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The first time the thing spoke to him, he had been but a young boy, dreaming about playing Chase with one of his brothers. It was a dream he often had, but this night it was different. When the two boys reached the Icemelt, instead of clearing it with a single leap like usual, his brother stopped and turned to look at him, a strange expression on his face. He spoke, saying strange words, calling himself a Gabriel rather than his brother, and telling him that he was special and would someday make an important decision. He laughed, and the dream ended, the Gabriel shoved into a corner of his mind.
The second time the Gabriel spoke to him was several Leafcomings later. He had been dreaming of a girl from their tribe, admiring the way the light seemed to catch in her hair as she labored to skin the latest hunt. She turned to look at him, speaking with the Gabriel’s voice, seeming to apologize for what she said was to come. He didn’t dream of her again after that, too unsettled by her words to find her attractive any longer.
The third time the Gabriel spoke to him, he was a young man reliving the nightmare of his father’s death earlier that Greatfreeze, watching and unable to help as the ice broke beneath him and swallowed him whole. He hadn’t seen the Gabriel that time; the voice seemed to come from the air, breathed out through the winds in the trees. The words the Gabriel used were strange, but from what he understood, the Gabriel was from a tribe called Angels, and his brothers were unhappy. The Gabriel had sounded like he was in pain, but the dream ended as soon as he asked about it.
The fourth time the Gabriel spoke to him, it was in the tormented sleep of a man who had lost all direction in life. The Gabriel appeared to him with his wife’s face, and had begun to speak, but he cut her off. He told the Gabriel how, after their fighting had come to blows and cost them the hunt, the eldest of his family had cast out the second brother. He spoke of the pain on his brother’s face as he had left, and of how he had vowed revenge on the eldest and all who stood with him. The Gabriel seemed sad once more, and was about to speak when the dream world shook, ending abruptly as he was forced awake.
The next night, the Gabriel appeared to him again, once more taking the form of his beloved. He told the Gabriel of how the eldest brother was preparing their family to fight not beasts, but other men; of how he had been ordered that if his brother returned, he was to be killed without question. He spoke to the Gabriel of his pain, of the loss he felt, and confessed that he didn’t think he could keep on like this.
The Gabriel offered him an escape and he took it, saying yes as had been foretold by the Gabriel so many dreams before. He woke then, as a light stronger than he had ever seen filled his vision. All the things the Gabriel knew overwhelmed him as they flowed into his head and he felt the Gabriel’s presence growing in his mind. Then, he slept once more, never to wake again.