Zedd Witlock -- Waking in a cold sweat<br/><br/>The first sound that registered was that of laughter, muffled and distant. Some of the older children ignoring the lights out curfew again, no doubt. Zedd lay on his back in the bed, heavy sheets rumpled around him wet with his sweat. His breathing was fast and his heart pounded in his chest, and he kept his eyes closed until he reined it back under control. Easy. One, two. One, two. Everything was fine. One, two. Keep a grip. One, two.<br/><br/>After a few moments, Zedd opened his eyes and stared into the familiar blackness of his room. Crickets chirped outside the window in the still night air, singing their songs to each other and the few straggling drunkards that had yet to ramble their way home. Unfortunately, his thoughts were not so peaceful.<br/><br/>'A dream. Just a dream. But...was it? No. Not a dream; a vision. From Lady Artemis. That map...What's in California? The old Redwood Forest? And what did she mean...?' Zedd remembered the last of the dream, the touch of the goddess's palm on his head. 'A gift, she said. To see through the eyes of nearby animals. But, how am I supposed to...'<br/><br/>He sat up in the bed and swung his feet out to meet the floor, and wiped his brow. 'Wait. She said to reach out here,' he recalled as his hand swiped over his forehead. Zedd leaned over and fumbled around on the nearby table for a candle and flint lighter, bringing a small point of light into the gloom. He sat back on the bed and closed his eyes once more, crossing his arms and drawing a slow, deep breath, then tried to imagine himself seeing through the eyes of another creature.<br/><br/>Since he only half-expected it to work, he only half-screamed when he suddenly realized he was staring at himself from across the room. He was huge. And there were eight of him.<br/><br/>Zedd watched, partly fascinated and mostly terrified, as the 'other him', a small house spider, turned and carried his sight straight up -- up! -- a wall and disappeared into a huge crack in the ceiling. In the last instant before the candle's light disappeared from view, Zedd spied giant crumbs of plaster and brick, and what looked like the most enormous dust balls he'd ever seen. They looked nearly as big as his head!<br/><br/>As the candle's glow faded, however, his vision did not diminish as he'd expected it to. Instead, his surroundings took on a strange, gray-tinged, almost ghostly aspect, but remained as clear as day. The little spider scurried forward at a dizzying speed, skittering this way and that, leaving Zedd feeling considerably nauseated and disoriented. He tried to focus his thoughts on the spider, tried to control its direction and speed, but either the Lady Artemis had neglected to grace him with that additional talent, or he simply wasn't skilled enough to use it yet. Perhaps with practice.<br/><br/>Zedd was considering how to 'disconnect' from the tiny arachnid when nature stepped in and solved the problem for him. He was finally starting to get used to the altered perspective when a sharp pang of fear slammed into his brain like an iron spike. Zedd could feel his body, his real body, break out in a cold sweat as a presence seemed to loom over him from behind. The spider turned around just in time to see the powerful mandibles of a humongous cockroach crunch through its thorax. The spider's vision went black, for for a moment so too did Zedd's.<br/><br/>When he snapped back into himself, Zedd felt weak with the aftershocks of the spider's fear and agony and clambered out of bed. He stumbled toward the window and stuck his head out just in time to expel the remainder of the evening's supper into the gutter, his body wracked with heaves. For several moments he leaned against the windowsill, gasping for breath, until the creaking hinges of his bedroom door alerted him to a visitor.<br/><br/>"Zedd? Esta bien?" Ernesto, Zedd's de facto right hand, and at fifteen, one of the oldest children in the home, stood anxiously in the doorway. His shaggy brown hair hung loose across the left side of his face, covering the angry red patch of scar tissue that marked his forehead. "We heard...noises?"<br/><br/>"Que?" Zedd said, his hazy thoughts finally congealing back into understanding. "oh, si, Ernesto. I'm, uh...I'm fine, my friend. Please, get back to sleep. Everything is alright," he replied as he straightened himself back up. "Just bad dreams. Gracias, mi amigo."<br/><br/>Ernesto lingered a moment longer, uncertainty plain on his face, but at last nodded and left. Zedd sat back down on the bed and held his head in his hands. Something about this whole situation felt...sinister. Daunting. But Lady Artemis had summoned him, and he would not fail her. He would leave at dawn. The goddess's last words echoed in his thoughts. '"Be swift, Zedd!"' She'd called, before vanishing into the dream forest.<br/><br/>'Yes...I suspect I'll need to be,' Zedd thought as he lay back into bed.<br/>