I

A ghastly snarl stirred me from an otherwise deep and restful sleep, and I rose to find myself lying in some mystic or hallowed wood. Fear of an unseen beast belied the fact that I was no longer in my home nor my bed. I rose to my feet, forced to presume that I had been carried off into this sinister forest through my own sleepwalking, which was sometimes my ill fate. However, I quickly grew concerned that I had come there by some other devious means. I scanned the treeline for the creature responsible for the vicious snarl, wondering if it were all some nightmare. But that growl had been too ferocious and this night too detailed to be surreal.

Listening intently, I moved forward with caution in an attempt to quiet the crushing sound of dry leaves. Surveying the forest with only the benefit of the light from a waning moon, I looked up toward a silhouette of spindly, fingerlike branches set against the shimmering stars. The moon illuminated only a small space about me, then the wood faded into the most startling dark. Despite this, I found that my initial excitement had subsided, and I was beginning to feel the slight chill in the air. I soon discovered that my breath had become vapors as I shivered in my undertunic and pants.

Standing there for a moment longer, fearing the return of the wicked beast that had invited me into this delirium, I crossed my arms to warm myself and attempted to regain my senses. Once again eyeing the wood and the endless night, I turned in a circle searching for signs of life but did not dare call out. It might have been wise to shudder or scream in terror, and I might have been pardoned for doing so because I was utterly alone without so much as a dagger or torch with which to protect myself….