Tara had no idea where she was.  As the Antlion had come above her, ready to strike, something had come up from behind her and forced the light out of her eyes.  She was shivering at this point, scared of the Antlion and, for the first time in years, being powerless.  Against the Antlion’s current form, all offensive magic was completely useless and she’d spent most of her strength on the failed attempt at re-casting the Size-Change spell.  She’d have been lucky if she had enough energy to try to run from the beast, let alone use The Arte to help defend herself.

In her fear, she pondered where she was, but her mind had been suppressing that thought due to the environment around her.  Everything was distracting.  She felt her legs dangling in the air , but her waist to her head was being wrapped up by…something.  She wasn’t exactly sure what it was.  It was like something was compressing on the top half of her body and blocking out the light.  What could this strange force be, and why was it helping her?

As she continued to ponder the thought of this strange force, she started to feel something from it.  Despite it being scary, she felt something coming off of the walls around her.  Going past her whimpering and the cold chills of her fear, she stopped and felt heat.  A powerful, warm aura surrounded the top half of her body, as if she had been around a conjured Fire Orb.  The heat seemed to be coming from every direction and was, somehow, comforting her, sending out all the cold.

Almost impulsively, Tara had started to try to move about in her new environment, feeling slightly helpless being held in one place.  As she did so, her face hit one of the walls and she immediately stopped.  This wall was very soft to her touch.  It pushed in at her face’s touch and seemed to be filled with warmth as her face was pressing against it.  The soft, warm aura it was giving off gave Tara a strange feeling.  It was a feeling of…safety.

She, for some strange reason, felt safe in this new place.  ‘This is place is so soft and warm.  Where…is this?  I’ve never felt such warmth before.  I was just on the verge of death and now this?  Could I be…dead?  No…No, that couldn’t be.  I would have felt the Antlion pierce into me.  This must be real.  It must be!’ she thought as she was in this place.  Although constricted, the grip this force had on her seemed to be more on the soft side.  She wasn’t struggling to breath, and nothing hurt aside from the fatigue she’d been experiencing the past several moments.  This place was, if nothing else, where the Antlion was not.

As the thought of the Antlion pulsed through her head, Tara could hear something.  An ear-shattering scream; an Antlion’s scream.  Her body chilled with fear as she heard it, although it sounded a little different than before.  It almost sounded like it was distant and far from her current location.  If she didn’t know any better, she would say that it came from below her.

Following the scream came an even higher-pitched one, with some sort of crashing sounded.  As soon as the crash was heard, everything went silent.  Tara had taken this opportunity to push her head further into the soft, warm wall next to her.  She didn’t care if it stopped or that she was distant from it.  Simply hearing the Antlion again made her quiver with fear.  Her fear of being helpless had surfaced again today, showing that no matter how strong she acted and seemed to be around the townspeople, she was still the same scared, little girl that she always had been.

A few moments went by and Tara could feel something pushing against her legs.  They were still dangling from whatever force had gripped her, and it almost felt like she was moving.  Her legs were being pushed back by something that felt like air or wind.  Pondering the thought as she whimpered, she was curious about something.  Could she have been dangling in midair at the moment?

After awhile, everything stopped again.  She no longer felt the pressure on her legs, presumably because whatever had gotten her had stopped moving.  She lifted her head from the wall for a moment, hoping she’d be able to see something to give her a clue as to what was going on, but she was still wrapped in darkness.  She did, however, feel the air return, this time, pushing up against her legs.  She almost felt like she was moving downward, a soft chill running up her legs.  Eventually, she stopped, and all her answers were about to be given.

The walls around the tiny sorceress quickly moved, revealing a vast array of sunlight that poured down onto her.  She immediately closed her eyes, covering it with her two palms.  She could feel heat coming from both directions now.  The walls behind and below her were producing a lot of heat, but the light hammered down on her eyes.  Even with her eyes covering them up, she could feel the heat from it piercing through them.  It caused an almost-burning sensation on her eyelids.  The sun’s rays were taking their toll on her diminished form.

As she dealt with the heat and the light, she rolled slightly and felt one of the walls being pushed against her, as if she was suddenly lying on it.  The entire feeling sent chills up her body, feeling her head, shoulders, back, and even her legs resting against the soft walls.  As comforting as this place was, she was still shivering a little from the ordeal she’d just gone through.  She impulsively screamed when she felt slight movement.

As if to answer her prayers and prove that there was nothing to worry about, Tara heard a voice coming from above her.  It was a soft, gentle voice that almost seemed to echo in her ears.  She heard the words it spoke, as if it were a constant echo from her own mind, telling her that everything was going to be okay.  If she didn’t know better, she would have thought that an angel was descending from the heavens to take her away.

“Hush, little one.  Everything is going to be okay.  Please, open your eyes.”