Not even the Universe has the answers and time is running out…

Alicia crept through the forest, careful not to run into any of her sisters, her mother, one of the other witches, and most definitely a Dragon Guardsmen. It wouldn’t do to try to explain why she was traipsing all over the countryside before the sun had even risen. Not that she was really going anywhere near the entire countryside. In all actuality, her destination was always the same, a cave on the far side of the clearing that had been sealed tight with a huge boulder.

Her daily, sometimes twice daily, hikes had started the day after they’d come to stay with the Blue Dragons. It began with a dream that she couldn’t get out of her head. One that reoccurred every night, twice if she woke up, she tried to ignore it and return to sleep. Always starting and ending the same way. A haunting scene inside what she could only imagine was a deep cave. The scratchy, heavily-accented voice of a man calling her name over and over. He searched for her as if his life depended upon it. She could feel his panic always coupled with his absolute need to find her. It ended just as abruptly as it had begun and always left her feeling as if she’d somehow failed him.

How do you fail a man you’ve never met?

The worst thing was the dream would then begin again like a recording stuck on a loop. Every once in a while to break up the monotony, she would catch a glimpse of the side of his face, the slope of his broad shoulders, or if he ran in the opposite direction, his bare feet that were cut and bruised as if he’d climbed mountains without shoes. Unfortunately, nothing that gave a real clue as to his identity.

Alicia had tried calling out to him to no avail. He never answered or gave any indication he could hear her. She’d tried every spell or charm she knew of, and a few she’d looked up when Kyra had let her peruse her library, to stop dreams but nothing worked. Her mystery man still came to her and left her feeling as if she’d somehow failed him.

The dream was taking over every aspect of her life. There were even times it came to her during the day while she was zoning out doing dishes or pulling weeds in their ‘almost living’ garden. When she wasn’t trying to avoid sleeping and dreaming, she was searching for anyone who knew anything about the sealed up cave, just sure that whatever had been locked away in its rocky interior held the solution to her dilemma.

The only thing the young witch knew for sure was that if she didn’t get a good night’s sleep soon, she was going to go bat-shit crazy and that was not a good look on anyone.