Old life

Islana saw the assassin's blade making an arch through the air straight for her heart or throat and the running figure of the leader of the Council rushing for her. Of course they would not accept an Helian, a former slave, to be their new leader. They would rather see her dead.

As the blade came closer to her a menacing red light flashed behind her eyes, painfully, almost as bad as when the mind hive of the Skara and touched her mind. She closed her eyes in pain.

She opened her eyes and ears to the familiar sounds of the forest. She immediately recognised the trees and stones and bushes of her childhood homeland. She was back. Back home.

She forgot about everything and the impossibility of it all and took the familiar trails back to her family's hut. She ran as fast as her feet would take her.

When the small wooden structure came into view hoping to see her sister playing. She saw her father standing near the door of the hut and she laughed with happiness.

She exploded into the clearing only to stop at the sight of another man dressed in fine clothes standing next to her father.

She knew him but she could recall how or who he was. But a part of her knew this was a to be a momentous part of her future...