The Far Quest (Chapter One - The Desert Dreamer)

The Parting of Shadows (Chapter One - The Desert Dreamer)

Chapter One

The Desert Dreamer

The young woman found herself surrounded by a darkness so black that she could see nothing.  In fact, it was so dark that she scarcely believed her eyes were even open.  Within this utterly shadowed world, she felt herself being carried helplessly along upon waves that endlessly rose and fell around her.  All the while she struggled with weary limbs to keep from going under.  Her rapid, desperate breaths and her thrashing limbs were the only sounds that echoed out into the nothingness that engulfed her.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning parted the shadows illuminating the world around her with flashes of bluish-white light.  Like the gnarled and twisted branches of a tree, the lightning struck out across the night sky, and then, only seconds later, its thundering shook the heavens with an angry rumble that could be felt deep within the innermost parts of her terrified soul.

In that instance, as the world was filled with light and deafening sound, she caught sight of the sea that surrounded her.  She saw the waves as they seemed to swell and coil across the surface of the black water like a huge side-winding serpent.  Within these dark swells, there moved what looked like far darker shadows, and these seemed to drive the whole of the deep forward like a marching army going to war.

The light vanished as quickly as it had come, and how she longed for its return.  Though the lightning was frightful in its power, it was much better than the empty blackness that stretched out around and under her.  The utter vastness and darkness of the sea was far more terrifying to her than even the most furious claps of thunder.  In truth, she longed for the shadows of her nightmare to once more be parted by yet another burst of lightning.

She was not forced to wait long, for again the lightning danced across the ominous clouds shedding dazzling light upon the sea.  In this second illumination of the world, she beheld before her a black form rising up out the water like a massive, glistening pillar.

The waves about her crashed into the rising shape with such force that she was sure it would be toppled, but it stood firm.  After yet another flashing of light, it was clear that the form was a great, black tower standing in the midst of the angry sea.  The storm’s thick, dark clouds seemed to slowly swirl around the tower’s crown.

Within the next explosion of lightning, she beheld a lone figure standing upon the lofty tower’s ramparts.  The person was clothed in a long, thickly-layered cloak of black, and its folds fluttered about in the storm’s angry gale.  The cloak’s deep hood completely shrouded the person’s face with dark shadows.

Then, as often happens within dreams, she found herself standing next to the cloaked figure, but still she could not see within the shadows of the hood.  With a sudden great gust, the wind tore back the figure’s black hood revealing a seductively beautiful woman.  Her long, black hair streamed out and whipped about in the storm.

The woman’s smooth skin was pasty-white and colorless, but her beauty also contained a kind of darkness.  Her lips and eyelids were black in color, and her teeth were white and cat-like.  As for her eyes, they were devoid of all whiteness looking much like two black, shimmering pools of midnight.

“Behold the gray-witch.”  A deep and strange voice whispered behind her from some unknown location.

The witch seemed to be aware of neither the voice nor the angry tempest that raged around her, for she stood undaunted.  Calmly poised on the tower’s edge, she held a small bundle out in her pale, thin hands.  Carefully, she unfolded the sable colored cloth exposing a tiny baby that had been hidden within.

The child was beautiful and completely different from the woman who held her, for she was full of color.  She had large sparkling eyes, which were the color of the blue-green sea, and her skin had in it a rich, golden hue.  The baby’s small head was crowned with curling locks of hair, which were a colorful mix of gold and auburn.