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Description
The wind was cold. Colder than usual. It refused to quiet down to its usual ebb and flow, instead blowing on and on at a constant rate. Through the icy wind, if one were to look hard enough, were two stark blue eyes. They blinked now and then, seeming to vanish and return in an instant in the endless whiteness. This storm wouldn’t exhaust itself any time soon.
  The eyes shifted, catching movement only eyes accustomed to harsh wintry conditions would have noticed. Figures that were obviously misfit to this place drifted slowly through the snow and wind, though with great determination in their steps. If they were cold, nothing about their body language betrayed it. They didn’t flinch against the piercing ice shards thrown about in the high wind. Their bodies steamed, casting an eerie fog into the gail.
  The blue eyes narrowed. They were coming from the direction of the village. They’d been there again. Their wake stank of sweat, fear, blood, and something else worse than all that together. Obviously they’d done what they’d gone to do this time and were leaving for some other unfortunate place.
  Without a sound, the eyes were gone, and with them went any signs that anyone had been there.

  Wintervale was a well hidden township high in the Blackiron Peaks, so named for the hard black metal mined from their hearts. Travelers rarely stumbled upon it, and even when they did they were cleverly led away again by the scouts. That was why the invasion of these crazed monsters had come as such a surprise. They had come to Wintervale as if they had known where they were going all along, and no tricks to lead them away had worked for rookies or veterans alike. They’d pitched a brave fight at first, striking many of the beasts down, leaving the remaining to flee. But in the days after the skirmish a strange blight had befallen many of the townsfolk, and nothing the medicine makers concocted would cure it. Those that hadn’t died quickly were left to suffer. Once ivory white skin had taken on a sickening yellowish-green hue, the veins under the skin showing through in straight black. Eyes were sunken in and faded, and breath was raspy and hot. Fever dreams had robbed them of the brief peace of slumber. No one got better. Only worse. Those that died were considered fortunate. As a result, the population of able-bodied citizens of Wintervale had fallen sharply, leaving few to guard the village against future attacks, let alone care for the sick.
  Seeing Wintervale on its knees drew an angry grunt from his throat, but he couldn’t linger and brood over such things now. He had somewhere to be. He moved silently through the now empty streets, once alive with the daily life of his kin, hurrying along to a modestly sized house in the residential area of the village. He rushed through the unlocked door, snatching the white wool scarf away from his face. His breath misted in the chill of the room. Quickly, he moved to kneel by the hearth to stoke the dying fire, adding another log. By the time he rose again, the refreshed fire was already beginning to chase the chill from the room.
  “Mi’Erra?” he called, bounding to the right where deerskin hangings gave a little privacy to the “bedroom” of the little house. He pulled them aside to reveal a handmade wooden bed with a goose and duck down mattress, blanketed with furs and quilts piled on top of each other thickly. Within the mountain of blankets was a small face, shoulder length white hair in a disarray around her head on the pillow. His breath caught in his throat at the sight of her. The ugly yellowish-green color of her skin had been replaced with the ashen gray hue of the illness’ fallen prey.
  “Mi’Erra…” he whispered, barely a croak.
  His heart began to beat again when she took a hard breath and began to stir under the blankets. Her eyes opened, but only halfway. She turned their faded blueness toward the man standing over her, taking in his long white hair, ivory skin, and bright blue eyes as if she didn’t recognize him at first. Her eyes rested for a moment on the pinkish star on his forehead, so much like her own had once been. The star she’d worn so proudly had once been a vivid pink noticeable for paces. Now it was so faded it was almost nonexistent.
  “Ji’ir…” she wheezed, weakly holding up a frail hand. He knelt by the bed and took it into his own. Even through the tough leather of his gloves, her hand felt cold.
  “Don’t agitate yourself, Mi’Erra. You need your strength…” he cooed.
  He nearly winced for having said such words. They were so cliché, and so useless.
  She just smiled faintly at him, the look of resignation in her cold eyes enough to make him nearly break into tears.
  “The Black Cloak is upon me. I know when I’m defeated. I’m sorry…”
  There were tears in her eyes now, precious fluids he’d have chastised her for wasting before. She deserved them now.
  He squeezed her hand tighter, suddenly at a loss for words. Yet, he had recited to himself over and over the exact words he’d say and just how he would act when this day finally came. It had seemed so simple in his mind, but now he couldn’t even muster the courage to open his mouth.
  “I’m sorry to have to leave you and the baby. I’d wanted for us to live… long happy lives together…” she wheezed, tears flowing steadily now. His were, too.
  “Don’t be sorry. This is no fault of yours. No one places any blame on you. You have our love, for all time.”
  He pulled her hand to his tear dampened face, feeling how very, very cold it was against his skin. Like living snow.
  She smiled again. “You will always have mine, as well. Be at peace…”
  Her last words were their people’s form of “good-bye”. As those last words had passed her lips, so had her last breath. After that, the only sounds remaining in the room were the crackling of the fire, Ji’ir’s soft sobs, the gentle cooing of an infant, and a tiny mewing sound.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  The day was normal. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it, though there really wasn’t anything normal about it, either.
  She was in one place after another, witnessing what could only be genocide and war to her mind. There was death and illness like she’d never even imagined before. There were strange and ugly demonic beasts she didn’t recognize, and peoples and far away lands she recognized just as little.
