1/Prologue

The New World awoke to a roaring wind. Light blazed from the mirror, swallowing them… They were riding the steam train again. sat behind Ripple. The edges of their seats were smudged with black and velvet... as if they rode through a dream.

All at once, the train lurched to a stop, and the doors slid open. A thick fog floated inside. Outside the doors was utter darkness. 

“This is our stop!” Ripple shouted, “let's go –!” Even as he spoke these words he had the queer feeling of time doubling over. Hadn't he spoken these words before...? But when? 

He leaped up and rushed to the exit, with Karla and Joseph at his heels. They jumped down and the doors slammed shut behind them. The station platform had a deserted look. The windows and doors boarded up. Fog floated in the air.  The tracks ended in a snow covered clearing ahead. And in the distance beyond, there was a forest. 

“Come on!” Ripple shouted, “Or we'll be trapped here!” No sooner than these words left his mouth, than another wave of  déjà vu washed over him.  Nevertheless, Ripple took off running down the tracks. toward the forest. New snow began to fall… And time slowed to a crawl. 

“Keep… running…!”  Joseph reached out and took Karla's hand. They began to change. Ripple became a black wolf, with fur spotted by silver; Karla, a smaller dark lupine and Joseph a wolf with burnt sienna fur. They ran straight into a forest of towering redwoods, oaks and weeping willows, the treetops eclipsing all light from above.  Against their will, they transformed into human once more. 

Ripple vanished.  The sound of approaching hoofs echoed through the forest. Weaving easily between the trees, a creature ran toward them. From the waist up, she was a fetching Bronze woman of twenty or so odd years with sepia skin.

But her torso curved out into a burgundy mare's hindquarters. She had shoulder length reddish-brown hair, and her small breasts were held by a silver bustier.  The last time they‟d seen a creature like this, had been during the Time of Legend.

Then the female centaur had been a Guardian. But they sensed that this was no elder. An aura of malevolence  floated in the strange air about her.   “Hello!” the centaur said, her lashes fluttering prettily above her green eyes. “I haven't seen you here before. Are you lost?”

Joseph neatly sidestepped the question: “We uh– we lost our friend.” 

The centaur's green eyes twinkled. “You mean Ripple? Yes, I know where he is. He'll be staying with us now... And you have business elsewhere.”

Karla shivered and drew closer to Joseph.  

But he was melting away in her arms.

The centaur galloped past them into the woods, her mocking laughter mixing with Karla's screams...

All of Tundra screamed as the wind melted away their flesh scattering it into bloody particles… The world shuddered and was still…

He came to on a carpeted floor. Across the room, she stood with her back pressed against the wall, her face twisted in fear…

Copyright Valjeanne Jeffers 2011 all rights reserved