For a time her sleep was peaceful, but peace was not to last long. In her dreams she stood, waiting as Vasthenthiel Silvermore walked towards her in the blazing sunshine. The elven ranger's emerald eyes sparkled with teasing humour, and he reached for her to enfold her in his arms. Laughing happily, she let herself be embraced, her own slender arms moving to encircle his neck, and then Vash bent to kiss her soft, rosy lips. The kiss was familiar, one that had been shared several times before, but as he captured her mouth with his own - The overpowering stench of death and decay touched her delicate nostrils. With a gasp she drew back to look up to Vash, and then the young thief cried out, choking with disgust and horror.
Where once existed a laughing, chiselled mouth there now was a gaping maw, torn and rotting flesh hanging in chunks from a face that had been handsome in life. Maggots, thick and fat and white, wriggled in the gaps and holes of the ravaged face, and when Vash's jaws parted to speak, more of the juicy worms fell from his mouth in a tangled, twisting heap. "I spoke, you heeded not my words�.I begged, and you laughed in my face," came his deep resonating voice, and Vash lifted his arms once again to offer her his embrace.
Frozen in horror, she could not move - and then suddenly he was gone, the sunlight vanished in his wake and it was the dead of night. Clouds overhead blotted out the twinkling of the stars, and mist rose from the ground in snake-like fashion, writhing slowly as it covered the landscape. She was moving, and fast, and when she looked down she saw she was seated astride a gigantic silver wolf that skimmed the forested earth with the ease of a stallion. Her fingers were clenched tightly in its soft flowing mane, and although she wanted nothing more than to dive from its back, she was held fast as if by dark magic.
In short time the wolf slowed, his gigantic paws silent as he approached a clearing in the woods, and her dread made breathing difficult. Standing in the clearing was one she recognized, his dark hair matching the long black leather coat he worn around his hard, muscled form. Myles smiled slowly, his fangs dripping with blood as he held out both hands to her in welcome
"We're bonded now, you and I - and I see you've come for your first visit," he murmured darkly. "I hope you've fed well this night, for I know that I shall�."
The full-throated scream
that resounded through the DragonMyst Inn from a small room upstairs pierced
even the noisy murmur of voices in the common room below, and a hush fell
over the drinking patrons. The nightmares had begun.