  Then there was the shadow of an infant with a catlike creature guarding it menacingly.
  The day was normal, with nothing out of the ordinary about it.

~ ~ ~ ~

  Leeza was awakened by the heat. She’d kicked all her bedclothes onto the floor or down to the end of her bed again. She sighed heavily, wiping thick sweat from her brow.
  These Coastal summers were murderous!
  It was bad enough when the summer’s heat took hold, but worse yet was the heavy wetness in the air. It amplified the heat, making it that much more unbearable and harder to breathe on top of it. She didn’t curse the heat so much as the night. Her dreams weren’t allowing her a good night’s rest recently anyway.
  She sighed again, pushing back silver locks of sweat-damp hair from her sweaty face. She slipped out of bed and stepped to the window, shutters open wide to let in whatever breezes might grace her. She gazed up to the starlit sky. By now the red moon had set, leaving the smaller white and gold moons behind. It was past middlenight, then. She didn’t feel much like trying to go back to sleep. The residue of her dream had her feeling nervous and jarred. So, she pulled on her old gray wool cloak, slipped into her shoes, and stepped outside.
  The difference in temperature was immediately noticeable. This made the corner of her wrinkled mouth tighten. She thought it was a cruel state that even though it was cooler outdoors at night, anyone attempting to sleep outside would find themselves prime targets for the blood sucking night bugs. It was either face the heat or the insects. Either choice left one awake and miserable.
  I ought to pack up and move to the North. I’m getting too old for these Coastal summers, she thought as she strolled out across the grassy front yard of her modest cottage home. With that thought still playing in her mind, she glanced back at her house. She was fortunate enough to have her own home out away from the noise and smell of the village, but it still wasn’t much to speak of. It was just a small white brick structure with a crudely shingled roof. It was set of a rather well-used road connecting the little village of Kaekii with the larger, much busier village of Beque. Nearby was the river, where Leeza was headed now.
  The river provided travelers with water for themselves or their mounts, and also food from fishing. Leeza had several crab traps set along the banks, and since she nothing better to do at this time of the night, she decided that she’d go check on them.
  Her path to the first crab trap was well lit by the light of the two lesser moons, allowing her to find her way with no trouble. She leaned over to where an oiled rope was tied to a branch overhanging the steep riverbank and pulled it up slowly, hand over hand. The handmade wire trap rose from the moving water little by little. It was empty, its bait untouched. Leeza huffed, letting the trap fall back to the river, sinking below the surface once again. If not even the bait in that trap had been touched, then neither would the other two. There had been fewer and fewer rivercrabs as of late, and even the fisherman were having poor catches.
  Leeza watched the lazy water sparkling under the moonlight with a sense of dread. She feared that the low yield from the rivers and forests were yet another sign that something was very wrong. The stories she’d been hearing from travelers about dire beasts spreading death and illness didn’t help her heart any, nor the people who came to her door begging for Readings about the welfare and futures of their families after such news.
  A rustle broke her concentration, causing her to spin around to face who or whatever might have come upon her just now. It was not uncommon for forest creatures to come investigate her when she had her middlenight walks, but she was always cautious. What stood there was no creature of the forest. This visitor didn’t even come from these lands. It was a man, though much of him was hard to see beneath his very unseasonable attire. He appeared to not even know what summer’s heat was.
  “Is there something I can help you with?” she asked when he didn’t move or speak.
  There was a pause at first, then he pulled his cloak away to reveal the infant in his arms. She was as white as newly fallen snow and a sparse growth of snowy hair on her head. She was sleeping with her thumb in her mouth, a white kitten curled up tightly against her. He looked down on her with affection, caressing the pale pink star mark on her forehead fondly.
  “I felt like I should come here. I knew you would be here. I don’t care how or why I knew that, but I came anyway, and so here you are…” a male voice said through the thick scarf around his face. Only his blue eyes were visible, but they shined with a sadness too deep to look into for too long.
  Leeza pulled her cloak more tightly around herself, feeling apprehensive. This traveler obviously wanted her for something, and he had quite clearly come a very long way for it. And with a child and kitten in tow at that. Leeza didn’t have to use her Gift to know he was heavy with grief. Something very tragic had happened to him, and recently.
  “If you would like for me to Read for you, then you may come back to my house with me…”
  “No.”
  “Oh… Well, then, what is it that you came here for?”
  “I have something important to attend to, blood debts must be paid. I came here because I felt like I should. She is yours. There are none of my people to care for her anymore. I felt I should come here…”
  Before Leeza could say another word, he’d rushed forward and thrust the baby and the kitten into her arms. She gripped clumsily, trying not to drop the child. When she looked up again, the strange man in the winter garb was gone. She hadn’t even heard him leaving, yet she knew he was no ghost or apparition. She looked down at the burden in her arms, worry furrowing her brows.
  The kitten had been awakened by the harsh movement. It was nosing around the infant’s neck, mewing softly. The baby had only half awakened, opening her eyes only long enough to show off eyes that mirrored those Leeza had seen on the mystery man, only not full of hate and anguish as his had been. These eyes were curious and new and sleepy.
