Walking into the house, she goes back up to her bedroom and the black mirror.  Stepping through she moves over to the transparent portal.  Looking thought into the room beyond.  Wanting to go in there.  She looks to see if there is anyone else in the room with the small figure lying in the bed.

 Seeing the room is empty she quietly slips into the room.  The gray elf peer around the room, behind her is a shimmering light portal in front of a wall of computer components.  In front of her is the hospital bed.  Walking around the side of the bed keeping one eye on the door to the room, she gazes at the creature in the bed.

 Not quite comprehending what she is sees, she looks closer and they’re before her is herself. Lying there with tubes and electrode.  Her mind reeling with horror at the sight. Frozen as her mind goes into over drive to grasp the realization.   She runs back to the portal, quickly stepping back through.  The room is left as if she had never been there with exception of a faint scent of honeysuckle, mixed with the antiseptic hospital smell.

 Thinking this is only a bad dream, until she remembers the accident on her wedding day. She turns and looks back through the portal into the hospital room, then at the portal to the Server.  Carefully passing through the portal into seamless white tube.  Emerald makes her way do the portal labeled DR. Morose MD P.H.D.  She steps into the black room and a look through the portal seeing no one in there she continues in and quickly moves to the desk.

 Cursing softly under her breath, the file isn’t there on the desk where it had been earlier.  Going through the stack of files, she is frustrated by not finding her file.  Gliding silently to the file cabinets, she rifles through the drawer labeled M to Mc.  Still not finding it, she sighs, leaving the office back to the black room just beyond. Moving her way back to her black room.  Taking one last look through the portal to the hospital room she sees her father and Martha looking franticly around the room.  He father seemed very upset over something.

 Thinking a moment wondering if they had seem her enter the room.  She sits on the bed, she can start to hear her fathers voice faintly.  Looking at the bed she wonders if she could hear better if she lay down and close her eyes concentrating on the sound of her fathers voice.  Without warning she is back in her body and she can’t move or speak she can only hear.

“I don’t understand it doctor there is no way anyone could enter this room.  We have a guard at the door and he swears no one came near the room,” Martha says in bewilderment.

Emerald’s dad retorts, “someone did we saw her on the monitor.”

 Thinking to herself she cannot physically enter this room again.  She will have to be content with looking through the portal of listening passively.   Emerald feels her hand being lifted, started she opens her eyes and looks around she is back in the black room, breathing hard she runs over to the portal looking into the room beyond she is astonished by what she see.  Her father has her hand in his and is giving it a tender squeeze.  Leaning over his daughter, he gives her a gentle kiss on the forehead.

 Dumfounded not comprehending what is going on.  All she knows is she is confused, and she has to find out what is going on.  Knowing why was she in that hospital bed.  What was her condition?  Whatever it was it wasn’t good for she was not able to move or evens open her eyes.  How did she get into the computer? Why was she there in the first place?  Again more question.  She begins to wonder if she really wants to know the answers.

 Slipping again into the computer and back into her bed in her room.  She sits up on the bed, and gets up. Slowly moving over to the portals wondering if she should wants to go back to her dream or go to the tavern and get a drink. Her mind still whirling from all she has seen and heard today.  A drink sounded better and betters as she got to think about it.  Moving to the entrance to the square, she steps in flapping her wings to slow her decent into the square below.

 Landing gracefully on her feet, she is amazed at the amount of people at Start.  The square is full of people.  She notices some going in and out of the shops the market is crowded with people buying goods.  Almost afraid to go into the tavern, thinking if the square is this crowded what is the tavern going to be like.

 She threads her way through the crowd of people to the tavern and steps inside, as she had thought the tavern was packed.  Lother was serving drinks as fast as they were ordered.  Seeing the Emerald Lother smiles and nods at her. Looking cross at a dwarf that is sitting in Emerald usual spot, he tells the dwarf to let the lady have the sit.  Not wanting to get the large human angry the dwarf quickly get out of the seat and offers Emerald assistance up onto the stool.  Accepting the offer, she thanks the dwarf and gets comfortable on the stool as Lother places a white wine in front of her.

“Thank you, Lother,” Emerald says.  Grinning warmly Lother responds, “anything for a lovely lady.”

 Turning on her stool, she sips her wine.  Only getting bits and pieces of conversation because of the amount of people.  The man and woman sitting next to her started talking, something about a university doing cyber experiments.

Emerald asks the man, “what kind of cyber experiments?”

The man smiles at the lovely Gray elf and gets kicked in the leg by his lady friend, “Ouch!”  Scowls at his lady and then smiles giving her a big hard kiss.  Turning back to Emerald he says, “I’m not sure something about giving a computer the ability to think like a human.”  Wondering if she could be the cyber experiment, Emerald finishes her drink and tells Lother she would see him later. Nodding to Emerald, he tells her to have a good day.

 Slipping from the stool she maneuvers her way through the crowd and into the square.  Wishing Tholin and Zephyr was there between the two they maybe able to help her, figure this out.

