Instead, on its other side, he emerged into another world and was cast into sleep, his mind void of dreams. In passing from one world to another, his entire physical being was transformed. Flesh, heart, and soul hardened and became stone. He felt nothing. And in this, at least, he found the solace he’d longed for. And yet all was not as he wished, for he only lay dormant in this state. He was close, so tantalizingly close to the ultimate release that death would bring. A release he would have craved if he could have mustered the energy to care. Then one day, something came to tease at his mind. A female. On all too rare occasions—ceremonial ones he sensed—this special female drew near. Near enough that her scent threatened to fill his hardened lungs like new spring breath. And then his soul would stir in his breast and fevered dreams would pulse at his mind. But when she moved away, his mind, heart, and body quieted again. He, a man who’d eschewed the touch of all others, began to hunger for her touch.
