This is a fic exploring the sexual urges and fantasies of a young woman. If anything in relation to that bothers you, I suggest you not bother with this particular story. This chapter is mild, but I cannot make promises for future chapters. You have been duly warned.

To those who choose to stay, thank you for your interest! I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of its affiliations. I wish I did (for reasons), but that's neither here nor there.


Overture...

It starts

With our eyes well acquainted

With the darkness

The mind was made to illuminate

The Heart


Blue eyes opened to the golden light of a living world.

The tall grass danced around her frame, and she breathed in its saccharine fragrance deeply, filling her lungs with the scent of sanctuary. Green stalks brushed lightly against one another in response to a whispering breeze, imitating the sound of gentle ocean waves. Below, her bare feet could feel the rise and swell of the earth. The warmth from the rich ground spread from the tips of her toes up to the tips of her fingers as they grazed across the soft grass.

Beth Greene's face turned up to take in the vast expanse of the sky. Illuminated by twilight, the lazy clouds rolled and stretched across the horizons causing Beth's breath to catch in her throat at the beauty of it all. There was no need to fear, no need to keep muscles tensed in a case of fight or flight. It invoked feelings that Beth had buried years ago.

A wonderful dream, Beth thought sadly. With its end, she knew of the empty feeling that awaited her.

She never had nightmares during precious moments of slumber. Not anymore.

Yes, nightmares were for the conscious ones now. Waking moments were filled with uncertainty, and horror was lurking around every corner. Sweet dreams were construed from the dust and desire that caked her skin and settled heavy in her heart.

Moments like sleep and dreams were luxuries only rewarded to the careless, and right now – whether she deserved it or not – Beth chose to be careless.

Fwick… fwick… fwick…

She hadn't noticed the sound before. Looking away from the glorious sky, she scanned the sunlit glen of her dreamland and saw another standing among her sea of grass. It was strange. No one else had ever been in this dream.

Fwick… fwick… fwick…

Pushing her blonde locks from her eyes, she peered at the intruder, and recognized his form almost immediately. His back was to her, his feet spread apart, and in his arms, a crossbow. Her breath caught again, but not out of beauty, not entirely anyway. A man she had been separated from was with her once more.

Another arrow was loosed from the bow, shooting straight into the head of a walking corpse that emerged from a darkening sector of Beth's dream. When the twice dead creature fell, another shambled in its wake. With his back still to her, Daryl Dixon reached for another bolt and slipped it securely into the tiller of the bow. Using his foot as leverage, he drew back the bow strings and swiftly picked it back up to eye level.

Beth noticed the ripple of muscles in his arms as he did so. Her eyes – now fully transfixed – glided up his arm and to skin of his shoulder. Those tattoos she could now barely remember peeked out from under a torn and tattered black vest that fell loosely away from his body. Beth swallowed at the realization that an open leather vest was all he donned on his torso.

Pushing any and every thought of a bare chest was certainly an unrewarding trial she wouldn't subject herself to. Ignoring the guilt that nagged at her better judgment, Beth focused her attention on the taut planes of tanned skin that glistened in the light of the sunset as dream Daryl loosed arrow after arrow. She watched enraptured as his biceps would contract and then reset as he repeated the motions. It was a feat she had watched him do thousands of times before being taken from him, but she realized how greatly she had underrated the exploit. Until now, that is.

Marveling at such actions while lives were in danger would be an incredible example of inconsiderate stupidity. But here, Beth was the only one truly at risk in her vulnerable state. Here in her dreamland, she had until she woke up to finally and fully appreciate the creature that was Daryl Dixon.