Chapter 72

I face them all, water dripping from my nose and chin, pleading with a resolve I didn't know I had. "Please," I say softly, but it soon becomes more than a word. It grows beyond that, beyond me and anything I could hope to accomplish. I can feel the desperation emanating from that one word, watch the word fade from my ear but grow in its deliverance. And as I watch in amazement, everything seems to come out of the well.

I could see everything, every emotion coming together to form a strange essence that rose higher and higher. It shines with a thousand lights to fight the darkness, a life that embraces the land of the dead.

A smile graces my lips as suddenly the collective dissipates, flying almost at lightning speed to all the edges of the glades. I can see the Shifters becoming visibly brighter, as if they themselves had received a breath of life. Very slowly, they begin to disappear, fading into the depths of the trees.