Lightning pulled up to the shady nook without being told. Melanie lifted her leg and dismounted from her lovely steed.

She was wonderfully spent. Her exhaustion filled her with a peaceful contentment. Gone were the haunting pictures of all those conflicting images.

She was at peace. She sat down naked against the tree and closed her eyes. She could feel and hear the horse's rustling movements next to her.

When she closed her lids her eyes were dazzled by a radiating glow of enormous intensity that had the effect of making her ears ring.

It was if she was getting a picture of what her feelings were at that very moment. With her eyes closed, she was looking at what she felt like.

The longer she kept them closed, the more the radiance died out and then vanished completely until there was nothing but darkness.

Lightning's nose was brushing up against her leg. She bent them under her neck and his nose rubbed against her cheek.

Her chin rested on her hands that cupped her bony knees and Lightning's cold nose rubbed up and down her bare thigh.

She kept her eyes closed and groped out a hand to feel for the lovely soft mane that framed the horse's large head. She felt her strength coming back. With eyes closed and looking inside herself she searched into the awesome black abyss.

By trying to focus her eyes into the blackness that stretched forever under her lids they began to tear from the strain.

But for a fleeting moment she was able to gain a three dimensional perspective of her internal picture.

And at that moment she felt like she was flying through space. The only thing that was missing was the sun and stars.

Then the flight assumed a hoary proportion. Her sweeping glide became a fall into a bottomless pit.