Mary awoke feeling rested and calmer than she had been the night before. She was alone in the cherry alcove, her clothes covered in cherry stains. Her thoughts, upon waking, were of a beautiful dark-haired woman, but the woman was nowhere in sight. It had been a dream. A fantasy conjured by a mind to lend comfort to a lonely child. She laughed, at first softly, then louder until she sounded half-demented, laughing until her chest heaved and the laughter turned to sobs.

She cried for the mother she had vanquished from this world with little regard for her feelings. She cried for the father she had sent into the woods on a fool's errand. She cried for Lizzy, whom she could not save. She cried for Tom, who would forever wander the woods in search of a girl who did not want to be found. And she cried for a girl who had lost more than just her way – she had lost herself.

What now? She did not know what to do or where to go. The evil she had brazenly come there to sate was no longer there. Even if it had been, what would she have done? Fight it and die like a brave, yet ignorant fool? Succumb to it and die like a naive sacrificial lamb? She was nothing more than a child – albeit one that had suffered more loss than any child ever should. She could not go back home. How would she explain her actions to a community who already believed her to be strange?

For reasons Mary did not yet understand, she felt safe inside the alcove, but soon her need for food and water drove her to leave its confines. The forest looked a lot different from the inside. While there were too many trees and plants for her to recognize, her mother had taught her well enough that she could find plants with edible roots. With every morsel of the uncooked, unseasoned roots she chewed, Mary thought about how much she missed her mother's cooking, which only strengthened her resolve to find a way of making her parents proud.

While she knew the nights would soon grow too cold for her to sleep in the alcove, she headed back there, as it was the only place she felt safe. She had enough food left over for a light meal before bedtime – how she missed her father scowling at her when she was awake too late.

The moment she stepped inside the bay of trees, she felt herself relax once more as if a healing hand had come to rest upon her wounded soul. Thus with the soft sounds of birds twittering on the surrounding branches and a fox snuggled up beside her, she soon fell asleep.

"You're not real." She said to the woman in white once she appeared.

"In this world of dreams, I am as real as you are, Arwyn." She squeezed Mary's hand as if to prove her point.

"World of dreams?" Mary didn't want to speak to the woman, for it felt increasingly as if she had gone mad and was indeed having a two-sided conversation with herself, but curiosity got the best of her.

"Yes, you can only see and hear me when you are asleep," Yllanys said. "You will find me gone when you awaken each morning, but I am as real as the air you breathe."

Mary sat deeply enraptured as Yllanys spoke, every word felt like something out of the fairy stories her mother used to tell, but she believed every word to be true. The woman in white told of a realm beyond the only one Mary knew where battles waged over the fate of the world – and the immortal souls of man. She told of places on earth that held immense power – places like the forest that would now be Mary's new home. She told of places mystical beings go to when they die - places not written about in books, but that are as real as the dirt beneath their feet. She told of a place of beauty where mystical beings rule with wisdom and justice, where dragons are not hunted, where unicorns prance proudly and where her family will live out their days in eternal peace. Her eyes narrowed as she told of another place where evil incarnate sat on a throne of darkness. Where terror, pain and desolation are no longer merely words – they are the reality you are fed every waking moment of your days.

"You are not of this world, are you, Yllanys?"

"I used to be, young Arwyn. Our time in this world is fleeting." She smiled down at her daughter, heart swelling with pride at whom she had grown into.

"How is it I can see you? Are you dead? Which of those worlds are you from now?"

"Slow down, Arwyn. I will tell all, in time." Her eyes lifted to the sky as she spoke. "Dawn will be upon us soon."

"I do not want you to go; the forest scares me when I am by myself." Mary looked up at her, eyes pleading. "Is there no way you can stay?"

"We only fear what we do not know; I will teach you about this place, in time. Soon you will have nothing to fear. Blessed be, Arwyn."

As dawn broke, Mary awoke to find herself alone yet again. She no longer doubted her nightly visitor was real nor questioned her own sanity. She ventured further into the forest, vigilance her constant companion, for her father's words on the night he died still rang in her ears. "Stay out of the forest, Mary. It is a place of dark terrors."

She gathered what food her arms could bear, then rushed back to her shelter, for she conjured thoughts of eyes following her with evil intent. Once inside the alcove, panting for breath, she felt a fool for falling prey to her own child-like mind. After a day spent watching a family of rabbits going about their daily business, with a full belly, she soon fell asleep.

Yllanys was there waiting for her when she arrived, dark lustrous hair falling softly against her white gown. She was not sure if it was the soft moonlight lifting the shadows, but for the first time, Mary noticed the striking resemblance the older woman had to her.

Soon Mary was once again enthralled, never before had she heard tales more fantastical, yet real enough for her to feel afraid. That night, Yllanys told of a young Yokuu mother forced into a cherry alcove by dark forces fourteen years ago, who sacrificed her soul to keep her daughter safe.

"I don't understand, Yllanys. She died here? In this alcove?"

"This very alcove, Arwyn." Yllanys' eyes glistened with unshed tears. "She knew that once her child was born into this world, every form of darkness would come after her, so she did what she had to do to keep her safe, for she would indeed be a very special child."

"What did she do, Yllanys?" Mary wasn't sure if she wanted to know, something in the other woman's eyes unsettled her, but her need to know was greater than her fear. "Where was her child? How did this all come to pass?"

As she told the tale of the young mother and her child, Yllanys lost herself to memories of the night both darkness and light entered her life.