Daysha jerked awake at a loud snap! She jolted upright and searched for the source, only to see a guilty-looking Maisen crouching over the fire.

“Sorry…” Maisen whispered. The fire popped loudly once again.

Daysha laughed, relieved. She flopped back against the bed skins, not ready to rise.

Maisen crossed the hut and laid beside her. “Good morning.”

Daysha kissed him, “Have you been back long?”

“No, and it's still very early. You can rest again if you like.”

“No. It's okay,” Daysha rolled to her side to face him, “What happened?”

“Wolves,” Maisen laid his head on his arm, “Only prowling, but we think the group was large. We needed to secure the perimeter until they moved on.”

“No new skins, then?” Daysha jested.

“None,” Maisen grinned. “And all the better. I hate wolves.”

“One more more reason to fetch a hide then, right?”

“I hate fighting them, Day, it's not personal!”

They laughed.

Maisen snorted, “If it were, then I wouldn't wear the skin anyway.”

“So it was just a long night, then?” Daysha said smoothly.

Maisen sighed, but his smirk was warm. “It was.”

“I'm sorry I had to leave you with such nonsense.” Daysha grinned to hide her embarrassment.

“What I did hear,” Maisen said slowly, “is that you wanted to see the Chieftain with your mother.”

“My mother wants me to see the Chieftain with her,” Daysha corrected.

“What's the difference?”

“The difference is that I don't think I want to go. I told her I would, but I've changed my mind.”

“Changed your mind from what?”

Daysha sat up with her legs crossed, facing Maisen. He leaned up on his elbow.

“About three cycles ago, I confided in my mother about some… dreams I've had.” Daysha paused, but Maisen's face did not change. “And I only brought it up when I did because, by then, I'd had the dream four times. Every cycle, when The Follower was full. It's been going that way since then.”

She watched Maisen's face as he worked it out, “So did you dream again recently?”

Daysha nodded. “Yesterday.”

“What is the dream?”

Drawing a long breath, Daysha began to describe it, “I'm in the middle of a black ocean, floating with nothing around me. Until I'm swept by waves that slam me on a silver-sand beach. The island I'm on doesn't have any trees or vegetation, just a thick cloud of mist that hangs over everything.

“Every time I reach the beach, there are these black, rocky cliffs on the shoreline. And it takes me a moment to realize that they're not rocks at all. They're scales of a monstrous serpent creature unlike anything I've ever seen.

“I can tell that the beast is dying. And as it breathes, the waters of the ocean ebb and flow in time with it. When the breath grows more and more shallow, so does the water. And before long I can't even see the ocean anymore and I'm just standing in the middle of a silver desert next to a gargantuan serpent.

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“Then there is an intense blast of heat, fire spitting from the serpent’s mouth straight down into the ground. The fire turns white, then blue. I hear an infant cry, and I wake up.”

Daysha felt little beyond bewilderment when recounting most of the details. But the cry of the child, even now, wouldn't leave her ears and she choked back emotion.

Maisen's expression was difficult to interpret. Since he said nothing, Daysha elaborated, “In some ways, it feels like nothing. But it also seems significant, somehow. The first time it happened, I was a little shaken but I didn't think much about it. The second time, I was intrigued. By the third, I was frustrated. And that's why at the fourth, I talked to my mother. She didn't know what to say. I still don't. And for every other time that I've had the dream, I'm left with this ache and confusion that just won't go away. That's why, yesterday, she suggested that I go to the Chieftain for answers.”

“Seven, right?” Maisen finally asked, “Seven times this has happened?”

“Yes,” Daysha voiced meekly. “I'm sorry. I didn't know how to bring it up for the longest time. And I know it seems like an escalation of the matter to take it to the Chieftain. Which is why I have decided not to go. I don't think that there's any… real significance here. Nothing to concern the Chieftain with.”

Maisen sat upright , pulling one knee up to his chest and resting his elbow on it as he stroked his hair.

“You don't have to be sorry,” he whispered, after a long pause.

“Well I –” Daysha protested, but Maisen interrupted her.

“What I mean… is that we both should be apologizing.”

Daysha squinted at him, questioningly.

“Is…” Maisen reconsidered his words, “Does the serpent in your dream have a crocodile's wide snout? A spiky fin all along its back? Like an eel?”

Daysha's mouth fell agape, “Are they real? Have you hunted something like this before?”

Maisen shrugged, “Only in my dream.”

Daysha neary laughed in shock.

“What dream?” She whispered.

“I dream that I am leading a hunting party through a foggy, gray wasteland. The ground gave way under every step, like walking on a shoreline with no water.”

Daysha felt his gaze go through her, past her, into his own memory. Sounds of the morning drifted from beyond the walls of their hut: occasional chirps from unseen birds and soft, indiscernible rustlings.

"When we spotted a den of serpents in the distance, I gave chase. I didn't stop. One beast – it's so hard to describe, Daysha, but I became that serpent. She broke off from her horde. I broke from the others in my party. I knew it was either her life or mine. So I ran her down with everything I had in me."

Maisen stopped again. His shoulders slumped. The story seemed too burdensome to carry.

“For a moment I thought I lost her. I felt lost. Alone. The fog had cleared, and even though I could look across a bright, silver desert, and could clearly see the black night sky, nothing was around me. I nearly panicked. Until I saw her." He gazed back up to the ceiling.

"There was nothing stopping her; she wasn't cornered. Nothing to keep her from running. She just wouldn't anymore. I won…"

Daysha watched Maisen's face contort painfully.

"She had laid down. Her breathing was deep, labored. Mist spouted from her nostrils with every breath. You wouldn't believe the size of this thing.” He chuckled nervously. “Maybe you would. I'd have had a death wish to go up against such a beast, even with a hunting party.

“Most animals are afraid. They grow fierce, desperate when in danger. I would have thought a stalked animal as formidable as this would fight until its final breath.

"But it was calm, alert. Just still. I approached cautiously, but knew, somehow, that she wouldn't fight. I placed my hand on her head and thanked her before I drove my spear into her side.”

Maisen sighed deeply, “You said you woke feeling confused, frustrated… Daysha, I felt nothing but ashamed. I knew I wasn't there for food. It was like I had no intention for this animal except to kill it. And by killing it… at the beginning of the dream I saw many, yes but when it was just she and I, I think I knew she was the last one. And despite what I had felt before, I knew that it wasn't a choice between her life or mine. She didn't fight or thrash or even run. She was letting me live and I could have done the same for her.”

He breathed out long, through pursed lips and puffed cheeks, “I didn't tell you because it was a dream. A dream that left me feeling awful. Shameful. I've hunted many times. The dream didn't feel like a hunt. It felt like killing.”

Daysha sat silently, absorbing Maisen's words. The room had grown cold, the fire waned.

“When – how many times?” Daysha faltered.

“More than seven,” Maisen offered, “And not when The Follower is full. Daysha… I've been having this dream since I was a boy.”

Daysha felt like she'd been hit. The shock gripped her core like the terrified excitement of falling and landing unharmed.

Maisen stood and paced nervously beside the bed skins.

“Well,” after a long silence, Maisen spoke matter-of-factly, “we have to see the Chieftain, right? That's what this means.”

Daysha felt a lump in her throat, “I suppose we do.”