Sorry...I hate posting late, cuz then I feel like I'm letting people down... But...update? Yay?

I'm really at a loss of what to say for once. Man...enjoy the chapter? Lol (again, sorry if there are any grammar/spelling mistakes; every now and again I'll go back over the already posted chaps and find some, but I do try my best to reread and correct)

*Disclaimer is same

"Oh, Hummingmoon? Fancy meeting you here, eh?"

I was lying on my back against something soft, so soft that I couldn't even tense my muscles in response to the sudden voice that erupted through my unstable conscience. That voice was familiar, though. I moved my hands out beside me, splaying my fingers out as I ran my palms against delicate fronds of grass. This place… I've been here before. This is a dream, isn't it? I'm back in whatever place I had been before the last time I had that strange dream with father. I mouthed the name subconsciously: Forever Land. The stars were twinkling just as brightly, seeming to wink at me in a way that made me feel as if they knew something that I didn't.

"It's Hum-drum you dolt, Hum-drum. 'Cause she's so gloomy."

Furrowing my brow in confusion, I managed to roll over and look up; however, nothing but the usual scenery greeted me. The world was just as beautiful and green as it had been before, yet, this time, there wasn't a soul in sight. Testing the waters a bit, I cleared my throat.

"Father?" It was odd; I'd never called such a thing before.

Unfortunately, though, I received no response. Everything was still, almost unnaturally so. Was this really Forever Land? Well, even if it was, where was it precisely? The first time Caldur had mentioned it I had figured it was just a silly make-believe land that he had conjured in order to appease his wild imagination. Yet, now that I'm here, I can't possibly deny its evident existence. If there really was such an unimaginable world then what was it really like? Curiosity getting the better of me, I pushed myself to my feet, idly noting that the pain from earlier had completely disappeared. Still, I held my supposed-to-be injured side with my right hand instinctively as I moseyed over to one of the nearby trees. I pressed my fingertips against the abnormally smooth bark and tilted my head back in an attempt to see the topmost branches. It was impossible. Despite the fact that it was exceedingly tall, there were far too many branches and leaves blocking the view.

"Wow, what a look! I'll bet she's burned people with those eyes, Vendal. Tell me, Hum-drum, what's your story?"

Those voices…no, this conversation, I'd heard it before. I'd been a part of it. Befuddled and much too curious, I wandered further into the wood, brushing past trees and stepping through masses of overgrown ferns dripping with eternal dew. The drops were like tiny gems that clung to the fibers of the cotton shirt sticking out from beneath my ragged armor. I allowed a stray cluster of leaves to run along the length of my left arm and shivered at the cool, wet touch. This was far too realistic to be considered a dream.

"I'll bet she's just the same as all of the others. You're just another newbie wanting to make a change in the world, aren't you?"

My pace quickened as the talking increased in volume. I was getting closer. My boar-hide boots clomped against the earth, breaking the impending and surreal silence of the forest. Where were the animals? Where were the people? Was I the only one here? I shook my head. No, that couldn't be. Those voices…

"I'm not."

I broke through the tree lining right as my own tongue formed the words that burst forth from my lips in nostalgic surprise. I remember this discussion! We were just outside of Lor'danel, coincidentally working on the same quest. That's when I met them, those insufferably beloved Druid brothers. My attention was instantly drawn to the large, luminescent well that sat in the large clearing I stepped into. Tentatively, I walked a little nearer. There were wells like this scattered every here and there in many parts of Darnassus and Teldrassil. They were all marvelously made and filled with the enchanted water used by the majority of the Night Elven people. Yet, now that I'm close enough to get a good look at it, none of them were as fascinating as this one. The stone bordering was etched with some sort of ancient, glowing rune that repeatedly marked its way all the way around the bottom. Slightly awed, I ran my hand over the design. The well was huge. I'd estimate that you could fit about ten Elves inside, maybe a bit more if they all squeezed together really tight. The three towering, wooden shrines that were posted at each diagonal angle gave off a feeling of immense power, and I obliviously felt soothed by their presence.

"Then why are you here?"

Jolted by the sudden question, I glanced down to where the sound had come from. My eyes widened in astonishment, for, shimmering in the radiant, blue center of the pool of water was a moving image. I recognized my own face right away and just as quickly acknowledged the two on either side of me as Caldur and Vendal. I knew I'd heard their voices. Anticipating my answer to the Druid's query, I mouthed the words at the same time that my reflection did.

