Eirwen sat up quickly. At her movement a shadow passed through the trees and everything grew still again. A slight breeze whispered through the leaves. Eirwen jumped at the cracking of a branch, and then realized it was her own feet cracking. She scolded herself for being ridiculous. However she did not return to lying down, but rather watching the forest apprehensively. When nothing moved for a few moments, Eirwen allowed herself to lie back down, but she kept her face up.

The wispy breeze that had been caressing her cheeks stopped abruptly. Eirwen blinked into the eerie silence. A pair of eyes, yellow as the sun peered through the foliage and Eirwen's hand flew to her chest in a panic.

The eyes came closer, followed by a pale face, in turn followed by a long lanky body clothed in dark, coarse material. Eirwen gasped and began to back away when she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders, caressing and gentle. She calmed for a moment, until she caught sight of the long, yellow nails which grew from the pallid fingers. With a shriek she wheeled around to face another creature.

She looked around for a place to run to, but she was surrounded by these yellow eyed creatures with the yellow nails and long stringy hair. In a daze she counted them. There were seven of them. They reached towards her, grinning revealing greenish teeth, sharp as knives. She shrieked once and fell into a faint.

I galloped away from the grooms, glad to be gone from company. It was just me and the horse. As we flew past the pastures, the horses looked up briefly, before returning to the spring green grass.

The black stallion's muscles extended and contracted beneath my body, the long sleek legs reaching out to the horse's full stride. I reveled in the freedom on the flight, the wind blowing my hair out from its loose bun. I hadn't a clue where I was going and did not need one. I felt free.

Within minutes we had disappeared from the sight of the castle and were still going. My hair flew out from behind me, a banner of brown silk. I leaned back and the horse slowed into a canter then into a trot. I pulled back gently on the reins and the horse came to a complete stop in front of the royal forest. I dismounted and walked over to the forest.

My skin tingled, and the air felt heavy on my skin. I tried to breathe in, and began coughing. As is struggled to breathe I fell to my knees. Tears began running down my cheeks and I fell forward, leaning into the grass. The black stallion stood still, watching me. It took a step forward toward me, and sniffed my hair. Then it whinnied and reared up, its nose to the sky, its scream piercing the silence. No one heard it but me.

When Eirwen awoke, she was in a daze. Where had she been? Where was she? She sat up, to find herself lying in a makeshift bed of cloth and wood. Looking about her, she noticed how plain and austere the room was. The only embellishment in the room was a rather large, and dusty tapestry.

Eirwen climbed out of the bed to observe the tapestry more closely. Gently she brushed off some of the dirt, and had to repress a cough when the dust rose in a cloud about her. When her vision cleared she stepped away from the tapestry. It illustrated a large white castle, with three tall parapets. In fact, she thought, it looked unusually like her palace. A carriage was depicted crossing the drawbridge. Two faces looked out from the window of the carriage, and resembled Eirwen's late father and the new queen.

As Eirwen stared at the tapestry, it began to fade and dim. Soon it was just a black piece of fabric hung against the wall. Eirwen looked at it closely, puzzled and a little frightened. She reached out to touch the material when the door suddenly creaked open.

Eirwen flung herself back into her bed, and pretended to be asleep as one of the creatures entered her room. It was holding a tray with a bowl and plate on it. The smell of deer stew reached Eirwen's nose. She thought back to when the Royal cook first tried making the stew. It had been a disaster! She had to muffle a giggle at the memory of the cook, covered in broth emerging from the kitchen with a look of defeat.

The creature looked up at Eirwen's muffled giggle. Slowly the creature walked towards Eirwen, and sat on the edge of the bed. The creature sighed, and closed its wide eyes before leaning forward. It looked at Eirwen, with an expression of longing and sorrow. But creatures like this didn't have feelings, Eirwen thought desperately.

The creature looked towards her and Eirwen noticed that this creature's eyes were not quite as yellow as they first seemed. Rather, they were a pale green, like the first buds of leaves on trees in springtime.

"Bendura!" a voice screeched from the other room. Bendura stood up, and with one last glance at Eirwen exited the room.

The horse's hooves just missed smashing into Redynvre's head, as she had rolled out from under the way of the deadly iron hooves. The day had gone from being sunny to dark, dreary and misty. The horse snorted, it breath rising from its mouth in a fog of misery and hatred.

Redynvre began to crawl into the forest. The horse's eyes glared red as he lunged forward and grabbed her shirt by the tail. Redynvre continued to crawl, choking for breath.

Maeve smiled as she watched Keir wrestle with the sorceress queen. He watched for a few more moments, before flipping the image in the mirror to Eirwen. However, instead of Eirwen's image in the mirror, a picture of Epona appeared, glowering.

"You!" Maeve shouted furiously.

I cast my mind out, searching desperately. I knew this kind of magic would drain me of any energy I had left, but I was just that, desperate.

My mind traveled across the meadows I had galloped through so freely, to the stables, where the boys were tacking up another horse. Through my glazed vision I could see the black horse had paused, chest heaving, sweat foaming at its shoulders. It had paused and seemed to have calmed down, and had begun clipping the grass.

I returned my focus back to the boys in the stable. The sandy haired one, Evyn was tacking up a black appaloosa mare. Curious as to whom the mare was for, I watched.

Just then Maeve stalked into the stable. I could almost hear her cursing at the stable boys, though my visions lent me no sound. Evyn tossed the reins to her, and she mounted quickly, before galloping off to the east. Towards the sea. Towards my home.

Sorry it took me so long to update again. its not even that i have to write the chapter, cause they are all already written! anyway, i am going to try to update Arabian Nights tomorrow, so keep an eye out for it.

My Reviewers:

Metaphorical: my always faithful reviewer.hope these chapters meet your expectations.

Moonlight Enchantments: sorry everything is so sudden. i hope you start to understand as the story progresses. sorry i can't tell you more, but that would give the story away.

to everyone who has not reviewed yet...please review! remember my policy!

-aerinha