This a first draft.
Ver.b Thnx Eric.

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The shore was dark, the dusk sweeping his harsh angular face, now as frozen in stone, into shadows of red and black as he stood there, unseeingly looking out the ocean. The sun was sinking to the west and the water was so still, the waves almost hesitating as if scared to disturb the shore upon which he stood. His eyes unblinkingly following the flaming pyre slowly drifting to sea as the raft he had built for her slowly disappeared. A painting in blood, red and black, with that pyre being the last he ever would see of her. He didn’t know how long he had stood there, but as he woke up to reality again he found himself on his knees, his raggedly breathing coming in big gulps as if he couldn’t get air.

His head bent as if in prayer, he stayed on his knees, silent tears falling on the darkly tainted cobalt blue sand, as he realized that his life once more had come to an ending, not only hers but his as well. From here on there he could see no future waiting for him, with the one thing carrying him on burning to cinders out there, in that black oily waste, leaving him as alone as she never had existed at all, dreams crushed, with only that vile taste of bitterness left for his palate.

As he once more lifted his head to look out at the ocean he found that there was no longer anything to be seen. The burning raft had disappeared as if it never had been out there at all, and the dusk had by now transformed into a bleak unending night making it hard to see where the ocean ended and the sky began. He stood up, and as he brushed the last corns of sand of his legs he felt something touch his elbow, the warm silent breath of his steed, trying to comfort him the only way he knew, by being there beside him.

“We’re all alone Shadow, isn't it so?” he said bleakly, his voice torn with anguish as he turned to look at him. “It feels as if she only was a dream. Was she?” His steed, who silently was studying his face, watching the tears still forming in his eyes, shook his head his head, mane flaying, Roland not aware of it any more than of the night itself, “Nay my friend.” Answered now his steed, a low rumbling of a voice, more reminding of that of a giant than of the mat black stallion standing before him. “Nothing is ever lost, as long as someone will remember. Come Roland, the night is upon us.” Saying so his steed turned, slowly starting to walk back to the provisory camp they had made, before Roland had started on building his last tribute to his love.

As he followed Roland started to dream again, those dreams of what once was, she smiling at him and him safely secured in their mutual love and desire. “So sad my love.” she said brushing a strand of her hair from her face. “We are here, together.” He looked at her, then around in silent wonder. “I had this dream Merry.” He started haltingly. “I thought you were lost.” He saw her eyes becoming concerned as she gazed upon him as he continued. “I was on a shore, and.” There he stopped, not knowing how to continue, again remembering the sight of that baleful pyre, the flames eating at all he ever loved. “Come now Roland.” She said as she opened her arms for him, and as he stepped into her embrace he felt the memories slowly fade away. “You’re here now love. And I will always be with you.”

Shadow had stopped at the shed they had built from the twisted sun burnt dry old pines that had been left on the beach by the ocean, looking back at the forlorn sight of Roland, once more hiding in that reverie of his own. “What good it was.” He mumbled to himself. “I do not know, and what good will come I can only hope.” He shook his mane impatiently again trying to cast away his forebodings as he went to the hay his friend had collected. “Roland.” He called. “’Get some food in you man.”

As he stood there, in the safety of her arms, he thought he vaguely heard a voice calling for him but what it wanted was soon lost as he once more inhaled the sweet fragrance of her. “I love you Merry.” He whispered, his face buried in her hair. “And I will never let you go, you hear.” “Don’t worry love. I’m here, I’m always here.” He thought he heard her answer as everything around them seemed to fade away, once more leaving him alone, but now standing in front of the shed without any clear recollection of how he had come to it. “You’re back.” Said a voice behind him. “I don’t like those dreams.” Shadow continued, again worrying for his friends sanity. “They take you away, too far Roland and you might lose yourself.” Roland nodded as he tried to clear his thoughts from his memorys, looking around. “But I do Shadow.” He said somewhat brusquely as he tried to retain his memory of her in his mind. “Everything is better than this, and I’m a dreamer.”

Shadow neighed softly. What his friend said was all to true, Roland was indeed a dreamer, gifted with an ability to walk in time and space. That could be considered both a curse and a blessing Shadow thought, as he once more carefully scrutinized his friend’s appearance. A blessing in that that nobody, and nothing, ever was fully lost, but just as much a curse in that that you, by doing it too often, all to easily could lose oneself, and immersed in that land of being, forgetting what anchor there once was. It had already happened to too many dreamers and Shadow silently feared for his friends sanity, now that his loss was upon him. There were other, more sinister aspects to that gift as well, amongst them the very real possibility of changing not only himself, but also the very world he once came from, just by wanting it too much. Shadow himself was only a shapeshifter, and as he once more turned himself into a man, the air around him shimmering, he softly mumbled. “Lucky that only one of us need human food Roland. We have very little left.”

The world they lived in was an old one, filled with whispers and half forgotten memories of another younger one, the one in where they all had come to be. Legend had it that once everything had been as set in stone, the past, now and the future separated by rules that would not be broken. That world had contained its own magic it was said, a magic called science, or was that logic? Shadow couldn’t remember, but it was all so long ago. Just vague reminiscence's of something lost, another world entirely. Sometime, somewhere, mankind had found a way of breaking those rules it was told by the old ones, and doing so left them here, in a land ruled by dreamers and dreaming. They were the new lords of SpaceTime, the anchors binding what reality that there could be found in a land constantly changing shape, and each SpaceTime created only by the constant efforts of those living there. There were rumors of science still existing of course, but that was all that they were he thought somewhat bitterly, rumors. As he started to build the fire he furtively studied his friend, again trying to draw him into a conversation. But Roland stayed silent, helping Shadow to fix their supper, but with few words to say as he once more seemed to be drifting inside his own silent reverie.

The lands shifted as one came into new dominions. Each ruler carrying his own dream, it was the responsibility of all helping them so gifted in keeping the land alive. Shadow knew dominions where those dreaming had lost themselves, leaving their countries wastelands, now filled with only bleakness and horror, some of them ending in nothing at all, as if not even dreams could stand their ground. He himself had once been born it one of those, and just barely survived the calamity as their dreamer had lost his anchor with reality, leaving those he once had loved to dissolve into only memories. Nevertheless, humanity had never lost its faith in its ability to survive, or maybe it was life calling on its own? Shadow shook his head musingly as he considered his thoughts again, and so those few left existing trudged on, each one secretly hoping that someday they would find a way to once more bind the world to their bidding. That had been the quest for him, as well as for Roland and his now lost love. To search for that way, to once more bind the world into solid form with a past, a now, and a future.