Three months passed since they arrived in Ardenne. Having spent a lot of time together, the new Tributes had grown close, with the exception of Inaya who spent most of her time either alone in her room or otherwise engaged in the East Wing where Bellatrice resided with her inner circle.
The other girls liked to explore the town of Ardenne accompanied by their guards Fabien, Noe's classmate from her Academy days, and Emon. Going to town was always fun but the girls also enjoyed each other's company in the West Wing. Sometimes Fabien was away to attend to duties as an Ardenne Royal, but often he and Emon were around in the West Wing ensuring the safety of the girls.
Within a few weeks of their arrival, Alarie was the first to experience the Heat. She experienced hot flushes which she was able to ignore for the first few days but as it progressively grew intense, she could hardly walk out of her room and the girls took turns to stay by her side. On the fifth day of the Heat, Bellatrice had paid a visit to the West Wing and arranged for Alarie to be taken to another part of the Palace. The next day she came back to her usual self, Heat gone.
Rowena was next, with her Heat coming a month after. When Bellatrice called on her, Rowe dutifully shared her Heat with Elarion. Afterwards she explained to the others how things went; it was much more pleasant than the first time but she seemed reluctant to dwell too much on the topic and refused to talk about it in earshot of Fabien and Emon.
Noe had an inkling as to why. Rowena herself didn't seem to realise it yet but she had changed around Fabien. Noe didn't press nor tease. She just kept her observations to herself.
Faelynn and Inaya had their Heat round about the same time. Fae was fervently against Bellatrice having any say in who she would share her Heat with so not long after the onset of her Heat, Fae chose one of the soldiers she'd been eyeing amongst Elarion's special legion and invited him to her bed before anyone knew it. She shared every detail of their night together and surprisingly, Rowena was the one to listen most closely. Inaya shared her Heat with someone Bellatrice had arranged and of course, she chose not to share any details with them.
So everyone was just waiting for the Heat to hit Noe and it took almost five months until it did.
***
He had been plagued by the same dream each night for the past week.
A woman standing in front of a waterfall plunging down to her death. He couldn't see the woman's face and all he heard was the roaring waterfall until one night, he heard a woman's voice loud and clear "NO, don't jump!".
Followed by darkness and silence.
"Save your breath, she jumps everytime," he said to no one.
"How can you be sure?" A reply.
"Because I've seen this scene play out so many times, it's getting boring." He didn't know why he was talking to this Voice in his head. Maybe he was still in the dream but he liked the sound of the Voice that had replied.
"How many times have you seen this?" the Voice asked.
It was a female voice. So goddamn soft. With a Voice like that, she had to be pretty.
"A dozen times perhaps?"
"I've seen her jump many times too," said the Voice.
Hmmm this dream is taking a lucid turn. Amused, he continued to have this conversation within a dream.
"So do you know her?"
"No, I've never seen her. She looks like ... a Tribute," the Voice said.
He thought so too but the waterfall girl hadn't any hallmarks of a Tribute so how this Voice knew, he wondered.
"And how would you know that?"
"I just do."
As strange as it was, he was beginning to suspect that this Voice wasn't just something his mind had conjured in his dream. Maybe I'm talking to a real person.
"And who might I be speaking with?"
"I was taught never to reveal oneself to a stranger," she said.
"But you invaded my dream."
"From where I'm standing, you invaded mine," she said again.
He laughed at the curt reply.
"Fine we invaded each others. I need to call you something, give me a name. Just make one up if you must."
"...Milfred. And you?"
"Baldrick. You can call me bald."
"Not your real name then."
"I'm guessing Milfred isn't yours."
"What's wrong with Milfred?"
"Nothing. What's wrong with Baldrick?"
"Ok Bald. I need to get some sleep now but... it was nice speaking with you. Maybe we can invade each other's dreams again."
"That would be nice. Sweet dreams Princess Milfred," he said as he drifted off to sleep.
Milfred smiled as she also drifted off.