I just counted last night and there are 21 chapters to this story. But a few of them are short. I might combine. I don't know. We'll see what happens.

Thanks again for reviews:o)

The chirping of a distant bird woke Lana up gradually. She opened her eyes and saw the sleeping face of Clark Kent who was curled up next to her. Her hands, she noticed, had found their way from her pockets to the inside of his jacket.

At first, she enjoyed being this close to him, but the closeness forced her to remember the kiss. She so desperately wanted to know why he'd done it or at least talk to him about it. Yet, what she wanted even more was to know him completely and honestly. How could somebody kiss you, but say they don't have feelings for you? How did he really feel about her?

She knew she would never get the answers. It was impossible to force something out of Clark that he didn't want to share. She sighed and tried to turn away from Clark in the hole of the tree, but a shocking pain jolted through the leg she'd hurt the night before.

She groaned and Clark stirred awake. As soon as he noticed Lana clutching her leg, he became very alert.

"Where does it hurt?"

"Around my ankle. I think I twisted it in the mud trying to get away from…" She swallowed, remembering the tiger and the horrible red eyes, "…whatever that thing was."

"Let me see."

Lana reluctantly pulled her pant leg up to reveal a large purple and blue bruise around her foot. Her face cringed with pain.

Unbeknownst to Lana, Clark x-rayed her ankle. Strangely, though, his x-ray vision seemed blurry and flickered off and on. He tried to intensify it, but this only gave him a headache. And suddenly, the vision flashed off completely on its own like a snuffed-out candle.

What was wrong with him? Last night when he'd hit the tiger, his hand hurt. Not as much as it would a normal man, but it still made it quite numb and red. He suddenly became worried. What if this place blocked his powers?

"Ow…God, I hope it's not broken…" Lana mumbled, still studying her leg.

"I don't think it's broken," Clark stated, trying to remember what little of his mental x-ray had revealed to him.

"How can you tell?" Lana asked, feeling as though the pain was bad enough for it to be broken in ten different places.

"I just…just trust me, okay?" Clark retorted, looking up at her. He only then realized how especially close he was to Lana at the moment. She was practically sitting on him.

Lana glared at him angrily. Once again, he came up with another lie. She knew there was some way he could tell it wasn't broken. Of course he wouldn't be caring enough to trust her with how he knew.

"It's hurts enough for it to be broken."

"Well, I've heard a sprain can be a lot more painful then a break," Clark answered, realizing that Lana was not happy about him keeping to himself. But what was he suppose to say? "I'm an alien x-ray machine, Lana. That's how I know it's not broken."

He stood out of the hole and then snatched up a branch. Pressing it next to her injured leg, Clark ripped off a piece of his shirt and tore it into two strips. He tied the strips around Lana's leg and the branch securely.

"That probably won't hold for very long, but it'll be okay for now," Clark admitted, checking to make sure the splint looked as good as possible. After he was satisfied, he stood completely up and held his hands out to her. "Let's go."

"I can't walk."

"I carried you before," Clark explained, trying to hide the fact that he would enjoy doing it again.

Lana's mouth hung opened and then she sighed. "Why do you always do this, Clark?"

"Do what?" he asked with a frown.

"You do all this for me and make sure I'm all right, and then, someday when I want to return the favor, you completely shut me off."

"I do not. You've helped me before. Remember when you drop kicked that guy that was gonna sue my family?" Clark said, hoping to get a smile out of her. It failed.

"Once. And how many times have you helped me?"

There was a short pause.

"So you wanna carry me?"

She rolled over onto her side, sighing loudly at his dry humor. "I'll just wait here. Come back if you find anything."

"I can't do that, Lana. We have to stay together," Clark stated kneeling back down in the grass.

"I can take care of myself, Clark! Believe it or not, I know how to do that," she snapped, suddenly feeling very angry.

Clark stared at her, a little taken back by her shouting. "What exactly are you so mad about? I'm too caring towards you?"

"You're too confusing towards me!" she shouted, only just stopping the random tears that wanted to fall down her face. "First you tell me I'm the one you want, then make out with another girl. Then you tell me, 'No, it's really you i want to be with', yet after we finally get together, you shove me aside for no reason except that you were too scared."

Clark opened his mouth to say something, but Lana continued.

"And THEN, after we BOTH agreed we were just friends, you go and kiss me in front of everyone at a football game! I realize that some of the other guys I've known are a little tough to figure out, but you…you never know what you want..." Her bottom lip began to quiver, so she looked away quickly.

