[center][h2][i][color=plum]Tia Blackwood[/color][/i][/h2][/center]
Tia carefully got into the boat. As it moved away from the bank, she looked back towards where the squirrel was. But the stump it had been on was empty and she can no longer hear coins clinking together. She sighed and mouthed a silent thank you to it. And then she turned towards the direction where they were going, her eyes drawn down into the thick black water of the lake. Several pale un-moving bodies floated face down on it. Before she could ask about it, something splashed in the water and pulled the body underneath the surface. She immediately sat down on the boat, scared that she might fall into the water and suffer the same fate as that unlucky person. She looked at the skeleton boatman as he spoke in his raspy, haunting voice. 

[color=plum]"Tar fish,"[/color] she repeated and then peered carefully over the edge of the boat. But the thick black fluid was calm and smooth, disturbed only by a few ripples from the boat as it passed by. But as she continued looking at it, a reptilian looking [url=http://previews.123rf.com/images/tranac/tranac1504/tranac150400019/39559823-Green-red-cat-or-reptile-eye-with-narrow-pupil-Stock-Photo.jpg]eye[/url] blinked at her and then something slithered just beneath the surface, the edges of its sharp spines cutting through the shiny black surface. Surprised, she leaned back in. 

Her heart pumping with fear, she looked at the boatman, bothered by the fact that she could stare at a live skeleton while a fish scared her. If it even was a fish. She shivered at the thought. [color=plum]"Why I'm here... I... had no idea I crossed over. This is the Dream, isn't it?"[/color]