"Jeriah!" I heard someone call. I was bored out of my mind, tending the animals in the community farm. I looked up to see old man Spark hobbling over to me, shouting.

"Is something wrong?" I asked lazily. Spark tended to be moody and upset over even the smallest things, especially if it involved Alyssa and Mot. I agreed with him on many points, but he tended to overreact.

"Guess what the two of them did!" he yelled. I had a pretty good guess of who "the two of them" was.

"What did they do now?" I didn't pretend to be interested as I threw carrots to the eager pigs. "Did Mot explode? The little girl insult you again?"

"This isn't a game, Jeriah!" Spark grumbled, and I imagined him waving a cane at my face. "They left us! Went on a road trip and left us to do all the work around here!"

I looked up, now faintly intrigued. "Did they just tell you right now, and leave?"

"No!" Spark yelled, waving his arms in the air. "The idiots left a sign outside their castle! Didn't even bother to consult us first!"

I shrugged, amused. "Don't blame them, honestly, if this is your reaction to them leaving. They probably thought you were too controlling of their lives, so they left." I went back to feeding the pigs. "It's not like the war is continuing. Dianite's gone. They can go on a freaking vacation, Spark."

The old man walked away, muttering something under his breath. I rolled my eyes and ignored him, wondering if I should pull a prank on him or something just to see how mad he would get. No, I scolded myself, pranking was something I did when I was under Dianite's influence.

Later, I (reluctantly) attended a meeting that had been called by Spark. When I arrived, he was standing in the center of the meeting with folded arms. I let out a long sigh and leaned against the stone wall nearby, rubbing my forehead in anticipation for the headache that this meeting would give me.

"If you haven't noticed," he said in an ice cold voice, "Two members of this meeting are missing. If you weren't aware, Mot and Alyssa have decided to take a little 'vacation' without telling any of us."

"It's not that big of a deal," I glared back at him. I had better things to do than listen to him ramble for an hour.

"He has a point, Jeriah," the priest said. "They shouldn't have just left without consulting us. What if we needed them?"

"You're all overreacting," I yawned, looking longingly out at the mountains in the distance. "What would you have said if they asked you to go, honestly? Especially you, Spark. You never give them a break, and frankly, you don't give me one either." I turned to leave.

Mianite was clearly upset with me. "And now you're just going to go? You're even worse than the two of them, Jeriah."

"Stop being so controlling and maybe we'd listen to you," I responded without looking back.

I lay on my bed inside the tiny bedroom, staring at the ceiling. Waves of loneliness were hitting me, and I felt absolutely hollow inside. Although I had stood up for Mot and Alyssa, I knew that I was far from friendly with them. I couldn't stand Spark and Mianite, and the war with Dianite had come much quicker than I was prepared for. I had lost everyone I could consider my friend, and now I was completely alone.

I feared I was turning into the little girl: incredibly lonely and constantly moody. At least I didn't cry myself to sleep. I hoped I would never stoop to that level.

With nothing else to do and an intense feeling of hollowness, I fell asleep. I immediately began to dream, and the image was much more vivid than normal. Odd.

I was walking along the path to the Dianite temple. Everything was quiet and peaceful, lava bubbling beneath me and ghasts moaning in the distance. I carried nothing on me, but I felt no fear. Only a sense of safety hung in the air.

I finally reached the entrance to the temple, and paused to look behind me. Nothing stirred. Not a pigman was in sight. It was just me, and whatever was inside the temple.

"You may enter, Jeriah," Dianite said softly, like he had done dozens of times before. I continued through the entrance, taking my time to get to the throne in the back. As I walked closer, the god's smiling face came into view.

"Hello, my lord." I walked to the edge of the seat, and Dianite reached out to pull me onto it with him.

"You look lovely today," he said, looking deeply into my eyes. He leaned over to give me a kiss, and I leaned in as well. Just as our lips were about to touch, the dreamy look faded off his face, and he lifted his hand and slapped me.

"Ow!" I yelled, jumping back. My face stung, but I had the feeling that my injuries were about to get a lot worse.

"You can still kiss me with no problem, then?" Dianite snarled, fire burning in his eyes. "Did you think that your betrayal meant nothing?"

I shrugged. "Does it matter? You're just a dream." I had outsmarted the devil once, and I wasn't about to let this get to me.

"Just a dream, eh?" Something similar to a smile appeared on his face, although it was clearly forced. "Didn't stop that slap from hurting, did it?"

"It's not real." I reached out to slap him back, but Dianite vanished and reappeared on the floor below me.

"How about when you betrayed the man you loved?" he yelled. "Was that real enough to you?"

"My love for you was never real."

"Is that so?" the furious god raised an eyebrow. "You say that now, but those passionate kisses weren't fake, Jeriah."

"Perhaps I loved the idea of being in love," I answered calmly. "Not you. I could never love a monster." I jumped down to face him directly. "Nobody could love someone like you."

He made a deep growling sound in his throat, and pulled out a sword. "Why don't you reason with this blade?"

"Go ahead and chop my head off. All it'll do is cause my to wake up," I reminded him.

He stood completely still for a second, then struck me in the face with the flat part of the sword. "Are you awake now, you idiot?"

My head was spinning, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could stand up to him. "At least I can wake up from this nightmare, Dianite. You're trapped in one forever. If you hadn't done this to yourself, I might pity you."

Without waiting for his reply, I took off in the direction of the exit. I heard him shout something and begin chasing me in spirit form, but I didn't care. I kept running and running until I reached the bridge.

The god reformed in front of me, holding out the sword to strike me again. Before he could reach me, however, I turned and jumped over the side of the bridge, directly into the ocean of lava.

Searing pain shot through me for a second, and then I was awake. Panting, I sat bolt upright and felt my face. All of the wounds from the dream were gone. I had been right.

Dianite couldn't get to me in real life.