Omen

The first wagons. It is a phrase I use more than I care to when I am there. So many things remind me that it is a different world than mine. It is not that the people there are not polite. They are so much so that I find myself reminding THEM, not vice versa. But I am not ashamed of who I am. My pride is woven through me like the Sky and the grass and the bosk are all woven together.

Pariah remained at my thigh, my fingers in her teasing short hair as I called the Spex to me. She is called pile now, I try to remember it but I do not always.
I gave her a piece of cloth. It was gray with tiny pink dinas embroidered into it. It was just a small piece, a couple of horts in length and breadth. I asked her to tell me the omen for the hunt the next day. If I was embarrassed to produce such an item for a hunt I did not show it, though the concern in my gaze was much more intense than any hunt should cause.

She went to one of the wagons and brought out a small black pouch. She threw a few herbs and things into the fire and called forth the spirits.

Without realizing it I had begun to lean forward in the saddle. Energy charged through me and Kai began to shift his weight, his fur jumping as his skin twitched.
I was no stranger to the oddly colored fire, nor the voices or specters that danced in the flames. But this time there was more riding on this reading than I cared to admit. I believe I cared more about this reading than I cared for much else in my whole life. The questions this raised in my mind were set aside, they would be pondered later. For now there was only this ... here.

She asked for the gift, for the knowledge for the warrior with no clan yet. It was not what she said but how she said it, and my gaze began to narrow on her. She threw up her arm to ward off what she saw and I felt my stomach tighten. The muscles across my chest began to tense. A silver blue flame shot up out of the center of the fire then and knew it was more than tricks now ... I knew that flame. She began to speak then.

"They will not stop you know. Nothing will make them go away, you cannot push away the dream walkers. We are stronger then you She wore a white cloak, your dreams are haunted by her. Almost so real yet you cant touch her.
Perhaps you desire that taste of stains left with on you....You remember a touch, a smell... Your hunt.... much of this hunt is shadowed...darkness lingers to try to reach out and snap you in half from the reality... The hunt... yet you seek more to know then the hunt alone... Why only ask of it? Ah perhaps memories seem to bring forth ... No.... It is not time yet.... The hunt... You would do well not to ride in the valley. You will be the hunted if you do. So much wonderfully smelling blood.... Its not a larl that hunts you but you know this. Do you not? Such a sweet smell wishes to touch you in the dreams."

There was a growl deep in my chest. My fingers tightened on the reins which caused Kai to jerk his head against the touch. Anger snapped through my veins and every muscle stood out in sharp relief under my skin. My beast began to claw at the grass arching his thick neck and it was all I could do to keep him from bolting.

"I know who you are. I recognize you... I see you ...I hear you breathe when you cannot hear your self in the night. Umm tell me how it feels to drain life with your own hands? Do you remember? Yes... yes the hunt.. The omen is countered. Do not ride to the valley."

There was pure rage in my features, twisted in the fire light as I gazed at the Spex as if I would kill her for her words but restraint lay in a heavy shroud to be fought but not overcome.

As the Spex went down on her knees I was hit by so many thoughts in quick succession. I spoke Pariah's name ... to care for mahalah even as Kai took three half jumps backwards almost upending himself before I jerked the reins and spun him on a tarsk bit and kicked him into a run down the lane between the wagons and I prayed to the Sky I was in time.