The world around me had changed.

The Wise One had gone, and with her, so had the crumbling interior of her cottage, replaced by a prison of a room that lay bare to the foundations. Without a shred of carpeting on the floor, and walls that seemed to bleed maroon, it came without window nor door.

And in place of the Wise One, another headache resided. Wild flames for hair and hellfire for eyes, the leather-clad figure that loitered against the junction where two walls met offered me a harsh look.

"Now I know I'm dreaming," I muttered, squeezing my eyes shut in hopes that it would all be gone...