Clark immediately took this chance to speak. His voice was strong and on the verge of being angry. "Lana, I'm sorry I confuse you, but I don't know what else to do. I can't take back what I've done in the past. I realize I did some really stupid things to you, but I all can do is apologize."

"What was that kiss last Friday about anyway?" Lana asked in her fiery, glad that she finally asked a question she'd be burning to say for a week.

"It was a mistake! I…I don't even know how it happened," Clark tried to explain, not even fully understanding what he was saying himself. "I knew that kissing you would mess everything up again. I knew it would hurt you because you don't feel the same about me anymore."

He swallowed and then continued his impromptu speech, still riding on words that he hardly processed in his brain before saying aloud. "But no matter how hard I try to stop myself, Lana, everyday I still think about you when you're not there. I still want to be the one that protects you. I still lo – "

He swallowed. He definitely didn't mean to say that much.

She slowly turned her face back to him. "You still what?"

Clark fidgeted uneasily. She knew what he was going to say. She had to have. Why else would she have asked him to say it again?

Crap. He had officially painted himself into a corner.

"Humans! Oh, how brave you are! Come! Come!"

Clark turned around only to see the little creature with the big eyes jumping and dancing a few feet away.

"I must speak with you! Come!" it squeaked pleasurably.

Clark looked back at Lana, who gave him a look that said, "We'll finish our conversation later." He turned his gaze back to the creature.

"We can't go too far. She's hurt."

The creature's eyes widened and he immediately stopped dancing. "Hurt? No! No! We can't have that!"

It quickly scrabbled over to the tree where Lana and Clark sat and reached out to grab Lana's leg. Clark snatched up its long fingers.

"What're you doing?" Clark asked protectively. Even if Lana didn't like him at the moment, he didn't want this creature hurting her even more.

"Calm down, human. I only mean to make her better." The creature smiled reassuringly and Clark slowly let go of his hand. It then began to inspect her leg. As it ran it's bony fingers down her ankle, it mumbled, "Yes…most interesting…hmmm…"

Clark was becoming very annoyed and was about to tell the little thing off when the creature suddenly exclaimed, "Tári!"

Instantly, Lana's bruise shrunk into her skin until it was completely gone. Both Clark and Lana were dumbfounded. The creature smiled.

"You are truly without the beauty that is magic, aren't you? Poor humans…" It shook it's head and laughed a little. "Unfortunately my spell-casting ability is somewhat limited. Your ankle may still hurt for a while, but the bruise is healed."

"That was amazing," Lana stated pulling off the splint Clark had made and threw it aside.

For some reason, that one action caused Clark's heart to take a punch. He sighed and figured it would be stupid for him to jealous of a small magic-making creature. He decided to start up conversation instead.

"So, who or what are you?" he asked curiously, taking a seat next to the creature.

The creature stood up proud and tall (which wasn't very tall considering he was about a third of Clark's height) and exclaimed, "I'm Viren, an English elf."

"Elf?" Lana repeated in disbelief. Great, she thought in her mind, Now I really am in a Lord of the Rings novel.

"Yes, I'm one of the descendants of the original elves which is probably why I don't look like most common elves you'd see in those fairy tale books you humans have."

Clark looked at Lana and they exchanged confused looks. Suddenly, Clark's mind began to hurt and he kneaded his forehead his fingers. "Argh…this is too weird…"

"Why is that, human?"

"My name's Clark," he broke in, growing tired being called a human. He nodded over at Lana. "That's Lana."

"Mistress Lana and Master Clark," Viren exclaimed, looking at them as if they were celebrities.

"No, just Lana and Clark," Lana corrected modestly.

Viren nodded and smiled.

"Okay, now that we got names right…" Clark began, still looking very bewildered, "where are we and why are we here?"

"Those are very important questions with very important answers, Master Clark," Viren exclaimed, nodding once again as he wiggled his finger at Clark.

"Do you have the answers?" Lana asked very curiously.

"A few…" Viren backed away and stretched out his arms as wide as they could go. "I do know you are in the Land of Sogni Dromen."

"Sogni Dromen?" Clark repeated, feeling very out of place. Wherever Sogni Dromen was, he was positive it wasn't anywhere near Smallville.

"Yes. It's Idetish for 'Dead Dreams'," the creature explained with a glint in his eye. "This is the place where past dreams live once their maker has woven them."

"You're saying that after people have a dream and wake up, the dream comes here?" Clark summarized, his brows furrowing.

"Exactly."

"That's not really a comforting thought. People have all sorts of crazy dreams." Lana stared at Viren with wonder. "They all come here?"

