“What are you looking for?”

Colt spun at the sound of an old friend’s voice; one who he knew to be long dead. He couldn’t see them anywhere. Someone poked his leg. He looked down at the dark-skinned, dark-haired girl sitting comfortably in the sand. She looked like she’d been there for a while now.

She gave him a soft smile, glancing up to meet his eyes. “You have been out here for so long now.”

Colt looked around himself. He was standing in the middle of a desert; one he hadn’t been standing in seconds ago. It was not the one he grew up in nor the one he knew from the Dreamscape. This one was entirely different.

“Well?” the girl asked. “Have you found what you are looking for.”

“I – I do not know.” He knelt in front of the girl, sand warming the sudden chill which overtook his body. He took a handful, letting it run through his fingers. “What am I looking for?”

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She smirked, beginning to draw with a finger in the sand. “That is something only you can figure out.”

Colt moved behind her, glancing over the girl’s shoulder to see what she was drawing. It was a symbol: an arch with what looked like horns resting on top. Between the horns was a single sphere and, underneath the arch, was a single raindrop hanging from it. He assumed it was a raindrop. It looked like one. Colt had the nagging feeling he’d seen this symbol somewhere before but couldn’t place it.

“Is this what I’m looking for?” he asked the girl.

“No.” She tapped the symbol in the sand and it glowed, beginning to hover in front of them. “This was found long ago.” She tilted her head to the side, looking out into the distance. “Something is coming.”

Colt followed her line of sight but could see nothing.

The girl’s dark hair was tossed over the front of her shoulder as she twisted to face him, her dark eyes worried. “You are not strong enough to fight it.”

“I can fight anything,” he told her firmly.

She shook her head. “This you can’t. Not yet.” Her hands grasped his arm. “You must run, Prince. Before it gets you.”

“What about you?” He pulled her to her bare feet. “Will it not get you?”

“I will be all right.” The girl pushed him away as a dark shadow appeared on the horizon. “Now, run.”

He did.

The voice of his old friend appeared in his mind as he ran through the endless desert. “Find her before Dusk.”