As consciousness slowly returned, I saw two versions of the dream.

One, a magical forest ripe with extraordinary animals and beings, talking woodland creatures, fairytale princesses with skin like mine, and me with the power to change the world. A fantasy of heroism and beauty.

The other, a dark place of murder and betrayal where man and beast tortured, tormented, and ruined one another. There was a place for me there too, but I was not a tool of salvation. I was an instrument of destruction. A nightmare of death and the ugliness of men.

I tried to focus on the first version, on Marina, but I couldn't see her face without seeing Aurora or Ravenna. I strained against the sudden pain and sadness until I felt nauseous. Then a bubble popped and I was suddenly falling...

Falling, falling, falling in darkness.

I landed gently on a bed of gray grass and black dandelions. Above me, the monochrome tree canopy closed like fingers of a clasped hand. Thick fog hung over everything, surrounding, encasing, entrapping. The place looked familiar yet alien.

Rising to my feet, I recognized the change in height and the lack of fur. I was no longer, Sir Malachi, The Stag Knight. I was just Malachi Baldwin, the failure. My laughter echoed strangely through the colorless forest.

"Am I dead?" I asked the fog. "Is this purgatory?" I chuckled "If Hell is of our own making, I'm surprised I haven't created worse."

I turned at the sound of rustling leaves. A figure rose out of the gray bushes, tall with knobby joints bulging from a thin lanky form. Its head was an amalgam of four faces, fused together asymmetrically. Eyeless sockets and slack jaws gaped at me.

"Jesus Christ!" I took a step back.

The ground shook and the canopy parted. A second creature, five times as tall as the first stared down at me. A thing, half tree and half ram, emerged from the fog. It too had the frightening collection of human faces. I took another step back and stumbled into something large and wet. I turned and met one of those misshapen faces up close. Its breath smelled of burnt leaves. Its body was that of a great ape, the missing link between gorilla and orangutan. Fur dripping, it reached out and placed a huge leathery hand on my head.

Understanding poured into me, stifling my terror.

These were The Sons of Elm. Not all of them, but the ones who summoned me to guide current events.

"W... Why me?"

The huge thin man reached down and placed a finger on my shoulder. They didn't communicate through words yet I understood them clearly.

"My heart is the heart that's needed? What does that even mean?" I thought of the teenage princess whose wellbeing meant so much to me. I thought of the woman who's betrayal hurt my heart because I so desperately longed for her company. "My heart's twisted. It's broken, I'm broken."

The ram pressed a horn to my side.

"Stop saying that! How can my heart be the one that's needed?"

The smaller thin man took my hand in his.

"Is... isn't that a song lyric? You've got the love they need to see it through. Get off me!" I shouted.

They were suddenly ten feet away, forming a circle around me.

"I don't want whatever this is. Send me back. Let me rot in my hospital bed. Let me die alone. Depression hurts way less than this.. This... lovesickness!"

Everything went dark, the smells and sounds of that haunted forest replaced by the stink of filth and piss. I opened my eyes at the complaint of rusty hinges.

Chained to a stone wall, I hung in a dirty cell that stank of pain and sweat. They'd stripped me of everything except for a simple loincloth that provided the barest of privacy. My hooves stood in a pile of soiled hay. Bloody manacles were scattered about the room. It felt how I'd always imagined a medieval dungeon would feel. The rusted hinges complained again and harsh torch light spilled into my cell, dazzling my eyes. A silhouette slid across the room and cool hands touched my chest.

"Malachi, my Malachi, my heart pained me when I heard you were down here."

Blinking against the white spot in my vision, I strained until I could see the one-eyed girl. Black hair hung down past her shoulders, the occasional rose thorn snagged within her tresses. Aurora's skin had regained its olive green hue and she once again wore the eyepatch. Her simple black tunic and red hose seemed more fitting for Castle Makeda than The Old Forest.

"Get away from me," I grumbled, pulling back as far as the wall would allow.

"My love, no. It isn't what you think." She followed me, resting her head against my chest, pressing her body against mine.

I stiffened, unable to move any further... and reluctant to try.

"Please stop, I can't do this." My body reacted to her warmth and the smell of her. Spice and pine. "If you're gonna kill me, just do it. This torture is unbearable."

"The last thing I want is to hurt you, Malachi. I'm not her."

"But you are. I felt it, I saw it with my own eyes." I stopped fighting and let myself relax against her. "You're The Witch Queen. I'm in love with the enemy."

On impulse I licked her cheek. Aurora leaned into it, then kissed me. Our eyes met and her sadness slowly twisted into anger. All I felt was shame and defeat.

"I was born Aurora Briar Redthorn. My people are old, older than the queendom. Proud and long-lived, we called ourselves Elmish. We built castles and nations centuries before humans or the fae set foot on these lands. My forbearers ruled in an unbroken line for millennia. Then the troubles came. A republic fell to the elves to the north, A theocracy toppled by centaurs in the south. The darklings came and, while my grandfather fought the demon hordes, our human allies turned on us. A coup."

She put her hand over the eyepatch and a shudder wracked her body. Her scent became strange and confusing.

"My... My older sister and I hid in the north tower when the siege broke and they took the castle. She held the door against their boots and fists for hours before the massacre was over. When it was our time, they cut their way through with axes. A three-headed troll tore her apart right in front of me."

