I stood in a strange place, unlike any I'd ever seen. There were no trees nor grass on the earth, and all was dark. Yet there was land beneath my feet. It was like soil, and yet not. It was pale like powder, and under a full moon it seemed to glitter. It rose in rounded shapes like hills, but yet unlike hills, for the ground appeared to shift and move beneath the wind. I wondered how anything could live here, with no trees, no grass, no water. Then I felt something wet strike upon my face from above, as if it were softly raining. I held up a hand to catch a drop, and the drop that fell onto my palm was not clear, but darkly crimson. I felt afraid, and sensed that some terrible thing was at hand. Then I heard a great, rushing sound, like a mighty wind. It buffeted against my back, and blew the powdery soil into the air, whirling it around so that it stung my skin. I closed my eyes and covered my face.
When the wind stilled, I turned to look behind me, and saw that the barren, strange land was gone. I was in a towering, northern forest. Pine and fir trees rose towards the star-filled heavens. A line of mountains stood above them on the horizon. A silver light seemed to shine upon a crag of rock, and on it there stood a great bear, silhouetted in the darkness. The bear roared, and the sound struck a sort of fear into my heart, but it was not fear for myself. I felt again that some dreadful thing was imminent, and I covered my face and said aloud, "No more!"
Once more, the scene changed. I stood alone on the brink of a cliff, and below me was a wide plain. It was not night, but nor did it seem to be day. The light about me was weak and strange; I could see, but all seemed dim. Below, I could see figures moving over the land. Horses, people, wagons. I saw a child running through the tall grass. Fair-haired, small and young, wearing a nightgown, with its arms outstretched as if it wished to fly. It ran away from the others, running towards the open plain. I felt anxious, that this child was going the wrong way, and it ought to be running back towards its family and kin, and that it would become lost. At the last, one of the horses broke away from the others and galloped after the child with a fury that was startling. I watched, waiting for the horse to reach the child. But the thunder of hooves was suddenly loud and clamoring, like a stampede inside my skull, so much that I recoiled and placed my hands over my ears. Thus ended the dream and I awoke with the echo of the horses' hooves pounding in my head.
