Jessi: My brother's on a camping trip so I have plenty of peace and quite to write this chapter. Ah, bliss! Anyway I put a little background to Vale in with this chapter so enjoy :)

Vale hugged her arms to her chest. The year was wearing on, bring the chill with it. Her arms, left bare by her tunic felt the full force of the wind's icy bite. Shivering, she moved into the scant leeway offered by a tree.

The young female sat on the ground, curling into a ball. Closing her eyes she mentally willed herself to be warm. Thinking about it was all she could do. No cleric spells... no sorceress powers... She bit her lip as she thought that she might as well have no guardian either.

Unbidden an image flashed into her mind of Chel in his... in his true shape. She saw the twisted face and the horns in exquisite detail, as if her very mind was mocking her now.

"Too good to be true..." she spoke softly to herself, the words mutated slightly by her chattering teeth.

She forced herself to think of other things, and wistfully her thoughts turned to her home, where the weather was blissfully warm all year round. Barely a handful of days were cold, when the wind changed direction and brought enough snow down from the mountains to freeze the lakes and send the elves of her forest, usually outdoor people, scurrying for their fireplaces.

Privately she had loved those days, her father free to sit about the fire with her, free from the duty that so often took him from her side. Chel would be there too, though he would just as often go to the Temple to pray and meditate alone, the cold seemingly not affecting him and his steadfast devotions to his deity.

However, by the end of the day he would have returned, sitting close to the fire, eyes closed. When he though no one was looking he would sometimes voice a soft purr, enjoying the sensation of the heat on his flesh.

Her bottom lip trembled,

"I want to go home," an intense feeling of homesickness rising within her chest. She hadn't felt like this since she had first left her home fifteen years ago. A few fat tears seeped out from between her lashes.

"Are you lost my Lady?" a smooth voice came from above her. Vale looked up, hurriedly dashing a hand across her eyes, to see a slim man in a dusty black cloak over a tightly belted greatcoat, "If so we can escort you," he behind him stood five men dressed in filthy clothes in various states of disrepair. Their weapons, however, were in fine condition. Four of the six men carried swords, ranging from a slender rapier to a massive broadsword. The other two carried a pair of heavy maces and a spiked fail.

The slim man smiled sadly,

"But I'm afraid our services are expensive. They will cost you all your valuables, my dear."

"I have nothing of value," that was true. Her bag of holding was with one of the others. She privately hoped it was with the paladins, she did not want to face Chel at this moment.

His eyes took in the long tunic belted over light tan breeches with soft leather boots. All clothes of the highest quality even if they were all filthy. He didn't miss her slender and very pleasing figure or the empty sheaths on her belt.

His hand moved quickly and came away holding Vale's holy symbol on the end of a broken chain.

"This is pure silver," he whistled softly under his breath, after a close examination.

"No! Please give it back!" the cleric lunged for the symbol. One of the bandit's cronies grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back.

The slim leader took Vale's head in his hand,

"Hmm... Very Pretty. Beautiful, even... after a good wash that is." The others laughed.

So numbed was Vale by everything that had happened, the possession, Chel's reappearance and his true form, that she didn't even react as they drew lots to see who would be the first to rape her. The leader won and his men pinned her to the ground as he undid his belt.

Since he was the only one standing it singled him out as a target. A vast muzzle bit down on his body, biting him cleanly in half.

The attacker, an immense dragon with platinum scales tinted with silver, spat the remains out, the two halves thudding against the tree. With equal swiftness the other four were dealt with until only he and Vale remained.

The elf sat up, her eyes wide and staring upwards at this vast apparition. Her arm stretched up to touch the dragon,

"...So... so beautiful..." with those words she fainted.