All around her were horses. No, not horses - Centaurs everywhere, most wearing a horse's blinders on headbands and trotting along with purposeless efficiency.
She turned as lightning flashed to see, what looked like, Loki challenging Thor to a duel. The mischievous god harried the red-bearded god endlessly. Fists flew, and the air crackled with unspent electricities. Loki laughed and taunted Thor, causing the god's anger to heighten.
When Thor was about to bring his hammer to bear, Hercules, blindfolded with a blood-red cloth, wrestled the two to the ground, bound their arms, and looped ropes about their necks to lead them off.
Loki looked not subdued to the least, merriment dancing in his eyes. Thor yelled up a storm, but his hammer had been taken away. He turned and, seeing her, he glared . . . with Brad's eyes? Speechless, she stepped back.
And bumped into the wall of a building. She was looking at the ground, and saw winged sandals. Her gaze moved upward to see Hermes standing against the side of a tower. He didn't seem to see her, but his gaze wandered ceaselessly over the crowds passing by.
Fear pervaded the air as the peoples walked the crowded streets aimlessly. A meteor flew from the sky and hit the tower they leaned against with a rain of soot and small flames that petered out as they fell. Hermes's eyes widened in terror as he turned and ran past her. Curious, she followed him up the stairs. The wings on his sandals lent him speed above her own, yet somehow she reached the end as he did.
A Wizardess lay motionless on the ground, her companions gathered around worriedly. Hermes stepped forward with a shout.
Smoke whirled about her. . . .
It seemed as though she had been standing there, forever motionless, when she saw a Wizard ordering the others about. Athena stood by worriedly as she stroked the soft feathers of an owl. A Knight, with a red lion rampant on his chest, picked up the Wizardess and cradled her in one arm, as he pulled his golden blade from its sheath and carefully went the way Hermes and she had come.
The Wizard told Athena to follow him, and she hesitantly did so as they neared the place where the meteor had caused the most distruction. He yelled at Hermes, she couldn't tell what was said, but the wing-footed messenger rubbed soot from the fires over himself, and quickly jumped out the window.
She ran to the window to see what had happened, only to see him running through the air as Knights wearing blood-red blindfolds chased him.
One Knight raised a lance. . . .
Sylvana sat up suddenly. It took her a few minutes to get her bearings. She had been sleeping in her bed at the consulate, having returned earlier that day, and patching up her brother, she went to bed early - exhausted.
Her eyes travelled over to the clock. It was only 2323. "Make a wish," she mumbled to herself as she lay back down. And tried to get back to sleep.
After tossing about for a long while, she finally lay still.
Thor wrestled with the Midgard Serpent. She attempted to step back in fear, when she found her feet rooted where they were.
Lightning roiled about them, and suddenly, all was black. The stars were slight, and soon her eyesight adjusted to see a black cart moving along ponderously. Within, Thor, and three others, were somehow bound and at the mercy of the two before them. Soon, a chariot appeared, dran by goats, and began to chase the cart as lightning flashed before it.
The horses were afraid, and burst headlong into the night, unable to see where they went. Headlong over a cliff, they fell, and she could do nothing about it. She looked over the edge to see Thor jump out, lightning playing over him as he clung to the cliff side.
Wood splintering, the scream of the horses and men mingled into a hell raising cacophony of horror, waves of unutterable fear rolled up the cliffside, buffetting Thor as he stepped into the chariot, and coming up to knock her aside.
Her heart raced, and was soon slowed by something else. Thor's chariot raised him to the ground above the cliff, not far from where she lay.
Slowly she stood, and tentatively she made her way over to the god. She jumped as he slammed his fists against the chariot and yelled at something unseen in his anger.
Guilt stained his cheeks.
The rolling fear stopped suddenly, causing her to overbalance, and fall from the cliff. The last thing she saw, was Thor's guilt-ridden expression, and yet almost . . . determined.
Fire from the sky headed straight for her.
Sylvana woke up as she swallowed a shout, and found herself to be lying on the floor beside the bed, tangled in the winding sheets. A sheen of cold sweat lay against her forehead as she forced her breathing to a more normal pace.
A light knocking on her door caused her to look toward it.
"Are you okay, Syl?" a sleepy sounding Arrek asked.
"Yeah, go back to bed," she told him as she pulled herself up and sat on the edge of the one she had occupied.
"Sleep sweet," he told her quietly.
Sylvana rested her head in her hands and looked up at the clock. It was nearly 0300. She looked at the pillow and shook her head. "I don't care how tired I am. I'm not going back to sleep." She stood and moved over to sit in the chair by the window in her room.