind now.
There, beyond that grandfather oak tree. That was where the noise was coming from. He was there, with his black, fathomless eyes, and his secret smile. And he needed her help. She would help him.
Shaking ice crystals out of her hair, she stepped into the clearing in the wood.
