Wait, Gin, please-
There was no answer, just the closing off of her mind to his. Sath looked up to see that Gin had crawled into the bed and pulled the blanket up over her shoulders. He sat on the floor, watching her for a long time in silence, counting the number of times her shoulder rose and fell as she would breathe in and back out. She was still there in the back of his mind, a low and comforting hum, but he didn’t dare try to reach her now.
Sath finally summoned the courage to move around to the other side of the bed, and the sight of her so peacefully asleep nearly did him in. He tucked in the blanket around her, avoiding the spot that she had clenched in her fist. A glint of steel caught his eye as he gently smoothed the hair away from her face, and he looked again at her balled-up fist. She was holding a knife in her hand. Where had she found a weapon?
Sath stepped back, dumbfounded. She must have stolen it from the kitchen earlier. Gin had never been one for weapons and certainly not hand to hand types like that. What had changed? Was it her diminished magical ability on this side of the world, under the influence of the Mother Dragon? Was it the summoning up of old memories of that wizard? Or perhaps was she afraid…of him? Sath’s heart ached at the mere thought, but his rational mind told him that he had given her plentiful reasons to fear him…yet he never sensed it on her. Perhaps this was why? Her voice in his mind, sudden and unbidden and still very angry, took him by surprise.
If you’re going to stare at me, could you go back around behind me, please, Sath?I do not like being watched while I sleep, and at least if you’re back there, it isn’t as obvious.
Sath sighed loudly and returned to his seat on the floor. At least her tracking ability seemed to be back to normal. He continued watching her until her breathing again slowed into the rhythm of sleep. Sleep claimed him too, but not for many agonizing hours. Before drifting off, he heard every creak and pop that the stone keep made, he listened to conversations in the corridor that preceded illicit couplings, and he began counting how many times Gin mumbled or whimpered in her sleep. There had to be a way for her to leave that part of her life behind for good. Sath didn’t have any more of a clue how to do that than he did how to get them back home. He fidgeted, finally found a comfortable position that might allow him the escape of sleep and kept his watch over her as she dreamed.
She ran as fast and as hard as she could, her feet slapping against the frozen ground of the mountains. Her icy strands of hair whipped against her face like a tiny cat-o-nine tail, slicing her skin and bringing tears to her eyes, tears that froze almost on contact with her skin. Though she had not looked back in quite some time, she could tell that it was following her and that it would soon be upon her. Its breath was ragged and hot against the back of her neck, and she could feel eyes burning a hole in the back of her head.
If only she could get to the Temple of the Mother in time! She knew that she would be safe there, that the drakes bound there would give her comfort and aid and keep her safe from her pursuer. She could float among the dragonkind there just as her ancestors had, and she would never be hungry or cold—or as bone-weary, as she was now—ever again. She rubbed her eyes on the sleeve of her tunic to clear them, but when she opened them again, she knew she had been caught. Teal eyes burned with hunger, and a low growl filled her ears.
She screamed as the claws closed around her arms. She writhed in the grip that tore her tunic and cut into her flesh. She kicked and scratched, but her limbs could gain no purchase against her pursuer, now turned attacker. “PLEASE!” she cried out. “Please just kill me quickly, I can take no more!” She shut her eyes tightly and resumed her defensive strikes, yet made no headway.
“Gin? Hold still and stop…oof!”
Gin opened her eyes to see Sath bent over her, holding her down to the bed in their room in the inn. Some bits of the dream still clung to her. She shivered, her eyes were wild as she scanned the room, trying to make what she saw fit into the last vestiges of the dream, still playing out in her mind’s eye. “S-Sath?”
“Yes. Gin, wake up, you had a bad dream,” he said, the relief evident in his voice. He released his hold on her shoulders, and she shot up out of bed, then scampered across the room and dropped into a defensive crouch near the door.
“What…it was chasing me…the Qatu had me…and then it was you…?” She stared at Sath as he moved toward her. “You…just stay over there for a moment.” Sath froze in his tracks and lifted his hands, holding them out to her with his palms facing out. “You…just stay…” She rubbed her eyes vigorously for a moment with the heels of her hands as she tried to gain a foothold in whatever reality she’d found herself. The sound of wind from the dream faded away, and the stinging throb in the soles of her feet eased. She looked at her arms and saw only scars where moments before there had been scratches and other open wounds. “I was…dreaming…”
“Yes, a pretty nasty one at that from the way you were carrying on,” Sath said, extending a hand to help her
