Sorry about the huge wait, everyone. Writer's block has been hitting me bad. So, enjoy!

Chapter 9

She was so close... he could almost feel her. He could smell her floral aroma, hear her crystalline laughter. But he couldn't see her. He kept running, trying to reach... but always she would slip out of his fingers. The shadow woman just kept laughing, and calling him by his name. But he couldn't reach her.

Almost there... No... "Mother... come back!" he cried out, feeling cold liquid spill over his eyelids.

And then he was falling... falling into a never ending crevice filled with forgotten memories with empty arms around him. He saw his father, blue eyes always filled with laughter. Not like that anymore. he thought bitterly as he desperately tried to stop falling back into his mind, unable to remember his own mother. But wherever he reached was another empty memory. Every hand-hold, every foot-hold held another remembrance of a woman who was once there...

He kept falling...

Shea bolted upright in his bed, chest heaving. He felt his pulse pound in his neck as he shivered from the sheen of cold sweat.

He'd been having the same dream for the past three years. Ever since his mother faded completely from his memories.

Shea's hand went to the amulet at his chest. It was warm; comforting.

The fifteen-year-old swung his legs over the side of his bed, feeling lethargic now that the previous shock was gone. He looked out the window.

It was about o-dark-thirty. Dang dream woke him up in the middle of the night. Again.

Despite the resentful fact, Shea groped for his shirt in the dark of the loft. His long fingers brushed over the cloth. He quickly pulled the black shirt over his head. With practiced speed and stealth, Shea climbed down the ladder from the loft. He was very surprised that he got down without making a rung squeak, like most nights. Now, as he stood on the floor, he wondered if he'd be able to perform the same feat. Suddenly, the door seemed very far away...

Carefully, he placed a foot down on the floor. Nothing.

He moved his other foot in front of it. So far so good.

Shea refrained from grinning. Now, the next-

CRREEEAAKKK.

Shea leaped into the air, startled out of his wits. That was horrible. Worst one ever! Crap... the light just turned on in his father's room...

It seemed like he held the same position for an eternity when the light beneath the door finally vanished. Shea exhaled and quickly slipped out the door.

Shea pulled on his boots and stopped to breathe in the damp, night air. And then he jogged to the barn. Vaguely, he wondered if Claire would be in there. Again. He grinned as he remembered the first time that she had snuck in and attempted to steal a chicken. Ever since, she would turn up on random nights, just because she felt like it.

He opened the barn door. Nope. No Claire. But a couple of the horses poked their head out from the stalls and whickered. Patting a few, Shea picked up a bridle and shouldered a saddle, making his way to the back of the barn. He whistled and clicked his tongue as he neared a stall that bore a nameplate that had the name 'Arsion.'

A chestnut head poked it's head over a stall, hay still hanging from the horse's mouth. The dark red forlock hung over a lazy eye, covering a small strip that made it's way down the horse's head in small scattered dots. The horse snorted, sending spit and snot flying everywhere. Shea closed his eyes and clamped his mouth shut. "Thank you."

Arsion nodded and whickered.

Shea opened the stall door and closed it behind him. He set the saddle and bridle down on the floor and grabbed a brush. Beginning to brush the horse, he noticed a new sore on the animal's rump. He tenderly went over it. It was a bite mark, from another horse. Shea shook his head and exited the stall. As of late, he had been noticing bite marks and scrapes on Arsion's hide. Once, he had caught one of the horses red-handed. It had been a mare that time, but other times Shea suspected geldings and stallions.

Shea opened up the medicine cabinet and ran his finger along the labels of each phial. Ticks... horse flies... scrapes and cuts. He grabbed the bottle and briskly walked back to Arsion. The horse pushed against Shea's chest once the teenager reached the stall once more. Shea pushed the equine's head away and began to rub the ointment on the sores. He felt the muscles flinch from the ointment. Shea scratched the 'sweet-spot' on Arsion's flank.

A good half hour later, Shea quietly led the big chestnut horse out of the barn. It wasn't dawn yet. Good. Mounting, Shea took one last look at the dark house before tapping the horse's sides. Arsion moved off in a swift trot.

Why did she leave? I can't remember anything of her... I just know she was there, once upon a time. I couldn't have appeared out of thin air... Shea pondered to himself as he rode through the forest. He really hated not knowing things. It was an annoying pet-peeve.

The sun peaked through the trees. It was probably a good hour after dawn, and his father would be livid when he got home... but Shea didn't care. All in the day of his life. Sneak out after the same dream, go for a ride, come back, endure a lecture, and be set to chores. If he was lucky, there would be time to talk to Claire.

Claire. He actually hadn't see Claire that much lately. Which was a surprise. Ever since he had started hanging out with the new girl, Lacy, Claire had been avoiding him. Although, she wouldn't tell why. Shea shrugged it off.

Arsion snorted and started to prance when a squirrel overhead leaped from a branch. Shea firmly yanked on the reins, mind still wandering. He was so oblivious to his surroundings that he didn't notice Arsion walking aimlessly back to the farm.

...until, "SHEA!"

Shea jerked his head up, and he deflated. His father was standing on the deck, arms crossed... and looking extremely angry.

Shea waited until Arsion had stopped in front of Link to dismount. He stared up into his father's eyes. There wasn't much height difference in the two, except that Link was a few inches taller still. Shea felt himself shrink as he stood before his father... what happened to make him so angry?

"Eh, hi, Dad." Shea offered, weakly. "So, I bet you're wondering what I was doing so blatently disobeying your orders and going off in the middle of the night to ride, huh?"

Link's face didn't crack. "You went into the woods, didn't you?'

Oh. So that was it.

Shea was about to answer when he was interrupted. "I've told you never to go in there. It's dangerous out there!"

Shea had heard that short lecture time and time again. But it didn't stop him from going into the woods. "What's in there that you are worried about? What's so scary about those little trees, anyways?" He knew it wasn't the smartest thing to back talk, but he really didn't feel like being Mr. Pushover-do-everything-he's-told.

Link's face held mixed emotions: anger, stress, sadness, and pain. "Shea... I can't say for certain. But you can't be going in there. Promise me... at least not alone," when he received a questioning look from Shea, he added, "I know that you and Claire hang out in the those woods alot. I'm not as oblivious as I may seem."

Shea rolled his eyes. "Does this mean that I'm out of a punishment?"

"Not for a moment."

Great.