To Walk Through a Dream Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven With Wavering Footsteps Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Stone Song Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three A Tale of Winter Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Destiny Inescapable Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Epilogue The Cycle's Continuing Beginnings Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Two Spirits Akin

To Walk Through a Dream Chapter Five "Child?" Jehan looked up to Rayven's calm green eyes. There was worry there too. "He needs you." She limped to Clopin's tent and he followed her. He paced nervously back and forth, so rapidly it made Jehan dizzy to watch. His face had grown haggard and anxious. "Clopin will not forget." "Perhaps not." "Clopin must not forget, or he will have nothing left to live for." Samira of the blue eyes. Samira of the hair as black as night. Samira who had seen his face in the stars. Clopin did not see the tent around him, or Jehan and Rayven watching him. He only saw a musty hayloft and a girl who watched the stars. "That's why he talks about himself that way?" Rayven nodded "He separates himself from himself in an attempt to escape the pain of his memories." "But at the same time he doesn't want to lose those memories." Jehan turned his attention back to the still-pacing Clopin. He had not slept for several days, and had become reclusive and withdrawn. Though none of the tribe had dared to mention it, all worried. Clopin's pacing grew more frantic until he stumbled and fell. Exhausted, he lay panting on the floor of the tent. Jehan helped him to sit up, but he seemed oblivious to the blonde gypsy. He tore off his gloves and Jehan started when he saw the fine network of small scars that covered his hands. Clopin held them up "These hands! She would tear her own scarf in two and wrap these hands. She would let my blood ruin her scarf!" He let his hands fall and hung his head. "She would love wretched Clopin." Jehan held him while he sobbed noiselessly for several minutes until he went unconscious. Now the DreamWalker, who had silently watched all this, helped Jehan to lay him on the bed. His thin, wiry frame suddenly seemed light and frail. A tunnel. An endless tunnel and the Dark Gypsies, the Evil Ones, chased him down it. But no, it was not they who drove him, but his own cowardice. As he ran he left his family behind him. He condemned his own people to death. He was a darker gypsy than any of the Evil Ones. He had abandoned his tribe, and now he was a rom barro. A gypsy king. He who had signed the death warrant for an entire tribe of gypsies was now to care for an even larger tribe. There was no pain he had ever suffered in his life that had not been caused by his own cowardice. All he had lost, his family, his love, his unborn child, all these were gone because he had run from the Dark Gypsies and never looked back.. "Hush, child. Any other would have done the same. You are guilty of no crime." Rayven was in his mind. The Evil Ones were the beast and the beast was his own fear and his fear and his cowardice were the Evil Ones and they were him and he pursued himself relentlessly down the dark tunnels of his own mind. "This is not necessary. Free yourself." You cannot cannot cannot make me. I will not forget. I killed them I killed them I killed them killed them killed them. "No. I cannot make you. I can do nothing but be here. You must do it yourself. I am here." I cannot. I cannot. I am. This is. This is me. This is Clopin. He sought to punish himself, sought to bring some justice into the path of his life. She is gone. "That is the torment of your life, is it not?" The beast's jaws slavered. "Samira. She is gone. That is your torment." The beast reached. "Leave it be, Clopin. She is gone." Justice? His mind paused in it's turning of the infinite vicious cycle. Gone. Justice? The beast checked itself on it's thunderous pursuit. It had somehow missed him. The beast turned..... "It is done." My love...Samira..... Rayven collapsed and Clopin awoke numbly. "Rayven?" "It is done." He lifted her head to see the sorrow in her eyes, but no tears welled there. "You do not cry?" She nodded mutely. "Clopin will cry for you, too." He bent his head over hers and let the tears spill out, wetting her hair, while Jehan watched. "Clopin? Do you understand why?" "Non." Jehan put his arms around them both. "I cannot do it for you. You must face yourself someday." "Oui." Chapter Six