The flash of a redhead at the bar.
"Alisky!" She broke away from her partner and ran to her friend. "Hobbie told me that you were de-." The woman who turned to face her was not Alison at all, but a wisened woman wearing a frown glared at her.
"What do you want, child?"
"N- nothing ma'am. I'm sorry to bother you." Hanging her head, she headed for the doorway. Hobbie soon appeared at her side and slid an arm around her waist as she leaned her head on his shoulder with a sigh.
"Come on, let's go back to your house," he said quietly, then pulled on her hand to lead her out the door. A black shadow slipped out behind them.
They stepped onto a snow dusted field in a place obviously not in the Catskills, to watch sheep scatter as a dragon and its dragonettes landed. Scales fell from their backs, dropping to the ground and reforming into human shapes which moved to greet someone closer to them than she was.
A lamb nudged her forward toward a strange dark shape, and she stumbled. . . .
Into a bedroom, where a comforter was covered with an arsenal of weaponry. A young man was checking things off on a mental list when he was interrupted. She saw him turn to the door and look at someone behind her, as though she weren't even there. She stepped aside and looked behind her to see . . .
Bilbo Baggins? The shadow in his wake seemed oddly shaped, as though it didn't belong to the man at all.
A crow fluttered to land on the man's shoulder and she turned back to look at the young man, and found herself standing in the middle of Central Park.
She screamed as she turned to see someone hanging upside down from a tree limb by a pointed blue tail. he had thick blue hair, pointed ears, and fangs like a devil-creature. He reached out and beckoned to her with a two finger, one thumb'd hand and she tried to run, but found her feet trapped in a cement block. She looked up and the creature had dropped to its feet. Wait-a-minute, isn't that one of those X-men from Arrek's comics?
The shadowed shape jumped at her, but was knocked out of the way by the first creature. The two grappled on the ground before her, the blue creature, and the darkness.
She watched helplessly as they fought, unable to run from the nightmares before her. She heard a scream and turned to look over her shoulder.
Suddenly, her feet were free; standing lightly on the thin crust of deep snow, she could see deep footprints all about her, though she stood as though the top were solid as rock. She wrapped a cloak around herself as the frozen wind blew against her; her ears felt as though they'd turned into pointed icicles. She was standing at the edge of a snowbound cliff and heard another cry coming from further down. She saw a boy holding on to the ledge, and reached out to pull him up.
At the last moment the rumble of an avelanche came from above her, and the boy turned into the He-death. With a mighty tug, he pulled her down. After a moment, he let her wrist go, and she fell. An Twisting in the air, she watched the sharp rocks below quickly gain on her.
Sylvana sat straight up in her bed, breathing heavily as sweat glistened on her forehead. She looked over at the clock. "Ten-fifteen," she said quietly to herself. With a sigh, she fell back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.
"Sometimes, I wish I would never have any dreams at all."