Adriane

The tall girl was running, as fast as she could, through the forest. A black wolf with green eyes ran beside her to her left. A silver wolf, slightly bigger than the first, with golden eyes ran on her right. Above Adriane, far above, a large red dragon was performing loops and barrel rolls. Upon the dragon's back, sat a boy with sand colored, blond hair who laughed into the wind as the dragon dove towards the earth.

Adriane laughed as well. She ran faster and faster, the wolves easily keeping pace. She glanced up again, looking for the dragon and the boy, but all she saw was sky. The two had disappeared. Her gaze traveled to the silver wolf on her right, but she too had gone. After staring at the place where the silver wolf had been, Adriane whipped her head around to look at the black wolf, her best friend. He was no longer at her side. Adriane stopped quickly and looked around, frantically searching for her friends, but she was alone. As the girl sunk to her knees, the ground beneath her tore open into a black abyss. Adriane screamed, disappearing into the shadows of her own fear.

"Packmate," Dreamer said as Adriane shot upright in her bed, drenched in sweat. The black wolf looked at her sadly, concern clear in his green eyes.

"I'm fine, Dreamer," she said softly, but it was clear by the look in the wolf's eyes that he was not convinced. "Really, I am. Just a bad dream, that's all. Go back to sleep," Dreamer reluctantly closed his eyes, his ear twitching in frustration.

"Tell Emily," He told her, drifting off into sleep. Adriane's dark eyes stared at the dreamcatcher above her head as she fell into a deep sleep.

In her dream, Adriane saw a door. It was old and wooden and carved with odd patterns. The warrior pushed open the door and stepped through–into a field. The long grass stretched to the horizon in all directions. "Where am I?" Adriane asked, but no one was there to answer. In the distance, very far off, Adriane could see what looked like a figure. She made her way toward the figure, but as she approached she found that it was a ring of objects, not a person.

The first object was a tall golden torch, blazing bright, even in the sunlight. It was as tall as the warrior herself. Adriane approached it cautiously, stretching out her fingers toward the torch. The flames seemed to shy from her touch, bending away from the girl's outstretched hand. She backed away slowly, very confused, and moved clockwise to the next object.

An intricate silver birdbath which held shimmering, tranquil water. The birdbath seemed like it was made of water itself, but she could feel how solid it was when she brushed her hand against the rim. She reached down to immerse her fingertips in the crystal clear water, but as her hand entered the bowl, the liquid fled from her hand as the fire had, retreating to the edges. Adriane shook her head slightly and moved on to the next object.

A tall grandfather clock was next in line. It was the purest of whites and the pendulum beyond the glass swung to and fro in a steady rhythm. Adriane stroked the smooth edges of the clock, wondering how the objects, of which there were five, had gotten to where they were. As her hand came in contact with the glass that protected the pendulum, it seemed to melt away like ice and her hand fell through. It lightly brushed the swinging disk which immediately stopped swinging, coming to a stand still in the center of the old clock. Adriane tried to manually begin the pendulum again, but it wouldn't budge, no matter how hard she tried. Sadly, Adriane moved on.

An iridescent bird cage was next in the circle. It held a small, white bird with a crystal beak which was hopping around, singing a gleeful song. Adriane didn't want to break the cage as she had the clock, so she moved on without hesitation.

The last object in the circle was a willow tree. There was nothing really special about the tree's appearance, but Adriane could sense the life that coursed through it. She brought her hand close to the luscious green leaves and they crept through the air toward her fingers. Her excitement growing, the warrior stepped forward towards the tree. Without warning, the leaves closest to her fell of the branch and began to swirl around her. Adriane took a step to her right, trying not to damage the bird cage. When she did this, one leaf, just one, came in contact with the flames of the torch.

Although the leaf was engulfed by flames, it kept flying. Leaf after leaf seemed to grab onto the flames until the willow tree had ignited, burning with unnatural light. Then the tree fell. The wide branches of the willow covered the crystal birdcage like a blanket, and, to add to the disarray, the small bird began chirping erratically, singing a song of fear. The bird finally worked up the nerve to climb through the dented bars of the cage and fly–straight into the large clock.

Now, although the bird was not very large, it was flying extremely fast. This caused the white grandfather clock to fall over as well. The clock shattered as it hit the ground and the shards of white changed color to a deep bronze. The pendulum swung out from the clock and soared through the air almost as well as the bird. And if you haven't picked up on the way Adriane's dream is turning out, I'll tell you that the pendulum landed in the silver birdbath and splashed the water onto the golden torch. This, of course, abruptly put out the fire that sat there.

Only after every, single object had been ruined did the chaos stop and give Adriane a chance to look at what she had begun. And the warrior stopped as well. She stopped, stared, and then sunk to her knees, bursting into tears.