  Leeza began a slow pace back to her cottage, staring away into the distance as if she saw nothing at all in front of her. The dreams she’d been plagued with over the past several nights were shaping together like puzzle pieces. She didn’t question what she should do with this new charge, as it seemed perfectly well suited that she should have it. She didn’t know where any of this would go, but if she had been selected to help carry out some ordained task, then she of all people would be more than content with such a job.

  Time passed, as it has a  bad habit of doing…

  Seventeen summers came and went since the night when Leeza was approached by the man in the winter clothing. She had raised the girl child as well as any mother would have done, though she never deceived her about her parentage. All though her years, Leeza had told her that she’d been some poor misborn child whose mother had been too much a fool to either end her life or nurture it, and that she had had no problems with raising up a child so unusual, as she wasn’t exactly the model of average herself. And with the march of time, the child had forgotten to be concerned with such things.
  She was quite proud of the girl, and how she had raised her. She was long past the round chubbiness of childhood, and was well on her way to womanhood. She had the eye of nearly ever man in the village, despite her strangeness, both young and old alike. Her skin was soft and white like fine porcelain. Her hair was silken snow. Her eyes were glittering sapphires, and they were bright summer skies in even the coldest, dreariest winters. For her chilly whiteness, Leeza had called her Ice. The name suited her in appearance, but not so much in personality. Though she was curious and clumsy to a fault, she also tended to be good natured and friendly.
  Leeza was watching out the window as Ice went about her laundry chores. The unusual kitten that had come with her when she’d been placed in charge of Ice so long ago was with her now, as he tended to be. Though he was no kitten now. He’d grown to the size of a golden retriever dog, taking on a bushy lion like mane of amethyst. There was a fluffy tuft of hair on the end of his long, slender tail to match. His face was more like a common housecat’s than the noble wildcat his mane mimicked, though his snout was just a bit longer, and his body shape resembled more the dog whose size he equaled. His paws were comically large, but they concealed four razor edged claws each, all pearly and about three inches in length. He was Ice’s constant companion, never straying far from her side. She’d called him by the name of Valon since she’d been able to speak.
  While Ice scrubbed laundry in the washtub, Valon lounged on a fallen log nearby. Neither one of them moved their lips - though Valon never did - but Leeza knew they were engaged in some silent conversation.

  Ice scrubbed a little harder than necessary on the dishcloth she held in the sudsy wash water. It hurt her fingers, but she pretended not to notice.
  ‘Why do you do it so hard if it causes you pain?’ Valon’s soft, purring voice asked her, though no ears would have heard it.
  Ice felt a twinge of irritation that he’d been watching her thoughts without her knowing it again. He had a bad habit of doing that.
  ‘Gives me something else to concern myself with,’ was Ice’s mental answer.
  Valon opened one of his pupil-less green eyes to glance in Ice’s direction. He had that usual lazy, amused look to him, and anyone who’d looked at him now would swear he was smiling.
  ‘You think too much,’ he purred.
  Ice dunked the washcloth into the rinse water and proceeded to wring it out.
  ‘I’ll think as much as I like. Besides, I have plenty to be thinking about.’
  Valon closed his eyes again and stretched out his legs, digging his claws into the dead bark of the old tree.
  ‘Concerning things that young women your age would fret themselves over, I wouldn’t understand. Though I have to concede that you do draw the fancy of practically every man in town, I do have to tell you that those fancies are not appropriate, and don’t involve marriage. They fear your unusual appearance, and worry that having you for a bride would ruin their reputations and gentlemen. But as for wondering why you’re different… Well, I’d be asking Leeza about that,’ he said, always straight to the truth of the matter.
  The red flush of embarrassment and anger on Ice’s face had nothing to do with Valon’s bluntness. She knew he didn’t understand what humans knew of as tact. It was knowing that the so-called gentlemen feared their reputations if they were to marry her, but had no problem thinking of her as if she were nothing better than a harlot. She wouldn’t question Valon on the matter. If it had been that even one of them had any true interest in her, he’d have mentioned him. But, seeing as he hadn’t, they all either feared her too much, or wanted the milk without having to buy the cow.
  She sighed, trying to concentrate on her work again, scrubbing even harder now. But that nagging ache was always there. The want for a more normal life, married, like most all young women her age. No more of these little “incidents” where she charred something to ashes or somehow placed things where they didn’t belong without ever even touching them. No more snowy white hair that struck fear and suspicion, though usually both at the same time. And if she could wipe away the pale pink star on her forehead, she’d do it, even though she felt pride in her heart for it for some reason she didn’t understand. For, when anyone looked at her, their eyes always found that mark. The girls teased her because of her rare beauty that they were both jealous and afraid of. And now to know what the men were really thinking, too. She knew it was all true. Valon could see into the thoughts of others and he didn’t understand lying. She let go of whatever she had been scrubbing so viciously and sat back on her heels.
  ‘I wish Leeza had left me where she’d found me. My poor stupid mother must have been devastated. To have borne me of all abominations! Coward she was for not having  put me out of my grief!’
  Valon opened his eyes to regard her. She felt the presence of him knowing more than he was letting on, though not much more.
  ‘You are too hard on yourself. You’d think it was that-time-of-the-month with how irritable you are. Speak with Leeza. I think you should do it now,’ he told her. His voice still purred, but it had little of the mirth to it that it’d had before.
