{-Sharena-}

For a while she was only with Freyr. She didn't even know there was more out there besides that little room for a while longer. To her it was the place she went to when she fell asleep; the single room with the friendly goat-man. Then there was another person added to that room: the friendly goat-lady, who she quickly learned to be Freyja.

"So this is our little dreamer." Freyja smiled and picked up Sharena. "What a beautiful little girl. Do you think her parents would miss her?"

"She's one of Askr's."

"Both of them are, then? That's unfortunate. If we could save one then we could save the other, too. It's a much better way to separate them than Death's brutish plan." Freyja twirled the little girl around before setting her on Freyr's lap. "I almost wish there was a coup so we could take both of them."

"Freyja, think about what you're saying."

She didn't see anything wrong with it. "It's not like it would affect either of them. I'm sure Death will be willing to make a trade with me again. What use does she have for children in her army, anyway?"

A couple nights ago Freyr and Freyja were talking about something and whether it was "wise." She didn't know what it was or really if it even had anything to do with her. All she knew for certain was that, for once, Freyr was the one insisting on something while Freyja was being cautious. Something about "It will help her much more than staying with us will." and "We've done it with other children before, it won't be any different now."

She only truly thought about it when Freyr greeted her and took her out of the room. There was so much more outside of that little piece of familiarity. She got overwhelmed at everything new and yet was excited to see more of it. After she'd met Freyja, she'd often play with both of them; maybe now that she was getting to see what was outside, she'd come here more often, too.

Freyr led her to where an álfar and two other girls were (neither of which appeared to be too much older or younger than she was). "Sharena, this ljósálfar is Mirabilis and these two girls are … and ..." The names themselves didn't seem to be there, and whatever they were supposed to be was lost on her. She still knew, though, who those two would later be known as—Triandra and Peony—and substituted it in instead.

Peony bounced excitedly. "Hi! We're sisters! From the moment Mirabilis said we were going to be meeting each other I knew we were gonna be the bestest of friends!"

Triandra, from the moment they met, was always the less expressive of the two. "Hello."

"So do you have any siblings? Do you think we'll be the bestest of friends, too? Oh, oh! How old are your siblings? Could all of us meet? What if we could all be friends? Wouldn't that be amazing? Dream friends!" Peony giggled and nudged her sister. "Doesn't that sound great?"

If not for a moment, Triandra grinned.

Sharena realized what she was supposed to be doing. "Answers! I—I, uhm…" She looked to Freyr, and both he and Mirabilis gave her looks of encouragement. "I have one brother… Alfonse. He's five. I… don't know if he comes here…" She decided not to mention that, technically, she still didn't know where "here" was. "But I would like to be friends with you." Pausing, she mustered a smile too and added, "Dream friends."

She didn't bother waiting for her mother. From the moment she could see the river, she let go of Henriette's hand and ran into the field, calling out to the butterflies.

"Lekra! Izzy!" They were always here when she came, like they were waiting for her; sometimes, if Henriette didn't bring her for a few days, they came to the castle to look for her. She was always happy to see them, even if she couldn't always be with them.

They both fluttered out to greet her. Lekra simply fluttered in front of her, but Izzy landed on her nose.

"Aw, I missed you too!" she giggled. She sat down just as Henriette and the guards arrived. "Guess what I did!"

Adventure?

Safe?

No! Danger! Exciting!

Danger bad! No danger!

"I was safe! I met two nice girls last night!"

Meet! Meet!

Good.

"Sound a little more excited!" She playfully swatted the air around Lekra.

Fine. Good!

"You're faking!"

So? Honest.

Honest boring. Fun!

No fun. All honest. So dull? Dull safe.

Lekra boring.

"Hey, be nice," Sharena remarked. "Remember you're brothers!" Of course she wasn't going to mention that she made a similar accusation when Alfonse didn't want to come with them. What mattered was that she kept the two of them from fighting, which she did.

They played together and, when she was out of breath from chasing after them, sat down and talked instead. She wasn't sure how long they spent out there before Henriette called her name and told her it was time to leave.

Freyr and Freyja were still the only ones to play with her on most nights; but about once or twice a week, Mirabilis would come and bring her to Triandra and Peony again. Eventually it started to become a nearly-daily occurrence as Freyr and Freyja held hushed conversations that apparently they didn't want her hearing.

Peony was the one to ask most of the questions. "So you normally stay with Freyr? Isn't he boring? He looks boring. He's old, I'm pretty sure he's boring. Right?"

"He isn't boring! He can turn into a big goat! Like… like this!" Sharena focused her hardest to get the little image to pop up. One of the benefits to the dream realm: she didn't need to actually show it to them, just remember what it looked like.

Peony stared at it in awe. "Cool! I didn't know he could do that. Mirabilis, did you know he could do that?"

"Of course I did," the álfar mumbled sleepily. "But none of you should. Well… I guess Sharena could, being a dreamer and everything… the other two shouldn't, though."

"Oh, that was supposed to be a secret..?" Sharena mumbled, the image disappearing too.

It seemed that Peony had a much better question: "We're all asleep, aren't we? We aren't all dreamers?"

Mirabilis shook her head slowly. "In your usual, mortal standards? Yes. But we take it to mean something a little different here. Every child is connected to the dream realm in one way or another; it's how they're all able to come here. There are a handful of children, though, that are connected more strongly. Freyr and Freyja play with these children, so they can do or show whatever they want to the kid. I actually thought he couldn't transform anymore…"

Sharena hadn't been to the field in two months. She expected to find Lekra and Izzy waiting for her outside, but they weren't there; when she finally went to the field again, she called their names again and again until Henriette told her it was time to go. Hoping that they were just sleeping or something (the only thing she could think of to explain it), she kept calling for them every time she came.

Neither of them ever came.

Her hope that they just weren't listening dwindled significantly within a month, and whatever was left was lost when she came to the dream realm and no one was waiting for her. She knew that something important was happening if not even Mirabilis was there to greet her. After no one came to her in a few moments (which normally did happen if they weren't there), she cautiously made her way out of the room to look for Freyr.

She wandered the halls of the palace, only halfway knowing where she was going. Eventually she found the doors leading to the throne room and stopped when she heard voices.

"They're both gone?" Freyr's tone was a combination of surprise and fear.

"Well they're definitely not there," Freyja remarked, a bit more level than her brother but still unnerved. "I checked. I can't sense Lekra anywhere."

Sharena's heart dropped when it was clear they were talking about who she had hoped they weren't.

"The Trickster took them," Mirabilis said. "But they… aren't gone, are they?"

"No, they can't be…" Freyr mumbled. "We would be able to see it. Why did I not think that she would prepare for this..?"

"I'll try to find where she put them," Freyja decided. "There's only so many places even her power can reach."

((A/N: Welcome to Puppy's Unrealistic Assumptions Regarding Toddlers' Speaking Capabilities! To your left you will see Every Dream is Important Apparently, right next to Skewed Dead/Abusive/Missing-to-Alive Parent Ratio and All Overheard Conversations Are Related to Plot! To your right is the ever-present, AU specific So I Guess Sharena Is About Twenty Times More Important Than Alfonse. It's not my fault Alfonse doesn't have hidden memories, okay?

This is the part where I would like to remind you that these are not the only memories Sharena is seeing. She is more or less seeing every memory from when she was around two to thirteen years old. Eleven years' worth of memories. One night I was lying in bed and wondered how many years that meant she was reliving while she was asleep, so I calculated it. She's going through roughly one and a half years a day.))