"Here is the land of my mother, Ceres. I am Persephone, her
only daughter. And I have been away so long." She sobbed.
Ceres. He knew the name. Where had he heard it? Ah, his Mother.
A nursemaid, long ago, and a weak and sickly child. Was this
then the needed task, to protect her daughter from a ruthless
enemy? How strange the fates! Every move seemed programmed,
every action preplanned long ago. And the results? Were they too
preprogrammed? Our lives it seems are in the stars, and we
neither control nor understand our fate. There was now no
question in his mind. This is the Tarn of Eternity! It is here
all shall be resolved!
"Finally, now I am getting closer to home. I shall see her once
more before she dies. The trip has been long. Soon it is over."
He felt the sadness in her words. And felt something else,
something more foreboding.
A hint of a strange odor, a scent that he knew too well. The
unseen companion was close, very close!
Even as she spoke a dark form emerged from the heavy bushes
beside the path.
Unthinkingly he knew. This was the unseen companion!
Demo's mother slept fitfully throughout the night. Dreams,
rather, nightmares, repeatedly aroused her. She saw, again and
again, her son. And something else.
Something huge and grotesque, evil and deadly. Something with
an unreasoning hatred for her son.
She arose before sunrise, sat on the edge of her bed in deep
thought, spoke aloud to herself.
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