  Ice rose from her place, hurriedly washing the soap from her hands, and stalked off for the house. Leeza was waiting for her in her rocking chair with a look of expectation on her face as if she’d known all along that Ice would come questioning her this  very moment. Though, as to whether it was by Leeza’s Seeing gift or by means of Valon that she’d come to that conclusion, Ice didn’t know.
  “Sit, child. Your heart is troubled,” the old woman said when Ice entered the open doorway.
  Ice did as she was instructed, sitting in the beat up old chair that had been patched and repatched over many years.
  “Valon told you?” she asked, wondering how much Leeza and Valon talked about her when she didn’t realize it. He often informed Leeza of personal information regarding the people who came seeking Seeings from her, so why not talk about Ice, too?
  Leeza shook her head. “Though I’ve asked on several occasions, Valon tells me little more of your thoughts than what mood you’re in, or how best you should be approached on bad days. He’s told me nothing,” she said, reassuring Ice that they really didn’t talk about her personal matters when she didn’t know it. “Partly, it’s thanks to the Gift that I knew you’d come to me now. Partly because I know you. It isn’t unreasonable that you’ve come to have a lot of questions about yourself by now. Honestly, I should have already told you about these things.”
  Ice furrowed her brows slightly, feeling somehow betrayed. Leeza had been keeping secrets?
  “Before all else, I want to apologize. I have been less than honest with you. All your life I told you that I found you by the river, alone except for Valon. But that isn’t true. I’ve told you that I’d suspected you were a poor misborn your coward mother had abandoned, and that isn’t true, either. The truth is that your father came upon me at night by the river, and he insisted I take you and foster you. He didn’t tell me much, other than it seems some ill had befallen your people. He said he had blood debts to repay, and that was all I ever saw of him or anyone else like him again. He was like you, in all that he had no star mark on his forehead, for his eyes and brows were all I could even see of him. He touched that mark of yours with an affection that makes me think it’s something valuable to your people and not something to be ashamed of. He didn’t tell me his name, nor where it was he’d come from, though his attire told me it was somewhere that never knew anything but cold. That’s all I know.”
  Ice stared at Leeza for several moments while all that sunk in. This morning she’d awakened wanting so desperately to be normal like everyone else that it’d put her into a bad mood. She’d felt lonely and ashamed. For some reason now she felt that none of that mattered much anymore, and that what was most important was something that hadn’t yet happened. Above all, it was now final that her wishes to be a normal woman were never going to come true.
  “What should I do..?” was all she could manage to ask.
  Leeza turned her light brown eyes away, towards the open window.
  “Before I became your guardian, I’d heard stories of terrible things happening everywhere. Nothing seemed to happen in this area, but there were signs of something yet to come. The rivercrabs disappeared. Certain wildlife vanished. Now and again deathly sick people would stumble into town rambling on and on about something that no one could comprehend. Your father hadn’t been physically ill when I met him, but he spoke about the same as those who were. I’m sure he brought you away from your homeland because you’d have died there same as I believe he eventually did. Moreso than likely he was another victim of whatever woes have taken hold of the world. Alas, I’m just an old woman blessed with the Gift of Sight, and I do wish the Dreamer would make some better role for me in her dream than this, but she is the master here, and I’m just a piece of her thoughts. What will you do? The Seeings I’ve been receiving over the years seem to point to you doing something in regards to whatever nightmares are plaguing the Dreamer. What, where, why, I don’t know. And I know this has come at you all at once and is likely hard to swallow. Again, I apologize.”
  Leeza stood from her rocker, reaching for her old wool cloak.
  “I have business in town today. There’s a woman close to childbirth that wants a Seeing concerning her child. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
  Leeza didn’t wait for Ice to say anything. She hurried out the door and started down the road as quickly as she could to avoid it. She had nothing else she could say to the girl now, and even if she did, it wouldn’t be any comfort to her at this point.
  For a while after Leeza had left, Ice just sat there looking at the pale ivory flesh of her hands. She was confused, and a bit in denial. She’d heard the horror stories of what was happening in other lands, but since no horrors had come to the old village of Kaekii, that’s all she’d regarded them to be: stories. And now all this drama had been dropped on her at once.
  Dear Dreamer! Is my life to be so cliché? I haven’t even gotten a chance to be a woman yet! She thought with a little disdain.
‘Life’s never really anything that we want or expect. And what isn’t cliché anyway?’ said Valon.
  Ice popped out of her shocked stupor.
  ‘Oh, speak for yourself! You’re just an over sized housecat that can talk. How isn’t life what you want?’ she huffed.
  ‘Very testy. Is it truly that-time-of-the-month, then?’
  Ice didn’t answer him. She rose up from her chair and left the house. Denial still clung to her, guiding her intentions. She wasn’t just some player in one of the Dreamer’s uneasy dreams. She was herself, and she had a father alike to her, and likely kin much like her as well. They were out there somewhere. She wanted to know them, who they were, and where they lived. It had to be somewhere far off and forgotten, since she’d never seen anyone even close in appearance to herself. She would ask Leethan. He would know. He was good and smart and spent all his time with his books. She had a bit of a fancy for him and knew he had one for her as well. Although, in her current state of mind she failed to remember what Valon had told her earlier. As he followed her down the road, he didn’t bother to remind her of it himself.