Aurora backed across the room until she mirrored me, leaning against the opposite wall. Her long hair hung over her face, reminding me of that vengeful spirit from The Ring.

"A young man, a close friend of the family rushed in and pushed the others back. He took my hand, pulling me out to the balcony. My sister's blood stained the bottom of his boots." She sobbed. "It's funny the things you remember if you allow yourself to."

"Aurora, you—"

"Wait, let me finish... I don't have much time." She pushed her hair back behind her ears. "Wiping the tears from my cheeks, he promised it was all over. Then he drove his stiletto dagger through my eye, the dagger my mother had gifted The A'Sheba family."

A'Sheba. Marina's family. The family I was compelled to serve.

"There are holes in my memory after that. I remember falling from the balcony. I remember floating in cold water for days. Something ate my ruined eye and my toes. Then someone pulled me out of the river, a spirit with many faces, I believe. It whispered my name as if it knew me." Her eye narrowed. "I was dying, mostly dead already. It plucked the eye out of a darkling and shoved it right into my head. There was fire and pain and endless darkness.

I awoke one night in a cave, naked and dancing with goblins from The White Knuckle clan. They scattered, screaming I had The Curse of Two Minds. Ravenna had killed their leaders and taken over for almost a decade."

"I don't understand."

Aurora touched the eyepatch.

"She's in here waiting to steal my body."

"So The A'Shebas murdered you more than a thousand years ago and a demon possessed your body." It sounded crazy and perfectly possible in this mad world.

"So you do understand."

I did...

"What now? You destroy The A'Shebas like they did your family?"

I dreaded her answer. I had a duty to Marina that ran bone deep, but looking at Aurora and knowing who she was didn't do much to dislodge her from her place in my heart.

"For hundreds of years, I harbored hatred for the human royals, but that was so long ago and their treachery wasn't unique. Across the realm there'd been an organized effort to eradicate the Elmish. To punish Gilderayne for the pendulum swing of fate is petty and cruel... but that is part and parcel for Ravenna. She doesn't want the throne, she only wants the misery she can cause."

"If you don't want this, why don't you stop her?"

She stood upright. "I can't... The eyepatch suppresses her for a while, but her power builds like a pressure in the back of my mind until I can't think about anything but making the pain stop. Eventually all I can do is remove the patch and release her." She showed me her wrists, crisscrossed with vertical and horizontal scars. "I've tried to kill her, end her reign of terror but she breaks free when I'm at the moment of triumph. That's why Rhyslin shadows me, to ensure I don't do anything too foolish."

She glanced back at the cell door and I realized the cullen must have been standing just outside.

Aurora closed the distance, running her fingers through the hairs of my chest. She loosened the clasps at the top of her dress, revealing her long supple throat. Her scent shifted again and her hands spasmed as if she might strangle herself. For a moment, the skin around the eyepatch turned ashen, but then the olive hue returned.

"If it's you, I think I can stand still long enough for you to do what has to be done." She stepped in close until her spice and pine smell filled my nostrils. Craning her head she exposed that lovely neck to me. "Use your teeth and end this."

"Don't ask me to do that." I nuzzled her throat and her pulse quickened. The thin loincloth suddenly felt embarrassingly thin.

"Please, Malachi. I can't do it myself."

I nipped the soft flesh, barely hard enough to leave the imprint of my teeth. She gasped, but she didn't pull away. I let her go, my mind swirling with emotions. She took my muzzle in her hands and guided it back to her neck. I froze with the taste of her still in my mouth.

"It has to be now. It has to be you. My people have gone from this dream. I've watched nations rise and fall as still life paintings, images here then gone. I wake to one world, sleep, and awake again to one that has changed. There's no place for me anymore." She wrapped her arms around my waist. "The Old Forest seems to be the only place where her presence can't overwhelm me, and that's where you found me. The Sons of Elm ordained our meeting."

You've got the love she needs to see it through.

"This can't be how your story ends." I licked her neck. "There has to be another way."

"But there isn't. I know a little of her mind. Ravenna intends to do to your princess what was done to me. She will tear out her heart and replace it with a darkling's, bringing the desecration full circle."

I tugged against the chains, pulling with all of my strength. The cold iron blocked my connection to the forest. Without the power of the land, I was too weak. I pulled until my arms were like jelly.

"Release me so I can save her."

"The jailer has the only key and he's been instructed to ignore me."

There came a double tap at the door.

"And now our time is up," she sobbed.

As the door opened she reached into her pocket and smeared a wad of bubblegum on my hip. Rhyslin stood in the doorway, dour and beautiful. He studied us for a long while and for a fleeting instant, I think I saw pity on his face. When that small ember of compassion had faded, he extended his hand.

"Come. It is time."

Aurora stiffened. She let her hands linger for a moment, then backed away, smoothing the wrinkles of her dress and fastening its upper buttons.

"Can you please speak to The Queen about the mouse holes in the wall. The vermin use them like tunnels to get into everything." She took Rhyslin's hand, but paused at the door. "I love you, Malachi. Don't forget your oath."

"I love you too."

She stepped out and Rhyslin closed the door behind her. Bolts were thrown and I was alone again. Her scent lingered as did her words. I needed to save Marina. I wanted to save them both. Something oozed up my side and to my horror, the bubblegum was moving.

Word Count: 2170

Total Words: 28605