Gemstorm’s eyes popped open. A faint sound had awakened her. Looking about her darkened bower she saw nothing unusual, other than Gelert had left to go on some hound’s midnight errantry. Probably to the midden to roll like Vos street cur, she thought with a little smile.the river for him come morn.

Her ear again caught the faint sound..coming from without..a horse’s hoof striking a stone perhaps. She rose from her bed and pulling on an old tunic went out to see if some horse had broken it’s picket line and wandered about the camp.

Emerging into the night, she looked about her..the camp was silent and before her stood an old and bony horse..

Narrowing her eyes she looked closely..saying “I know thee and name thee Nightmare.. I bid thee begone for thou will not find the forage thou seeks here. The beast’s eyes glowed spectral red. It did turn about but only to look back and beckon with its head.

Follow!

Gemstorm did as it bade her, following it down the center of the Serpent Slide River Camp, and looked cooly upon the things the beast did wish her to see. Her people lay dead, from the babe in arms to the mightiest warrior, as though some great battle or pestilence had struck them down while she lay oblivious in sleep. The willow groves were sere and blasted and no living thing from the small to the large moved.

Gemstorm raised her eyes from the scene and looked calmly at the red eyed mare..”All folk die and all things pass with time..Lead on mare!..I am curious to see what else thou wouldst attempt..”

The Nightmare walked out onto the range and led Gemstorm to a rise below which the herd gathered. The herd stallion saw the two figures looking down. He stood regarding them a moment, then began to circle his mares...

The Nightmare opened its mouth and below them Gemstorm saw the milling horses falter..slow..sink to the ground...the stallion stumbled but threw up his head and steadied...he screamed a challenge to the mare on the hill..and the herd surged slowly to its feet..

Twice more the Nightmare opened its mouth and the stallion answered rallying his herd..but to no avail..the third time they all fell and did not rise..

Gemstorm looked thoughtfully upon the fallen herd..”Tis an old story you show me Nightmare a time that once was but is no longer, yet may come again...or not..”

“And now I do command thee to begone and begone” for I have no fear to feed thee this night!”

“GAH!!!!” Gemstorm reared up from her bed with a shout and reaching out grabbed her boot and threw it at Gelert. “Get out you midden reeking hound..go sleep with the horses!”

Second Nightmare

Gemstorm’s eyes flew open..that sound..again..a hoof striking a pebble..all else was silence and cold light filtering through the thatch of her bower..she couldn’t feel the faint drum of the earth against her back from the milling of the herds..

hmnnn...rising she pulled on an old tunic and went outside to see what this portended. The Nightmare stood swinging its head and pawing at the ground..its spectral eyes glowing with witchlights..

Gemstorm walked toward the beast..her own eyes the flat, cold green of a hunting panther..she had a plan though the shaman had warned her strongly against it..

“Milady of the Night..I see thou hast come once again to beg from the table of my inner fears..we shall see..”..Gemstorm swiftly grasped the beasts ragged mane and swung up on it’s back..the beast shuddered with an understanding skin when she felt Gemstorm’s weight on her back.. bogged her head..turned and bolted..

The beast bucked and twisted but Gemstorm clung to her, pressing her hard with knees and slamming the gaunted ribs with her heels..she rode the thing out on to a vast darkling plain..where the beast flattened out into a run...coming to the edge of the plain Gemstorm gasped as the Nightmare gathered itself beneath her and leaped out into the abyss..

Falling ...falling..falling...Gemstorm rode, her face a mask of frozen terror ...falling ...falling.. Then she felt the muscles collect beneath her and the Nightmare commenced to gallop..cutting a track between the silence and the dark..

Slowing at intervals to tread in place..Gemstorm looked and saw her device..the beast did stop and piaffe ..Gemstorm kept her face averted for the dreams of others were no business of hers..

She looked for the track that she knew she must force the beast to take if she herself did not want to ride lost forever ..and saw to the east a fingerling of light.., reaching forward she grasped the tattered pennants of the beasts mane and wrenched its head around..

The beast opened its mouth and silently screamed in denial..she would not be turned..for she must always go west..

Gemstorm fought for direction but the mare continued to run west and the track of light began to diminish behind her..

Tears of rage and fear began to fall down her cheeks as she fought the creature ..turning it back only to have it duck its head and swing west again.. Riding for a space she tried to think of what to do now..out of the corner of her eye she saw the darkness take shape and sweeping up along side her came a black stallion with a jagged white stripe that ran from his ear to his hoof..with a white pennant of mane behind his ear that mingled with the black.

“Noble One”?..she thought ..but then had no more time for thought for the black stallion reached the Nightmare’s shoulder and with a grunt of rage reached over and grasped her neck in his teeth....pressing his body against her and forcing her to swing and turn back to the east..

Gemstorm rallied her own will and began to ride the mare with knee and heel..the stallion dropped back and snaking his head with his ears flat to his head drove the Nightmare from behind..

The three raced east, the Nighmare began to sweat as the fingerling of light approached..when her forehooves touched the light trail she began to fade..Gemstorm got up on her knees and leaped to the black stallion’s back as the Nightmare completely dissolved in the strengthening light.