Description
The wind was cold. Colder than usual. It refused to quiet down to its usual ebb and flow, instead blowing on and on at a constant rate. Through the icy wind, if one were to look hard enough, were two stark blue eyes. They blinked now and then, seeming to vanish and return in an instant in the endless whiteness. This storm wouldn’t exhaust itself any time soon.
  The eyes shifted, catching movement only eyes accustomed to harsh wintry conditions would have noticed. Figures that were obviously misfit to this place drifted slowly through the snow and wind, though with great determination in their steps. If they were cold, nothing about their body language betrayed it. They didn’t flinch against the piercing ice shards thrown about in the high wind. Their bodies steamed, casting an eerie fog into the gail.
  The blue eyes narrowed. They were coming from the direction of the village. They’d been there again. Their wake stank of sweat, fear, blood, and something else worse than all that together. Obviously they’d done what they’d gone to do this time and were leaving for some other unfortunate place.
  Without a sound, the eyes were gone, and with them went any signs that anyone had been there.

  Wintervale was a well hidden township high in the Blackiron Peaks, so named for the hard black metal mined from their hearts. Travelers rarely stumbled upon it, and even when they did they were cleverly led away again by the scouts. That was why the invasion of these crazed monsters had come as such a surprise. They had come to Wintervale as if they had known where they were going all along, and no tricks to lead them away had worked for rookies or veterans alike. They’d pitched a brave fight at first, striking many of the beasts down, leaving the remaining to flee. But in the days after the skirmish a strange blight had befallen many of the townsfolk, and nothing the medicine makers concocted would cure it. Those that hadn’t died quickly were left to suffer. Once ivory white skin had taken on a sickening yellowish-green hue, the veins under the skin showing through in straight black. Eyes were sunken in and faded, and breath was raspy and hot. Fever dreams had robbed them of the brief peace of slumber. No one got better. Only worse. Those that died were considered fortunate. As a result, the population of able-bodied citizens of Wintervale had fallen sharply, leaving few to guard the village against future attacks, let alone care for the sick.
  Seeing Wintervale on its knees drew an angry grunt from his throat, but he couldn’t linger and brood over such things now. He had somewhere to be. He moved silently through the now empty streets, once alive with the daily life of his kin, hurrying along to a modestly sized house in the residential area of the village. He rushed through the unlocked door, snatching the white wool scarf away from his face. His breath misted in the chill of the room. Quickly, he moved to kneel by the hearth to stoke the dying fire, adding another log. By the time he rose again, the refreshed fire was already beginning to chase the chill from the room.
  “Mi’Erra?” he called, bounding to the right where deerskin hangings gave a little privacy to the “bedroom” of the little house. He pulled them aside to reveal a handmade wooden bed with a goose and duck down mattress, blanketed with furs and quilts piled on top of each other thickly. Within the mountain of blankets was a small face, shoulder length white hair in a disarray around her head on the pillow. His breath caught in his throat at the sight of her. The ugly yellowish-green color of her skin had been replaced with the ashen gray hue of the illness’ fallen prey.
  “Mi’Erra…” he whispered, barely a croak.
  His heart began to beat again when she took a hard breath and began to stir under the blankets. Her eyes opened, but only halfway. She turned their faded blueness toward the man standing over her, taking in his long white hair, ivory skin, and bright blue eyes as if she didn’t recognize him at first. Her eyes rested for a moment on the pinkish star on his forehead, so much like her own had once been. The star she’d worn so proudly had once been a vivid pink noticeable for paces. Now it was so faded it was almost nonexistent.
  “Ji’ir…” she wheezed, weakly holding up a frail hand. He knelt by the bed and took it into his own. Even through the tough leather of his gloves, her hand felt cold.
  “Don’t agitate yourself, Mi’Erra. You need your strength…” he cooed.
  He nearly winced for having said such words. They were so cliché, and so useless.
  She just smiled faintly at him, the look of resignation in her cold eyes enough to make him nearly break into tears.
  “The Black Cloak is upon me. I know when I’m defeated. I’m sorry…”
  There were tears in her eyes now, precious fluids he’d have chastised her for wasting before. She deserved them now.
  He squeezed her hand tighter, suddenly at a loss for words. Yet, he had recited to himself over and over the exact words he’d say and just how he would act when this day finally came. It had seemed so simple in his mind, but now he couldn’t even muster the courage to open his mouth.
  “I’m sorry to have to leave you and the baby. I’d wanted for us to live… long happy lives together…” she wheezed, tears flowing steadily now. His were, too.
  “Don’t be sorry. This is no fault of yours. No one places any blame on you. You have our love, for all time.”
  He pulled her hand to his tear dampened face, feeling how very, very cold it was against his skin. Like living snow.
  She smiled again. “You will always have mine, as well. Be at peace…”
  Her last words were their people’s form of “good-bye”. As those last words had passed her lips, so had her last breath. After that, the only sounds remaining in the room were the crackling of the fire, Ji’ir’s soft sobs, the gentle cooing of an infant, and a tiny mewing sound.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  The day was normal. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it, though there really wasn’t anything normal about it, either.
  She was in one place after another, witnessing what could only be genocide and war to her mind. There was death and illness like she’d never even imagined before. There were strange and ugly demonic beasts she didn’t recognize, and peoples and far away lands she recognized just as little.
