The very first night I spent at Kristen and John’s house was also the first night they spent there. Their van broke down, stranding us for the night while they were moving in. It was unfortunate, since the electricity wasn’t turned on yet, and all we had to eat were some peanuts and tea. *grin* I still won’t drink red zinger and I stay away from honey-roasted peanuts. It was not all bad though, if the van had not broken down I might not have seen the “dark lady”. At twilight I went out walking around the property. Their house is out in “California cow country”, and there was a lot to explore. I started out by climbing the hill across the (very small) road from their driveway. The water tank for the house is up there, so there was a nice path to the top. Just before I got to the point where I could see over I heard something behind me and turned around. I saw a large wolf right in the middle of the path. It was only a wolf for a second, then it turned into a bush, but I KNOW there was not a bush there before because it was blocking the path I just walked up. That had me spooked, but I could feel that it was not a threat to me so I continued up the path to the top. When I got up there I could see a large field that was bordered on one side by the hill I was on, and on the other by a curving stream. Nearly straight ahead of me was a windmill, and to the right of that was a large stand of sage. What caught my attention in the scene though, was a tall woman who was standing in the middle of the sage. She was facing away from me, towards the stream. She had dark hair that reached down past her knees, but that was all I could really tell in the fading light. I stood there for several minutes just watching and she never moved at all, even her hair was perfectly still in the slight breeze. She had a very strong presence, even from my vantage about 100 feet away I could “feel” her. It never crossed my mind to try to get her attention, I knew that she was aware of me. In the end, I walked back down the hill because it was getting to dark to see, but the next day I walked out into the field to check it out. There was nothing tall enough in the sage to look like a person, and there were no footprints on the sandy ground. I would later find out that the spot she was standing had a special significance, but that’s not my story to tell. *grin* I’ve never seen her again, but I’ve felt her presence during several of my visits, and even once had a sort-of-conversation with her telepathically. As far as I can tell she is like an embodiment of the land or of that kind of land. None of the preexisting labels for supernatural creatures seemed to fit, I’ve always thought of her as “elf lady” or “dark lady” and she doesn’t seem to mind the title. Here’s a picture I did of her in the field, it captures the feeling, if not the details of the scene.