For hours Gregor just drifted, his mind numb with exhaustion, the ocean currents swaying him back and forth like a mother cradling a babe. Often his thoughts would wander off to Lorna, her honey brown eyes watching him from behind a stern mask that appeared so clear to him as a freshly painted portrait. And for a moment he could see her smile, giving her face warmth and beauty.

He thought of stout, loyal Gorrack, a hard bitten orc that had lost much and more to the world. The orc may have never liked his company, but he had proven himself to be true friend and ally. Gregor hoped that they were both alive and well, but feared they had both been swept further out to sea and it wouldn't be much longer before he too joined them as well. His grip on the piece of driftwood was gradually weakening, soon he wouldn't have enough strength to hold on.

He scanned the horizon for the hundredth time for any sign of land or a ship, but all he saw was an endless ocean as the suns slowly made their descent from the sky. Of the many ways he had thought he would die, he had never thought it would at sea. After all Gregor had been through, he had thought he would at least die with sword in hand. But maybe this was what it was meant to be. And at that thought he realised he did not want it to end here.

He had never believed in fate and yet the minotaur had been right, there had been something guiding him. He had felt it long before he had met those two and even now he still felt it. It wasn't his time to die just yet.

A faint voice whispered to him from across the breeze, "fight and live." But what was there to fight? He tightened his grip around the driftwood feeling its hard surface and moved his feet beneath the water. He was no swimmer, but hopefully this would be enough to get him moving in some direction.

Calves burning with the effort of moving through the water, Gregor gritted his teeth and pressed onward to where bits of floating wreckage floated into his path.

Bumping up against them, he thrust them aside with his left arm and continued to paddle forward, but any strength he had left quickly left him again.

With nothing left to give, he pulled himself on top of the piece of wood and lay down on his back to look up into the sky.He watched the clouds glide across the blue sky, dancing and breaking apart to reshape themselves. Then closed his eyes...

...In his dreams he saw Lorna and Gorrack running ahead of him. He called out for them to stop, but they would not listen. He chased after them through the wind, the snow, the fire and into the darkness. There he lost sight of them and all he could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat.

Filled with despair, he fell to his knees and he screamed till he thought his lungs would explode and felt the darkness close in around him, calling out his name.

He tried to stand up but his feet sank into the ground, his body slowly sinking into the darkness, his last thought was of Lorna's smile. How strange it was that he had never seen her smile...

Wood scraped against stone and Gregor felt his eyes flutter open. Head stuffed full of fog, he gazed around him and would have laughed if his throat hadn't been so parched and his throat so sore. He was saved.

Tears appeared in his eyes at the sight of the immense forest that surrounded him glowing with unnatural light, the piece of driftwood he was aboard scrabbled against the stones of the beach as bobbled up against the sand. He was saved. His fight was not yet over.