"Not here specifically. They pass through the Line of the Coming. Well, most of them do…some of them…they like to sneak in. It's usually the awful ones that find a way around the Line…" Viren muttered with shame.

"Wait a second. I'm still trying to process the fact that we're stuck in this La-la Land. How is that even possible? How can this exist?" Clark asked, growing more worried by the minute.

"You will get use to that way of thinking, Master Clark. Sogni Dromen rarely ever makes any kind of sense whatsoever. If it does, it's completely by accident." Viren sat down, his wobbly legs tucked under him. "We have no rules because we have no ruler. Nobody is quite sure where everything is all the time, so it's hard to find one another. Places move from one part of Sogni Dromen to the other in mere seconds. You witnessed that when the my forest appeared behind you yesterday."

Lana was fascinated by everything Viren was saying. She felt like a little kid listening to her mother telling a bedtime story. She looked over at Clark to see his reaction.

He was very pale and sick looking. He obviously didn't feel the same way about Viren. None of this world made sense and when things don't make sense, Clark doesn't like them.

And Clark really did not like Sogni Dromen.

"How do we get out of here?" Clark suddenly asked.

A smile curled onto Viren's lips. "There is only one solitary way a living, breathing human can leave Sogni Dromen."

"And it is…?" Clark wondered waving his hand for Viren to continue.

"Find the king," Viren stated as if it were obvious.

"You just said there was none."

"There isn't. Not really anyway..."

"Then how are we suppose to find him?" Clark asked, his brain hurting.

Viren shrugged. "I warned you: Sogni Dromen rarely ever makes sense."

Clark sighed and looked down the ground. Lana, although she was enjoying Viren, was also feeling frustrated.

Viren noticed this and quickly stood. "Maybe I'd better let you come into my house. I'll explain to you the Old Story."

"I don't want to hear anymore stories or stupid 'ways'. I want to leave," Clark stated, not feeling too well.

"Clark," Lana whined to him, "he wants to help us. We can at least hear what else he has to say."

"Mistress Lana speaks the truth, Master Clark. I swear it," Viren promised with a serious nod.

Clark looked from Lana to Viren and sighed. "Fine. I'll listen. But I still won't believe or trust a word you say."

Viren smiled happily. "Come along! Come along!"

After he pulled himself up, Clark looked over at Lana. It was quite uncomfortable looking at her after their last conversation alone, but he forced himself to do it. He extended his hands slowly. "You heard him."

Lana hesitated before grasping his large hands and standing up with slight difficulty. She tried to walk, but wavered dangerously and Clark quickly scooped her up in his arms again. This time, however, she only laid an arm lightly on his shoulder and didn't look at his face at all. He figured it was because she wasn't as tired as last time, or she wanted to be as far away from him as humanly possible. Maybe it was both.

Viren skipped along in front of them, singing little tunes that neither Clark nor Lana had ever heard of. All were about flowers, trees, and animals. Lana thought the songs were nice, but it only made Clark feel like he was in kindergarten again.

Soon Viren stopped and turned around. "Here she is! Here's my home!"

Clark stopped and looked where Viren's pointy figure was directed. His eyes lead him to a huge mound of mud, sticks, and dirt. It looked like a magnified version of an anthill. A small door in a circle shape was stuck in the front. There were no windows, but a small round chimney poked out of the top.

"Quickly now! Come along!" Viren exclaimed hustling to the door and opening it.

Clark thanked him as he passed the elf into the house and took in the new surroundings.

He was standing in a rounded tunnel that he guessed was a hallway. To the left were a few wooden chairs and to the right was a tiny fireplace with a couple of logs sprinkled with dead ashes. He also noticed a stairway in the back leading down into another part of the house.

"Sit!" Viren said happily as he shut the door. They were thrust into a world of darkness since there were no windows, so Viren quickly added, "Eldalote!"

The fire roared to life, causing Clark to jump a bit. He quickly moved and laid Lana down in the closest chair, afraid that if he held her for much longer he'd drop her. Viren was full of surprises.

"Nice place," Lana commented, feeling as though she must say something to the elf.

"Thank you very much, Mistress Lana. I hope you and Master Clark are comfortable."

"My name's just Clark," Clark corrected again, sitting in the lumpy chair next to Lana.

"Of course, of course," Viren mumbled, waddling over to the last chair in the room. He was the only one of the three that could fit into the small chairs comfortably.

Clark and Lana felt as though they were in house three sizes too small.

"So, you were going to tell us about some story…" Lana began, eager to learn more about Sogni Dromen.

