"Yeah."
A couple more weeks pass. She learns some things about magic. She asks Alex if they can go over how to subdue human opponents without hurting them. She patrols. She diligently avoids Jack O'Toole.
She has a dream. She has lots of dreams, of course. People tend to. But Zeke said that her power set comes with prophetic dreams, so she's been dutifully writing them down in a notebook next to her bed, at least on days where she doesn't immediately panic about how she's totally failed to do her homework on any sort of reasonable timeframe.
The dream has dogs in it. She thinks they're dogs, anyway. Something is chasing her through long grass, gaining on her, calling her name through the darkness. And then, suddenly, there isn't any grass. She's standing on a mountain, in her nightgown. There's snow, all around, for miles and miles.
"This is sort of your job," says Dennis. Dennis is next to her. Dennis looks like he knew there would be snow in this dream when he got dressed. "Aren't you supposed to know about these things?"
She feels herself shaking her head. "No one told me. I only got here yesterday."
"You know we have a test on Monday," he says, sounding very unimpressed.
"I know. I wanted to ask Father Michael - "
"He won't be there. You have to fill in the answers yourself. You get that, right?"
She frowns at him. She looks back at the tall grass, now covered in snow. "Do you think they can hear us?"
"Probably. Hey, I'm not letting you cheat off me."
"Not even a hint?"
He frowns. "...You have to look after the little kids. That's all I'm saying, though."
She nods, then climbs up to the top of the mountain by herself. She thinks she must have left something up there. But that can't be right; she's never made it to the top of the mountain before. She always has to go back down before she finishes.
The air laughs at her. It calls her name. She pretends she can't hear. That's very rude of her, she thinks, but she has to get the thing she left. The mountain opens up as she climbs, because it's a volcano. Light spills out of it, and clear water, and steam, because that's how volcanoes are. She pretends she doesn't notice. It isn't the volcano's fault. At the top there's a garden, and it isn't covered in snow. That must be why she isn't dressed for it - it's no good if everyone there thinks she's the kind of wimp who can't even spend a few hours climbing a mountain without a coat.
Alex is there. Maybe he's the thing she forgot? That doesn't sound quite right, but it must be.
"Hi," she says. "We have a test on Monday."
He groans. "Not already."
"I think we've prepared pretty well. Didn't you study?"
"That's not the problem. You're going to fall asleep," says Alex.
"No, I won't," she says, and she's irritated, because he's right, but he shouldn't be. "I'm old enough to stay up all night this time."
The wind calls her name again. But it isn't the wind, the wind doesn't do that. They're coming, she realizes, they must have followed her up the mountain - she thought they couldn't leave the tall grass, but she doesn't know why -
Alex is gone. There are wolves here, now, instead - or something like wolves - blurry gray shapes that snarl and circle her.
She's so tired.
The gray shapes pounce, and she doesn't have a weapon. She should have asked Alex for one when he was here, but she didn't.
There are fangs in her throat.
She writes down everything she remembers, when she confirms that she's still in her room and has not been eaten by wolves. And then she panics about her homework. And then she remembers that they have a field trip to the zoo today.
She sits next to Alex on the bus. "Do slayers really have prophetic dreams?"
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