A/N: Candy canes to...
Hellfires Fury- Yes, you can have a candy cane!
Mad-4-Manga- I like writing happy stuff, not to say writing angst isn't fun too.
I Forget- Here's more!
Twilightfalcon- Dash is awesome- he's my favorite character. XD. I try and mold original ideas into my fanfiction- it's more fun that way!
TragicDespair- I try and make them all interesting. ;)
keepers for me- Your confidence in my story is amusing. Mwaha. shifty glances all around
And here for the story:

I slept with Dash, in Teryl's place, so Talia could have the quilts on the floor. It was strange- interacting with my Chosen as a human, and not a Companion- and it was also perfectly normal, the strangeness was only on the outside.

He slept with his arm around me- like a Herald hugging his Companion, and although it might have made some uncomfortable, Dash saw things the way I did and neither of us minded the close intimacy that was in no way sexual because a Herald and Companion were supposed to be that close.

Now that I had created the bond between us, I could see his Gifts highlighted much more clearly. Dacian doesn't dream, not really anyway. He watches other's dreams, and sometimes interacts in them, as with my dream before I came to this farmhouse- it was his projecting that created the Teryl like Druid. And at night, my dreams too were changed because of him.

The next morning Dash and I were the first to wake- black and white, side by side. We sat up, staring down at the living room and a still sleeping Talia and Yael. The room was quiet and a bit chilly, so Dash and I sat close.

I glanced over at him and grinned and his lips twitched- and I saw he was grinning back, although I never would have noticed it before Bonding to him. Chosen, I thought silently and then we both started laughing- but the moment the sounds escaped our lips we cut it short- not wanting to wake the sleeping others.

:So: Dacian said, and as always it seemed as if he spoke out loud but thinking upon it I always saw it was mind speech, :So you're a Companion.:

:Yes: I answered and tossed my head slightly, removing white hairs from my eyes and I winked at him, :Can you see it?:

:I can: he answered solemnly and I paused from my joking manner as he added on, :Sometimes there's a double image, superimposed over you.:

I started in surprise. The double image? But usually it was the other way around! He grinned and shook his head, looking at me sideways through his pale eyes.

:I always knew you were different: he commented, stretching out his legs so they hung over the side of the bed and touched the wooden rafters of the loft, :It hadn't occurred to me that you had come for me, and not Teryl.:

:Didn't occur to me either: I answered sourly, staring at my human toes before glancing back over it him, a hopeful look in my eyes as I asked hesitantly, :Do you… have any ideas of to how I can get back?:

:Well, why did you turn yourself into a human in the first place?: he asked seriously and I blinked. Had anyone else phrased it like that?

He shrugged and then changed it around, :Do you feel like a human- like a Herald? Try looking inside yourself.:

"Daneric? Dash?" a voice asked and I nearly jumped out of my skin to see Talia standing up down in the living room, her mass of curls looking somewhat messy. There was a nicker from outside and I saw a glimpse of white movement.

"We're up," I answered and stood up, padding over to the ladder and climbing down from the loft into the warmer room below. Dash followed.

"How do you feel?" Talia asked as we congregated in the kitchen, moving away from a now snoring Yael.

I shrugged, feeling uncomfortable by this focused attention and mumbled, "All right."

She gave me a look and I sighed and tried to truthfully answer the question and I said, "I feel really great- although I also feel like I shouldn't. I should be concentrating completely on getting back to my form. I hate being an invalid."

"You're not," Dash commented, and I think he spoke out loud this time, for Talia, but I could never be sure with him.

"For a Companion, I am," I answered with a snort that went through my nostrils and I dropped into a chair, letting my silky white mane fall around my face, covering my expression.

"You'll find your way," Dash said, stepping over to me and running his fingers through my mane. I sighed and leaned back, looking up at my Chosen with the blue eyes of a Companion.

"I guess… I just want to be loved," I said as Talia sat down across from us and then that pulled a chain and I continued, "Loved, not love. I want to be guarded, not guard, I want to be guided, not guide… I want to follow, not lead."

"I can do that," Dacian whispered and sat down beside me, "I'm here for you Daneric."

I shrugged, touched at his words yet upset by them, and said, looking at the man, "But I'm not supposed to feel that way. It's my job to guide you, keep you safe Dacian!"

