Alright, for those of you that are trying to keep up with my other story, 'It Came from Beyond the Asteroid Belt', my PPG fanfiction.. I'm not giving up on that. I'm taking a break from it, as I've gotten writers block in it. I started the next chapter, but I've totally gone blank. So now I decided to start something different in the meanwhile and hopefully get my creative juices flowing enough that I might be able to continue it.

Anyway, this story is, obviously, based on Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar. I have pretty much every novel that came out (including some others of hers that I fell in love with), but this mostly taks place between the Heralds of Valdemar series (Arrows of the Queen, Arrows Flight, and Arrows Fall) and By The Sword (which of course came before the Mage Winds series). As much as I love the other books, I haven't read them as many times that I've read the Heralds of Valdemar series (I must've read those books about 50 times each), so I'm mostly familiar of the characters as they are in that point of time. -scratches head- I think I've said everything that I needed to say. So I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 1-

Alicia figured that she had sat around her living room long enough now. Her living room. That was a hard thing for her to believe. Alicia was 21 years old, and just moved into her own apartment. So far, this was a good year for her. She graduated from college in May with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry, she got a job for one of the major corporations, helping in the research and development team with their household cleaner producs, in June, and here it was, a month later, and she had just moved into her own place. It really didn't take her long to save up working for a big company like she was, but she wanted the right place. It was a nice little place too, a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment. She could even get a cat when she was ready to, but couldn't go much bigger than that, since her landlady wouldn't allow much bigger than one cat, but she could understand that. This was the finaly day of her moving process and her parents just left. They helped her to finish moving her stuff in and while she and her mother was putting some things away, her father was nice enough to put her bed together, plus a small entertainment center for her bedroom and her desk for the living room. She got up and went over to her desk where all her computer parts were just sitting around and started to plug everything together. She already called the cable company and they were going to be coming by the next day to hook her up to cable TV and cable internet. She still had a whole day ahead of her before she would want to go to bed, so she would spend it unpacking.

In Valdemar

Corie had been wandering around Companion's Field for a few days now, almost like he was brooding on something. He was a young stallion, though not as young as some of the others that had already Chosen. He was the age equivalent to a 21 or 22 year old human. It was odd for him not to have Chosen yet, though none of the other Companions ever commented on it. Lately though, he had been keeping to himself a lot more than normal and he would wander in circles. His thoughts were so filled with worry that some of the older Companions could hear him almost crystal clear. Two of these Companions were walking up to him now, their silver hooves gently beating in the grass as they slowly moved up behind him, not wanting to startle him. His ears swiveled and when he heard the hoofbeats of other Companions, he turned to look to him. He was seeing Rolan, the Queen's Own Companion, as well as Ahrodie, whose Chosen was the Queen's Own's husband. Rolan and Ahrodie were often seen romping together, almost even more since their Chosen Heralds fully acknowleged their lifebond. Rolan really was the Companion that took care of the herd, since the Monarch's Own Companion was the only one that was Grove Born. If he wasn't available, a lot of the Companions went to Ahrodie second, or if something needed to be taken care of, Rolan would trust Ahrodie to take care of it. In light of this, Rolan was, of course, the first to speak to Corie.

:Corie, I must say that your thoughts are beginning to spread throughout the entire herd. Will you please tell us what is wrong, there may be a chance that we might be able to help you sort through your problems before your thoughts start to break though the shields of the strong Mindspeakers.:

He snorted softly and then lowered his head in apology before answering him. "Well, I'm ready to Choose." Ahrodie flicked her tail a bit before she, as well, started to speak.

:That is good news to hear, indeed. Why don't you go to the stables, get tacked up, and go out and pick the youngling up?: They were both confused as to why he hadn't done this yet, in fact. Their answer came next almost instantly after Ahrodie finished speaking.

:I don't know how. I know who I want to Choose. I just don't know how to go to her.: The two Companions looked to each other with a bit of confusion in their sapphire blue eyes before Rolan looked back to him again.

:How can you not know? It should be instinct when you're ready to pick up your Chosen.: Corie nodded a bit before starting to walk through Companion's Field, the other two following him just as slowly.

:That's just it. I don't understand how, but it's almost like she's in... in another realm, if you will.: He stopped after saying that and looked to the two of them, seeing the surprised look in their eyes. They all stood silent for a time in the late afternoon sun.

:That is odd,: Ahrodie said, finally. She looked to the two stallions for a moment before speaking again. :I'm not sure what to tell you, Corie. That is an odd feeling to get. I'm not sure there's ever a time in our history that a Companion Chose someone that wasn't either in Valdemar or one of the bordering nations.: Rolan thought for a moment and looked to them.

:There's only one thing that I can think of. I'll speak to Faya. Maybe he can ask Elcarth about the histories of past Choosings and maybe even find something else he can reference to to help out.: (Author's Note: I don't believe that in any of the Valdemar books I've read that Elcarth's Companion's name was ever mentioned, so I just made one up. If anyone finds something else, feel free to let me know and I'll change it.) Elcarth was the historian of the Herald's Collegium. He could usually find anything in that sea of books that he had in his office. And if he couldn't, he could usually meet with the Chronicaler and between the two of them, they could figure something out. Rolan started off into the Field for a moment while he spoke with Elcarth's Compantion. He would then, in turn, speak with his Chosen and hopefully an answer could be found. In the meantime, they left him alone again. Until Elcarth could come up with something there was nothing more they could do for him. Rolan just hoped that they could figure something out soon, else the one that would be Corie's Chosen could get herself into a lot of trouble with untrained Gifts.