Excerpt: Powers That Be

The shimmering ribbon was back again, this time flickering in and out every few seconds so that he saw it more clearly now than he ever had before. It looked very far above his head, and yet close enough that he almost felt if he jumped hard enough he might reach it. Something in him awoke in that feeling, and wanted to take that jump, wanted so much to simply walk into the air and find himself there on what he was sure, as if he had known it all his life, was a pathway. Where it might lead he did not know, but that didn't matter.
He stepped forward and felt a strong wind blowing at him, making waves in the long grass he was walking through. Then it seemed as though the wind itself caught him up, and before he knew what was happening he found himself high above the ground, a shimmering path beneath his feet. From up here he could see it much better, though it still shimmered in and out of varying levels of transparency. Though the ground was far below, he felt no fear.
He looked down one way along the road, and then the other, wondering where each way led. It did not occur to him to wonder how he would get down again, or even how he would find his way back here if he travelled very far away. He chose a direction and began to walk. His clothes flapped around him in the wind, which was even stronger up here than it was down on the ground, yet he did not feel chilly. The sun, too, was stronger up here, and its rays beat down on him, and though he began to feel warm from it, it was a good feeling, a healthy feeling, like taking a long draught of cool water.
How long had he been walking now? He couldn't say. Almost he seemed to have forgotten where he had come from, and where he was going; now there was only the walking, one foot in front of the other, as his eyes took in the beauty of the pathway that stretched into the distance before him.
Then suddenly he slowed, then stopped. Squinting, he looked into the distance again and was sure that he had not been imagining it; there were figures moving toward him along the path ahead. They were too far away to see clearly, but as they moved closer he thought he could make out that there were three of them, a man and two women. Or was it a man and a woman, and a girl? The woman in front was taller than the other two, and seemed to be leading them both. In fact, she had the younger woman (or the girl) by the hand.
The wind whipped up and he saw her hair begin to swirl around her, long hair, black and wavy, lifted by the wind. Though she was still too far away to see, he had the impression that two dark blue eyes suddenly flashed at him out of a face nearly hidden in the midst of that wind blown hair.
"Beware!"
Neruel sat straight up in bed, sure that he had heard someone speak. In the dark of his room he sat still and silent, listening.
There was no sound. As he began to wake up more, he realized that he had been dreaming. It was not the first time, ever since he had first seen or thought he had seen that vision in the sky above him, he had occasionally had dreams about it. In some of them, he was able to find his way there to stand and walk upon what he still imagined to be a pathway leading... somewhere. But never before had his dreams included any other travellers along that path. Never before had he heard a voice tell him-
"Beware!"