This chapter has recently been edited from First person POV to Third Person POV. I will try to get the rest of the chapters edited quickly to lessen confusion for new readers.
She stood before the shimmering surface. Her companions had already passed through. She felt a rush of pain in her heart. He was not there.
"Dareth Shiral, Banal'ras." Her voice was a whisper into the wind. She dashed the tear from her cheek, readied her daggers and stepped though.
She woke with a groan and raked a hand over her face. Breath turned to fog in the chilled air of the room. Cara glanced at the clock out of habit, but she knew what the time would read, 2:15 AM, it was always the same. Only the end of the dream in the moments she came awake stayed with her.
She took a deep breath and threw off the thick blanket, grabbed her winter robe and shoved feet into fur line slippers. The sudden cold pulled a hiss from her lips. Warmth from her body soon took the chill from the clothes as she moved to the fireplace.
The coals were still warm, but the damper in the flue had shifted again. She didn't relish having to fix it again. Dusty, dirty work, with ash filling her nose and lungs, but if she didn't the fire would die each night. She pulled on the chain, felt the subtle change in the updraft, and poked at the coals. The flames crawled over the scorched log, the fire flared to life; the warm heat seeped into the room.
There would be no going back to sleep. She had tried many times before, hoping to learn more of the repeated dreams, only to stare at a dark ceiling until the first lights of dawn crept into the room. She stepped out into the hall towards the kitchen. As she passed the computer, she hit the on button and moved to the coffee pot.
Yesterday's coffee was still sitting in the bottom. She dumped it down the drain, then washed and filled the pot, poured the cold water into the reservoir and took the basket out. Cara dumped the grounds into the compost bucket, replaced the lid, and reached for the coffee tin. Rinsed the basket, replaced the filter, opened the tin and breathed in the deep rich smell. The basket dropped into place and she pushed the button. She stoked the fire in the wood stove and added another log to chase the chill from the room.
Cara moved to the desk, typed in her password, and opened the document she had started months ago. The same time the dreams started. She closed her eyes and began typing. Sometimes she typed the same scene, but other times she was rewarded with a glimpse of the dream her conscious mind forgot.
"Ir abelas, Renan. I bring sad news." Her heart studded to a near stop.
"Mana, I will not believe he is gone!" She would not let him speak those words.
"You must accept that he is gone. If not dead he wishes it now."
"Our people do not fall so easily, and Banal'ras is one of our greatest warriors. He will find a way." She slashed at the tear that dared show she believed him but part of her knew it to be true.
"The war is destroying our world. You cannot wait any longer. You must go…"
"Well, that's new…." The soft pad of paws and the click of claws on the wood floor told her he was awake. "Sorry to wake you." A soft growl told her she hadn't. Cara reached out and rubbed his head. He pushed it into her lap, rolling the chair back to make room. "I wish you could talk. I want to discuss these dreams with someone. They feel so real, I feel her pain as if it is my own." The aroma of fresh coffee filled the air.
She pulled the cream from the fridge and poured a generous amount into a mug, then shuffled to the pot and filled it with the dark chocolate brew. "Why is it coffee doesn't taste the way it smells?" He cocked his head and huffed at her. She ask him this question often. Cara took a sip and felt the warmth flow through her. "Ahhhh, Heavenly." She found few pleasures left for her here, but a warm cup of coffee was one of them.
Warm laughter filled the room. The joy in her daughter's voice tugged up the corners of her mouth.
Grace mimicked her favorite character. "First it's 'I like you', then poof, Frog time." It kills me every time he says it!" The tears filled her eyes; she's only a memory now, gone from this world too soon.
There on the counter was her last gift, a copy of the current chapter in their beloved series. They had spent hours together discussing the game, reading and discussing their own theories, debating their favorite characters and war table missions. Both had played out a different story. Grace chose a fiery, red haired, human rogue named Amelia, to romance the handsome Templar.
"You would like Solas," she said, "you talk like him sometimes. You get that distant look in your eye when you talk about history. You know, like you've been there."
Cara smiled. "Who says I wasn't? No one has disproved reincarnation."
"Right. So just how big were the dinosaurs again?" she teased.
"I didn't say I saw dinosaurs, just the last few thousand years," Cara teased back. Sometimes it did feel like a strange Deja vu when she read history.
Cara created an elf mage, and found Grace was right about Solas. He was interesting, and the way he spoke made everything sound like poetry. She dove in heart first, and the egghead crushed it. She knew if Grace were there, she would have found some way to cheer her, convince her it wasn't the end - but Grace was gone.
Cara grabbed her phone, opened a playlist, and hit play. The first song played was Over You by Miranda Lambert. "How fitting." She snorted and hit the repeat button and turned on the game. As long as she still felt something, she was still alive.
Cara doesn't play her favorite songs repeatedly, but the game is their connection. She felt Grace with her, remembered their talks and it's not so lonely.
"You are our last hope! If he cannot defeat the Evunaris then we must flee this world. Start a life somewhere new. You must scout the other places and find this new home." There were enough elves willing to start a new colony on a new world if they couldn't return with news.
She stood staring at the shimmering surface and as the ripples faded, her reflection shone back at her. Large violet eyes, white blonde hair, full lips, slashing dark brows and long slender ears.
"You are Our Voice of reason," he said, "you can ally with the people of these other places and make way for our people."
"I'm afraid. This is my home, I feel like I am abandoning him. He could still be alive!" she cried.
"You know he would support this. You are here because he believed you could find a way for us."
She sigh deeply and blink back the tear. "Ir abelas, ir suledin."
He smiled, clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Go child. Dareth Shiral, Var'Renan."
Cara jerked awake. "What the hell!"
The clock blinked 2:15 AM. "Of course it is." The warm summer breeze flowed through the screened French doors that lead to her private garden. The star and moonlight cast an ethereal glow to the wooden floor. The familiar scent of flowers and pine carried in on the breeze soothed her nerves.
"I need a vacation."
He raised his head.
"How about we go camping?"
He answered with an enthusiastic 'Woof'.
She knew he would. Cara moved to the dresser and pulled a duffle bag out from under it. She opened drawers and tossed in some clothes. It was mid-August and was hot and dry. She penned a note for Jess and Harris. They knew where to find the will if anything should happen to her.
Cara spent the week camping alone. Well not completely, Remus her husky/wolf hybrid was always with her. Sean, her brother thought she was crazy when he heard she had saved him. But when she first looked into his pleading blue eyes, he stole her heart. She was a sucker for a pair of sad eyes.
Cara thought about her daughter. The two had been a team for a long time. She had stayed single for fifteen years, and told Grace it was too late to be thinking of men now. Grace told her to look around, men were drawn to her. She scoffed and told her it's just their small community being friendly. She gave her a smug smile, the kind which says, just wait and see. But she was gone and Cara was alone.
As she thought over events in the past and the present, wondered about the future - the semi in front of her lost control. The driver most likely had fallen asleep at the wheel. Cara slammed on the brakes and tried to find a safe place to go. Then she saw what had caused the accident. Some idiot, most likely drunk; was driving the wrong way down the two lane highway. The last thing she remembered before the squeal of brakes, and blinding headlights was the time - 2:15 AM. Then a sickening crunch before she felt herself falling as the world around her faded to black.