The Dream

Lauren opened her eyes and found herself alone. The entire group was gone and there was no trace of any of them and then a branch snapped.

Lauren drew her sword and turned around to the last person she had expected to see.

Ben Barnes.

"How are you here?" she asked in awe.

"I'm not," was his reply. "I'm still on Earth. I'm only here because you're dreaming."

"How are you doing on Earth?" Lauren asked.

Ben hesitated. "Not good. I only have a little bit of time left, but the good news is that time passes faster in Eddeathra than on Earth, so you do have a little bit of time left."

"How do I save you?" Lauren asked.

"A flower."

"A flower?"

"Yes. Icas Thornton has a very special flower hidden somewhere and you need to retrieve it and bring it back to Earth." Ben said as he slowly started to fade away.

"How will I know where to find it?" Lauren asked.

"You will see it at some point, I can promise you that." He said as he faded away.

The dreamscape shifted to the setting of a barren wasteland. Reddish-brown sand floated in the wind that whipped around. There were no signs of life. Nothing but sand as far as the eye could see.

A white Mourning Dove who seemingly came from nowhere landed on the ground in front of Lauren. The dove looked at Lauren and cocked her head. The dove flapped her wings as two more doves appeared. One of them landed beside the first. The other dove down at the first, ready to attack. The second dove landed between the two and took the blow from the third. As the third dove killed the second, Lauren closed her eyes to spare herself from the sight.

Lauren immediately woke up. She was back in the Stelpond Forest. Amias, Odi, Mlinzi, and Askari were all there, asleep. For the rest of the night, Lauren couldn't get that dream out of her head.