"Because I can be."

Vendal scowled while Caldur snickered. The bolder of the two, always Caldur, skipped up to place a hand on my shoulder and muttered in my ear.

"Anyone can be. So, why are you?"

Amusement sparked through me as the 'me' in the water shrugged off the offending appendage and marched on. Vendal's glower deepened, and he threw his hands behind his head as he and his brother trailed after me persistently.

"Because I want to know."

They blinked at my reply and shared a bewildered look.

"Know what," they echoed.

I inclined my head to regard them, somewhat annoyed and just a little bit humored by their desire to understand me.

"Everything that I don't."

A tad abashed, I forced myself to look away from the image for a few seconds, distractedly wondering why I had tried to act so mysterious. Looking back on it now, it was humiliating. I'm sure those two had quite a laugh afterwards.

"That's a lot," Caldur supplied intelligently.

My eyes swiveled back to the well.

"I guess people tend to have big dreams when they're kept somewhere small."

Caldur laughed and threw an arm across my shoulders. His twin hopped forward and did the same. The alarmed expression on my face was priceless as both of the guys reached up at the same time to give me a noogie so fondly that it left me with a killer headache for the entirety of the week that followed.

"Welcome to the club, Hum-drum! We're just a bunch of misfits with visions too big to comprehend, isn't that right, Ven?"

Vendal nodded vigorously and beamed, displaying an intimidating pair of lengthy, white canines.

"Come, let us lose ourselves in a world of adventure!"

Caldur barked a laugh near my ear, much to my reflection's chagrin.

"Wouldn't that be something!"

Abruptly, something dropped into the core of the image, disrupting it into a cascade of tiny ripples. I jerked back, startled as something else splashed into the liquid below. My eyebrows tilted inwards in puzzlement as I leaned forward again, trying to get a clearer view of what had fallen. That's when I noticed the cloud of scarlet wafting up from the depths of the wide pool. The glowing light of the nature-enhanced water dimmed considerably as the unknown substance devoured it, corrupting the faces and the scene that had just been displayed. Alarmed, I moved to withdraw once more. However, pain ripped a hole into my side, causing me to cry out and lose my hold on the edge of the stone border. I slipped into the well, gasping as the cold rush of water overwhelmed my senses. Then my lungs were being filled. I choked, earning another stab of agonizing heat to my ribs. My grasp on reality was faltering for the umpteenth time in the span of only a few days. Which way was up? Which was down? Am I dead? Alive? Drowning in liquid or pain? Choking on blood or air? Everything was moving too fast. I couldn't see, hear, or smell. All I could do was struggle beneath the hurt and roll my tongue at the heavy copper that invaded my mouth. The beautiful green of the surrounding world had been stained an unforgiving red.

"Don't die! Please don't…"

I coughed and rolled over, my eyes finally snapping open to a world of dimly lit colors. My chest heaved with the effort to cram necessary air into the stuttering balloons of oxygen that were my lungs. Fingers dug into hardened earth. My nose took in the scent of dry, musty leaves and salt-tinged sweat. Yet, the pain remained, and so did the taste. A hand pressed itself urgently to my neck, making me wince. Then there was the sound of a short, uneven breath being exhaled and the welcoming feeling of warmth surrounding me.

"Ya gonna stay wit me, alright mon? Ya gonna be just fine. 'Ol Rha'zin's gonna take care of ya."

I let out a moan as something prodded my injured side. Despite the fact that moving only made it worse, I curled into a ball and scored my nails across loose dirt. Just make it stop. Elune, I beg of you. Large, trembling fingers smeared gently across my cheeks, bringing to my attention that tears had managed to leak past without my knowing. How cruel. The cautious hand helped me to lie back down so that I wasn't further irritating the wound. I coughed again. It hurt.

"Hey, hey, everytin's gonna be fine. I won't let ya die, yeah?"

I blinked several times and narrowed my eyes as I tried to peer up through the shadowy curtain of what I guessed to be night. All I could see was a pair of faintly-shining tusks along with something that appeared to be a large fang hanging over me. Absentmindedly, I lifted a hand. My knuckles knocked against the tooth, vaguely pointing out that I was truly awake. Fingers closed around my wrist, holding my arm in place. Rha'zin… I was with Rha'zin now. He was alright. He made it through our poorly-attempted 'fall back'. Good. That's good. My stiff muscles calmed a bit at that. My eyelids fluttered. The fingers squeezed tighter around my wrist as the Troll lowered his head to address me.

