Author: Emilie
Disclaimer: I Don't own um, Joss does. Sigh.
Distribution: http://www.emiliekitten.com and if you want it, please ask.
Feedback: I love you. YES.
Rating: G
Notes: This fic was inspired by A. Karen's fic in the forest. . . or woods. . . can't remember. A picture I won last night at my town faire, and a four hour long blackout we had earlier. Sigh.
For whoever never gets a fic dedicated to you. Damnit this one's for you you special special person.
~*~
Sleep dredged at Willow's eyelids as she continued to type, the words kept appearing on the screen but she'd stopped reading them a hour ago. She wasn't even sure if she was typing what she was thinking, at this point she kinda hoped that she wasn't. This was auto-pilot, she wanted to go to her nice comfortable bed and stop the horrible typing that dragged her poor mutilated finger tips over the keys of her computer over and over again to finish her paper for psych.
There had been a black out all over campus and she'd been placed back three hours before her schedule, now she was stuck at two in the morning typing up this stupid paper and missing Oz.
Her thoughts always went back to him when she let her mind go free, sometimes it was peaceful thoughts of happiness sometimes painful gut wrenching memories of Veruca and Oz. Sometimes she just tried to remember his scent, the way he would brush at her hair so gently she wanted to cry or the way his kisses felt all over her.
She sighed and shook herself slightly, pulling the blanket she had draped over her shoulders tighter she kept her fingers moving, trying to remember from the text book and her own knowledge and not think about her past love life. It was over and Oz wasn't coming home, she had to keep telling herself. It was too painful without him, she had to let him go and convincing herself that he wasn't coming home seemed to make it. . . easier.
Taking a quick sip from her caffine hyped soda quickly typed her final sentence and clicked save for the last time. She would re-read the paper tomorrow morning before class and do a quick proof read, hopefully she'd get a C on it. She knew it wasn't her best work but she was too tired to care.
Her feet carried her to the warmth and comfort of her sheets and Willow slipped down into them. Falling asleep as soon as her mind felt the pillow support her head.
~*~
She sat on a beach that seemed to sprawl for a million miles in either direction. White sand surrounded her and seemed to glow bluish in the moonlight. The full moon reflected in the ocean in front of her, gently lapping at her feet. A lone dog was running up the beach on her left side and she turned her head slightly to stare at it, silver and black in the moonlight its sleek muscles rippled and pulsed as it ran down the beach, panting slightly.
Something in her mind told her she should get up and run from the wolf, but she didn't. She extended a seemingly translucent hand toward the large animal, he was bigger then any wolf she'd ever seen, well real wolf anyway. He slowed to a stop in front of her, his eyes seemed familiar to her, the deepest blue that'd she'd ever seen with just a hint of green.
He, she hadn't really consciously made the decision it was a he but it seemed to fit in her mind, sat down next to her. His head a little higher then her own, his shaggy fur blew in a gentle breeze that seemed to waft up off the salty water.
"Your faith is wavering." Seemed to echo through her mind, and she turned to look at the wolf.
"No."
"It is, you don't believe he will come home to you."
"I do. I do. Please, can you help me? I need him." The dream wolf turned to look at her with sad eyes.
"He is trapped in a form he does not understand, he needs your faith more then he needs his own. He needs you, not the other way around."
Willow almost growled, balling up her fists full of the sand, it sifted through her fingers. "He left me, if he needed me so much he wouldn't have left."
The wolf moved its great head and stood. Blinking at her slowly, "you know that is not how it works." Tears flowed from her eyes, she wished Oz was here to brush them away and comfort her. "Perhaps for once, you should do the comforting?"
It didn't sound like a question, it sounded like a statement. Had she been selfish? Never helping Oz, always leaning on him instead of having it be a mutual lean. The sand seemed to pick up around her, circling around her and the wolf in a slow circle that never blew into their faces or blinded them. It was almost like snow, only there was no bitter cold. Only sparkling pieces of sand that glittered in the light.
"Can I fix it? Can I find him? Help him?"
The wolf's mouth fell into a dog like smile. "You catch on quickly."
"To the important things." Willow said quickly then thought, "this is a dream. I'm not sure how I know. . . I just know. This means that. . . I knew this all along? Is it real? Or am I just having it to make myself go look for Oz before I go crazy with longing waiting for him?"
The wolf shook his fur. "You ask too many questions, follow your heart." Willow almost laughed at how cheesy that sounded, she'd seen one too many Disney movies. But the wolf was right.
"I will go look for Oz. I love him, I have to." A thought hit her. "If this is my dream, I can make anything happen." The wolf tilted his head slightly. The sand enveloped him and then Oz was standing there, cocking his head at her. He blinked.
"Willow?"
She nodded and got up, suddenly in a white gown that seemed to flutter about her and cling to certain areas in particular. She kissed him. "I'm going to find you in the morning, Oz." His arms slid around her waist.
"What took you so long?"
"I had a psych paper."
~*~
A smile touched Willow's mouth as she dreamed of Oz, the next morning she would turn in the paper to professor Walsh and go in search of Oz. She knew in her heart where to find him and hoped that when she did some of the things in her dream would transpire. . .
~*~End~*~
