-1Disclaimer: I do not own the Dark Tower multiverse, I only wish I could come up with something like that. The only character that is mine, is the main female. The Ka-Tet are strictly King's property. The time frame doesn't particularly figure in this story, aside from where the Tet are at this point in time.. It's set in the gao between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla.

Far, far away, a dry wind blew into the place where she lay, in darkness. Brittle, old hay flew against her face, feather light and a million years away. She was numb, so numb. She felt far away from everything. There was only the throb of her head, the far away feelings of that dry wind, and unimaginable heat. A board was digging into her, but that was small, unimportant. What seemed to matter was the darkness. The darkness was safe, it needed no answers, no explanation. It spoke for itself. It whispered to her, but it seemed to be whispering in another language.

A groan escaped her lips, but that sounded muffled, as if it where being made by someone behind thick walls. The dark wasn't whispering any more. It was talking to her, but she still couldn't understand it.

Abruptly, the board digging into her became more painful, it began to struggle through the blanket of darkness, rising from a distant murmur to a closer whisper and finally to a hectoring shout that made her head throb. Around her, the darkness flew away, all comfort gone, leaving only a dry heat which offered nothing.

Her eyes snapped open, as breath escaped in a warm gush. Her eyes were at first too blinded by the bright sunlight of the place to see anything. But after a while, her eyes began to adjust. She sat up slowly, rubbing absently at her neck. Bitterly, she began to wish her eyes hadn't adjusted. Because what she saw made no sense.

She appeared to be sitting on an uneven wooden floor, sun bleached and weathered. The building was a stable of some kind, from what she could see, the stables waited in tired rows for horses that would never come, from the look of the place.

Sun filtered through the gaps in the board walls, showing the dust particles that floated serenely through the stifling air. A dry wind blew in from behind her, blowing her hair out in front of her in black strings. She got up slowly, in deference to the heat, and looked around a bit more. In one of the stables, there seemed to be a bread board with a piece of what looked like jerky on it. Feeling ever more confused, she walked slowly onward, but the stables offered no answers. They were what they were. Deserted.

Worrying at her nails, she moved along the line of stables, when seemingly out of nowhere, a machine cycled up.

Ka-THUD ka-THUD ka-THUD

As if summoned by the sound, a man in a black robe swept around the corner at the end of the stables, wiping at his dripping mouth with the sleeve of his robe.

She did nothing. Simply froze with her eyes wide and staring, looking like one of the horses that had once come here, her hand still at her mouth.

The man in black stopped too, but there was no fear on his face. He only smiled charmingly at the girl standing there, looking at him with a frozen horse-eyed stare. Still smiling, he extended his hand to her, which was still dripping with water.

"Come now, child." He said amiably. "No need to be afraid of me, I wouldn't hurt a fly."