*~ The girl crouched, trembling and sweating, in the corner of the small adobe house that had once belonged to Ehran and his family, her back pressed against the wall. Wind blew smoke into the house through the open windows, and the girl gasped and choked as she tried to stay silent. Outside, the sounds of screaming grew closer, and soon the girl knew she would have to leave her hiding place and join the crowd which was trying to run from it's doom. That was one thing her brother had taught her; it was safer to run with a crowd than alone. But now her brother was probably among the mindless wraiths that pursued the last of the villagers. She tensed, then leapt out the window, rolling over the hard, dusty ground, and finally climbing to her feet. She was already running by the time the surviving villagers joined her, all of them running for their lives. They were nearing the edge of town when suddenly a group of wraiths appeared to block the way. The girl cursed as she realized it had been a trap, the wraiths had steered the villagers directly into an ambush. Just then, the night sky was lit up with flames as some nearby buildings exploded and burst into flame. Large pieces of masonry flew through the air, some of them crushing the few remaining villagers. The girl fell to the ground, trampled and crushed by the debris and panicked people. It seemed that suddenly everything went quiet, and the girl heard the sound of boots on the hard-packed earth. A hand gripped her broken arm and lifted her off the ground, and the girl screamed with pain. She tried to punch her attacker, but her other arm was gripped as well, and the girl found herself face to face with a handsome, golden haired man who was smiling quite pleasantly at her. "Well, what do we have here?" mused the infamous general as he inspected the girls face. "You'd be quite pretty once we cleaned the filth from your skin," he said as he wiped a trickle of blood away from the girl's mouth. Leaning close to her face, the General whispered,"Surrender and I will spare you. You will become a member of my harem, safe from the wraiths, and even from Lady Parasia--" The girl spat in his face, tinted pink with her own blood, and the General grinned sadistically as he wiped it off. He caressed her face and then slapped her, licking the blood off his fingers as she hung from his arm limply. Savoring the taste of her blood, he tossed her to the wraiths nearby, then said, "Kill them all." As the wraiths closed in on the last remaining villagers, the girl screamed for mercy for them. The General turned to her, his face a mask of pure evil, and he said, "You'll find your mercy in death." Then all went dark. ~*
      Urei woke suddenly, too frightened to even sceam. Somehow, Urei knew that "the General" and this Parasia woman were the ones who had destroyed those planets. But why. Tears streamed down Urei's face. In the dream, Urei had been that girl, and she had felt everything the girl felt, up until the moment of her death. As Urei tried to catch her breath, she realized that it was early morning. "How long have I slept?" she wondered. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to sleep anymore, Urei got up and dressed, and quietly left the house. She had some thinking to do, and all her serious thinking was best done at her special clearing in the forest.
      Urei reached the clearing feeling exhausted. The sleep she had gotten had done little for her. Falling onto the dewy grass, Urei felt more at peace already. It was there, somewhere between sleep and consciousness, that Urei first began to see things. At first she thought they were the last of the night's fireflies, or tricks of the rising sun, but Urei soon realized that they were something different altogether. They were small creatures, some quite odd looking, and some quite beautiful, but they were there, and they were real, Urei knew that for sure. And they were all whispering. "I can't understand you," Urei said dreamily. One of the creatures, a little girl with the most beautiful butterfly wings, drifted over to Urei and said,"Please help us, Princess. They'll never stop, ever." "They drain a planet's life, then move on to another," said a wrinkly little man with green clothes. "They're a sickness, pure evil," the trees whispered, "Please, Princess, help." The sun was coming up now, and as the light grew brighter, the creatures were disappearing. "But I'm afraid," Urei whispered, her eyes glazing over. "We'll always be there to help, Princess," Urei heard many someones whisper, "Always....." Finally, Urei sank into a peaceful sleep, lulled by the gentle gurgling of the nearby stream, the now invisible creatures guarding her rest.