  Then there was the shadow of an infant with a catlike creature guarding it menacingly.
  The day was normal, with nothing out of the ordinary about it.

~ ~ ~ ~

  Leeza was awakened by the heat. She’d kicked all her bedclothes onto the floor or down to the end of her bed again. She sighed heavily, wiping thick sweat from her brow.
  These Coastal summers were murderous!
  It was bad enough when the summer’s heat took hold, but worse yet was the heavy wetness in the air. It amplified the heat, making it that much more unbearable and harder to breathe on top of it. She didn’t curse the heat so much as the night. Her dreams weren’t allowing her a good night’s rest recently anyway.
  She sighed again, pushing back silver locks of sweat-damp hair from her sweaty face. She slipped out of bed and stepped to the window, shutters open wide to let in whatever breezes might grace her. She gazed up to the starlit sky. By now the red moon had set, leaving the smaller white and gold moons behind. It was past middlenight, then. She didn’t feel much like trying to go back to sleep. The residue of her dream had her feeling nervous and jarred. So, she pulled on her old gray wool cloak, slipped into her shoes, and stepped outside.
  The difference in temperature was immediately noticeable. This made the corner of her wrinkled mouth tighten. She thought it was a cruel state that even though it was cooler outdoors at night, anyone attempting to sleep outside would find themselves prime targets for the blood sucking night bugs. It was either face the heat or the insects. Either choice left one awake and miserable.
  I ought to pack up and move to the North. I’m getting too old for these Coastal summers, she thought as she strolled out across the grassy front yard of her modest cottage home. With that thought still playing in her mind, she glanced back at her house. She was fortunate enough to have her own home out away from the noise and smell of the village, but it still wasn’t much to speak of. It was just a small white brick structure with a crudely shingled roof. It was set of a rather well-used road connecting the little village of Kaekii with the larger, much busier village of Beque. Nearby was the river, where Leeza was headed now.
  The river provided travelers with water for themselves or their mounts, and also food from fishing. Leeza had several crab traps set along the banks, and since she nothing better to do at this time of the night, she decided that she’d go check on them.
  Her path to the first crab trap was well lit by the light of the two lesser moons, allowing her to find her way with no trouble. She leaned over to where an oiled rope was tied to a branch overhanging the steep riverbank and pulled it up slowly, hand over hand. The handmade wire trap rose from the moving water little by little. It was empty, its bait untouched. Leeza huffed, letting the trap fall back to the river, sinking below the surface once again. If not even the bait in that trap had been touched, then neither would the other two. There had been fewer and fewer rivercrabs as of late, and even the fisherman were having poor catches.
  Leeza watched the lazy water sparkling under the moonlight with a sense of dread. She feared that the low yield from the rivers and forests were yet another sign that something was very wrong. The stories she’d been hearing from travelers about dire beasts spreading death and illness didn’t help her heart any, nor the people who came to her door begging for Readings about the welfare and futures of their families after such news.
  A rustle broke her concentration, causing her to spin around to face who or whatever might have come upon her just now. It was not uncommon for forest creatures to come investigate her when she had her middlenight walks, but she was always cautious. What stood there was no creature of the forest. This visitor didn’t even come from these lands. It was a man, though much of him was hard to see beneath his very unseasonable attire. He appeared to not even know what summer’s heat was.
  “Is there something I can help you with?” she asked when he didn’t move or speak.
  There was a pause at first, then he pulled his cloak away to reveal the infant in his arms. She was as white as newly fallen snow and a sparse growth of snowy hair on her head. She was sleeping with her thumb in her mouth, a white kitten curled up tightly against her. He looked down on her with affection, caressing the pale pink star mark on her forehead fondly.
  “I felt like I should come here. I knew you would be here. I don’t care how or why I knew that, but I came anyway, and so here you are…” a male voice said through the thick scarf around his face. Only his blue eyes were visible, but they shined with a sadness too deep to look into for too long.
  Leeza pulled her cloak more tightly around herself, feeling apprehensive. This traveler obviously wanted her for something, and he had quite clearly come a very long way for it. And with a child and kitten in tow at that. Leeza didn’t have to use her Gift to know he was heavy with grief. Something very tragic had happened to him, and recently.
  “If you would like for me to Read for you, then you may come back to my house with me…”
  “No.”
  “Oh… Well, then, what is it that you came here for?”
  “I have something important to attend to, blood debts must be paid. I came here because I felt like I should. She is yours. There are none of my people to care for her anymore. I felt I should come here…”
  Before Leeza could say another word, he’d rushed forward and thrust the baby and the kitten into her arms. She gripped clumsily, trying not to drop the child. When she looked up again, the strange man in the winter garb was gone. She hadn’t even heard him leaving, yet she knew he was no ghost or apparition. She looked down at the burden in her arms, worry furrowing her brows.
  The kitten had been awakened by the harsh movement. It was nosing around the infant’s neck, mewing softly. The baby had only half awakened, opening her eyes only long enough to show off eyes that mirrored those Leeza had seen on the mystery man, only not full of hate and anguish as his had been. These eyes were curious and new and sleepy.
