Back in Cern's apartment that evening, Dema and Cern laughed about the morning's incident. She apologized for not leaving a note. She didn't mention having left in snake form via the balcony. When he asked about her clothing, she reminded him that she had left her backpack in his closet weeks ago, and allowed him to believe his supposition about an urgent call.

Cern was wearing the torc, not having removed it all day, so the stag horns were plainly visible to Dema despite her being in full control. Soon the urge to return to the shaman dream together and the special intimacy it promised overrode other needs, and they cut dinner short...

Before long they are walking hand in hand through Cern's dream forest, a forest of mighty oaks and a variety of lesser trees, populated by squirrel and fox and other denizens of a northern deciduous woodland.

This night Dema purposely remains in human form in the dream, and Cern keeps his appearance normal as well, shunning even the antlers as they stroll through the glades and meadows, accompanied by birdsong, the laughter of an occasional rippling brook, and the background music of leaves stirred lightly by a wandering breeze.

Once again their shared dream lapses into a normal, restful sleep. And once again Dema wakens early, this time well before dawn. Wondering what has roused her, she soon notices that she is hearing the chittering of bats that are flitting around in the courtyard. She slips out of bed and walks over to the patio doors, hoping to catch a glimpse of them in the moonlight. She walks slowly, because her footsteps sound quite loud and she doesn't want to waken Cern. Instead of seeing the bats, she catches a glimpse of herself, reflected in the window glass. She appears to be wearing bat ears.

She reaches up, and sure enough her ears are huge. She goes into the bathroom and flicks on the light to get a better look. As she squints against the sudden brightness, her throat emits a high-pitched chittering of her own, and her ears twitch around to track the echoes.

Her eyes adjust. She has never seen herself this way before, but there they are, quite well formed and symmetrical bat ears, extending well outward and somewhat above the top of her head. She chitters again, and watches her ears as they move to bring the echoes into focus.

Dousing the light, she leaves the bathroom and goes out onto the balcony, using her echolocation to guide her through the darkened rooms. She is curious to learn what the bats are up to that has attracted her attention. She leans on the railing, listening more than watching, and opens herself to the bat dream, but there is nothing unusual going on.

Except in herself. She realizes suddenly that her hands on the railing have shifted, the fingers elongated into batwing spars. Ignoring the bats, she focuses on withdrawing from the bat dream. But she cannot. Instead it intensifies, her arms too lengthening and wing membranes forming.

Looking for the source, the focus of this unwanted shift, she realizes that once again it is Cern, and the power of the torc. Within his dream, he too is aware of the bats, and is lending his power to their dream. Willy-nilly, Dema's bat dream has responded. And here she is. This time, though, she is not so trapped. She spreads her wings fully, plunges off the balcony, and soars up into the night sky.

Dema cannot help but relish the sensation of flight, soaring above the city rooftops, seeing them from this vantage point, herself hidden from view by the downward glare of the streetlights below. She spends hours soaring around, waiting to sense that her control is returning.

At first she hopes that distance will do it, but she knows that hope is slim. Her connection to Cern is too strong, and affected only by thought. She hopes then that going to her own home will help, that being in familiar surroundings will strengthen her control. She goes there, and lands on the roof.

She does feel stronger, more confident here, but it is not enough. The shift to normal still will not happen. She thinks of summoning Sedna to her aid, but leaves that as a last resort. Instead she simply waits for Cern to wake up.

She doesn't leave that entirely to chance. Settling her bat form as comfortably as she can on the roof, she goes back into the dream with Cern. From within the dream she gently urges him to rouse himself, and to remember to take off the torc.

To Cern, her nudge and reminder were merely part of the dream. When he woke to find Dema gone, it was a surprise again, but not as much so. He had wakened early enough to make his own coffee again. And he took off the torc.

Dema felt the difference immediately. Symbolic or not, removing the torc threw a switch for Cern, reducing his immersion in the shaman dream. His pull on Dema lessened, and she returned to her normal shape at last. Slipping in through the window and down out of the attic, Dema went to her room to put on some decent clothes. It was time to talk to Sedna.