A Dream for the Princesses

It came at precisely midnight. Whilst the Princesses slept, their minds would be invaded.

The Crann in their respective bedchambers moved. Had anyone been there to witness it, they would be seen bowing over their sleeping forms, staring without eyes at the women.

Aliamine



The voice came on the air, in some mist-ridden void. The sound of wind rustling through treetops was around, but there were no trees. The ground was wet and soft.

"Aliamine..."

A woman's voice. Youthful, lilting with the accent of the marshes, deceptive and gentle.

"Come to me, Aliamine."

The more the Princess walked, the more the mists parted. The marshes spread out either side of her. It was dark enough to be night, but the canopy of the trees and the perpetual fog made it difficult to know whether it was even night at all.

A little laugh beside the Princess' ear.

Somewhere off behind the trees, it echoed again. It was followed by the words, "Pretty rabbit..."

Something moved behind Aliamine. When she spun, it moved again - behind her.

"A pretty rabbit, with such pretty eyes."

The Princess ran.

"Run from me, pretty rabbit. Run from me."

A parting in the trees meant that she could see Esibel, also running, down a different path alongside her own. She called out to her, but Esibel just kept on running. A snarl from behind her made her run faster. She didn't dare look up, or over her shoulder, for fear of tripping over some obstructing root.

"No one will love your heart like I do, little rabbit. No one."

Esibel ran down the path towards her. Aliamine called for her again, and went to fling herself into her cousin's arms.

She fell through her, and into the marshes. She began to sink, watching Esibel run on down the path, away from her.

"Don't cry, little rabbit. It was always going to happen."

What was always going to happen?

Aliamine carried on sinking.

The voice came right in her ear this time, as a red dog the size of a small pony began padding across the mud-water with webbed feet. A wolfhound, by the looks of it, though horned like a ram, and webbed like a goose at its paws.

"I am coming for you."

Aliamine would keep sinking, and only when the darknesses shrouded her and her lungs felt like they might explode, would she be released from her dream - to find the Crann where it ought to be, and a red mist being sucked out of her room and underneath her door.

Esibel



It was Aliamine's voice. Calling through these marsh roads, with their deceptive, white lights in the gloom and their tangled plantlife.

Esibel called for her, responding with the desperation that only ever bred itself when blood relatives screamed for help.

She was sure she was getting closer, but she never managed to see her. She kept on running, and running, until her breath prevented her from going any further.

At the end of the wet clearing, there stood a figure. Robed in red, with half of her face visible. Mereavus' face. Younger. Something in the eyes gleaned, demented, and she held in her hands a finely crafted wooden staff in the shape of a skeletal, horned dragon.

The woman smirked.

"Poor, lost little Princess," she sneered. "Where is your bird? Where is your cousin? Where is the way home?"

Her tone mocked. It pouted with faux-sympathy. She laughed. It was a short, barking sort of sound.

"Can't you see her? Can't you hear her?"

Mad bitch.

"Look down, and you'll find your rabbit."

Esibel did so.

And there was Aliamine. Esibel was stood on her shoulders, drowning her in the murky, thick water. She tried to lift one leg and jump back, but the suction kept her still. She watched in horror as Aliamine's wide eyes vanished beneath the quagmire.

The red-clad woman laughed again.

"Try to save her, and you and I will tangle, Princess."

She opened her cloak, and the red hound clawed its way out of the earth where her legs ought to be. It bayed, and began slinking its way over to Esibel.

"I am in your mind. You will hear me forever."

The Crann stood silent. The burgundy mist fled. The room was utterly quiet.

But there was something there, watching, in the dark.

Something red.