  Leeza began a slow pace back to her cottage, staring away into the distance as if she saw nothing at all in front of her. The dreams she’d been plagued with over the past several nights were shaping together like puzzle pieces. She didn’t question what she should do with this new charge, as it seemed perfectly well suited that she should have it. She didn’t know where any of this would go, but if she had been selected to help carry out some ordained task, then she of all people would be more than content with such a job.

  Time passed, as it has a  bad habit of doing…

  Seventeen summers came and went since the night when Leeza was approached by the man in the winter clothing. She had raised the girl child as well as any mother would have done, though she never deceived her about her parentage. All though her years, Leeza had told her that she’d been some poor misborn child whose mother had been too much a fool to either end her life or nurture it, and that she had had no problems with raising up a child so unusual, as she wasn’t exactly the model of average herself. And with the march of time, the child had forgotten to be concerned with such things.
  She was quite proud of the girl, and how she had raised her. She was long past the round chubbiness of childhood, and was well on her way to womanhood. She had the eye of nearly ever man in the village, despite her strangeness, both young and old alike. Her skin was soft and white like fine porcelain. Her hair was silken snow. Her eyes were glittering sapphires, and they were bright summer skies in even the coldest, dreariest winters. For her chilly whiteness, Leeza had called her Ice. The name suited her in appearance, but not so much in personality. Though she was curious and clumsy to a fault, she also tended to be good natured and friendly.
  Leeza was watching out the window as Ice went about her laundry chores. The unusual kitten that had come with her when she’d been placed in charge of Ice so long ago was with her now, as he tended to be. Though he was no kitten now. He’d grown to the size of a golden retriever dog, taking on a bushy lion like mane of amethyst. There was a fluffy tuft of hair on the end of his long, slender tail to match. His face was more like a common housecat’s than the noble wildcat his mane mimicked, though his snout was just a bit longer, and his body shape resembled more the dog whose size he equaled. His paws were comically large, but they concealed four razor edged claws each, all pearly and about three inches in length. He was Ice’s constant companion, never straying far from her side. She’d called him by the name of Valon since she’d been able to speak.
  While Ice scrubbed laundry in the washtub, Valon lounged on a fallen log nearby. Neither one of them moved their lips - though Valon never did - but Leeza knew they were engaged in some silent conversation.

  Ice scrubbed a little harder than necessary on the dishcloth she held in the sudsy wash water. It hurt her fingers, but she pretended not to notice.
  ‘Why do you do it so hard if it causes you pain?’ Valon’s soft, purring voice asked her, though no ears would have heard it.
  Ice felt a twinge of irritation that he’d been watching her thoughts without her knowing it again. He had a bad habit of doing that.
  ‘Gives me something else to concern myself with,’ was Ice’s mental answer.
  Valon opened one of his pupil-less green eyes to glance in Ice’s direction. He had that usual lazy, amused look to him, and anyone who’d looked at him now would swear he was smiling.
  ‘You think too much,’ he purred.
  Ice dunked the washcloth into the rinse water and proceeded to wring it out.
  ‘I’ll think as much as I like. Besides, I have plenty to be thinking about.’
  Valon closed his eyes again and stretched out his legs, digging his claws into the dead bark of the old tree.
  ‘Concerning things that young women your age would fret themselves over, I wouldn’t understand. Though I have to concede that you do draw the fancy of practically every man in town, I do have to tell you that those fancies are not appropriate, and don’t involve marriage. They fear your unusual appearance, and worry that having you for a bride would ruin their reputations and gentlemen. But as for wondering why you’re different… Well, I’d be asking Leeza about that,’ he said, always straight to the truth of the matter.
  The red flush of embarrassment and anger on Ice’s face had nothing to do with Valon’s bluntness. She knew he didn’t understand what humans knew of as tact. It was knowing that the so-called gentlemen feared their reputations if they were to marry her, but had no problem thinking of her as if she were nothing better than a harlot. She wouldn’t question Valon on the matter. If it had been that even one of them had any true interest in her, he’d have mentioned him. But, seeing as he hadn’t, they all either feared her too much, or wanted the milk without having to buy the cow.
  She sighed, trying to concentrate on her work again, scrubbing even harder now. But that nagging ache was always there. The want for a more normal life, married, like most all young women her age. No more of these little “incidents” where she charred something to ashes or somehow placed things where they didn’t belong without ever even touching them. No more snowy white hair that struck fear and suspicion, though usually both at the same time. And if she could wipe away the pale pink star on her forehead, she’d do it, even though she felt pride in her heart for it for some reason she didn’t understand. For, when anyone looked at her, their eyes always found that mark. The girls teased her because of her rare beauty that they were both jealous and afraid of. And now to know what the men were really thinking, too. She knew it was all true. Valon could see into the thoughts of others and he didn’t understand lying. She let go of whatever she had been scrubbing so viciously and sat back on her heels.
  ‘I wish Leeza had left me where she’d found me. My poor stupid mother must have been devastated. To have borne me of all abominations! Coward she was for not having  put me out of my grief!’
  Valon opened his eyes to regard her. She felt the presence of him knowing more than he was letting on, though not much more.
  ‘You are too hard on yourself. You’d think it was that-time-of-the-month with how irritable you are. Speak with Leeza. I think you should do it now,’ he told her. His voice still purred, but it had little of the mirth to it that it’d had before.
