39 Who's Who?

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

A man or a woman is not old until regrets take the place of dreams. ..

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There was a sudden sense of the body plummeting and the shock that went along with 'the dream fall'. Aine seemed to be confused as to what was really was going on. She continued her sleep on Xirthan's (who was now sleeping as well) comfortable and warm body. She was having fleeting and jumbled up images flying across the theatre of her mind. There was this impossibly tall tree which seemed to reach to the very heavens above. She felt like she should know about this tree but did not attach any significance to it in her dream...she struggled to remember. It seemed vitally important that she should know. She looked up at the tree and suddenly found herself feeling intimidated and insignificant standing underneath it's vast height.

Behind her eyelids the rapid eye movements indicating her dream state became more intense and frantic now. Xirthan gradually came to view in her mind. He appeared spectral in the darkness there, with a whitish glow around his supple and lean body. He was walking towards her, and his mane was flowing and rippling gently as if in a gentle breeze but he didn't appear to be moving any closer to her. Like a 'jack in the box', a view of his head suddenly appeared, almost as if they were seeing eye to eye now. Aine was beginning to forget who she was, there seemed to be a dissolving away of her identity along with a growing sense of panic. Xirthan's deep eyes glowed a luminous blue, and she felt that if she looked into his eyes long enough and deep enough that some kind of answer or explanation would become more clear to her. Now, she felt as if Xirthan was staring right through her, not noticing her at all. The vision of him slowly faded then and she seemed to hear him whisper, "You must know, you must, your life depends on it..."

A sense of fear suffused her being like warm blood and she felt impelled to ask, "Know what? Who I am, or is it the tree?"

...your life depends on it." The whispering faded and became replaced with an eerie silence.

Then, all visions vanished as if blown away by an errant wind and Aine felt as if she were becoming lighter, beginning to float away. She lost sense of who she was and she seemed to see a woman lying down below her upon what seemed to be a bed, yet somehow she knew that it was not a bed. She tried to see what it was but this 'bed' only appeared more anomalous the harder she tried to make out what it was. She had the extremely odd sensation of watching herself dream outside of the dream along with an alternating sense of phasing back and forth between her 'selves' inside the dream. Who am I, who's that woman below me?...she looks familiar somehow, she thought from her dream. It seemed to her that things were beginning to spin wildly out of control along with an increasing sense of bewildering anxiety...

Still experiencing a kind of 'out of the body' sensation, a transformation, rather a 'metamorposis,' seemed to be taking place with whoever was lying down below her. She watched with a frozen fear as she realized -

There was an abrupt flash of blinding light. A riotous confusion of images and a sense of an undefined cruelty about to become clear. There was a profusion of dust in the air along with the thudding sounds of many hoofbeats.There were flashing blades and a scream. Nooo not the baby nooo!

- she realizedthat this person on the 'bed' below her was writhing and moving around restlessly. The twisting and the restlessness subsided gradually with 'other person's' face actually transforming as she watched. It was happening slowly and seemingly without any deterioration of the skin; the face changed and merged with itself with the new features now becoming more clear. Still 'floating' up above, still sensing a strange new kind of duality, she became more aware -

There was a sense of a wild struggle, a sense that this madness must stop now! There was blood, crying, and a sense of swooning shock. "Stop! Stop! Fenix! Stopppp! He's dead! Stop!" A wash of blood flowing over her, so it seemed, mercifully erased this vision from the theatre of her mind.

- she became more aware of... that name. The utterance of it hit her almost as if it were a physical blow. There was a sense of an increasing bewilderment coupled along with these dawning revelations, yet the strange dream sensation continued. It was -

- "Fenix!" she realized. It was him upon the bed or whatever he was now lying on. And I am Aine, she realized. She sensed an inner agony within him. She must come down, she must awaken and go down to help him. She felt herself drawing near to him. She wanted to kiss him, help ease his pain. She settled down upon him; there was an odd sensation that the two of them had merged. She must -

:Aine! Wake up! There's still a chance you may only be a couple minutes late for your class:.

Aine slowly came to. She had rolled off Xirthan, who was now back in his stall. She felt that strong sense of disorientation which occurs after being woken suddenly from the middle of a dream. She rubbed her eyes, feeling very dazed and said outloud, "Two minutes Xirthan? It felt more like two hours!" Now she felt really panicky. "I will suffer-"

:Indeed Chosen, we might suffer a little trying to explain certain events Aine:.

:Like explain what Xirthan? I don't like the sounds of that:. She was still trying to dispel that 'dream fog' which persisted in staying with her. 'The dream...the dream...something about it', she thought to herself and then with a slight gasp said outloud, "Fenix! What happened?"

Xirthan looked at Aine with concern. :You, well...I woke up because of your restlessness and you didn't look like yourself - you had transformed - and guess who walked in and saw what was happening?

Aine was not liking the gist of all this at all. "Simon Dewwart?" she asked, thinking to herself that if it was him they were doomed for sure.

:One of the stablehands - Agister - came in seeing you just before you rolled off of me. He said, "Well, well what do we have here? Fenix sleeping with Aine's Companion and both of you late for class...so where's Aine huh?" he chuckled. At this point I decided nothing was the best thing to do...then deal with it later:

Aine gasped and was afraid to ask but she did anyways "Agister? Cadge! I know him, he wouldn't, no!" She made an imploring gesture, prompting Xirthan to go on, "Then..."

:Then he rubbed his hands gleefully and said," Wait 'til everyone hears about this!"

"Oh the gods Xirthan, now what!"

:Well thank the gods for one thing, you transformed back to your normal self almost immediately after Agister ran out:.

:But, but Xirthan! If this gets out what are we going to do: Aine was too befuddled at this point to say or think of anything rational.

:Don't worry love, I quickly mindspoke with Azura, you know, Rowland's Companion. I am quite certain Agister would run to Rowland and blab the latest news. He would have advance warning, and of course then we would have to appear before Rowland with some kind of an explanation:. Xirthan nodded his handsome head and then :I am quite certain we can prevent this little fire from spreading Aine. The question is now, what are we going to do with this new shapeshifting skill of yours:

Aine had no idea, no idea whatsoever.

finis