Chapter 1 - Restless Nights

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A scream breaks the silence of the moonlit room. Her body drenched in sweat, and heart pounding dangerously in her chest, she escaped the dream again. Every night for the last week, the inhumanly tall man had haunted her.

Breaking from her trance, her eyes adjusted to the dark of the room.  It was then she saw a small piece of white cowering by her side. The prodding in her dream, she suddenly knew the cause. Slowly she placed her shaking hands around the shivering body and pulled it out from the covers.

“Oh Luna! You must be getting so tired of being woken like this” much like I am, she added in thought to herself. The small puppy, ears still flat against her head, looked to her mistress in worry, but quickly cocked her head to one side and let her tongue slip out. The quizzical look made a small giggle escape the girl.

The puppy, with a dark back and white underside, wagged her tail, that was tipped in the same white, was a malamute, and still very young. It was this puppy that kept the girl from falling into a great lake of stress and emotional depression. She was always seen along-side her mistress, following her and learning as best as a puppy could, and as small as she was now, she would grow up to be well over the size of the average dog.

The girl placed Luna back in her lap, and turned towards the bedside table. Lifting a journal, she clicked her fingers, and a soft glow filled the room. The light came from a flame now circling the girl and puppy on the bed. Luna, intrigued as ever, lowered herself into a pouncing position, intently following the flame with her eyes. Holding the journal, the girl giggled again. Even if Luna did catch the flame, it would not harm her. It was just an enchantment for light, and reflected the element of the caster.

As the flame danced around them, and Luna tried to catch it, the light cast itself upon the front of the journal, illuminating a silver engraved tag. “Vera”. She sat writing in the events that unfolded in her dream, hoping to record something that she had not before, while spinning the flame around Luna, causing her to be disoriented and fall of the bed.

Sighing, she finished her writing and snapped the journal closed, placing it on the bed besides her and picked up Luna. “Do you know what these dreams mean?” Vera asked her, which got the quizzical stare in response, causing another ripple of laughter.

“Sometimes, I think you know just what I say, and do this to make me happy”

The gleeful face from the puppy just confirmed Vera’s thoughts, as Luna’s tail started swaying happily from side to side. She gently leaned forward to lick her owners face and then let out a small howl.

Feeling a little bit more relaxed, and still smiling happily from her puppy’s antics, Vera lay back down on the bed and pulled the covers around her and Luna. She felt Luna snuggle up against her side and settle into her usual ball of fluff. In turn, Vera sighed and slipped back into the darkness that is sleep without dreams.

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