A/N: I was inspired to write this story after listening to the song Pieces of a Dream sung by Anastacia. It is by no means necessary to listen to the song while or before reading the story, but it is a good song, so I do recommend listening to it sometime if you've never heard it before. ~Narcina
Pieces of a Dream
Gann turned around quickly, trying to follow the flash of light that flitted past him. For a moment he had thought it was his beloved, had hoped it was her returning to him, never to separate from him again. He had been wrong; there was nothing truly there, just his mind playing tricks on him.
He still couldn't believe she had just left him like that. After everything they had been through, everything they had said to one another, he thought they had finally found happiness together. Ever since she had defeated the curse, they'd had so many good times traveling Faerun and dreaming together. So many times they had laughed, something she had never truly done when she was the Spirit Eater—there was always sadness behind her eyes back then, no matter how hard she laughed. But he was certain he had seen happiness sparkling in her eyes recently; he was sure she couldn't have faked it, not with the way he had felt it radiating off of her.
He watched the shadows from his campfire dancing on the trees around him. Shadows were something she had always hated for reasons he had never fully understood, and that night he found the shadows, their rhythmic rising and falling, particularly intriguing. Maybe it was just his lack of sleep since she had left, but it seemed almost as if the shadows were calling to him, beckoning him into their all-consuming darkness. It reminded him of the way he spent his days traveling the wilderness, calling out to her in vain hope that she would hear him and return.
Hope…that was something he had so little of lately. He missed it, the hope he'd had when they were together, the hope the two of them had built as she struggled for her own life and he tried his best to help her. All of that hope was gone now, shattered as easily as glass. And the pain of losing that hope was like being cut by that same glass. The pieces dug their way under his skin and caused him new pain with each move he made.
Dawn was approaching, and he was so tired from another sleepless night. He pulled out a sketch a Rashemen bard had made of the ranger he loved. It was faded and frayed from the many times he had taken it from his pack and unfolded it to gaze upon her face, studying every detail, though each was already deeply ingrained in his memory. He couldn't let himself forget anything about her, not if he hoped to find her again someday. A tear slid down his cheek as he realized how long it had been since he had last seen her face outside of that sketch. He had lost count of the number of times he had woken up to find that she wasn't there beside him—it took him by surprise every time, though the only time it had truly been unexpected was the first.
And then he realized it, the one instance out of all the time they had been together that had foreshadowed the terrible situation he found himself in now. It had been in Telflamm, where they had gone to catch a ship across the Sea of Fallen Stars. She had seemed so excited to be making the trip; she talked constantly of things she remembered about the Sword Coast and the lands around it, things she couldn't wait to show him. And then it happened. He climbed onto the ship and turned around to take her hand and help her aboard, but instead of grabbing his outstretched hand, she took a step back—he hadn't fully noticed it that day, he thought maybe she had stumbled a bit when his back was turned, but looking back he was sure she had intentionally stepped away from him—and she was engulfed in the sea of people crowding the harbor. He had risen up on his toes and found her face in the crowd, looking at him with eyes full of sadness and moving away from him still. In the confusion, he had simply thought she could not fight her way back through the crowd to the ship, so he grabbed his things and made his way to her.
She seemed fine when he finally caught up with her; she had never offered an explanation of what happened, nor did he ask, assuming his take on the situation must be correct—how could it not be when they were so happy? They caught a ship the next day, and everything was normal…until she disappeared. It had been a long time since the Telflamm incident when it happened; they had made it across the sea and had been traveling the land for several weeks. Then one morning, with absolutely no warning, he had woken up to find her gone. He thought back, trying to remember another time like Telflamm that should have alerted him something was wrong, but there was nothing. It had been only once, and he hadn't realized it when it would have done him any good. She had left him willingly, and he didn't know why. He sank his face into his palms in despair, unsure how to continue on with nothing left but pieces of a dream.