A/N: I wrote several parts of this story as long ago as last winter when much of the Mid-West was frozen solid. The final section of this chapter was one such. I apologize for the difference in style, but I don't feel like editing it after putting so much effort into it previously. Oh, and I know I usually present Evangeline much more sympathetically, but I think the tone of this story demands her darker version.

Sony Ninja – Ako doesn't get the whole chapter to herself, after all she's not supposed to be the hero, however she does get the majority this time. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Though the last 30 some odd chapters published in Japan have been set in the Magic World, we have a remarkable lack of information about the setting. To help fill the gaps, I've borrowed some bits from Makuhari-Fan01's story 'Ala Alba in the World of Magic.' So if the dragon territories and ofuda trees seem familiar, there's a good reason for it.

Ken Akamatsu owns 'Negima' and its characters. I own only OCs Ben and Icelus.

The following conventions are used: "words", 'thoughts', "spells", reading

Though referred to as a barn, in reality the building was a stable with a single stall that had been built over 20 years ago. I think the current owner was going to have it torn down until he found out that it and the paddock could be rented to local horse owners concerned about overgrazing their own land.

Checking on its condition took less time that I'd hoped as a north wind quickly drove the temperature below freezing. After closing the paddock gate, I stood for a moment beneath a huge oak tree. Its trunk split into two limbs, both larger than a person could reach their arms around. Last summer, the university gaming group had a picnic on the patio under this tree. Then it provided ample shade, but today the bare branches bent before the wind. Shuddering from the cold, I continued into the house.

The air inside seemed just as frosty. Makie sat on the sofa with a towel wrapped about her damp hair. She didn't say a word, but the if-looks-could-kill glare the teen gave me spoke volumes. I made sure to sit with my back to the wall during breakfast. After the dishes were cleared away, I started to jot down a list: two gallons milk, two loaves of bread, a dozen eggs and three, no four boxes of Kleenex.

"What are you doing Crawford-san?" Ako asked.

"Getting together a shopping list," I explained. "The weather's going to turn nasty and I figured I'd better get to the store now."

Makie chuckled and I glanced up to see her absorbed in reading. Thinking to bribe my way into the girl's good graces, I asked Ako what book her friend was reading.

"She's into Stephen King right now," Ako answered. "That one's 'Misery'."

Makie chuckled again and I crossed book off the list then wrote myself a note to lock the ax up before I left.

Chapter Three: A Dream Within A Dream

A fine drizzle fell down on the couple as they walked swiftly along the forest path. Ako, being the taller, held the umbrella above her and Negi's heads. The two had searched in all of the places they could think of but found no trace of the missing student. Finally, the boy decided that they needed further assistance to locate Makie, but when asked who that would be, he cryptically answered "my master."

A glowing ball, about the size of the girl's clenched fist, bobbed in front of them, lighting the hard packed trail. After everything Ako had experienced in the Mundus Magicus, she should be used to such displays but somehow magic seemed out of place in plain, old Mahora. 'I wonder what Negi-kun's master looks like?' she thought to herself. 'He's probably hundreds of years old with long, grey hair and a beard down to his waist.'

A wizened figure wearing a tall, pointed cap and robes embroidered with stars and crescent moons rose up in her mind. 'I wonder if he lives in a tower or maybe a castle,' she continued, painting a picture of a fairy tale castle in her imagination. Brightly colored banners snapped in the wind above impossibly tall, gleaming white towers. A drawbridge spanned the moat and a milk-white unicorn grazed on the lawn. 'Uh, maybe not a unicorn' Ako thought, mentally crossing out the horned beast and replacing it with a chained dragon. The girl shuddered at the imaginary creature she had conjured and unconsciously drew closer to sensei.

The pair passed a screen of pine trees and entered a meadow. Up ahead loomed … a log cabin? Light, warm and inviting, spilled from several lamps outside of the building. The pale-haired girl stopped in her tracks.

