Disclaimer: All the world's a stage. And I own nothing. Hah! (Random Bard Quote; I'm sick. Screw You!)

A/N: Sorry this took so long; I've been ill, and various other reasons too complicated to explain. Thanks to all you wonderful reviewers!!!

Chapter Three: Dreams, And A Quest

When the cold of winter comes,

Starless night will cover day

In the veiling of the sun

We will walk in bitter rain

But in dreams

I can hear your name

And in dreams,

We will meet again

When the seas and mountains fall

And we come to end of days

In the dark I hear a call

Calling me there

I will go there

And back again

I dreamed of golden fields and green seasons long and plentiful. Then, a great white light came into my dream, soft and gentle, yet too dazzling to look at directly. Out of the light came a soft voice, musical and low, echoing with the wisdom of a thousand ages, full of tender joy, like a summer wind.

Daughter.

Was this dream-voice an echo of my mother, lost so long ago? My heart leaped at the sound of the musical tenderness. It struck a cord in my heart, resonant with long-lost memory.

Mother?

My voice sounded small, hesitant, weak, after the ageless music of- my mother's.

A tall woman stepped out of the light, hair golden as flax, dressed in a long white robe whose sleeves trailed the ground. She reached out and touched my cheek, and I smelled the gentle fragrance of a thousand flowers. The mother I had been waiting for all of my life, and here she was in all her glory.

Long have I desired this day, she told me softly, voice rising and falling with the music of a thousand rippling boughs. You have grown tall and strong.

In my heart a new feeling awoke, regret for all the years I never had her as a mother, and anger that she had deserted me. I turned away. My mother strode up to me and touched my shoulder, a warm tear sliding down her smooth cheek.

I could not take you with me, she murmured, her voice low and comforting. The children of such unions-she smiled wryly-must make their choice themselves. Much pain awaits you, daughter, and a hard choice. Your quest is to find what has been lost, and choose your path. Perhaps our paths will meet again…someday. Look for me in dreams!

The vision of my mother began to fade. Desperately I ran forward, clutching at the air, trying to keep my mother from leaving again.

I awoke, soaked in my own sobs. The tears began to subside, and the sun began to come up over the trees.

Find the lost, came a dream-echo carried on the morning wind.

I remembered, suddenly, a moment of touch, and the memory of Entwives, leaving, leaving, lost.

And I knew my quest.

The Ent, coming up beside me, handed me a draught. I drank it.

"I have found the reason I came," I told him. "And it is not chance."

Picking up a length of rowan laying on the ground, I set out over the fields in search of the lost- and in search of the choice that would bring back my mother.