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stuck in the static, she focused even harder visualizing her outcome. With one strong pull, she yanked on the woman’s arm.
    “You did it!” the woman said excitedly and with a bit of awe.
    Kaeleigh, stunned that it had actually worked, lost her words as she just stared at this woman that literally came out of thin air. Lame, Kaeleigh, she chided herself for the inappropriately timed pun.
    “H-Hi,” Kaeleigh stammered. “I’m sorry, I think I’m a little in shock.”
    The woman smiled with understanding then quickly changed to business. “Kaeleighnna, we do not have much time. There are things that I must explain to you before I am discovered.”
    Kaeleigh nodded, though she had no clue what this woman was talking about. “Who are you? Where am I? I’m sorry, I know I ask a lot of questions, but it seems that is all I have these days—more questions,” Kaeleigh’s smile was mixed with wide-eyed awe.
    The woman just stared at her with a prideful gleam as she took in Kaeleigh. There was something familiar about her, but Kaeleigh couldn’t put her finger on what it was. The woman before her was incredibly beautiful. She had long wavy chestnut hair with deep auburn streaks. Her skin was flawless, like pearlized marble or porcelain. She had large, wide eyes the color of turquoise. Her features were soft, yet she had a little point to her chin and on the tops of her ears as well. She was wearing a long flowing sapphire blue dress. She wore gold bands intricately swirled around her upper arms. It was beautifully ethereal and other.
    “I know you are in need of many answers—they will come in time—but my time is very short. I am not supposed to be here, but I felt a surge in energy, and then I felt your presence. My connection to you immediately drew me to you. You are not supposed to be here either. It is not yet your time. There is much for you to do in Alandria. The people need you.” The woman lovingly smiled and approached Kaeleigh with an outstretched hand.
    Kaeleigh cocked her head in confusion and gazed into this woman’s eyes. She was astounded at the love she saw there and she didn’t even know who she was.
    “I never thought I would have this chance to be with you... for you to see me,” she said. A single golden tear slid down the woman’s cheek and fell onto Kaeleigh’s hand as the woman tenderly placed her hand on her cheek. At contact, images flashed before Kaeleigh’s eyes of a young woman—the same woman standing before her—and a young man who looked an awful lot like Hunter standing within a clearing of the forest surrounded by various beings. The woman looked out at the gathering, giving Kaeleigh a clear view of her face. Not only had Kaeleigh had this vision before but she had been in that same clearing on her way to Hunter’s.
    Suddenly she was brought back to the current version of the woman standing before her as if no time had passed at all. Kaeleigh, still shocked when these visions happened even though she was getting quicker at adjusting, had to briefly close her eyes and shake her head. After a moment of silence Kaeleigh spoke first. “It was you. In my visions...” Then, as a new possibility occurred to her, she gasped. “Are you... could you be?...” She looked again at the woman’s face before her. “You’re my mother, aren’t you!” And although she didn’t say it as a question the woman nodded anyway.
    “I am. Do you think you could accept me after all this time?”
    With a strangled hiccup, Kaeleigh launched herself into her mother’s arms—arms she always hoped, but never actually thought, she would be held in.
    After what wasn’t remotely long enough, the woman pulled back to look into Kaeleigh’s tear-soaked face, a reflection of her own. She lovingly brushed the hair away from her face as if it was something she had done hundreds, if not thousands, of times before. Her eyes filled with love and pride, but also fear of their lack of time.
    “Did you