"What's wrong Ako-san?" her teacher asked.

"Negi-kun's master lives here?"

"Yes," came the boy's answer.

'No castle? No dragon?' she thought. 'How disappointing.'

A further shock waited as Negi knocked on the door and it opened to reveal a classmate dressed in a French maid's uniform. The green-haired gynoid bowed in greeting. "Good evening Negi-sensei, Izumi-san," Chachamaru said. "How may I help you?"

"Is the master in?" Negi replied, "I need to speak with her on an urgent matter."

'Her?' Ako thought as the robot ushered them into a parlor and went to inform the master of their presence. The girl felt a momentary twinge as the kindly old magician morphed into a voluptuous enchantress clad in a clingy, black dress. As she looked about the room, Ako noted that dolls of assorted shapes and sizes occupied every available surface. A battered, witches hat, its point bent down, hung on a peg next to a child's woolen coat, making the place feel more like a play room than a wizard's lair.

Chachamaru reappeared and beckoned them to follow. Up the stairs they went and into a room that filled the second floor space. Sitting up on the bed, dressed in nothing more than a pair of white, frilly pajamas was none other than student number 26, Evangeline McDowell. Negi knelt before her, inclining his head as he spoke, "Master."

"M-m-m-master?" Ako sputtered. "McDowell-san is your master?"

"Arise my apprentice," the little, blonde-haired girl imperiously commanded. "What's your problem Izumi-san? With your mouth hanging open like that, you look like a fish out of water."

Ako's mouth snapped shut as her teacher rose to his feet. "Makie-san is missing," the young boy explained. "We need your help to find her."

"And why should I care about that air-headed baka?"

"Wha …" Ako started to shout, outraged by Evangeline's callousness, but Negi motioned her to silence.

"You shouldn't, but as her teacher, I do," the young boy answered. "Makie-san has been depressed ever since we returned to Mahora. She's barely spoken to Ako-san or anyone else, and she quit the gymnastics club last night."

"She ran from me when I tried to talk to her, and nobody knows where she is," Negi continued. "Please help us."

A knowing smirk appeared on the little girl's face as she stared at the pair before her. The Dark Evangel had existed for centuries, seeing more than her share of death and suffering over that time, and being the cause of not a small amount of it. Whether one of the brats she was forced to associate with lived or died, mattered not a bit, but a thrill coursed through her to see the son of her hated enemy, the Thousand Master, plead for her aid like a proper supplicant. 'Of course, Sasaki-san and those other dolts were somewhat useful in the past,' the undead mage reasoned. 'It might not be a bad idea to keep them around in case.'

"Very well, I'll help you this once," Evangeline said to both children's relief. "But for my normal fee."

Negi swallowed hard and nodded his head in understanding. "Come sit by me, my apprentice," she said. "Chachamaru, escort our other guest downstairs."

"Wa-wa-wait a minute," Ako stammered. "What's this about a fee?"

"It will be alright," Negi answered as he started to remove his coat. "You'd best go downstairs with Chachamaru-san."

"No I won't!" the indignant girl responded to everyone else's amazement. "What kind of fee requires you to undress and get on her bed?"

A stunned silence cloaked the room until broken by Evangeline's chuckle. "Oh come now Izumi-san," she said with a smug look on her face. "You're 14. That's certainly old enough to understand these things."

The little vampire struggled not to collapse in laughter as both of her visitors' faces colored a brilliant scarlet. "You're welcome to stay and watch if you'd like," the blonde girl told her. "Who knows, you might actually learn something useful."

Negi could hear clicks issue from Ako's mouth as his student failed to find her voice. "Please master," he said. "Don't tease her like that."

Quickly, the boy stepped in front of Ako and clasped her hands. "Ako-san," he called. "Whatever it is you're thinking, that's not what's going to happen."

It was difficult to make himself understood over Evangeline's cackle, but eventually he got through to his stunned student. "It's not?" the girl asked as her face began to resume a normal color.

