badstar

I was on an island. It looked like an Agean travel brochure. Blue water, white buildings, humid and breezy. Walking amongst some houses, I turned a corner and there was a wire fencewith tall grass growing along it, and a gate that opened with a sandy path. I followed it and just beyond the gate was the beach. to my left were high cliffs. The sand was white and soft, and the tide was high so the strip between the cliffs and tide line was narrow. I walked along the cliffs untill they ended abruptly and a steep gravel path snaked up along the hillside that joined the cliffs. The beach ended here also. I started up the path, it was a much easier climb than I expected and was flanked by short, stuff grass. At the top, I looked out over the cliff and then turned to face inland. The steep path widened somewhat into a narrow road on the flatter terrain and I realized that I was in a familiar landscape.

I walked along the road, it snaked back and forth as it went along. This was not the same path I'd followed before, but the place was the same. The walk wasn't as long as some of the previous walks, and it stayed in open space, no turning off into dense forest as before, and shortly, I was back at the temple. This road approached from slightly off to the side instead of straight on. Both doors were wide open this time, sunlight streamed in behind me. I wasn't intimidated as I had previously been, but I was still cautious.

I walked in and glanced around and walked a few steps farther. The doors closed behind me this time, silent except for a slight "thud". They'd always remained open before. I went to one of the pedestaled water basins, dipped my hands in and withdrew them, studied them for a minute, excess water dripping back into the basin. There was a soft cloth on the edge of the basin this time, I dried my hands on it. At this point, I realized that I was wearing a thin gold bracelet on my right wrist, like the one that the woman in the previous dreams had worn. I walked to the front of the temple and made an offering of incense, fruit and wine at the altar. I don't remember what I was wearing, only that I never changed clothing in this dream.

After this, I looked around again, expecting to see the woman from the previous dreams but she never appeared. Off to the side, there was a door. I walked out and into a courtyard. I realized this must have been the door that I'd been led through in the previous dream when I was blindfolded. Off to one side, I saw the target I'd shot at, still there, still with seven arrows in a spiral, and seven more arrows splitting them. Someone came up behind me and blindfolded me again. They did not speak, but again I was handed a bow and quiver of arrows. The person turned me slightly, touching me so lightly I couldn't tell if it was a man or woman, but a male voice told me to shoot. So I did, seven times. Again, I was given a quiver and told to shoot, again seven arrows. I raised the blindfold and saw the same arrangement of arrows before, but no one there.

He must have been behind me, because a hand came from behind and pulled the blindfold back over my eyes. He moved around in front of me and took my hand, holding it lightly palm up. He said that my shooting was remarkable and that it was time to read an omen. A cup was held to my lips and he told me to take a sip. I did, it was cold water. He asked me to hold the cup in my right hand, while he held the left, still palm up. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I was shocked when I felt a blade slice slightly into the tip of my middle finger. The cutting didn't hurt, but it stung, badly when the air hit it. I could feel it starting to bleed. He took the cup of water from my other hand, and placed my cut finger into the water for a second. After a few seconds, he said "Yes, the omen is very good." but did not give any details. He touched a fingertip to the center of my palm, and traced a line outward to the cut tip of my finger. The stinging stopped and touching my thumbtip to it, I realized that it was not bleeding anymore, there was no cut.

He said to me "You have one more promise to make for now. Go make it. You will keep yours to me." A minute of silence, I started to say something, he stopped me and spoke again, he said "There is something that you want that you may find. It will be difficult for one in my service, but you may find it with another's help. In the future, one other may want you for their own. You will always have a choice, everyone always has a choice, but you I think will always return."

He stepped behind me, I felt fingers run slowly across the top of my shoulders and he said again "Yes, you I think will always return. You have made sure of that. I am connected to you through this marking."

The he was gone, and I was still blindfolded.

Still blindfolded, I woke up.