"Ara? Ara!! Earth to Ara!! Helooooo?" I snap out of my daze to find Eval's face just inches from mine. I blink. 

"AHAH! She returns to us at last!" he exclaims. 

I shove him away, wishing I could block Cora's pained face from my mind. 

"But seriously Ar, where were you?" Orla asks, a concerned expression on her face. 

"Ar?" I respond, confused. "Isn't my name short enough already? It's literally three letters long!"

"Nope, you're officially Ar now, except when I need to be serious-and I never need to be serious," Orla explains. 

"Okayyyyy," I say slowly. "Wait-am I at the lunch table? When did I get here?"

"You were in like, this super brainless mode-" Cora starts, when Eval interrupts. 

"Super brainless mode? Is that new? She's always like that Cor." Apparently everyone was getting nicknames today. 

Cora blushes at the nickname, and I cannot help worrying about her. 

"Hey Eval," I say suddenly, "can you come to our room after this? I have something I want to talk to you about."

Cora bites her lip. "Don't worry," I tell her, "your secret's safe with me."

But I am not sure how long her secret is safe with her.

~~~

They tell me there are these things called horses. 

Tall, majestic creatures with four legs and a mane-whatever that is. 

I often dream about them. Tonight is no different. 

I am on the horse's back. We ride in the wind. Faster, faster! My hair blows back, and the rush of the cool air on the skin of my neck feels cool and gentle. Then the horse rears, suddenly, and I fall. I fall, fall, fall down into a chasm where Viel lives. I see his darkness reach for me as it did my parents, and I scream over and over until finally the dream shifts. 

This time, I stand on a beach, under a sunset. There is a presence behind me, and wordlessly I know who it is, who they are. For such is the way with dreams, you do not always need to see to know. 

They are my parents. 

Together we watch the sunset, peace, and warmth filling me, filling places I did not know were empty, filling all the little cracks in my heart that broke when I was nine. 

I drink it in, but suddenly I feel that something is off. The warmth disappears as suddenly as it arrived. And then I see it. Fire. Coming for them, claiming them. 

I reach for them, trying to warn my parents, but I cannot move; I cannot speak. 

I cannot shut my eyes. 

I am forced to watch as the fire consumes them, as the flames grow with every scream. But then I can run, and I run to my parents, sobbing. 

When I look up, the fire is coming for me. I scream until my throat is hoarse. 

And yet there is a part of me that is glad to go-to rejoin my parents on the other side of the chasm that separates us. 

Yet then I wake, in a cold sweat, only to clamber out of bed, careful not to wake Cora or Orla, and long for the moon. 

I sit on the floor till morn, staring into space. 

Will fire always win over me?

Will I never be healed?

Such are the questions that cycle through my haunted brain until first light. 

Sleep is over-rated anyway. 

So, sorry that chapter was so depressing-but I needed to give further background on what actually happened to Ara's parents. I'm an optimist, so writing as a pessimist is way trickier than it seems!!! Anyway, the next chapter (or the next two chapters, depending on how I break them up) will be less depressing. And if you stick with me there's a battle-some action scenes coming up!!! (Finally)

-ElleGrace