It felt strange to him to have the room all to himself, and he felt another pang of sadness as he thought of Ullden and Narien again. He sat quietly at the edge of the bed and prayed for a while before laying down under the covers. The mattress almost seemed too soft to him as he lay there, waiting for sleep. He found himself having a difficult time finding a comfortable position. It seemed to take hours before he felt himself begin to drift off.
The dream came slowly, like an early morning fog slowly rolling over a lake. It sifted across him gently, and yet somehow he knew it to be a dream. Perhaps it was because of what he'd been dreaming just before it, running through the battle in the cave in his mind again. But that dream fell away like sand through his fingers, replaced by the new one. He was sitting on the rooftop of his church. His place. With a sandwich and a cup of something to drink. He took a sip to see what it was, and smiled at the tartness of the lemonade inside.
It took a short while before the dream was anything more than a surreal moment of peace from his past. He knew the moment to be his, something from his memories. He'd been in that moment before, eaten that sandwich, drank that lemonade, watched over the fields from his rooftop nook. Yet he knew that none of it was real. He knew it to all be a dream. He relaxed into it, let it take him where it would. And that was the point when the voice joined him.
Hello, Marus. it was a woman's voice, soft and soothing.
Marus looked around him, but did not see any figures. Nothing of his dream had changed.
"Hello?" he asked of the air around him.
"I am here."
The voice seemed suddenly solid behind him and he turned around quickly to look. He stopped just as quickly upon seeing her face, afraid that if he moved again she might just disappear.
"Kielle?" he breathed, almost afraid to say her name. She appeared to him looking the same as one of the church statues turned flesh, although she stood tall and her hands were empty. A gentle smile spread across her face and she nodded once in reply.
