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Chapter Three – In the clouds of magical confusion

Alanna felt numb. Hearing the words being said aloud was like it had become real. It was all too real. The mist surrounding her told her that much.

"Alanna?" The great goddess had remained silent for quite some time, allowing Alanna time to grieve for her life.

"Why am I here?" Alanna asked, her voice emotionless. "Will I be here forever?"

The Goddess sighed, as she knew this would be quite difficult to do with Alanna in the state she was in at the moment.

"Yes." The goddess told her. "You will."

"Really?" Alanna said, still emotionless. "Is it comfortable to sleep here? On the clouds?"

The goddess sighed again. "Alanna, I'm going to leave you. Once you've accepted death and all that comes with it. I shall return." Then the goddess left Alanna, in the everlasting mist.

Alanna felt tears slid down her cheeks like icy glaciers falling off a mountain. Somehow, not having the goddess here made it both harder and easier for Alanna to be here. Harder because she felt herself collapsing in the pain of never being with her friends, being unable to grow up, get old with them. Never getting to be a knight, to help people, fight in wars. All the things she had left to do, but fate was preventing her from doing so.

Suddenly the mist changed to a rainbow of colours, surprising and scaring Alanna. She felt herself spinning, and when it stopped, the mist had cleared.

She was in the middle of a forest, though unsure of which one is was. She also knew it was dark and raining. She knew she should seek shelter, and, seeing a light ahead of her, headed in that direction.

When she got there she found four cloaked figures huddled close together, with a dim fire, which was slowing being killed by the rain.

"Hello?" Alanna said, but none of them turned to look at her, or gave any indication that they had heard her.

She felt rather insulted, and walked up to them, her temper flaring. "Excuse me."

They still ignored them, so she went to stand in the middle of their circle, feeling rather stupid for doing so.

She gasped as she realized that the figures were Gary, Raoul, Jon ad George.

"Jon, George, Gary, Raoul." She cried. "It's me Alanna, can you hear me?"

She then realized, that they were talking in low voices, and hadn't even stopped when she had spoken. This stabbed fear into her heart, as she knew they couldn't see or hear her.

"Jon, are you going to tell us you're plan yet?" Raoul said, impatiently.

"No." Jon replied, shortly. "I haven't finished formulating it."

"Then goddamn get on it." George snarled.

"George, this takes time." Jon said. "We have to do it right."

"No." George said angrily. "Alanna's dead. Dead. She aint comin' back. So all we can do is make his life as horrible as possible. We don't need to plan that, we just—"

Alanna didn't hear any more. She stepped away from them, and ran into the woods. She didn't care where she went, she just had to leave. She stumbled, her face scraping in the dirt. Then it disappeared, and was replaced by white. Alanna found herself back in the clouded place.

"I'm sorry child." The great goddess said, and Alanna saw that she was standing in front of Alanna. "But you had to see it."

Alanna nodded. "I know. I kept telling myself it was true, but I didn't believe it, not really. Now I do."

The goddess nodded. "Now, are you ready to help your friends?"

Okay, that's the next chapter. I say this after every chapter but please review. I want at least five reviews before I will continue.