Adekel lay with the warm blankets swirled around her body. She sighed heavily with calmness, something she thought she'd never feel. She felt secure and safe, as if the wool blankets were shielding her from the evil and death that has always followed her. Adekel rolled to her back, her eyes heavy and closed. "Is this what sleeping feels like?" she thought. A small smile twitched across her lips. Adekel listened to the fireplace crackle with the burning wood that kept her warm.

Something in her emotions suddenly changed. Changing rapidly, like bricks building up in her chest. Fear started breaking her connection with sleep.

"Adekel!"

The girl sat up right, eyes wide, ringed with purpel from her lack of sleep.

"Adekel!" someone screamed again. Then silence.

Adekel snapped to attention, heart racing. A cold wind slapped her face as stars twinckled in the sky. Adekel turned her head in both directions, her throat cought tight, leaving her unable to speak. The others laid around her staring into the darkness. None of them responded to the cry that echoed through the surrounding dead woods. No, there was no cry. It had only been in her head. Same as the warm bead that had been stolen from her.

Adekel placed her head on the hard, cold, dirt with a few patches of dying grass. The blankets, the warm fireplace-- she had only dreamt it. Was that a good thing? That meant she had actually slept, at least a little.

 Adekel huffed a tired breath, seeing it mist out into the night air. She was back. Back in the last place she ever wanted to be. The place where sleep wasn't heard of, the place where people were always on edge, checking to see if you were a trator. A place where killing for game was normal.