He balances easily on the horse, lets the reins fall loose and feels his clothes and hair whipped back by the wind. He is free. Ahead of him stretches blue skies and endless plains of whispering grass and, as the sun beats down on him, he is happy. He rides away from the dark tendrils that curl about sleep and make his days an endless test of mettle. He rides on a dreamer’s quest when all his hard-won soldier’s logic tells him that the time for dreams is past… and yet dreams he still. Behind lies darkness: ahead lies hope.