 Wondering back to her dream, she begins to think about things.  If she can get into her father’s office through a server portal, why she could most likely go anywhere there is a server portal.  Stepping through the gate into her dream.  She makes her way back to her room.  Emerald locks the dream and moves to the black portal. Stepping in she goes right to the server portal.

 Walking carefully down the tube, she stops and looks at all the spokes coming off the main hub.  Looking at the Serves names above the tunnels. She heads down a spoke marked ECISP (East Coast Internet Service Provider).  She walks a little ways down and decides to look into one of the side shots with the eleven digit numbers.  Checking the names as she walks down the shot to her amazement there in front of her is a very familiar name.  Smiling broadly, she reads to herself, “Aerik Jae.”

 Wonder if she should go into the portal.  Curiosity gets the better of her she steps into the portal and is in the black room. Looking into the room she see a double bed with black and white photos on the wall above.  From her angle she can’t see them clearly.  Across from her she sees two large windows with a double dresser in front of it. Running into the room comes a little girl dressed in a flannel nightgown, she makes a flying leap onto the bed. Bouncing once on her bottom, she stands up and starts to use the bed as a trampoline.  Suddenly stopping gets a frown on her face and plops down on the bed.  Wishing so much to be able to hear what is going on.  She knows the little girl is Rinhanon.  She can only assume Aerik has just told her to stop jumping on his bed.

 Having mixed feeling about the whole thing she wants to see what Aerik looks like but she feels like she is spying on him. Just as she turns to walk back into the white tube, she sees a man enter the room and pick the little girl up off the bed.  He is very handsome with long light brown hair pulled back into a ponytail.  He has a kind soft face even as he frowns at his daughter, Emerald can tell he loves her very much.   The man carries the child out of the room.

 Smiling feeling, warm inside she goes back out of the black room and into the white tube. Moving her way back to her black room, she passes a portal with the name Ports Bakery and Pizza.  Getting a big grin, she gets an idea. That she will have to try out.  Making her way back to her dream through the tunnels, she decides to try a little experiment of her own.

  Just as she steps into her room, she hears a whisper from someone wanting to look at her dream.  Moving to the vanity she unlocks the Dream.  Looking back at the black mirror she wonders if it maybe wise to keep the bedroom door lock.  Stepping through the door she locks it placing the key in her cape pocket. She goes downstairs. To the kitchen, there she fines the kitchen just like her grandmothers bright and sunny. The room is divide into two sections.  To the left of the door there is a refrigerator and counter.  Following around the wall there is a sink with a large greenhouse window above it, halfway down the wall the counter stops and there is a peninsula with a stove built-in to the center.  At the end of the peninsula are two built-in ovens. Beyond the peninsula there is a breakfast nook that is surrounded by large windows with white eyelet curtains across them. To the right of the door is a floor to ceiling glass front bookcase. In the center of the right wall is a Dutch door (door slit in half horizontally) with a window in the top half.  There is a coat rack mounted to the wall on one side of the side door and on the other is a regulator clock.

 Emerald goes to the glass bookcase and retrieves a book with muffin recipes in it.  Taking the book to the counter, she begins to prepare the batter. She is amazed that the entire ingredient she needs she has in stock. Smiling and thinking to herself, “after all this is a dream.”  Just as she is putting the muffins into the over.

Zephyr whispers, “where are you Emerald?”  Smiling brightly she whispers back, “in the kitchen in my dream.”

Lightheartedly Zephyr whispers back, “you know what a kitchen looks like?”  She is just about to whisper back when Zephyr enters the room.

Laughing she says, “of course I do, it is where you open the freezer and stick stuff into the microwave.”

 Laughing back the tall elf says, “yup, that is a kitchen, what are you doing anyway?”

With flour on her nose she puts her hand on her hips, “making muffins, I’m about to put them in the oven.”  Taking the pan, she slips them into the preheated oven.

 Zephyr chuckles, “I bet they taste like a dream.”  Grinning at the remark, Emerald going around to the breakfast area and sits down, “I hope so, if they don’t there is a flaw in the program,” she laughs.

 Sitting across from the lovely little elf Zephyr says, “I heard about this morning I wish I had been here.”

Sighing wanting to forget about the duel, Emerald looks over at Zephyr, “is Fantasy Realm always this violent?”

Giving her a reassuring smile, “no.  It seems to go in cycles, I think Rogue and Queen Martla were starting to get bored and wanted to liven things up.

Since you are so beautiful and new, who better to hone in on.”  Chuckling Emerald responds, “thanks, for the compliment I guess.”

 Thinking about what she heard in the tavern and what she saw in her black room she asks, “have you heard anything about a cyber experiment at a university?”

Zephyr nods, “yeah, something about there being protests about it.”  Thinking the little gray elf says, “do you know what the experience is about?”

Shaking his head, “not exactly something about capturing a persons brain waves into a computer.”

