Mammy- MOTHER; ken- KNOW; kent- KNEW; bairn- CHILD; och- OH; dinna- did not

Hannah tossed and turned that night as her head filled with dreams of floating shapes that morphed into the mysterious shadow who had decided to control her life. Fires and terrors followed the shape as it rampaged in her mind. Hannah screamed when a hand seized her arms. They held her in a vice-like grip making it hard for her to move away.

"Hannah! Wake up! Ye are havin' a terror dream," a stern voice sounded through the fog of the nightmare but it was not enough to fully wake her. 

In her dream, she ran after the shadow as the flames grew higher fighting the arms that held her back. She screamed after the shadow, cursing loudly and condemning it back to the fiery pits from where it crawled. All around her, bodies appeared. They were the men of Camden's clan all tattered and torn as if they had been fighting in a long battle. Not a single one fo them were moving, they all remained still. Crumbling to the ground, she touched one of their hands. It was cold to the touch causing the tears to flow harder and faster soaking the ground. Looking around she saw something that made her heart fall, a woman's hand laying open to the air. Running to it, she stopped with eyes wide open. It was not any woman, it was a reflection of herself. Sticking out of her was a large sword with intricate carvings that symbolized something but she had no idea. Her dead counterpart's eyes were glazed open looking towards the sky. 

A whisper reached her ear. The shadow. It stood over Hannah's prone figure. 

"Endless possibilities Hannah," the figure turned to face her, "Just remember when the time comes to choose wisely." The figure dissipated and Hannah was left standing alone among the dead bodies of all the Scottish men. They were strewn about as if the wind had picked them up in a great gust and thrown them wherever it had pleased. Arrows stuck out of various figures along with other battle weapons. It was too much to look at. 

Turning back around, she stepped back as her dead figure disappeared like dust and another figure took its place. A woman with dark hair. Her eyes were as green as the Scottish country that surrounded her. Her mouth was agape and she was barely breathing, Hannah knelt down trying to staunch the flow of blood that seemed to be endlessly flowing from the woman's abdomen. "Take...care...of..him," she whispered with her last breath as she passed into the next life. Sitting back on her heels, Hannah wept and closed the eyes of the mysterious woman. 

Sitting  up in the bed and dripping with sweat, she looked into the concerned eyes of Camden. He stared at her cautiously not knowing what to do. His arms still gripped her own. Hannah yanked them away as if they were burning her skin. Gently, she tugged the blanket up around her to give her some more modesty since the sweat had the effect of making the white shift turn transparent in some aspects.

"I heard ye screamin' and wanted tae make sure ye were alright. Are ye?"

"I'm fine Camden. You can leave now."

It was as if she had taken her hand and slapped him once again. The kindness that had been sitting in his hazel eyes washed away quickly with one drop of his mouth. Standing up, she realized he had not been sleeping in a room but rather outside of her door. The kilt was ruffled and there was a large imprint of wood on his bare side.

Placing a hand over her face, she moved it roughly through her red tresses before sighing. 

"I'm sorry Camden. I shouldn't have said that. You were being kind and I turned back around and slapped you with a rude remark. For that, I am sorry."

"It's alright lass. Ye were havin' a terror and wakin' up from those can be nasty. I just wanted tae make sure that ye were alright."

Hugging her knees to her chest, Hannah glanced out the window only to be greeted with the cold stare of the moon and the twinkling of the stars in the open sky. Camden had lit a small candle when he had entered which sputtered in the corner. 

"Why were you sleeping outside of my door Camden?"

"Och, I wanted tae make that ya were safe from th' men. Wee rascals they are. I dinna want ye to be woken by some Scot tryin' to take advantage of ye."

The remark stung, but Hannah let it go. He had used the insinuation that all Scots were nothing but savages who would take and bed any woman that they laid eyes on.

"Ye ken, my men ken when to behave because I am th' laird and they listen," he whispered with his back to her. 

"I'm sorry Camden. I never meant to call you a savage. It is just that I am out of my element in a way."

"I donna understand what ye mean lass."

Hannah grappled with the right words to find to explain what she meant. "Imagine if you had been taken from Scotland and placed somewhere different where you knew no one and had no idea what the people were like. Wouldn't you assume the worse?"

"Lass, it is as my mammy used to tell me as a wee bairn, 'Ye must not judge until ye have been judged.' Ye have to get tae kent the people before ye can go around makin' names, " he stated turning around to face her. Hannah took a deep breath in. His well-toned figure stared back at her but what surprised her and shocked her was the long, jagged scar that went from his pectoral down to his belly button in a slanted motion.

"I'm sorry Camden. I'm just-"

"Lost. That is what ye are Hannah. The Fates or Gods put ye here in my reach by the power of the Faeries that float around. I donna ken why, but I will not let ye remain lost."

Camden sat on the edge of the bed but his eyes did not leave her own. Deep inside, something fluttered but only slightly. Taking a deep breath, Hannah turned her face away towards the window illuminating her face ever so slightly with the light from the pale moon.

