• I ran through the woods, my passing marked by the prints I left in the fresh snow. I was running from the wolves who chased me, hunted me. All of a sudden, the ground dropped out from under me and I was flying! Over the sea, over the land. I knew then that the wolves could not bother me. I angled back to my village and flew in to land. Right as I was about to... I woke up. I looked out and noticed it was lighter. That meant it was closer to the summer months, closer to the time to hand the staff, the leadership, over to the Quietus tribe. I never knew why my tribe led during the winter months and theirs during the summer but.... I just went with it. My thoughts turned back to the dream. This marked the third time in a month that I had that dream. I didn't know when I laid my head down if the dream would strike or why. All I knew was the dreams where coming more often. I climbed out of my bed and went to the communal house. My parents where still up, of course.
    "Hey Sar, how's the sleep?" my dad asked as we got in line for the food.
    "Not bad," I replied, grabbing my bowl of stew. We sat down at the table.
    "How fares the night?" I asked, taking a bite.
    "It's almost time." my dad replied.
    "I noticed," I paused for a while, "hey dad? I’m not feeling all that good, I'll go visit the shaman later." I said as non-commentary as possible.
    "Really? How so?" I could tell out of the corner of my eye that he was scrutinizing my face, my words, my reactions.
    "Nothing too bad, just a headache I've had for the past day or so..." I let my voice trail off.
    "Oh." I could tell he was let down, like he was hoping for me to be really sick or something. I got up and put my half-empty bowl of stew up and headed to the shaman’s hut.
    "What ails you?" he asked as soon as I walked in.
    "I've been having these weird thoughts lately. Dreams of flying..." my voice trailed off, realizing how stupid I sounded, however the shaman looked at me with pity.
    "How often?" he asked in a real low voice.
    "Uh... well...last night marked the third time in a month."
    "That often?" his voice was so low that I was not sure if he was talking to me or just saying something. In a slightly louder voice he said, "I would not worry about it. Just a dream."
    "Thanks." I said walking out. I headed back to the center village.
    "Hey! Sar!" I saw my friends running up to me.
    "Hey Chris, Raz! Where's Aliv?"
    "Don't know," Chris answered. Chris, me, and Razial had been friends since... well, ever. Alivda and I had just met, but it seemed as though my world was gone, like I was blind, like there was... I just can't describe it, can't describe how I felt. I knew though, that she felt the same way, we just couldn't express it. My friends, of course, thought we were crazy, but, alas... it was them who were.
    "Hey! Sar!" My heart leapt audibly into my throat.
    "There he goes again." I composed my face. Raz and Chris laughed as I tripped trying to run to her.
    "Silly," she said as she reached out to help me up, "you know you have problems walking. You have two left feet. And two right for that matter." I felt my checks warm. Chris and Raz just laughed harder.
    “Yah, yah, I know, I know.” I said, keeping my head down.
    “Ignore them. They don’t know.” Aliv whispered in my ear. I raised my head. Her face was beautiful as I remembered, was as serne as an angel’s. “Hey,” she raised her voice, “let’s go to the fort. Sar, if you will.” She swept out her arm. I took a hold of it and together we walked, into the forest. After awhile we came to an area me and my friends had found. We had built a magnificent ice fort, but it was not finished. We often slept in it, but only during the summer months. We went in and started cutting ice blocks.
    “The west tower needs a top,” Chris said as we cut.
    “We also need to finish our rooms.” Aliv said, smiling at me.
    “I say we finish the rooms, and if there’s time we then work on the tower,” I said, smiling back.
    “Of course you do,” Raz muttered under her breath. However it was decided that we should work on the rooms. I spent the rest of the day working with Aliv in her room. We nearly finished her room up when we had to go back. At the village center we all said goodbye.