This story's a bit of an experiment for me. I'm trying out a couple of different things in terms of structure and storytelling. Because of that, I've deliberately kept some of the chapters very short, more like long drabbles than anything else. I hope you'll stick with me, though, and let me know what you think. Thanks go out to Stephen, for helping me find a supernatural that worked with the story I wanted to tell.

Happy birthday, Swellison!! This is for you! Hope I did a good job working in all of your favorite things. *g*

Always With You

I.

Green scales flashed bright as emeralds in the strong afternoon sun. A shriek like ripping metal filled the air. Trees bent and snapped under wing-compressed wind. Eyes, blood red and ancient, glittered menace while a long tail sliced the sky. The enormous bird went into a dive, headed right for the hunter on the cliff.

He woke ready to scream a warning but waking slid the name from memory, a slippery frog in a five-year-old's hand, leaving only the sludge of desperation, despair.

Something was very wrong, part of him missing.

Did he know the man on the cliff? He'd felt connected to him, frantic to save him. Yet, he didn't know his name, couldn't say what he'd looked like. When he tried to picture the hunter's face, blinding pain stole thought and memory sank again into deep waters that were murky as they were cold.

He followed it down.