"Jesse," repeated Dances with Joy as she gazed in wonder at the handsome apparition before her, "I've never heard such a strange name, but your voice sounds familiar; do I know you?" "I don't think so, ma'am, but you never know," Jesse replied. "These Dream Quests are mighty strange. You never know who you might run into. Whoops! Hang on a minute, ma'am; Eagle seems to have landed on a pinecone and it's stuck between his talons. "Hang on big guy! I'm trying to help you. Hold still! You aren't the first big clumsy oaf a bird that ever landed on a pinecone. Hold still I tell you; I almost have it." For a brief moment, Dances' still clearing vision was filled with a blur of feathers and fur as Jesse wrestled with Eagle, trying to remove the pinecone from the bird's left foot. "There!" Jesse finally cried in triumph. "It's out." Eagle screeched a disparaging remark at Jesse and flew to the lowest branch of a nearby birch tree, where he landed on one foot and looked accusingly at the small, brown, shining ferret. "Stupid bird!" Jesse sighed as he smoothed his ruffled fur. "I much prefer angels for air travel, but they're all busy tonight." "Who ARE you?" Dances blurted out, her patience at an end; "This is the strangest Dream I've ever had. First you blind me with a Light the likes of which I've never seen before, then you play roughhouse with the bird that brought you here! What kind of Spirit Guide are you - if, indeed, this really is a Dream and you have been sent to teach me anything?" Jesse, who had been doing his best to avoid the glaring, red gaze emanating from Eagle's sulking eyes, turned and looked at Dances with Joy as if he were seeing her for the very first time. "Please forgive me," He said in a very small voice that sounded even more familiar to Dances as she remembered the tiny voice of countless snowflakes as they melted upon her whiskers. "I'm very new at this." Jesse said. "I've never done anything like it before. A night like this has never happened before. I'm not exactly sure what it all means, but I know that you and Gnaws on Wood, New Mother, and Tree Shaper are to be a part of it. I also know that I've been sent here to tell you that Father Above is going to give a Very Great Gift to all of the world tonight." "What kind of Gift could Father Above possibly give to us that He hasn't already given?" Dances asked. "I can't tell you that right now, but I think you already know in your heart, for a part of that Gift is stirring within you." Jesse said as he tried not to look into the searching depths of Dances' wide and beautiful eyes. "You and I will have to go on a journey within this Dream Quest, if I can get Eagle to quit sulking, before either of us will fully understand what is happening tonight. "I heard a brand new word today, just before I left the lap of Father Above and came to find you. I didn't know what the word meant until I met you, Dances with Joy. Now I'm beginning to understand. The word I heard as I lay in His lap was "Christmas." To be continued.... Joy to the World! Paw Paw [Posted in FML issue 2500]