  Ice rose from her place, hurriedly washing the soap from her hands, and stalked off for the house. Leeza was waiting for her in her rocking chair with a look of expectation on her face as if she’d known all along that Ice would come questioning her this  very moment. Though, as to whether it was by Leeza’s Seeing gift or by means of Valon that she’d come to that conclusion, Ice didn’t know.
  “Sit, child. Your heart is troubled,” the old woman said when Ice entered the open doorway.
  Ice did as she was instructed, sitting in the beat up old chair that had been patched and repatched over many years.
  “Valon told you?” she asked, wondering how much Leeza and Valon talked about her when she didn’t realize it. He often informed Leeza of personal information regarding the people who came seeking Seeings from her, so why not talk about Ice, too?
  Leeza shook her head. “Though I’ve asked on several occasions, Valon tells me little more of your thoughts than what mood you’re in, or how best you should be approached on bad days. He’s told me nothing,” she said, reassuring Ice that they really didn’t talk about her personal matters when she didn’t know it. “Partly, it’s thanks to the Gift that I knew you’d come to me now. Partly because I know you. It isn’t unreasonable that you’ve come to have a lot of questions about yourself by now. Honestly, I should have already told you about these things.”
  Ice furrowed her brows slightly, feeling somehow betrayed. Leeza had been keeping secrets?
  “Before all else, I want to apologize. I have been less than honest with you. All your life I told you that I found you by the river, alone except for Valon. But that isn’t true. I’ve told you that I’d suspected you were a poor misborn your coward mother had abandoned, and that isn’t true, either. The truth is that your father came upon me at night by the river, and he insisted I take you and foster you. He didn’t tell me much, other than it seems some ill had befallen your people. He said he had blood debts to repay, and that was all I ever saw of him or anyone else like him again. He was like you, in all that he had no star mark on his forehead, for his eyes and brows were all I could even see of him. He touched that mark of yours with an affection that makes me think it’s something valuable to your people and not something to be ashamed of. He didn’t tell me his name, nor where it was he’d come from, though his attire told me it was somewhere that never knew anything but cold. That’s all I know.”
  Ice stared at Leeza for several moments while all that sunk in. This morning she’d awakened wanting so desperately to be normal like everyone else that it’d put her into a bad mood. She’d felt lonely and ashamed. For some reason now she felt that none of that mattered much anymore, and that what was most important was something that hadn’t yet happened. Above all, it was now final that her wishes to be a normal woman were never going to come true.
  “What should I do..?” was all she could manage to ask.
  Leeza turned her light brown eyes away, towards the open window.
  “Before I became your guardian, I’d heard stories of terrible things happening everywhere. Nothing seemed to happen in this area, but there were signs of something yet to come. The rivercrabs disappeared. Certain wildlife vanished. Now and again deathly sick people would stumble into town rambling on and on about something that no one could comprehend. Your father hadn’t been physically ill when I met him, but he spoke about the same as those who were. I’m sure he brought you away from your homeland because you’d have died there same as I believe he eventually did. Moreso than likely he was another victim of whatever woes have taken hold of the world. Alas, I’m just an old woman blessed with the Gift of Sight, and I do wish the Dreamer would make some better role for me in her dream than this, but she is the master here, and I’m just a piece of her thoughts. What will you do? The Seeings I’ve been receiving over the years seem to point to you doing something in regards to whatever nightmares are plaguing the Dreamer. What, where, why, I don’t know. And I know this has come at you all at once and is likely hard to swallow. Again, I apologize.”
  Leeza stood from her rocker, reaching for her old wool cloak.
  “I have business in town today. There’s a woman close to childbirth that wants a Seeing concerning her child. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
  Leeza didn’t wait for Ice to say anything. She hurried out the door and started down the road as quickly as she could to avoid it. She had nothing else she could say to the girl now, and even if she did, it wouldn’t be any comfort to her at this point.
  For a while after Leeza had left, Ice just sat there looking at the pale ivory flesh of her hands. She was confused, and a bit in denial. She’d heard the horror stories of what was happening in other lands, but since no horrors had come to the old village of Kaekii, that’s all she’d regarded them to be: stories. And now all this drama had been dropped on her at once.
  Dear Dreamer! Is my life to be so cliché? I haven’t even gotten a chance to be a woman yet! She thought with a little disdain.
‘Life’s never really anything that we want or expect. And what isn’t cliché anyway?’ said Valon.
  Ice popped out of her shocked stupor.
  ‘Oh, speak for yourself! You’re just an over sized housecat that can talk. How isn’t life what you want?’ she huffed.
  ‘Very testy. Is it truly that-time-of-the-month, then?’
  Ice didn’t answer him. She rose up from her chair and left the house. Denial still clung to her, guiding her intentions. She wasn’t just some player in one of the Dreamer’s uneasy dreams. She was herself, and she had a father alike to her, and likely kin much like her as well. They were out there somewhere. She wanted to know them, who they were, and where they lived. It had to be somewhere far off and forgotten, since she’d never seen anyone even close in appearance to herself. She would ask Leethan. He would know. He was good and smart and spent all his time with his books. She had a bit of a fancy for him and knew he had one for her as well. Although, in her current state of mind she failed to remember what Valon had told her earlier. As he followed her down the road, he didn’t bother to remind her of it himself.