Parts 1 - 12 Parts 1 - 12Dreamtime Part 1 (EQ2 # 4)
The Wolfriders have begun creating a new holt. Redlance remembers dreaming as he slept.
Pike thinks it may be important and takes him to his den. In his dream he's the spirit of
Father Tree, their old holt. He gives life to all creatures near and in him. The
Wolfriders leave for a hunt as they have for generations. They're all still with him.
Goodtree, who shaped him, lends her power, even in death, so he'll continue to grow.
Seasons pass and one day he and the rest of the forest are burned, his lifeforce drained.
He heals below where the soil is moist and rich. His roots survived and he will one day
grow back. Someday the Wolfriders will return to him. Redlance says there's more. In a
time to come, when the holt is deserted, humans come with axes and a saw. They cut him
down. A great machine uproots him and he dies for good. Redlance screams. They explain to
the others. Is it a warning or a symbol? Pike says both. The dream is unfinished, part of
a larger dream. Nightfall will go next.
Dreamtime Part 2 (EQ2 # 5)
The Wolfriders gather. Pike says Treestump is next because there were treestumps in
Redlance's dream. Treestump doesn't like the idea and walks away. Leetah thinks there's
more to his refusal. She, Ember, and Suntop find him. In his dream he's a guardian spirit,
wielding and wearing metal. The sword lives when his hand grasps it. He hunts for the
tribe and protects it. He loves it. Nothing stands in his way and he thirsts for more.
Those he loves and protects howl for joy. The trees start closing in, giving him no room
to slash. His axe and sword are out of control. He kills cubs, Scouter and Cutter. He
looks back and sees Dewshine and Clearbrook dead too. Nothing could stop the blades but
his tears wear them down to nothing. A wave of tears overwhelms all. Leetah goes to the
others, telling his dream. Cutter is unsure if they should continue. Zhantee has dreamed
of huge waves since he was a child. He dreamed that and more as he slept.
Dreamtime Part 3 (EQ2 # 6)
Cutter goes off with Skywise and Timmain saying not to come to him when it goes bad.
Zhantee, Leetah, Shen-Shen, Venka, and Pike go to the cliff. Someday Rayek will raise the
Palace. His dream is bright. He sees the dunes of the Burning Waste from high in the sky.
He sees the village. One inside it's like he's a child, the huts and mountains towering
above him. His parents tell him to keep away from the Bridge of Destiny. A great 'no' bars
the way. Rayek beckons from behind it and points towards hidden heights. The desert
dissolves into a great wave and he lets it wash over him without fear. He can still
breathe. He sees the sun through the water. He swims towards it. It's Leetah. She points
him to the Palace. They pass through each other. No words can describe this. Every door
leads to a big adventure. Venka says Timmain knew the power to shield slept in him. Being
with the Wolfriders makes him stretch himself. He likes facing tests. Cutter comes and
says that's what makes a true Wolfrider. Don't question Timmain's choice. Pike says the
stories need to be kept somewhere. Venka suggests the Scroll of Colors. She asks Zhantee
to take her to Rayek.
Dreamtime Part 4 (EQ2 # 7)
Zhantee takes his lovemate Venka below to the Palace. Ekuar welcomes them. Zhantee goes
off for supplies. Winnowill drifts with no expression. Rayek is waiting for her. He lost
the power to turn the Scroll of Colors. She tells him about the dreams. The common thread
could be found with the scroll. Cutter couldn't bear the days without his family and asked
them to join him in wrapstuff. Trolls and preservers watched over them. Her first
nightmare was of the Go-Back lodge collapsing. Rayek didn't know she was alive. In her
dream Savah reaches out to her and pushes aside Kahvi, who would use her for vengeance.
Wisdom pours into her on the Bridge of Destiny, made of flame. Kahvi walks forward and it
becomes ice. She hands her a sword and shield. The shield is flame, the sword ice. The
Go-Backs have Wolfriders in their ranks. She rises above them. Meeting Rayek has resolved
any conflict in her. She sends her dream to Pike. Nightfall says she's more Wolfrider than
she thinks. The sun is up. She and Redlance tree with Cutter and Leetah. They tell him how
the Go-Backs have a drop of wolf-blood (Kahvi # 1 - 6).