"I've asked Evangeline-san to cast a spell for me," he explained. "She doesn't have enough power on her own, so she'll need to use some of mine."

"Master will need some of my blood," he finally said.

At the mention of the word blood, Ako's hands went limp in his grasp and her face turned a deathly white. "Your blood?"

Memories several years old forced their way from the vault she had shut them up in. A seven year old girl in her soccer uniform sat in the passenger seat of a blue sports car as it zipped across the highway. Her team's coach, Sugimoto-san, was driving her home even though Ako lived on the far side of the city. Rumor had it that the coach had played for the famed Nankatsu football club, alongside players like Misaki, Wakayabashi and Oroza, not that Ako or any of her teammates recognized those names.

The girl never knew what happened to cause her coach to slam on the brakes, she just knew that the sports car suddenly flipped over and rolled several times, finally coming to a stop on its roof. Blood was everywhere Ako looked and the youngster screamed over and over until overcome by exhaustion. It had taken the emergency crews several hours to cut them out of the wreck. The little girl survived, with a scar across her back as a reminder; Sugimoto-san hadn't been so fortunate. Dimly, she was aware of her teacher speaking.

"Yes," Negi answered. "Now why don't you go downstairs with Chachamaru-san?"

A more recent memory arose into her thoughts. They were struggling to reach the gate at Ostia and Negi had collapsed against a pillar. Bleeding from a score or more of cuts, he lacked the strength to continue on. Ako knew Konoka could heal him, but her classmate and several of the others had been separated during the last battle with the white-haired mage called Fate. In desperation she let the ermine draw his glowing circle and followed his instructions to the letter, kissing the boy who had so devastated her earlier. Now, he was to suffer again, for her sake.

"No!" the girl yelled as suppressed memories fueled her anger. The emotions welling inside of her caused her body to shake in response. "I didn't sit by your bedside for hours when your arm was sliced off, didn't make a pact-whatchamacallit just to watch you bleed now!"

Ako shook her hands loose and rounded on the reclining vampire. "If you want blood, then take mine!"

"Ako-san no!"

"Silence!" Evangeline demanded. The undead mage gazed at the teen-aged girl before her. Like her three friends, Ako also had magical potential, though she was the weakest of the quartet. Still, it was enough for this purpose. Her mouth opened wide, revealing gleaming white fangs. "Do you understand what you're saying?"

Ako shuddered and then answered, "I understand enough."

"Master," Negi started but Evangeline forestalled his protest with a raised hand.

Her classmate slid off the bed and stood upon the bare, wood floor. "Come stand by me," she was instructed. Ako shivered, but stepped forward none the less. "Give me your arm."

"You can step outside if you want boya," the little girl said before sinking her teeth into the fleshy part of Ako's forearm.

Pain shot upwards as fangs punched through skin into the muscle below. Evangeline's mouth felt slimy against her flesh and the slurping sounds the vampire made her shudder in revulsion. The girl wanted to be sick, to run screaming from the room and to fall on the ground in a quivering mass all at the same time. How she avoided passing out when Evangeline lifted a blood-smeared mouth from her arm, Ako never knew.

"Chachamaru, see to her arm," the little mage ordered her servant. After licking the excess blood from her lips, the vampire paused in thought. "That one ought to do."

"Lic lac la lac lilac, corpus santos, fulgorem effigie," Evangeline chanted and a spark of flame appeared in the air before her. "Ego vollo, tu subvenio invenio"

The blue tongue of flame darted over to Ako and hovered in front of her. "What's going on?"

"Is that St. Elmo's fire?" Negi asked.

"Very good boya," Evangeline answered. "Since I used Izumi-san's blood, it will respond to her directions. Order it to find Sasaki-san and it will unerringly lead you to her."

"Th-thank you Master."

"In the future, don't waste my time on trifles boya," the Dark Evangel replied. "Chachamaru, see our guests to the door."

