Sleep was elusive for Geneva, taunting her with the unfulfilled promise of peace and recuperation. And that suited her just fine. Despite the burning eyes and relentless headache that accompanied sleep deprivation, she was willing to lay still in the flickering glow of the dwindling fire and ponder her next actions.

Her thoughts bounced back and forth between the unpredictable happenings in this remarkable fantasy domain that defied all logic, and the heart-wrenching finality that awaited her back in the bitter reality where she would eventually return, but her weary mind was unable to focus on either for very long. How pathetic was it that she desperately wanted to escape both worlds? It made her realize---yet again---that she really didn't want to exist at all. She was tired of the endless pain. She was tired of living.

But first, she needed to get out of this...endless hallucination.

Either she was experiencing the longest, most realistic dream she had ever had, or Geneva had lost her mind. Neither option appealed to her. But as she lay in the comfortable bed offered to her by an inhuman host that she certainly couldn't trust, she knew what she had to do next. Waiting to wake hadn't yet worked. Pinching herself hadn't worked. So it was time to play along with the dream. It was time to act.

The plush bedding allowed her to rise without a sound. The bizarre creature---which Geneva was starting to believe was male---appeared to be sound asleep. His breathing was deep and heavy, slightly nasally on the edge of snoring.

She crept across the room, around the ceramic fire bowl, then abruptly stopped in her tracks when the sleeping oddity stirred. He smacked his lips, causing a rippling wave to move across his wide mouth from one side of his face to the other. He belched loudly, startling Geneva and causing her heart to leap, then rolled onto his side facing her. Thankfully, his eyes remained closed beneath folds of the doughy flesh.

Geneva hesitated a moment longer, her mind still spinning with his remarkable insight into her life. He was a total stranger to her, a being that she could never even have imagined, and yet he seemed to know all about her. She remembered one of his statements that had struck her to the core.

"Did you not choose to leave your world?"

Yes. Yes I did. She felt an irresistible surge of emotion sweeping over her as she allowed herself to really think about what he had said. Her knees weakened, tears instantly filled her eyes, and nausea threatened to overcome her.

Yes. She had made a choice to leave the world the night she had wandered off into the frigid darkness. She had decided to end her life. What other choice did she have? Once again surging anger caused her heart to start racing. Both hands clenched into tight fists at her sides.

Stop! Stop it! Don't lose control!

She took a breath and physically stopped herself from sobbing, forced the rage and nausea back into submission. Her tears, however, had already broken free and now flowed down her cheeks, clinging to her chin for a moment before finally falling to the ground. Stubbornly, she wiped away all traces of them and focused once again on her purpose.

Stop it! Don't start crying now, you'll wake him up. Just get out of here!

Still quiet as a whisper, she reached the door.

Please be unlocked, please be unlocked...

She pulled the door and it swung open easily. This was it! One way or another, she was getting out of this dream for good.

She stepped through the doorway, but the night was darker than she ever remembered. No matter, her eyes would adjust in a minute. For now, she just wanted to get out of the strange round chamber before---and then all of a sudden she was falling! She had taken two quick steps, but the third one found no footing and she dropped into the darkness!

Geneva spun her body around reflexively as she plummeted, reaching out frantically for something to grab hold of, her fingers finding nothing but the night air. Her stomach flip-flopped as her body twisted, falling faster and faster. It seemed like an eternal descent and every second of it was complete panic. Had she fallen in a hole? How deep was it? What would she land on?

And then suddenly she stopped. She didn't hit bottom, she didn't get snagged on something, she just...stopped. In mid-air. As if gravity had been turned off.

She hung in the air, suspended by some mysterious support that she could neither see nor feel, gasping as her racing heart slowed just a little. Her mind was spinning, trying to comprehend some possible explanation for her sudden power of levitation, before it was interrupted by yet another inexplicable surprise.

A swarm of bright pinpoints of light pierced the darkness below. The lights rose toward her, a herd of tiny stars that glowed with increasing brilliance. As they moved closer, the lights scattered and swirled all around Geneva, and for the first time she saw that they were creatures.

These creatures were about one foot tall and at first glance appeared to be tiny people. But as they swooped around Geneva, each illuminated within their own aura of bright light, she could see that their faces were more like animals. Wide eyes stared back at her above short slender snouts. The narrow faces were framed by large rounded ears on top of their heads, erect and focused forward, and fuzzy, finger-width tails flicked behindthem. They kept themselves airborne with membrane wings attached from their forearms to their legs, and Geneva noticed that the glowing light was radiating from the network of veins within their wings.

The flying ballet continued past Geneva, rising into the darkness, then the creatures coalesced back into a swarm directly above her. As they continued their upwards flight, they looked back at the hovering girl and made gestures with their long toes. Geneva felt herself begin to float up after them, towed along by some unknown force.

Had these strange creatures caught her on lines so thin that she couldn't see them in the darkness? What other explanation was there?

The glowing mass continued up, up, up, until they reached the doorway where Geneva had stepped out. They separated and hovered around the entrance as the girl rose up to be greeted by Steekbunk Lowbone who stood on the small platform that protruded from right below the door. Now that she had calmed down from her near-death experience, she became aware of the beauty of the glowing creatures. The shimmering luminescence from their translucent wings created the appearance of floating candles and cast Steekbunk in a mesmerizing light display.

"I must have been sleepwalking," Geneva lied to her hairy, egg-shaped host. "I thought for sure I had fallen to my death."

"Not on this night,"Steekbunk replied. "That is not your destiny."