I dreamed last night for the first time in ages. Looking back on it I can't help but feel that it was strange to the very core. I was back in Janat, but I was different. I was no longer the color of deep night, but the color of dawn. A golden palomino, adorned with the reds and oranges of sunrise. No longer was I banished to the far reaches of the land, but welcomed among those who had once reviled me. I was no longer looked at as worthless, but was held with the same esteem that our gods had been held. My parents adored me, my brother respected me. Not only that, but I had someone to love. I still question why my dream self chose Muriel to be the object of my affections, nor why my subconscious chose for her to have a young foal dancing around her legs and her sides swollen with the weight of another of my children, but I felt happiness for the first time in years.

There was a sudden shift in scenery, the peaceful mountaintops were suddenly barren. The sky was no longer its typical blue dotted by fluffy white clouds. I was no longer the palomino that I had been, but the dark black and blue stallion that I've always been. All around me were the bodies of my family. My brother was nearest to me, his skull crushed and gore splattered across the rocks. My parents lay several paces away, their wings ripped from their bodies and their chests cracked open. The dream foal that had been dancing around Muriel, I now realized, hung limp from my jaws. I opened my mouth, allowing the dead foal to slip from my mouth and land on the ground silently. When I turned I saw Muriel, her eyes glazed over in death. All this destruction surrounded me and I knew that I had been the one to do it. I did not need to see my reflection, see the blood that covered my face and neck, nor the blood that coated my legs.

It was me. I had done it.

I woke with a start, sucking in a breath of air so fierce that it led to a hacking fit that lasted several minutes before I calmed myself. At that very moment I reflected on my dream, wondering why my subconscious was suddenly tormenting me with such vivid images of something that had never taken place and would never take place. The more I thought about it, however, the more upset I became and finally I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to get away and clear my head, so I leapt from the top mountaintop where the Heavenly Fields were perched and dove through the veil of fog that obscured it from below. My four wings snapped open, catching my plummeting body and stabilizing me as I flew to only the gods knew where.

Several hours passed before I finally angled my body down toward the ground. My forelegs extended and my wings spread wider to catch more resistance and slow my descent and soften my landing. I touched down, my legs automatically moving into a swift trot as my four wings folded against my sides. Ahead of me loomed a place that I had never ventured into before. A glance up at the sky was enough to know that I had flown longer than I had anticipated. The sun was already sinking below the horizon and despite my common sense telling me to go back and not go into this unknown place, I ignored it.

Boy, I wish I had listened to my common sense.

Whatever light was left in the sky was all but gone when I entered this unknown forest .. or marsh, judging from the way my hooves were being sucked into the mud. My advance stopped, head raised, and ears strained forward at the sound of sinister whispers. I've never truly known fear in my adult life but I imagine what I'm feeling now is pretty damn close to fear.

Another voice carries over the whispers, one that sounds distinctly feminine. Muriel? No. I shake my head and the vision of her lifeless dream body from my thoughts. "Hello?" I call into the fog that now begins to overtake the marsh. It crawls over my skin, making me shiver. "Who's out there?" My voice comes out stronger and a bit demanding, which helps me regain a little of my manly pride, but is still feel this niggling fear crawling up my spine.

Maybe I'm still dreaming I suddenly think.

Who knew that dreams could be so vivid?