for his role in the human world. Not until now. Not until her.
The very first night he had come to her, she had drawn him in by her gentle spirit. He had watched her interact with her family and seen the selfless way in which she helped them. Dair had seen her fret over her future because she didn’t want to leave those she loved, even though she so desperately wanted to get out of the small town where she grew up. He had listened to her pour out her heart to her cat, who followed her around like a loyal dog. She shared all of the worries that she quietly bore. But it was the times that he had seen into her mind while she slept that she had become even more alluring. She was so very in tune with her thoughts, even while asleep, that he had had to be very subtle about his suggestions. She seemed to question her own dreams while slumbering. Questioning was rare, and also troublesome, because it often caused the human to wake up before the dream could take root. Serenity, as she liked to be called―he had learned from his completely unabashed spying―was making his job take longer than normal because he had yet to plant a full, complete dream in her mind.
She stirred, drawing his thoughts back to the present, and he found, as he stared down at her, that he didn’t mind at all that his job was taking longer than normal. He wasn’t ready to move on to the next human. Dair wanted―no, he needed―more time with her. He longed to know more about her, to hear her voice, and to watch her live selflessly, putting others’ needs before her own. She baffled him because of her behavior. It wasn’t normal for a human to think of others first. From his long, long time in the world he had seen how self-serving the human race could be, and Serenity truly was a diamond in the rough on that rock called earth.
“Sleep, Princess of Peace,” he whispered to her. “Let go of all those burdens you bear and listen to the tale I weave.” He took a step closer, and another, until he was standing right beside her. It was too close, and yet not close enough. He hummed as he entered her mind with his own and began to build the dream once again.
Dair tried to create the thoughts in such a way that she would believe they were created by her own subconscious. He gave her very subtle suggestions and for a few minutes he thought that perhaps she was finally going to accept that there was nothing strange about the dream she was having. But as she rolled over onto her back and pushed the hair from her face, he knew she was already beginning to wake. Her eyelids fluttered several times before finally rising, revealing startling sea green eyes. Her eyes seemed to meet his but he knew that couldn’t be because she couldn’t see him, not unless he truly wanted her to. She blew out a deep breath and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Then, as she had done every night he had woken her up, Serenity reached for the notebook on her bedside table and began to write down her thoughts about the dream. The pages of the notebook crinkled as she flipped to the next empty page. Then the only sound in the room was the scratching of the pen as she wrote about the things he had planted in her mind.
“You’re a determined one; I’ll give you that,” he told her, regardless of the fact that she couldn’t hear him. Dair knew that she wouldn’t be going back to sleep anytime soon so he took a seat in the chair at her desk and watched as she turn her head, deep in thought. As minutes turned into an hour, he considered that perhaps he should get some sort of hobby for times such as this when he was simply waiting. But then he thought that such a thing might distract him from Serenity.
“That’s sort of the point, you stalker,” he grumbled to himself. But, stalker or not, he didn’t leave and he knew he wouldn’t. Instead, he would sit there, watching and wishing that he could reveal himself to her. Dair knew that would never happen, but for once he allowed himself to dream. Though he did not require sleep, he