--

When one considered how noisy students generally were, Ako wondered at the pervasive quiet of the library. Even those girls in her class most prone to chatter, say Haruna-san or the twins, would fall silent not long after passing through the doors. It was definitely not the place to expect to find her roommate, but the flickering blue flame danced down the aisles of books, leading her and Negi on.

The student concentrated on an image of Makie to keep the little sprite moving as her teacher glanced nervously about. Ako wouldn't consider a library dangerous; in fact she had laughed off her friend's stories of the Baka Ranger's adventures in its hidden chambers as a tall tale. But after having seen magic in a hundred different forms, the fair-haired girl dared not scoff; such disbelief could be fatal.

Still, to think that her homeroom teacher was a wizard and her classmate a vampire was nearly more than she could accept, yet there was no way to deny the tiny puncture marks on her arm. Ako shivered at the memory of McDowell-san's mouth, hot against her skin, sipping blood from those wounds. And what bothered her most was how familiar it had seemed. However, an event like that was something the student would never forget.

They rounded a corner and the flame darted forward, finally hanging above the missing girl's head. "Makie," Ako cried and rushed to her side. Her friend's head lay upon the open pages of a book and it appeared that she slept. She placed a hand on the girl's shoulder and gently shook it. "Makie," she called with no response.

"What's wrong Ako-san?" Negi asked as the class health rep placed a hand against the sleeping girl's forehead then watched as she moved it to the side of Makie's throat and looked down at her wrist watch.

"This is bad sensei," Ako told him. "Her skin's cold to the touch, her breathing is shallow and her pulse weak."

"We need help then," the boy said as he pulled a pactio card out and held it to his forehead.

--

Makie lay sprawled on the ground and the air about her held a faint fragrance of lemon. Pushing to her knees, the girl glanced around, noting the 2 meter tall stalks of grass, their tops gently swaying, which surrounded her. The vegetation had served to cushion her fall somewhat, but had left little cuts along on her hands and legs.

Above her head hung a sun that shone down upon a world different from the one she had been born on. Without question, the middle school student knew that this was the Mundus Magicus, though not a section she had been to before. The area of Tempe Terra she and Yuna had wound up in was desert; save for the occasional oasis, like where the truck stop they had worked at was located. And the ground below the floating islands of Ostia was a rocky wasteland, devoid of plant life save for mosses that clung tenaciously to their hold in the misty vales.

Where ever she was, Makie knew it was far away from Negi-kun. Night had begun to fall across that dune covered landscape, while the position of the sun indicated noontime here. She would find her teacher, the girl promised, find him and bring him back to Mahora. But to do that, she had to first find help for herself. The tall grasses restricted her view so she fixed on the only available reference and headed towards the sun.

One wouldn't think that walking through grass would be an arduous undertaking, but pushing the stalks aside for several hours left the girl tired and sweaty. Clouds of black, flying insects buzzed around her and no amount of arm waving would dissuade them from their mission to dog her steps and annoy unmercifully. When Makie found the game trail, she could have wept for joy. Wild animals of any world posed a danger, but the trail's presence meant there should be water nearby.

Sure enough, a stream was less than an hour away. She carefully searched the banks for any signs of wildlife. The girl had been taken unawares once after finding a jumble of odd looking, white rocks alongside the trail. Thinking to get a view over the plants, the gymnast hopped onto a boulder that was nearly as tall as her, only to have it wobble beneath her feet as it stood and began to walk.

For the second time that day, Makie tumbled into the grass. From her vantage, the student saw four stubby, fur covered legs, each ending in claws as long as the teen's fingers, move with a tortoise-like gait. A single, brown eye noted her presence but after deciding she posed no threat, the beast continued to plod forward. Fortunately it moved as quickly as a tortoise and she was able to race far ahead.

Spotting no other creatures, save for those persistent flies, the girl knelt down and slurped the cool, sweet water from cupped hands. Sated for the moment, Makie sat back on her heels and discovered she was no longer alone.