The black stallion tossed his head as he felt her weight descend upon his back, the lightning racing through his brain leaked from his rolling eyes like tears...Gemstorm leaned upon his neck and spoke softly to him..”whither thou goest I will go..” and laid upon his neck as he climbed up to the sun...and then arcing over ..began to fall.....and …Gemstorm rode the fall her eyes mad with the terror and the glory of the moment...

Gemstorm sat up..”Gah”..swinging her legs slowly over the side of the bed..she looked down in shock, from hip to heel she was a welter of bruises, the inside of her knees torn and crusted with blood.

Shaking her head , she grunted painfully ..”well the wench was a ribby old thing, but for all of that, I think I will not be riding out on Snowheels anytime soon..come Gelert be my friend and lend me thy strength, if Dari hasn’t ridden out this morning, I will ask him to take Snowie out the herd.”

Tossing her trews aside in favor of a long tunic , she braced herself on the dog and hobbled out the door.

She slowly walked down the camp’s main street greeting the folk who were out and starting the break fast fires, stopping a moment to ask her sister if she had seen Dari go out yet..Argent said she had seen him but a moment ago speaking with the Shaman.

Nodding her thanks, Gemstorm continued her painful hobble, privately hoping that Dari had concluded his conversation with the Shaman as she did not wish to be interviewed by that terrrifying old man when she knew he would censure her for her foolishness the night before.

“Ah me, she sighed, “ Gelert, it would seem that the pain of my legs would be sufficient punishment without enduring the Shaman’s disapproval and dreadfully satisfied “I told thee so”…”

Gelert raised his noble head and looked at her as she spoke but it had naught to do with dogs so he did not comment.

Seeing her doom coming toward her, his head bowed in a listening pose to whatever Dari was saying..gave her the advantage of the moment and she ducked around behind a guesting bower..waiting til the two men passed and then watching to see with relief, they concluded their conversation and Dari had turned back and was coming her way.

“Dari!”..she hissed. ..”bide a moment for I would ask a kindness of thee.”

Dari looked over toward the sound of her voice and knowing her well guessed she was hiding from the Shaman..since a small child she had ever been leery of him and his severe imposing dignity, as well as his horrid predisposition for grabbing camp children and dosing them with nasty tasting tonics.

His eyes twinkled with mirth for she would never change no matter how many ranger rides she took south.. “Gemmie”..as always I live to serve thee”..his voice rippled with suppressed laughter.”

He narrowed his eyes as she came out slowly from behind the guest bower, leaning on the dogs shoulder,, her face lightly sweated with the pain of her legs.

Swearing softly under his breath..he barely managed to keep back the name he had always called her even when she was a dirty faced little camp urchin, yanking on his stirrup and demanding he “Up Dari,! Up!..”

She cast him a slightly irritated look and dismissed her condition..she had not really thought about the reason for it yet, “Nay Dari tis a small thing and will mend in time..but please if you would take SnowHeels out and let her run with the herd until it does.

"I would be truly grateful.” She smiled weakly..for she did feel light-headed and exhausted from the brief exertion already.

Dari reached out and gently cupped her chin raising her face so he could see her eyes..”I will do as thee request and take the mare out to the herd and one other thing..I will walk with thee to thine parents bower for I would see that thine mother does attend thee this morn…..thou art plagued as are all folk of the land by the nightmare ?”

Gemstorm nodded dumbly..then said , “ My thanks to thee …”

Dari kept his peace as they slowly made their way to Gemstorm’s parent’s bower. But his thoughts were dark and dangerous. Little fool he thought..only she would attempt to do that ride.

Some few days later, Gemstorm sat in front of her bower and idly patted the great warhound Gelert’s head while he lay sprawled at her side, feeling that “watch” could be as easily performed from that comfortable position as standing.

Her mind turned over her recent experiences in the south, seeing some sense of the pattern there that led to the key to the current wave of all encompassing nightmares.

She had found the southerners rather cloying from their great over shadowing forests to their preoccupation with subtle games of power. The machination of that old monster of a Thorn did not escape her first attention either. She sighed, murmured "poxy mess" thinking of her friendship with Ranger Decky..and her pledge to help with his trainee Cabal. She had sent a message to her in keeping with that pledge but had not received any reply which was a relief to her mind as she thought the old Thorn was casting a few lines in that direction as well.

“Nay, she said softly, “I will not ride nor be entangled if aught can help it, for the Thorn nor for their polarity the Rose”.

Raising her eyes to the scene before her..she saw the willows blowing gracefully in the light wind. The folk of Serpent Slide River Camp going about their daily lives, heard some young men laughing as they rode by graceful as young gods on their warponies with their great warhounds at the stirrup.

Saw her mother and sisters laughing as they sat at their work.

Felt the subtle drumming of the earth beneath her as the earth sounded to the m illing of the hooves of the herds.

Smelled the high clean air coming down off the plateaus and said..”but for thee …I will ride!

Saw the Shaman coming toward her…..and had no place to run..”urk!”