Recap:

Lave rolled her eyes and went back to the cave. She found Kael's food eaten and saw Anarla staring at her. She shivered and tried to ignore the feeling she had had during her ordeal as she fell asleep.

The Dream

Lave slept fitfully. She would sleep for a few minutes and wake thinking creatures were coming in the cave to take her. Lave then forced herself to take calming breathes and fall back asleep. After the third round of this she finally fell into a sleep deep enough to dream.

She was walking alone in a forest. As she stumbled blindly through the trees she finally came upon a worn path. A pudgy man with extremely intelligent eyes was walking along the path muttering under his breathe.

"Umm… Excuse me? Sir could you please?"

If the man had heard her, he showed no sign. He walked by her like she didn't exist and she caught the words. "Come on Sirva, I know you're in there."

A small white dog Lave had met only hours before, popped out of his pack. "I was trying to sleep and you have to go and babble about that idiot man back there, and if I were you I wouldn't continue along this path."

The man stopped suddenly and snapped "I've had it with you. You were supposed to offer me help and guidance and you haven't stopped complaining yet."

The dog unfazed by his outburst simply shrugged- if dogs could shrug- and muttered what sounded something like "and you were the SMART one".

The man sighed. He turned to the dog. "I know what you want me to do but I don't understand why. They haven't done anything but…" He was cut of abruptly when and arrow flew through the air missing him by inches. The source of the arrow was immediate. A tall man with glowing blood red eyes smiled.

"I wasn't trying to hit you. I was aiming for that dog." The wizard-Hebst, for Lave new enough to identify him- muttered something and the man was lifted off the ground. Lave felt herself lift too. Only instead of floating towards Hebst, she began to spin until the world was a blur, just when she thought she would be sick it ended.

Lave bolted up in her bedroll breathing heavily. Sirva looked over at her from her place at the base of Lave's bed. "Honestly some people are trying to sleep." With that Sirva turned around and fell back to sleep.

Lave tried to sleep. But now it seemed impossible. Who was this man? What was his mission? The only man she thought he might be would be Cecil because of the white dog, Sirva. She didn't want to jump to any conclusions though. She wished her dream would have lasted long enough to see what the man's fate had been. All of the sudden she laughed. She was dwelling on this as if had been true. It had obviously only been a dream and she cursed her active imagination. She rolled over and closed her eyes but sleep still wouldn't come.

Anarla slithered over to where Sirva was. He prodded her with the butt of his head. Sirva lifted one sleepy eye and gave a soft bark. Anarla hissed something to her and the unlikely pair went over to the mouth of the cave. Testing her new powers, Lave whispered the word for enhanced hearing. It was as if someone had taken a recording of all the night sounds and magnified them a hundred or more times and shoved them in her ear. She winced and redid the spell with less force. For a minute (or so it seemed, she was so intent on hearing the creatures conversation) her ears buzzed and her head swam. When she came back, she could hear their conversation perfectly.

"You don't plan on her performing the same task as that idiot you had before do you?" Anarla said.

"Perhaps. It is too soon to tell. It all depends on how YOU behave." Sirva responded.

At this the snake hissed and said "We both have different opinions on what happened last time around. Only time will tell who wins this round however. I warn you, you say anything and I'll kill…"

She cut him off with a bark. "I have told you last time! It's corrupt! Only One is not. Which means your very essence is corrupt. It needs to be rebuilt and the One to do it should have nothing stand in her way which is why I must tell her what she needs to know before too late. Her kin knew it. Why else would they have so willingly died? There was one who would have served however." With those last words the dog sent a piercing look at the snake.

"I know not! I have served for generations. You've only seen a few go by. Who are you to judge the past?"

"From what I have seen, those I have served where on a better path then any you have known."

With those words the snake flicked her tail, "If you intervene again… You went against the vows we made. We aren't to do too much. We offer MAGIC help nothing more, nothing less. Break that vow again, and I'll send you back into captivity. Your lucky the last ones dying wish was for you." The snake then went out into the forest.

The dog growled as the snake left and went back to the foot of Lave's bedroll. Lave immediately pretended to be sleeping. She knew now sleep would never come. With these two puzzling events in her mind she began to think. Just when she thought she could sleep no more the sun began to rise. Yawning she climbed out of bed and went to a nearby stream.

The feeling of someone watching her increased. She finally found its source in Anarla. The snake was eying her. "Do you really know about your heritage?"

"I know what I've read in the Diary." She answered.

"Don't listen to that idiotic dog. She's too young to be talking wisdom. Her magic advice will be fine but you should come to me if she does anything more."

Lave studied him carefully. His stripped red and blue body pulsing. His cold black eyes had a hint of the blood red glow she had seen in Hebst in her dream. She shuddered. "I'll keep that in mind, but why would Sirva lie to me? That would be breaking her vow."

"Be as it is." The snake turned and with a rattle of his tail he was off.

Lave sighed and got out of the stream. She dressed and went back to the cave feeling mildly refreshed. Kael was busy cooking breakfast. She smiled at him. "Good morning Grandpa." She said teasingly. Kael laughed and handed her a plate of food. AS she ate she looked at him out of the corner of her eye. She had no idea why she was feeling strange about him now that he had harnessed his magic. He seemed to have remembered an event in his past and she didn't think it made him a very good person. She sighed. She had too much to think about and too little time.