A/N- I'm sorry guys. Volleyball season started. With that, two AP classes, and a woman who seriously defines the term 'psychotic band teacher' breathing down my neck, most of my free, crash-at-home-and-write time is spent sleeping. My bedtime has been reduce to 10pm. It's a sad, sad thing.

Thanks to my reviewers, ShadowWolf, Kris, and ImaginaryFlower. I love you all, and your comments warm my sleepy heart. I would write you all a heart icon, but it seems ffnet won't let me. That's highly disappointing, actually. I'm sorry. Here: *HEART*. That works. It's in caps for emphasize, or whatever other reasoning you can concoct. Allow your imagination to soar.

Enjoy chapter 6! Feel free to point out every grammatical error, because I cannot edit while my eyes want to remain closed when I blink.

WARNING: Slight language in this chapter.


Everything was foggy, cloudy. Her mind felt fuzzy, lethargic, and it was difficult to think. Her vision was full of shadows; she saw only black, with pinpricks of white shining through. The rest of her was numb.

Adriane was frozen, staring vacantly in front of her, trying to see beyond the darkness that blanketed her vision. Where was she? The though rose up and ricocheted around in her empty skull, but she couldn't focus on it. She felt almost like she was wading through a lake, or pushing through a thick, hazy fog. Fighting with herself for even a smidgen of clarity. And losing.

But gradually the paralysis lessened, and Adriane could function again. Her first solid conclusion was that she was staring up at the stars.

The discovery helped to get the warrior's brain in motion once more, and slowly the feeling began to return to her limbs. It was nighttime, a cool summer night with a faint, faint breeze. The air smelled of a forest, dank and earthy. Adriane could feel dampness on her back, and she realized she was lying in the grass, dew seeping into her shirt. Beyond the stirring of leaves the world was silent, almost eerily quiet.

The only other thing she was conscious of was a massive headache.

Adriane groaned softly, pressing her hands to her forehead. Her arms felt heavier than normal, and she nearly smacked herself in the face instead. The warrior moaned again, sucking in a breath and tasting vegetation on her tongue. She closed her eyes, running her fingers through her hair.

Where was she?

Adriane massaged her throbbing temples, sorely wishing that healing magic worked on oneself. She didn't remember falling asleep out in the middle of the woods. Heck, she hadn't even been near any sort of woods, last she could recall. She'd been at the rental place, right? Had just woken up, hadn't yet gotten dressed, and…

And then…what?

She couldn't remember.

Adriane went to sit up, and then flopped back down in the grass as a wave of dizziness and pain washed over her. Okay, too soon for that. She instead racked her brains again, trying desperately to recollect something, anything. She remembered waking up and walking down the hall; she'd stubbed her toe on a chair in her half-awake stupor. And then- oh! She'd eaten a granola bar for breakfast.

But after that…nothing. Nada. The answers wouldn't come, and the whole situation left Adriane annoyed and hopelessly confused. What the hell had happened?!

She glared up at the sky, throwing her hands down in angry desperation. At least they didn't feel weird anymore. Her head flopped back, and Adriane found herself looking at the moon. It was nearly full, and just cresting the tops of some unlit trees.

Where was she? The question nagged at her. It was time to answer it.

Adriane sat up, and then quickly stood, attempting to ignore the wave of pain and nausea that once again washed over her. She shut her eyes and grit her teeth, swaying slightly. Her head pounded, and the warrior wondered, as she rode out the pain, what could have caused this massive headache.

She almost though it was a hangover, which could explain the blackout, but that didn't make any sense. Her mouth didn't taste funny, and beyond the uncomfortable dizziness she didn't feel sick. She only been drunk once in her life, and that… had been a poor decision and a lapse in judgment. It had happened soon after she'd been dragged away from Ravenswood. Turns out, drinking away your problems doesn't work so well.

Adriane grimaced. No need to relive that incident. Instead, the warrior opened her eyes, finally surveying the scene around her. The shock was slow to come, but when it did, it was as acute as a knife to her chest.

She was in Ravenswood.

Ravenswood.

She was home.

Adriane stared, rubbed her eyes again and again, expecting the scenery to fade. This couldn't be real. She had to be hallucinating, or dreaming, or something. Was she really at the Preserve? This couldn't be real.

But the trees didn't disappear, and the landscape didn't change. Breathing started to become harder and Adriane sank to her knees, entire body shaking. Was she really here?! Her hands fisted in the damp grass as she drank in the sight of Ravenswood. Her home.