On the opposite bank, a creature about the size of small dog sat on its haunches and regarded her. It had a squirrel-like face and fur colored dark brown on the top shading into a golden orange. The animal went suddenly rigid and a feeling of impending doom gripped the young girl. Without knowing why, she felt the urge to run away, as far and as fast as her feet could go. A high pitched voice hissed at her, "Don't move, not a muscle."

"Wha…"

"Shsss," the voice warned. "Quiet or we're both lost."

Makie held her breath as the compulsion to flee grew stronger with each passing second. Once, when she was about 6 years old, she had come across a mouse caught in trap, but still very much alive. How it had thrashed about in a vain effort to get free until the school's janitor scooped it up and carried it away. The girl now understood how the rodent must have felt as she could feel her resistance wavering under this unseen onslaught. Before it crumbled away entirely, a shadow, as large as Ayaka-san's jet, passed overhead. She remained locked in her seiza position while the fear slowly trickled away. At last, the creature relaxed. "Whew," it said. "That was close."

"You … you … you talk?"

"Of course I talk," the animal replied testily. "And if I didn't, we'd have both wound up as a snack for that dragon."

Makie's face became ashen in color. "Dragon?" she said in a stunned tone. "That was a dragon?"

"Certainly it was dragon," she heard. "What else would you expect inside of the dragon territories?"

Makie had heard about dragons during her previous trip, but not about a territory of them. "Where am I?"

The animal cocked its head to the side and regarded the confused teen for a moment. "You're in Sabrina, in the north of the Elysium continent."

"How far is this from Tempe Terra?"

"Is that where you're from?" the rodent asked in amazement. "How did a two-legger like you get here?"

"I fell through a hole," Makie responded.

"That was a pretty deep hole then," the creature told her. "Tempe Terra is on the other side of the world."

--

Tall grasses had given way to a canopy of tree limb and leaves. The smell of rotting vegetation was strong as Makie picked her way over roots and around trunks while following her brown and orange furred guide. "So Kae-san," Makie said, "why do dragons need negotiators?"

Following a trail the girl was unable to detect, the animal tried to explain, "Dragons desire some things that they are unable to make them for themselves, but think haggling is beneath them."

"So we in the Shokken Kawase do the bargaining for them," Kae continued.

For her part, Makie couldn't care about the world of business, but conversing with another creature gave her a sense of comfort. Even if the creature was 40 centimeters long and covered in fur. "So do you handle all of their bargaining?"

"Not all," the negotiator replied. "The ermines have a lock on the ofuda tree harvests but we have the dragon horn market sewn up."

"There's a dragon horn market?"

"Sure, dragons shed their horns every so often and sometimes their mating rituals get a little rough," Kae told her. "You'd be surprised what kind of demand there is for powdered dragon horn."

When she and Yuna landed in Tempe Terra, they had supported themselves by working at a truck stop along a major highway, so Makie realized that commerce existed in the Magic World. It struck her as wrong somehow that dragons and rodents would be conversant with economic forecasts and commodity options. The student pictured a dragon banging a gavel to open the Fantasy Land Stock Market while an army of little, furry creatures scurried across the floor, completing thousands of transactions.

"Why the big sigh Makie-san?"

"No reason," the girl answered. "Is your headquarters much further?"

"Not too," came the reply. "In fact, we're here."

Makie found herself suddenly surrounded by several dozen creatures like her guide; all deciding to talk at once.

"Hey! Look what Kae dragged in!"

"Wow, is that a real two-legger? I thought they were a myth."

"Kind of reminds me of a tree hugger only with less fur."

"And shorter nails."

"Doesn't smell any better though."

"What's all the chatter about?" another voice shouted, quieting the others. Several of the animals scurried out of the way as another, apparently one in authority, approached the group. The newcomer saw Makie and stopped in its tracks. "Oh Kae, you didn't bring home another stray?"