Dreamtime Part 5 (EQ2 # 9)
Tyleet is with Suntop and Ember at night. Moonhatchers jump into the pond with their
mother. Nightfall goes off with Pike. In her dream she relives when Tyleet and Venka were
cubs. Redlance brings a withered plant and shapes it into Cutter. It gives vigor to all
living things and unites them all. A dark shadow comes in the form of Kahvi and wants what
they have. It draws Cutter, Redlance, and the cubs away. She fires arrows but the shadows
reform into Rayek, Winnowill, and Two-Edge, the loveless ones. They begin the holt's
downfall. She fires, hitting them all. They retreat with her family. Humans block her,
feeding on the last twigs of their home. She goes through them and chases the shadows into
a cold emptiness. She's in the Go-Back lodge. The loveless ones restore themselves by
feeding on their spirits. She fires at them but they grow larger. Just as an answer comes,
it all disappears and she can't remember. That was when Kahvi woke her (Kahvi # 5). It
fits with Redlance's and Treestump's dreams. A tusk-hog is in the bushes but it's not in
her to kill. She returns to the moonhatchers. There's a time to kill and a time to watch
the beauty we sometimes forget to see.
Dreamtime Part 6 (EQ2 # 11)
Pike goes after a tusk-hog alone. He grabs hold and is almost pulled into a root. Cutter
knocks him free. Pike says they need to think like it to find it. Cutter feels the dreams
mean nothing. Pike tells his dream. Trolls brought a vat of dreamberries to the holt.
Everyone's drunk. Pike is squishing berries with his feet. He's with troll maidens but in
his current state they look beautiful. They hug and smash him. He and Cutter find the
tusk-hog's den. Pike sits on it. He'll sense its charge and grab it. It gets dark. In his
dream he was smashed smaller and smaller until he becomes a dreamberry. He bounces out of
the hole and a troll eats him. The tusk-hog comes and Pike grabs hold. He's thrown off.
Cutter grabs it by the tusks and is pulled into the den head-first. He throws dirt in its
mouth and they both climb a tree. Dreamberry Pike escaped after the troll fully digested
him. Skot and Krim kill the tusk-hog. Cutter says Pike can only dream about what his head
is stuffed full of.
Dreamtime Part 7 (EQ2 # 12)
The tusk-hog kill is divided up. Krim and Skot want cooked meat but no fires are allowed.
Angrily they walk off. They smell cooked meat down the hill. Pike goes to find his
lifemates. Skot attacks the human camp. He expects to be attacked, but the human jumps
back. Skot falls in the fire. The humans try to help but Krim chases them away. She puts
Skot out. She and Pike head to the Holt with him. Skot describes Go-Back dreams. What's
behind vanishes in white. What's ahead is covered in white. It's always the same. All that
ever mattered was the going. When you can't go on the next one takes your place. The only
dream is to make a fawn who'll take his place so he can stop. His spirit will dwell in the
Palace. At the Holt he's healed by Leetah. She slaps him and asks if he'd throw his life
away for meat. Cutter's angry. Skot may have stirred up the humans' hates. Pike says
Go-Backs never learned to care about what's been and what's to be. He tells how Skot's
dream is different from theirs. Go-Backs truly live in the "now of wolf
thought." Cutter backs off. Strongbow and Moonshade will take them in hand. Skot
likes it when Cutter and Leetah bear their fangs. Strongbow says, "Then you'll love
dealing with me."
Dreamtime Part 8 (EQ2 # 13)
Moonshade has Krim curing hides. If they show they're sorry through their deeds, Cutter
may forgive them. Strongbow and Skot watch the wolves. The chief wolf puts down rebellion.
The challenger must submit. Skot must go to Cutter and show throat or he'll be cast out
with his next mistake. They return to Moonshade and Krim. Skot feels elders think they're
better. Go-Backs don't grow old if they can help it. They don't learn to respect age.
There's no getting close to Strongbow and Moonshade. Skot and Krim are told to sit and are
sent to. Words and bodies aren't enough to explain it. Strongbow and Moonshade ride wolves
through the sky. A cub is created but it withers. A second one is created, coming out of
Strongbow's bow. The second goes off on his own and they become wolves. Trees start
closing in and they become one wolf. Skot and Krim ask why they gave so much of themselves
to them. They withold nothing but their soul names. Nothing ever gets done unless we abide
by the rules we make. Each know their part. Where do you stand? Skot finds Cutter and
rolls over at his feet like a wolf showing throat. He's forgiven. Skot runs off with
Shenshen. The humans know they're here. Befriending them is Tyleet's fondest dream.