Viren smiled and nodded. "Yes, yes. The Old Story is what I was going to tell you. Old is what it is…so old…my great-great-great grandfather was only a child when it was written."

"What is it?" Clark wondered, frowning.

Viren put his hands together and closed his eyes. He took in a deep breath and then began the tale. "Long ago, Sogni Dromen had established a weak form of government. The 'semi-ruler' was The Mist. It wasn't exactly a person, nor a plant…nor anything really, so it was never really considered an actual 'ruler'. But it could travel in and out of Sogni Dromen with ease and because of that, it was easy for the inhabitants of Sogni Dromen to communicate with it. You always knew when it passed you. It sent waves of warmth and energy into her body. You instantly felt the feeling of love without knowing why. It was truly a beautiful thing.

"However, The Mist was so loving, it failed to establish any form of army or defense if something went wrong. It didn't feel the need. Back then, the Line of the Coming was able to divide the dreams into Nightmares and Good Dreams. We each lived in our own places, unable to reach each other.

"Let me guess," Clark broke in, uninterested, "Something took over the Good Dreams and killed The Mist."

Viren opened his eyes, shooting Clark an angry look. "No. And you must learn quickly, Master Clark, that it is most impolite to interrupt one while one is speaking. Especially when one is speaking of The Old Story."

Lana also gave Clark a stare and he quickly felt uncomfortable. "Sorry."

Closing his eyes once again, Viren continued. "The Mist can't die. It isn't living to begin with. However, around two hundred years ago, The Mist surprisingly went missing. No one could find it. There was no evidence of any kind that anyone had to do with its disappearance.

"During this time, the government quickly fell and creatures in nightmares could easily find their way through the Line of the Coming and inhabit our world. Some of the most terrible creatures escaped into our boundaries. And eventually, the boundaries were broken. Sogni Dromen was reunited as one country once again – full of love as well as hate.

"Around this time of depression, a prophet named Nathin had a vision. He wrote this vision down and it would forever be known as The Old Story."

"What did it say?" Lana asked with extreme eagerness and curiosity.

Clark rolled his eyes at her reaction to all of this.

"It said the Mist had been shunned away by three of the most evil creatures – Amon the tiger, Haras the cobra, and finally Diaba – the dragon. They ran The Mist off to hiding inside the form of a creature in Sogni Dromen. Until that creature is found, the three animals of destruction will roam Sogni Dromen and cause havoc on everyone.

"Nathin also discovered a prediction which said that a group of humans would find the Mist. And since Sogni Dromen is made up mostly of imaginary creatures, humans are hard to come by. Nathin explained that the humans who would find the Mist would not be natives to Sogni Dromen and they would come here unexpectedly." Viren glared at each of them in turn as he continued. "Nathin's Old Story promised the humans would come in a pair – one girl, one boy. It was then said that if any humans of any sort came to Sogni Dromen, they would be destined to live the rest of their lives here unless they found the Mist."

"You have GOT to be KIDDING me!" Clark broke in loudly. "I'm not gonna hunt all over this stupid place looking for a 'mist'. This is pointless. There has to be another way out."

"There isn't, Master Clark. A few other humans have found themselves trapped here before you. All of them have gone to the ends of this dream world, and none of them have scrambled up enough cleverness to find a way out. In fact, a few have died in their search."

Clark groaned and let his head fall back into the chair. This day couldn't get any worse. Lana was angry with him for reasons that were still somewhat blurry to him, an elf man in a mud hole was telling him he couldn't go home…he desperately wished Candid Camera would jump out from the stairway and end this horrible experience quickly.

Lana felt sorry for Clark. She knew she shouldn't, but she did. He was so confused about everything. He couldn't just go along with this all new world and new way of thinking the way she could. She was ready to go out and hunt for The Mist right now! What an adventure it would be if she really did find it and she got to go back home alive. Paris seemed like a sip of water compared to the tall glass of ice cold lemonade that was Sogni Dromen. So many places to go and learn about. Why couldn't Clark see how amazing an opportunity this was?

"Is Master Clark all right?" Viren wondered, cocking his head to one side when he noticed Clark's angry behavior.

"He's fine. He's just a little overwhelmed is all," Lana explained, knowing Clark was too caught up in his thoughts to think of an answer to Viren's question.

"I suppose this is a weird place to visit if you're use to the reality of your home…" Viren rubbed his gangly fingers along each side of his chin as he thought. Then his face lit up. "I know! I can show you some thing we have that your world has too! It would make you more comfortable, yes?"

Looking back at the elf in a dazed look, Clark shrugged, "Depends on what it is."