In front of her, the Manor loomed, its dark black shadow cutting across the expanse of neatly trimmed lawn, illuminated silver in the light of the moon. The forests reached tall into the midnight sky, their lighted branches rustling in the faint breeze. Everything was full of silence, but it was suddenly comfortable, familiar, and Adriane relished it. Her eyes took in the monochrome scenery, savoring every little detail she could pick up on. She feared that at any moment her home, her newfound happiness, would be ripped away from her once more.

It wasn't. It stayed. Crouched in the grass until her knees ached, Adriane rejoiced. She really was in Ravenswood. Really, truly.

How had she gotten here?

But like earlier, the warrior had absolutely no recollection of anything. Even as her eyes stared, fixated on the Manor (the fountain, the forest- she was home), her mind scrambled for a memory of the past few hours; days? Scrambled, and came up empty. Once again, Adriane was drawing a complete and utter blank.

She couldn't remember.

Why couldn't she remember?!

Slowly, the first vestiges of true panic began to creep their way into Adriane's system, and she was dragged out of the reverie being at Ravenswood had put her in. She sat back on her heels, letting her eyes wander over the nighttime landscape while her mind frantically tried to piece together a plausible explanation. Even just a theory would do. After all, last she could recall she'd been at the rental house. And now she was in Ravenswood.

Over 120 miles away.

There had to be an in-between. She couldn't have just gone from Philly to Stonehill in an instant. Teleportation didn't exist (for all she knew). So how had she gotten here?

Magic, maybe?

Adriane looked down at her right wrist. Her wolf stone, secured on its black and turquoise band, pulsed faintly; silver, to match the moonlight. But the warrior dismissed it as a possibility. The only thing it could have done was allowed her to World Walk to Ravenswood, but Adriane knew that couldn't have been what occurred. She'd figured out, to her ultimate dismay, that she could only Walk in places where the spirit trail ran close to the physical world. She was pretty certain that on Earth, that was only Ravenswood.

But if not magic, then… oh geez, had she ridden a bus? Taken a taxi?

Suddenly not remembering anything was all the more unsettling.

Adriane finally managed to tear her eyes away from the scenery, and she looked down hesitantly at what she was wearing. Basketball shorts and a tank top. Okay, that wasn't too bad. The sight of them triggered a memory, and the warrior recalled she'd changed into them after she'd woken up, anticipating a quiet day. She'd planned on sitting around doing nothing, maybe finally call Kara-

Oh god. Kara.

Adriane forced herself to her feet, stretching quickly. She hadn't heard from Kara in four days. Four whole days. The warrior kept telling herself her blonde friend was just fine- sometimes she couldn't contact her for a week or two, after all, and this was nothing- but it was getting harder and harder to fool herself, to ignore the sour feeling in her gut.

Maybe Kara was just banned from using her computer right now. That had to be it. The blazing star was out too late on her mission, and so her parents took away her electronics. Or maybe she came back hurt. Maybe she was in the hospital right now.

Maybe Kara hadn't come back at all.

But Adriane clamped down on that thought, shoved it to the back of her mind. That was one scenario she would not believe. Could not believe.

Kara couldn't have… failed. Kara didn't fail. She had to have returned to the Preserve, safe and sound as usual. As they always had. Because the mages didn't fail.

And Kara had to have returned, because she didn't need Adriane's help on this one. Wasn't it just supposed to be a simple reconnaissance or something? Find out who had attacked Ravenswood, send then a message that showed the Preserve wasn't helpless, and then get out of there. Simple. Easy. Kara didn't need Adriane on this one. Kara hadn't needed Adriane.

So why did the warrior feel so sick inside?

Adriane shook her head, banishing the thoughts. Curling her bare toes in the grass, she began to walk in the direction of the Manor. She was here, at Ravenswood, finally back home. She had to go see the animals, and the Glade. Hadn't Kara-

Bare toes.

She looked down.

In the moonlight she could see her feet, devoid of shoes. Had she actually somehow gotten all the way out to the Preserve without shoes? No freakin way.

Adriane, grimacing, picked up her right foot and looked at the sole. It was covered in black grime.

Eurgh.

She began walking again, dragging her feet in the damp grass. Why the hell couldn't she remember the last couple of hours? She had to have lost her shoes somewhere. She couldn't possibly have left the rental house without shoes; she'd have to be out of her mind. In either case, what had she been thinking?!

Adriane pushed that thought from her brain as well. She'd just have to walk to the Glade barefoot. Whatever. She'd done it before.