Dreamtime Part 9 (EQ2 # 15)
Pike and Tyleet talk. She hopes for a time when humans and elves help each other. She
dreams that Little Patch wanders out towards a human village with tall huts. She runs
through a human crowd. They seem to be headed somewhere. She can't see over them. They
don't understand her but sense her need. Friendly Nonna and Adar come, but their words are
gabble. She quickly learns their speech and asks for help. Most of the humans are offended
that she raised a human. They turn away. A big man, Olbar, lifts her up and they search
for Little Patch. Two humans bring him to her. She looks down and sees she has five
fingers. She feels a need to be accepted. Shenshen remembers her dream. She's in Sorrow's
End. Leetah is dancing, overshadowing her. She asks Savah to make her shine brighter. She
leads Shenshen down and the basement becomes a cave. Savah becomes Old Maggoty. Shenshen
must put mushrooms into her basket. A great boot keeps stomping on them, then on her. She
suddenly wakes up in a cave with Maggoty. It starts caving in. The troll says she'll come
into her own, but not when she expects. She runs out but Leetah is trapped there. Leetah
becomes Tyleet and says, "Shine where you love." She's with-cub and has five
fingers. Pike finds the thread. He tells Cutter, but he doesn't want it to continue. But
Timmain does. Clearbrook and Aroree arrive.
Dreamtime Part 10 (EQ2 # 16)
Tyleet and Shenshen gave Pike a thread. Clearbrook, Aroree, and Cutter must go. Theirs
could be the most important. Clearbrook mostly relived hunts and howls. In the days after
the first war for the Palace, their place in the world was unsettled, living in fear of
Winnowill. In her dream Blue Mountain is more twisted than ever. She's searching for
Windkin and can't send. Symbols on the walls come to life and attack. She runs. Two-Edge
finds her. She gives him no chance to speak, stabbing him. Winnowill is right around the
bend with Windkin. Two-Edge tries to speak again but she cuts him down. Winnowill is gone.
Clearbrook, able to float, heads down a pit. It becomes narrower and narrower until she's
stuck. Two-Edge smashes her free and says, "Children are never safe. None of us ever
are." Aroree says she visited Clearbrook's dream and is ashamed. Winnowill taught the
Eight to feed on the dreams of others. It caused them, in time, to lose the ability to
dream for themselves. The emptiness was unbearable and she never slept. She was brave to
be cocooned with the others. They're fine with what she did. She already knew all the
dreams. She understands how Cutter feels. The dreams made them a close-knit pack again.
Let it end now. Skywise breaks the silence, asking for a turn.
Dreamtime Part 11 (EQ2 # 18)
Skywise's dream may fit in. He says dreams are a way for spirits to play while the body is
resting. Even Treestump's and Nightfall's were "scary fun" since they never
happened. Skywise is guarding a cart full of bags of gold. Humans are coming. He runs and
hides the bags at the foot of the hill. But the humans aren't interested, passing it. He
looks and sees strange stars above the cart. They're leaving and he begs for them not to
leave him on the ground. One comes back and swirls around his arms, pulling him up. He's
flying over the human city. Suddenly it's daytime. He flies unafraid down the the humans'
level, then flies back up. Suddenly he's in a room on the cushions of a sleep-pit. The
star shatters, sprinkling on him in the form of a blanket. The blanket becomes Starjumper.
Cutter thanks him for softening the path for him. Cutter agrees it must end with him.
Dreamtime Part 12 (EQ2 # 18)
Cutter gives an open sending. He's crossing the Bridge of Destiny, his goal is Leetah.
There is no ground below, only a bottomless chasm. Rayek snatches up Leetah and Cutter
falls, knowing he failed. He lost something he'll never get back. He won't go any further.
What follows is the counting. If he sends how it feels to lose the now of wolf thought,
the tribe will lose it. He's gotten good at looking ahead, though. They'll need that
according to the dreams. Pike shows them what he learned. He splits the tribe into two
groups. Shenshen's and Tyleet's are a key to the others. What if, when we're dreaming,
we're really living and doing somewhere else. Tyleet was helped by humans. It could
happen. In Shenshen's Maggoty said dreams don't happen now, meaning here and now. Here is
the world when we're awake. Now is all there is when we're awake. Before and behind are
all one. Visions of light have no fear. Zhantee was raised to see far. Venka rose up above
her dual heritage. High or low (as in Pike's) we see farther than when in the thick of
things. Redlance's felt real. Treestump's didn't. Both are right. Redlance was Father
Tree, destroyed by humans' metal. Treestump couldn't keep his own metal weapons from
killing what he loves most. Nightfall's and Treestump's warn that some of us are as much
to blame for losing the holt as humans. They're about things closing in, like Moonshade
and Strongbow's. All dreams are true, even when they seem backwards. They must know all
sides. Half were good dreams, half bad. Half of them will live forever. The half that
can't have fear dreams, keep-alive dreams. Pike and Tyleet are free of fear. Only the
spirit lasts forever. Cutter says if this holt falls, we won't. There will always be a
Father Tree. Dawn: They all learned a lot, now they sleep. Cutter has his dream again.
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