"It was awful," she murmured, "I have never had a dream that vivid before. People were dead. There were flames everywhere. My Fate was," she choked a little but continued on, "written or so it seemed. Another woman replaced me and told me to take care of him. I don't know who she was referring to. Her hair was as dark as yours with eyes as green as the forest that surrounds this castle."

Hannah reached out and brushed his hair softly. Camden reached up and closed his large hand over her own, "Hannah, dae ye believe that the Fates could have put her in yer dream, I mean dae ye think-"

Hannah's mind was turning, and then it clicked. Trying to pull back the dream that was still there but quickly disappearing, she brought the image of the dying woman back. Those eyes, although green had some likeness to Camden's. What made it most clear was the brown hair that sprawled out around her. It glimmered softly in the fire that burned all around. Hannah stared at Camden's hair. Even in the soft moonlight, it shone in the same way as the woman from her dream.

"It was your mother," Hannah whispered. 

"Aye, I believe it was. She had a heart for the people and a soft spot for me. I donna ken why she would come to ye in a dream."

Hannah shrugged her shoulders making her shift fall ever so slightly. It caught Camden's notice. He reached his hand out and pushed it back into its place making Hannah blush every so slightly. 

A low chuckle rose in Camden's throat, "Ruadh fits ye well." He motioned to the redness that continued to crawl up her cheeks.

"So my grandfather thought," she stated without thinking. Camden snapped his head to the side as if to question that statement.

"Ye had a Scottish name?"

Hannah gave a small incline of her head, "Yes my grandfather liked t call me by it instead of my actual name. I was his favorite, or so he always said." Her smile faltered a bit. "He told me, 'Yer hair matches the blush of yer cheeks my ruadh. Yer my favorite.' He slipped away after that."

"May he rest in peace. Yer grandfaither was a Scot?"

"Yes. Born and raised. He loved to pass down the history to us." By this time, she had let loose a stream of stories of her grandparents and the funny things that they always said, but she always skirted around her last name.

"That means ye have Scottish blood!" Camden's smile lit up, "The Faeries blessed me wi' a Scottish hen!"

Rolling her eyes, Hannah slid the sheets further up around her neck. "Camden, I have a question. Why did you force that kiss on me?"

It was Camden's turn to blush, "Findin' ye missing from the yard was as bad as findin' ye missing that one night. I dinna ken what tae dae. When I found ye sittin' up on the mountains, yer hair was flowin' free and made ye look wild and beautiful like the angel I know ye are. The words that ye yelled at me stung Hannah. They were filled with anger that rivals the Furies." He ran a hand through his wild mop of hair, "I donna ken what came over me. They were right in front of me!"

Hannah laughed, but then frowned, "Camden I want you to listen carefully. It's not that I didn't like it, but it was forced upon me and out of anger. You and I are strangers. We do not know each other that well and I do not want us to-"

"Ye donna want me tae kiss ye until we know each other better?"

"Exactly. We can be what I like to call friends."

Camden grinned a wide grin, "I like that. Hannah?"

"Yes?"

"Will ye ever tell me the truth about yerself?"

"Maybe," she hesitated, "When I am ready."

"Can I tell ye a story?"

"Sure." Hannah leaned back against the bed with the blankets pulled closely. Camden sat in the same spot and stared out the window which gave off some of the early sun's first rays.

"When I was but a wee lad, my da told me about when he ken that my ma was the one. It was hard for him to put it into words," he chuckled a little bit, "I dinna ken what he was blabberin' about, but I did when I met Ailsa." A soft smile gave way on his face. Looking at him, she could see that he was tired from the battle and even more tired maybe emotionally.

"She was a bonnie lass. She was my sun, but then she was killed. That day it was my heart was ripped right of my chest. I lost myself, Hannah. I couldna let ye dae the same. The Gods put ye in my life and I donna want tae lose ye. Donna leave me ruadh," he whispered , "I am sorry that I acted savagely. My ma dinna raise me to behave like that. She would have lashed me alive."

Hannah grinned, "Your mother sounds like she was a lovable woman."

"Aye, she was. Bonnie too. I got her looks and not my da's. She loved me even when she hated me."

The sun continued to rise. It gave Camden's eyes a bright little light that set off the hazel ever so slightly. Birds chirped loudly as the flittered from one tree to the next. Hannah did not have to see them to know that they were flying through the air with grace and beauty as they flew towards their family. Her heart dropped a little, but it rose again. Camden had opened up and so had she, maybe a mutual friendship filled with respect was the best thing for them both at this point in time. 

Time. Hannah laughed to herself. Time was ever moving around her and she had no idea when she would disappear or reappear.

"I must go tae make sure my men are up. Get a little rest lass, we are leavin' for my land today." He smiled and left the room. What he did not know is that he took a tiny piece of Hannah as he exited the room leaving her feeling a bit chilled and a little bit lonely.

A/N What do you think so far? Is there something foreboding in her dream?

VOTE, COMMENT, AND FAN

DEDICATED TO  for all the lovely comments she leaves!