The Witch of Northester

Away from the Earth

Another dream. I'm floating...up...up...I do not sense I'm in danger.

In fact, it's the opposite. I feel free. I feel the chains about me have been lifted. Is this the result of the sacrifice? Is this my reward for all I've done? Have I died? Am I finally at peace?

I stand upright, lighting on the earth as a whole. There are nothing but stars and deep blue sky above me. My feet walk on water, ripples being sent out everywhere. Everywhere they touch, I hear voices, whispering to me their thanks for help.

Another whisper...a warning... "Run!"

I whirl around, expecting to see someone behind me.

"Get away!"

The voice echoes all around me, and I call out, "Who's there?"

"Run! Get out! Away from the earth, while you still can!"

Kelan's mother's words return to my mind, warning me to leave. That she would run, too. What did she mean? What could she possibly be talking about?

The word is hissed one final time before I obey. I start running. But I can't run AWAY from the earth. I'm still on it! My feet are sloshing through shallow water, the ripples are sent out faster and harder than before. The voices are no longer thankful whispers and murmurs, but cries of agony, of pain, of suffering. They're pleading with me to stay. They need me. They want me to help them.

I run faster, harder, even as the earth trembles and I'm having a hard time finding my footing. Their pleading are now screaming, crying. Hands reach up from the water, pale and gnarly. The water turns black as they reach for my ankles, grab onto the hem of my dress, tearing at me to keep me in place.

"Stop it! I have to go!" But I'm in tears, now torn between my safety and those I'm leaving behind. What am I supposed to do?

"Zelda!" A deeper voice comes behind me and everything is hushed. The hands disappear beneath the earth's murky depths, and the whisper of urgency is recinded. I slowly turn, afraid for my life, but I only find Bren's kind face.

"Bren?" I whisper, imganing a town of pitchforks and torches waiting behind him.

"Are you alright?" He gathered me in his arms, on the verge of tears as we stood there, together, in deep embrace. I sobbed against his shoulder, "I missed you," I whispered, unable to help the emotions that have been boiling over for all these months. "I miss you! I miss you!"

He hugs me harder, and I feel safe, hoping he will never let me go. But I straighten to get a good look at his face, and I realize it was not Bren I had been hugging...but Kelan. "Kel-"

His arms tighten around me, but harder than before. It's no longer an embrace, but a vise. "Stop...I can't...breathe..."

"That's the point," He murmured. His voice held all the sweetness of honey with the backlash of a hive that guards it.

I felt my back cracking and I let out a cry. I'm arching now, somehow, and he is leaning over me, lips near to my ear as he hisses, "Where's the necklace, Zelda?"

"Northester," I gasped. "Let...me...go..."

"If that's what you really want."

His arms release me, and I'm falling again, back to the earth. I watch him fade, standing over me with a wolfish grin to an almost nonexistent speck as I fall faster...faster...the cold air rushing past me. The clouds refuse to swallow me, almost parting as I realize just how hard I'm about to hit the ground...

Before I can convince myself to wake up, the ground hits me.