Her eyes going wide, “that is what they were doing,” not realizing she had said it out loud till Zephyr response with, “who, doing what?”

Looking up at Zephyr blushing at the fact of speaking her thought.  “Nothing, just thinking out loud,” Emerald says with a small smile.

 Puzzled by her answer Zephyr wonders if she knows something that she is afraid to tell him.

 Getting up she walks over to the oven and takes out the muffins, setting them on a cooling rack on the counter.   She gets a whisper for Tholin asking where she is he is at the bedroom door.  Whispering back, she tells him in the kitchen.  She laughs out loud.

Zephyr looks at her curiously with a smile on his face, “what is so funny?”

Still laughing, “Tholin just whispered asking me where I was at, I told him the kitchen and  . . . ”

Zephyr intrudes, “he was surprise you knew what a kitchen was right,” laughing.   Nodding as she laughs, “yes, what is it with you, men.”

 Emerald is just about to ask Zephyr if he wanted milk with his muffin or tea, when Tholin walks into the kitchen, with a surprised look on his face, “you do know what a kitchen looks like,” he says as he looks around the room.

“Funny, funny, ha . . .” Emerald says trying not to laugh.

 “So, what would you two like with your muffins?” Emerald inquires.

 “Coffee, I live on coffee, “Tholin says.  “Milk,” replies Zephyr.

Emerald puts the muffins on a tray and takes it to the table.  Then, since this is a Dream after all, get a cup of coffee and a glass of milk, setting the drinks also on the table.

 As she sets the cup of coffee in front of Tholin he remarks, “ahh the great thing about Dreams the coffee pot is never empty and the coffee is never stale.

Zephyr chimes in, “yeah, and the muffins are always-prefect.”  Smiling and putting an arm around Emeralds waist, pulling her into his lap, Tholin nods in agreement with his young friend.  Smiling at her lover she leans over and kisses him softly.

He returns the kiss then looks over at Zephyr, “did you hear about the excitement this morning?”

Eating his muffin Zephyr nods, “sorry, I wasn’t here. I would have liked a piece of that scum.”

Emerald looks over at Tholin then at Zephyr, “I can’t believe it. Tholin was almost killed.”

Hugging Emerald tightly the hansoms Gray elf says, “Em, that is a bit of a exaggeration, I wasn’t almost killed.”

Turns looking flabbergasted the Emerald says, “I think that is a bit of a understatement.”

Zephyr starts to laugh. The two gray elves look at the young elf puzzled, Zephyr commenting, “what a thing to have a lovers fight over.”

The two grays laugh in agreement.  Tholin kissing Emerald lovingly.

 Smiling warmly at her two cyber heroes she asks, “what would you do if I served you breakfast in the mornings?”

Zephyr smiles, “I think that would be great but, I barely get up in time to get ready for school let alone log on in the morning.”

Tholin nods, “sounds great but I usually grab something at work if the Sales Demons cooperate we might get brunch.”

Sighing, “ok, there goes my experiment,” Emerald says.

   Looking at each other then at Emerald together they say, “experiment? What experiment?”

Emerald shrug, “doesn’t matter now.”

Taking the bait Zephyr says, “what do we have to do for this Experiment of you’re?”

 Smiling brightly Emerald explains she will need their ISP(Internet service provider) and their eleven digit IP number (Internet protocol).  The to male elves give each other a look the shrugs.  Smiling at the beautiful gray elf, they give her the information.  Getting up from her lovers, lap, she gets some paper and jots down the information then returns to her place in his lap.  “Ok tonight leave your computers on, and we will see what happens,” Emerald says with a grin.

 Zephyr curses under his breath, “damn, got to go my dad has thing he wants me to do, I’ll try and remember to leave it on. Talk later.”

 Smiling Tholin and Emerald says their good byes to their tall friend. Zephyr moves his hand in his customary circle summing the multi colored lights, passing through to reality.

 Now very curious about this enchanting creature Tholin asks, “why did you lock the bedroom door?”

Kissing her handsome lover, “had some people want to look over the dream and didn’t want them in my bedroom, why did you think I had a man hidden in there?”  Emerald says with a giggle.

 Blushing, “yeah,” with a big smiles Tholin response, the grabs her giving her a big hug and a passionate kiss.  Sitting back in the chair Tholin sighs, “Rinhanon is up, having a nightmare, even though I hate to go I think I better call it a night.”

Smiling softly, Emerald thinking back too earlier, visualizing her jumping on his bed, “I understand, I will see you tomorrow.”

 Giving his beautiful understanding lover a deep passionate kiss and a tight hug, he picks her and sets her down on the empty kitchen chair then casts @Gate and steps in leaving his fantasy behind.

 Looking about the kitchen, she sets to cleaning up and finishes preparing for her experiment.  She sets up two trays one with a red rose on it the other with a yellow rose.

 Satisfied with her preparations she heads up to her bedroom hoping she will wake up before they do. She removes her clothes and slips into bed.  It doesn’t take her long to fall asleep.