Now that she was home, she wasn't putting off seeing her animal friends any longer.


Adriane didn't quite know what she'd been expecting, but it certainly hadn't been this.

Although she'd been battling the diminishing headache, her walk through Ravenswood had been leisurely. Relaxed, for once. She'd stared around her in the darkness, drinking in the shadows of the scenery she'd convinced herself she'd never see again for a long, long time. The whole while the giddiness in the pit of her stomach had grown to the point where it felt like she might burst from delight. There was, for the first time in forever, a permanent smile on her lips.

Her thoughts had ridden along on her positive mood, and she'd temporarily pushed her worries to the back of her mind. All Adriane wanted to think about was how happy she was and how exciting it would be to see all of her animal friends again. Tweek, Ariel, Balthazar, the quiffles… and Storm. Storm. Her best friend and paladin occupied most of her thoughts. She wanted, of course, to see Dreamer and Lyra, Drake and Zach, and Kara too, but… well, she knew for sure that Storm was still in the forest. She could feel the mistwolf's magic in the plants around her. So she focused on what she knew to be true, who she knew to be here, and banished all the bad stuff from her brain.

And that ridiculous bubble of positivity popped without a sound when Adriane finally caught sight of the glade, and reality came crashing down around her once more.

Because the glade was destroyed.

Utterly destroyed.

The first things she saw were the willow trees. There had been a large cluster along the far side of the pond for as long as Adriane could recall, but now they lay decimated. Most were felled by some unknown force, corpses splayed haphazardly across the ground and scraggly roots grasping at the sky. A few were partially submerged in the shallow waters of the pond, long fronds floating along the surface. Nothing else in the once pristine clearing had escaped the carnage. Not the rocks, or the bushes, or the trees. What grass was visible beneath the disaster was upturned in long, deep scars, piles of dirt oozing in the vicinity of the open wounds. Everything was dead silent.

Adriane stared, mouth parted in complete, utter disbelief. Tears welled up in her eyes- whether they were from shock or anger she didn't know- but the warrior couldn't wipe them away. She was frozen.

What. Had. Happened.

What had happened!?

Adriane made her way out from beneath the splintered shelter of the trees, steps shaky and uncertain. With every passing second the cold feeling in the pit of her stomach grew. Her hands shook. Her breaths came in short, uneven gasps.

Every part of her screamed soundlessly that this couldn't possibly be happening. Couldn't be real. But the evidence was right in front of her. All around her.

Adriane had just gotten her world back. And now it was falling apart at the seams.

"Warrior?"

Adriane gasped, turned, and nearly fell. Her head spun, a hurricane of emotions: rage, pain, anger, fear, fear, fear! Her eyes searched the shadows and saw no one. Her thoughts couldn't focus. The glade was…Ravenswood was…

"Who's there?!" Adriane called out, voice cracking. Badly. Fueled by her emotions, she instinctively sunk into a fighting stance. What if whoever had done this was still here? Her home might not be a safe place anymore.

The stance felt strange. Wrong. The warrior rock onto the balls of her feet, trying to disguise her shaking. She couldn't. She was breaking down. But she had to be strong.

"Answer me!" she cried. Her tone was wild and pained. She tried to call up her magic, to ready it for an attack, but it slipped through her fingers, refusing to obey.

Everything was spinning out of control.

"Warrior," said the voice again. "Packmate. I am here."

And then the world halted, because from the trees swept a glowing mist. It undulated, spun, and then condensed into the form of a wolf. A white and silver wolf.

"Storm!"

Adriane dropped all pretense of aggression and ran forward, throwing herself into the torn grass at her paladin's feet. She was instantly enveloped in the calm and comfort of her bonded's magic, and threw her arms around her friend's neck in turn.

"Storm," she said again, for there was nothing more to say.

"Warrior," Storm returned. Her voice was warm, and full of happiness. "You are safe."

Adriane buried her face in her bonded's fur and sobbed.


A/N- Please Review! *HEART* *HEART* *HEART*

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I find this substitution ineffective and tedious to type. Plus it looks dumb. Whatever. The sentiment behind it is driven into your skulls. It serves it's purpose.

That was ridiculously morbid and paradoxical. I'm surprised I can even grasp the concept of paradoxical right now. Anyways, what do you think? Finally this story is taking off.

At least it would be if I could update faster. This story is like a duck, and I just keep clipping its wings.

I'm not actually a redneck. Have a snazzy day.