"Don't be fallin' asleep now, Elfie. Ya gotta stay awake for me."

An arm wrapped around my shoulders and just barely managed to encircle the backs of my legs as I was abruptly hoisted into the air. I whimpered at the discomfort the action brought with it. A hard chin nestled itself against the top of my head as I was pressed against a broad chest. I placed my left cheek against the tough skin, reveling in the thump-thump that resounded against my eardrum. Then we were moving. The Troll grunted as he struggled to carry me with his single arm, but, once he adjusted his hold a little, his pace increased. Soon enough, he was full-out jogging across a barren landscape, heading who knows where with an injured member of the opposite faction gripped tightly in his hold. I had a small sense of what was actually going on. I could recall bits and pieces of what had happened. I know we had been running and that I had been shot. What happened after that, though? Didn't I fall off of the travel-shifted Troll? Did he stop and come back for me? Did I ever really fall off? How long had I been out? Where were Unandel and Vendal? There were so many questions I wanted to know the answer to, though I couldn't ask a single one. My body wouldn't allow it just as strongly as my mind tried to deny the fact that the reasons provided would matter. As if sensing my raging thoughts, my Troll companion grunted a second time.

"Ya need to stay awake, Hum-drum. Let's talk 'bout sometin', yeah? Anytin'."

I mulled over his declaration. Was I falling asleep? Without really understanding anything, I folded beneath the desperation that thickly laced through his voice and complied. My lips quivered.

"R…Rha'zin." Well, that was a start.

The sound of his heartbeat skipped as I shifted my head a little to touch my cheek to the area over the vital organ. A deep hum resonated throughout my skull as he audibly pondered over what I had decidedly begun with.

"Yeah, mon?"

"Would you…" I trailed off, unsure of how to word my thoughts.

He gazed down at me, orange eyes earnest and alert. His arm twitched.

"Ya hurtin'? Need me to-"

I shook my head sharply, cutting him off. No, there was nothing he could do at the moment to make me feel any more at ease. Fixing a skeleton's bones in his grave won't keep a man from walking on it. Wasn't that a saying? Maybe I'm just losing my mind. The pain must be getting to me. That's when I started to think. I mean, really think. Usually I mull over things quite a bit, especially the things I'm uncertain about. This, on the other hand, was something else. It felt like my awareness was being suppressed by an overpowering entity. I couldn't force any sort of coherence through the black walls that were hastily being constructed in my head. So, I shook it again, trying to knock some sort of sense through.

"…help me…if needed…"

Rha'zin frowned and lowered his head to hear me better. I licked my lips and spoke up, forcing the words out.

"Would you help me if…if I needed it?"

He snorted as if that were the most ridiculous question he'd ever been asked.

"'Course."

I set my jaw, stubbornly pressing on.

"Even though…we're on different sides?"

He stopped, feet skidding in the dirt as he glared down at me. I shrunk within myself. Caldur would have reconsidered what he'd said about my look if he had so much as caught a glimpse of the raging fire that now my penetrated my very soul from the depths of solemn, orange eyes.

"On different sides? As far as I can see, mon, dere's neva been a line to separate us in da first place."

I reached up to grip his shoulder, trying to steady myself as he grunted for the third time in the past twenty minutes and took off again. His steps remained steady, and I abstractedly wondered if he was making an effort for my sake. My heart warmed to the idea as my eyelids flickered once more. The pain was still present, yet it seemed to be dulling the farther we traveled. Maybe it had gone numb. Something poked into my arm suddenly, bringing the world steadily back into stability as I focused my attention on the Crocolisk-tooth necklace that bounced against my pale skin. I stared at it for a while before returning to my previous position; my head nestled as comfortably as it could against the Troll's chest.

"Your brother," searching eyes dropped to regard me, "what was he…like?"

Rha'zin grinned and tossed his head back to laugh. His unkempt mane shone emerald in the soft light of the rising sun as he did so. I marveled at him. His eyes were alive and swimming with nearly all of the emotions that I knew existed, turning the orange orbs an electric gold as they acknowledged such a simple but immensely meaningful question. When he spoke again his low, pleasant voice was filled with all the pride and cheer of a man who had just courted the perfect woman. He shifted me more securely in his hold.

"Let 'ol Rha'zin tell ya a story."