Time .. Time ... and Half a Time

It has been some time since I have returned to the first wagons. My days have been filled with work and all the preparations for winter. I have much meat preserved now. But still not enough. It is a lot of work for one man to do, and yet I only need enough for one. I have plans to lay extra stores away though.

In one way it has made the nights easier. The work. The sounds of people around my wagon. I am not so alone. And in another it has made me realize just how alone I really am. The size of Juu's family is a bit overwhelming. And yet it is a close example of all I have dreamed of creating and building.

The drive to reclaim all that was mine is a little less loud. The urge to ride to the first wagons. Perhaps it is only that I am working so hard and tired. Sometimes I just sit and watch the children play. Oni doing her work. Juu teasing his sons about their names. I can almost imagine I am a part of their family. In a way I suppose I am. Juu has turned out to be a good friend.

But late at night I still feel the itch. The need to build and claim. to lift my mark high into the plain's sky. To climb up the mountain and to yell, this is mine. I have made this. I have built this with my own sweat and my own blood.