Andin stood there in the dark of the forest listening to the sounds of the night. He felt at home in the dark and creepy feeling of this forest. It gave him something to concentrate on besides the horrible feeling in his gut. He just couldn't shake the feeling that he was going to regret ever coming in this blasted forest. He needed sleep, and sleep just wouldn't come. He was really starting to get mad. Although he wasn't sure how he could be mad at himself. He sat down against a nearby tree and sighed. He stared into the dark, looking for something unusual. He saw absolutely nothing. Good. He came into this forest for solitude. He would be extremely 'upset' if someone or something showed up and disturbed him. He leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes.

He drifted into darkness, and unconsciousness took him. He woke some few seconds afterwards, and yet he wasn't awake, because he was no longer in the forest. He was standing in front of a palisaded city. He walked through the open gates of the city and looked around. There was no one around. Wait, he heard something. A crowd of people. They were yelling. He saw the crowd round a corner. There were two people in front of the crowd. They were dragging someone. He had no shirt on and there were multiple slashes on his chest and one on the left side of his face. But the wound that caught his attention was the right shoulder. It looked as though it was pierced all the way through. The other thing he saw was the man walking behind the three in front.

He had a cut across his eye and anger on his face. He was walking with determination and purpose. Andin could not discern his face because he face for some odd reason it was blurry, as was the face of the man being dragged. The crowd arrived at the gate that Andin was standing next to. The two men in front of the crowd threw the man they were dragging to the ground. They walked away. The man who followed them walked up to the man lying on the ground. The man on the ground spoke first.

'Brother how could you do this?'

'You committed those crimes. Not me. Don't put that weight on me.'

'You know that was not me!... Brother!'

'You are no brother of mine.' His face was mingled with blood and tears. He raised his hand and there was a flash of blue white. The man on the ground went limp.

The man stared down at him.

'Get him out of here.' Andin looked down at the man on the ground. His eyes were white. He recognized the man. He stared at him closer. His face was coming into focus. Then he saw it. The face. It was his.

'NOOO!!' He sat up sweating and stared into the dark.

Xailich glared out the window that he sat near and gave a long audible sigh; he watched the rain pelt lightly against the window. He hated storms, though this one was not as bad as the typhoon that he had encountered previous to him coming to Balefire; he glanced at his arms, remembering distinctly the cuts that had been caused by the other storm. He felt a chill run down his spine as the cold rain splattered loudly against the window, tearing him away from the memories of the typhoon. He winced slightly and pushed away the table from his chair to give himself more room; he was a huge mass compared to the chairs and tables that blotted the room. He shook his head and sighed again, putting his head down on the table overtop of his crossed arms; his face was hidden between his arms and the table.

“Um… can I get you anything? The sudden voice startled Xailich a bit, though it was not obvious. He looked up to see the waitress’s face very close to his own and he slid back a bit and coughed, regaining his composure while she blushed and giggled quietly. He blushed lightly, but returned her question with a quick answer, “A red wine would be great; thank you.” She smiled and walked off to go and fill his order. He was prepared to return to his solitude until the drink arrived but a second sound startled him.

A very loud scream came from above Xailich and his eyes snapped to the staircase that lead up to the rooms. He raised an eyebrow with curiosity and cocked his head to the side. Patrons that surrounded him followed his lead and all stared at the staircase; Xailich thought that someone might be getting robbed or attacked, but did nothing about it. He turned away from the staircase, uninterested in things that he could not see; he returned his head to the top of his arms, though this time his face could be seen sitting on his arms. He wouldn’t make that mistake again; he waited for his drink or the person who screamed to come out of his room, whichever came first.

Andin was sitting on his bed staring at the wall. “A dream within a dream. I thought my nightmares were crazy before.” He looked over at his clothes hanging on the hook on the wall. All he had on were his long black pants and a sleeveless shirt. He stood up and put on his boots. He glanced around the room again just to make sure that everything was where it was when he dozed off.

He walked out the door of his room towards the stairs. His head hurt like fire and every step made it throb even worse. He really needed something to drink. As he rounded the corner of the railing onto the stairs he tried to regain some composure. He didn’t want to look like some idiot hobbling down to the bar begging for relief, even though that’s basically what he was doing. He started down the steps and walked up to the bar. “Do you have any thing that will cure a strong headache?” The bartender reached under the counter and pulled out a small glass and filled it with a potent smelling liquid. Andin slid some gold on the counter and thanked the man.

He picked up the glass and drained it. He almost gagged it was so strong, but his headache cleared almost instantly. He turned around and saw that almost every eye was looking at him. He was not clad in his normal clothing, so his scar on his face and shoulder were obvious. He suddenly realized that he should have worn his other clothes. He wasn’t sure why they were staring, probably because he had screamed above their heads and had two huge scars. Idiots all of them. No wait, he did see a really large man in the next window in the front of the tavern. No, it wasn’t a man. He was too large to be a man. His body was a thick build, but that’s not what got his attention. It was he eyes. They were a dark red, but seemed to be the gateway to his mind. He wanted to know more about this man. He walked over to the table he was sitting at.

“May I join you sir?” This was the first time Andin had ever been interested in someone enough to ask if he could join them. He hoped he would said yes.