Mamba left New Hope Village with a feeling of unease. Knowing that everyone in this world had probably been uprooted as she had, didn't soothe her. Like having a bad dream, it didn't feel real, exactly, and yet it was there, intruding upon her sense of reality. Her mind traveled back to the devastating storm, struggling to make meaning the glimpses she had managed, of what happened during the storm on that ship. She thought if she started to remember, she would realize she was just sleeping and would be waking up in a few moments, to find herself in the embrace of her sister.

Being lost in such thoughts she stepped through the pastures, that changed into a landscape with strange trees, greener than she ever remembered seeing, soon fading into a dense forest that absorbed the remaining light of day. One of the suns had already set and the other one dyed the leaves a dark purple. Hadn't Beth mentioned, she could reach the outpost before the night fell? She must have gone the wrong way; or had she walked to slowly? Unreal as things felt, she felt she must have lost her way.

A strange crackling of ancient wood, as if bent in an autumn storm, invaded her senses. Back on that ship she had heard similar sounds, before the main mast fell and broke through the deck - she remembered now. Alas, a painful blow on her shoulder cut of the memory and made her turn into the face of - a tree.

An evil face indeed! And while she realized the danger of this discovery, instinctively she rolled away from another branch that was aiming at her head. She felt a pain in her ankle which must have hit a rock as she fell into the brushwood. She tried to get up again, falling immediately. The thing that resembled an oak tree moved after her, slowly, growling with the breeze of a storm that hit her memory again. Planks breaking, bodies crushed under falling barrels, and the face of her sister, dragging her across an agony of pain.

Mamba pushed away the memories, trying to concentrate on what was currently threatening her life. She tried to crawl away from it, ignoring the pain in her leg, knowing this way she could never be fast enough to escape that evil spirit of the forest. She howled in desperation as another branch hit her on the back, tearing through her clothes and leaving a trail of bare flesh.

To her great surprise, the howl was answered. A large gray, wolf-like creature was looking down at her, a fearsome beast, yet the eyes glancing down at her held pity. She looked back into those red eyes, not knowing what made her whisper "Help!". The wolf grabbed her shoulder and, with incredible strength, started dragging her faster, away from the tree, its woof teeth sunk deep into her shoulders.

Almost unconscious from the pain, she supported the movement as well as she could. She heard the evil crackling falling behind and then - disappearing. The fangs let her go and with it, the dreams came back.