"Who says?" Dash said with a mild shrug, "Everyone needs to be comforted sometime."

"Well this isn't helping me get back to being a Companion," I said, staring at my hands with annoyance.

"Yes it is," Talia said and I glanced over at the Queen's Own, falling silent with respect to her.

"You're already closer," she said, "From the moment you Chose Dash."

I thought of the superimposing he mentioned and looked over at my Chosen. He returned my gaze, offering nothing and I stared at the wood grains in the table for a few moments.

"Well… should I make some tea?" I asked, standing up and then Talia gave me a stern glare and I lowered myself back down into the seat, ignoring Dacian's slight twitch of a smile.

"Dash," she said, still glaring at me, "Would you make us some tea?"
"That I can do," he said in his deep, unemotional voice and stood up. I felt cowed and I sat in my seat, waiting for Talia to do something.

"You're going to have to find the way yourself," Talia said sternly, "And although Dash is helping, he's also hindering. He's your Chosen, not the other way around. I think you might be forgetting who you are."

There was a knock at the door and I started to jump up but with a second thought let Dash answer it. A white muzzle entered along with a flurry of snowflakes and an icy cold. Now I stood up and at Rolan's nod, grabbed my boots and thrust my feet in, stepping outside quickly to preserve the heat and shutting the door.

It was bright outside, and I squinted in the blinding glare, hugging my arms around me as the wind bit through my under layers and chilled me down to the bone. In moments I was shivering and my skin felt like it was shriveling up.

:Daneric: Rolan said and I winced at the sound of my own name. Shameful, that's what it was.

:It's me: I answered glumly and then stumbled backwards as Rolan's ears went flat and he nipped me sharply on the arm.

"Hey!" I shouted, glaring at him, "What was that for?"

:Companion Daneric, you owe respect to your elders! Especially the Groveborn: he said and I bowed my head, realizing what I had down but rubbing my arm anyway.

:Sorry sir: I said, :I suppose I deserved that.:

:Let's go for a ride: Rolan said and I glanced back at the farmhouse.

"But Talia…"

:She won't mind: Rolan said sternly, :Up.:

I felt this was silly- riding a Companion wouldn't make me feel more like one, but I did as he told me, holding back retorts and simply stepping over and pulling myself up onto the Companion's back, wrapping my fingers into the mane and feeling worse by the minute.

His pace was smooth, like butter, very different from Jack's horsey plod and I felt a longing stir within me. I wanted to move with that grace, I wanted to carry a Herald upon my back without effort.

Rolan, once we reached the rode, broke into a fast canter and I leaned forward of his neck, crouching down and holding tight to his silver sides with my legs, all the while thinking about how wrong this was, for a Companion to be sitting astride another Companion.

I found myself being hypnotized by the smooth motion and the sound of his hooves hitting the slushy road, sending spatters of snow and mud up onto his legs and belly, and the bright sunlight and wind making my eyes water and then- I was flying through the air.

I hit the road in front of Rolan, mud and snow getting into my eyes and nose and mouth and coating my clothes.

I jumped up quickly, scraping it off my face with numbed fingers to glare at Rolan. I must have looked very silly, standing with unlaced boots and not enough clothing covered in snow and mud, but he didn't laugh, only stared at me harshly.

I pulled back angry remarks and stared back at him before saying with mud encrusted teeth, "Sir?"

:Now how do you feel?: Rolan asked, stepping forward to stop right in front of my shivering self.

"Cold," I said and he shoved his nose out, giving me a harsh bump that sent me back onto my bottom in the wet, cold mud.

I stayed there, letting it seep through my clothes and reach my skin, staring up at Rolan and forcing my anger away. If it made me a Companion again, I'd endure anything.

:You have learned nothing: Rolan snorted, :What did you think of, riding me?:

"How weird it was," I answered and then before he could hurt me again I answered, "How much I wanted to run again."

I looked up at him, pleading with my eyes and showing my grief and anger, "I want to be a Companion again. I really do! Why can't I get back to being myself?"

:Only you can answer that: Rolan said and turned silently, quickly, agilely and before I knew it he was kicking dirt into my face as he cantered off- leaving me some half a mile from the farmhouse.

"Damn Companion," I muttered, kicking at the snow, but since my boots were unlaced that only caused snow to shower into the boot, stinging through my socks to my bare, fragile human skin.