[h3]The Hunter's Dream[/h3]
Ophelia, Farren and Gerlinde returned to the Dream, and though Ophelia would likely be relieved to find that she felt no tremors in her blood as she had on her last return, Farren would feel the familiar sense of his false Paleblood reacting... and reacting much more strongly than it ever had before. Torquil and the Shopkeeper were nowhere in sight at the moment, and the scorched remains of the once-Messengers remained where they had left them. The Dream looked like itself, quite peacefully so. But only for a second or two.
Very soon after their arrival they would notice the light slowly dimming as the sky itself – though the time of day did not appear to change, remaining stuck in a perpertual sunset – grew dark. The sun was still there in what they could only presume to be west, but it was as though its brilliance was now hidden behind an almost entirely opaque veil. The gloom within the shadows cast in the Dream turned to near-black, color faded from their surroundings and even the gentle breeze seemed to still.

Then, amidst the grim shade that had enveloped everything, they heard a sound from somewhere in the Dream, a short ways away among the farther headstones: a strange haunting noise somewhere between a hum and a song, produced by a voice that was about as far from human or animal as anything could be. It was like a cross between a lullaby and a dirge conjured from the most grotesque depths of the Nightmare itself, and all of them immediately felt their blood turn to ice in their veins just hearing it as a deeply primal fear gripped them.

Something horrible had appeared in the Dream.