Her guide stepped forward. "Um, Kiri this is Makie-san from Tempe Terra. She got lost after falling through a hole."

The rodent sat back and studied the human girl. "Don't tell me, you were following a white rabbit?"

"No, my school teacher," the gymnast answered.

After reminding the others they had work to complete, Kiri Kawase sat down as Makie tried to explain her situation. "So let me see if I understand this. Your teacher, a powerful wizard, was knocked unconscious and captured by another wizard?" The girl nodded her head in agreement. "They stepped through a trans-dimensional portal and you jumped in after?"

Again Makie nodded and Kiri's whiskers twitched. "Now you're stranded deep in dragon territory and haven't a clue where your teacher is?"

"Um, well there are the red sand dunes," she offered.

"Yes, we must not forget those; that makes all the difference," the creature replied with a sarcasm lost on the distraught girl. "The best thing to do would be to see you get to the nearest city and that means … Kae!"

Her guide snapped to. "Yes ma'am!"

"Take her to the Omamori."

--

Negi stepped into the cabin for a second time that evening and shook off the rain as Chachamaru closed the door behind him. He handed the robot a small, cloth pouch and said simply, "Give this to the master."

A few moments later, he heard the clattering of bare feet down the stairs. Evangeline still dressed in her pajamas walked into the room, holding out the bag. "Where did you get this boya?"

"We found Makie-san unconscious," he told her. "That was in her hand."

"She's slipped into a coma and Konoka can't heal her," the boy continued. "What is that stuff?"

"Something that the mere possession of will get you turned into an ermine for a generation or two," the vampire replied. "And if that idiot ingested this, there's no way to heal her."

"What is it master?"

"It's called Substantia Somnium." Evangeline replied. "Follow me."

"Dream Essence?" Negi said as they walked upstairs. "Why does it have such a stiff punishment?"

"Because a person under its influence could be easily manipulated," the blond-haired mage answered. "This little pouch full would fetch 2 million drachma in the Magic World's black market."

Negi was stunned as an elixir that could cure all diseases cost only half that amount. "But where could Makie-san have gotten this from?"

Evangeline scanned her bookshelves as she spoke. "Unless she found it on your little field trip, my guess is that we have an Oneiros at Mahora." She plucked a book from the shelf, exclaiming "Ovid's Metamorphoses, that's the one."

Quickly she flipped through the pages, eventually finding what she sought. "Read this," the mage commanded as she thrust the book out.

The father Somnus chose from among his sons, his thronging thousand sons, one who in skill excelled to imitate the human form; Morpheus his name, than whom none can present more cunningly the features, gait and speech of men, their wonted clothes and turn of phrase. He mirrors only men; another forms the beasts and birds and the long sliding snakes. The gods have named him Icelos; here below the tribe of mortals call him Phobetor. A third, excelling in an art diverse, is Phantasos; he wears the cheating shapes of earth, rocks, water, trees--inanimate things. To kings and chieftains these at night display their phantom features; other dreams will roam among the people, haunting common folk.

"I don't understand," Negi said.

"Over the centuries, man has sought many ways to gain immortality," Evangeline told him. "One way was to shed the mortal body and exist as a spirit. The Oneiroi were once men who crossed that threshold in the vain belief they were becoming gods. Instead they stripped away their humanity and found themselves spirits that could no longer experience emotions but hungering for them all through their miserable existence."

From the expression on her face, Negi wasn't sure his master was referring only to these others.

"They traded dream essence to humans offering them the chance to fashion their own dreams," Evangeline continued. "In return the Oneiroi received some of the bargainer's soul, enabling them to feel again for a short time."

"Why would Makie do such a thing?"

"You can't be that stupid boya," Evangeline replied. "Think back earlier, to how you said the brat was behaving."

His face flushed at that, and then a different look came over Negi, one that was determined and showed more than a trace of recklessness to it. She had caught flashes of it during their battle this past spring and again as he faced Chao in the skies above Mahora. It was a look Evangeline had seen in someone else too.

"You said she can't be healed," Negi stated. "But there's something I can do to help Makie-san isn't there?"

The Dark Evangel smiled at her apprentice as she responded, "That all depends on how dirty you're willing to get."

Rain, mixed with sleet, fell for most of the afternoon, leaving the world outside my window coated in a thick glaze of ice. Everything glistened as if it was some enchanted winter scene, but I could see power lines and tree limbs sag underneath the dangerous weight.

Throughout the evening, trees older than the neighboring homes creaked and popped in the still, night air. Sometimes they shook off their encasement, sending a shower of ice, leaves and twigs rattling earthward. Sometimes a branch, pressed past the point of endurance, rent the air with a crack and plummeted downwards, to be caught by another branch or to crash upon the frozen ground.

I laid upon my bed, stared at the darkness overhead and listened to the sounds of a world falling apart around me. Looking at the lighted display of the bed-side clock, I was disgusted to find it only a little past midnight.

After another branch hurtled to the ground, the door to the adjoining bedroom swung open and I heard the soft tread of bare feet across the hallway carpet. "Excuse me, are you awake?" a soft voice called from my doorway.

"What is it Izumi-san?" I asked. "Is the security light still bothering you?"

"No, that's fine now," came a hesitant reply. "The last crash was kind of scary."

I could only agree with that.

"Could I spend the night in here?" Ako asked and I imagined her linking fingers together and twisting her hands back and forth.

A million thoughts flashed through my mind at her question. Most ended with me being hauled away in handcuffs to spend the next 15 years in a penal institution, guarding my backside from big guys named Bubba.

"I'm scared," she said and that finished me right then.

"Sure," I replied. I heard the rustling of sheets and the squeaking of the bed springs as she climbed in. "You know being in a man's bed can be scary too?" I asked.

"That depends on whether you're the kind to take advantage of a young, defenseless girl," she answered. "Brrr, the sheets are cold."

I scooted towards the edge of the bed and felt their icy touch myself. "Try moving to the center," I offered. Ako thanked me as she settled into the pre-warmed spot.

A loud pop and a louder thud reverberate around us, and I found Ako pressed tightly against me, her head buried into the crook of my shoulder. I know that she suffers in comparison to her more developed classmates, but there's no doubt that she's a girl. Images of Bubba loomed behind me, so near I could feel a hot breath, smelling of beer and pork rinds, upon my neck. Desperately I prayed for divine intervention. In answer, the door opened and another pair of feet padded to my bedroom.

"Ako, are you in there?" the new voice asked.

"Yes Makie," the girl next to me answered. "What is it?"

She rolled over as she spoke, and I took the opportunity to put a few inches of separation between us.

"That noise woke me and I didn't know where you were," the ringleader of this little band answered, sounding nothing like the self-assured lady of the previous day. "It was really loud and I uh, um and I was wondering ..."

Being a glutton for punishment I said, "Why don't we all spend the night in here?" How I expected two girls in my bed to be an improvement, I'm still not sure, but Makie quickly joined us. The little gymnast's teeth chattered as she commented on icy sheets.

"You're not getting the warm spot," her friend told her.

"Ako, you're so mean," she pouted.

Their banter subsided and we each dropped off to slumber. Before nodding off, it struck me that I was living in what passes, by anime standards, as paradise. I was the lone male sharing a house with three lovely girls, one friendly, one threatening, and one indifferent. Said house was now icebound, sundered from the outside world. A sudden kinship to Negi, Keitaro and countless other male leads arose within me and I stomped mercilessly on it. They may get me in the end, but I was determined not to meekly surrender.

A/N: Chapter title is from the poem 'A Dream within a Dream' by Edgar Allen Poe. The passage on the Oneiroi is quoted from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses.'

Translations of words used are as follows:

Shokken - Commission

Kawase - Exchange

Omamori – Honored Protector

Oneiros, Oneiroi – Dream, Dreams