Such Energy

It took several days to tell mother of all the people I had met in the past hands. It was hard to extricate them from within the colors, vibrations and sounds that surrounded them so that I could give them the justice they deserved. I hear their sorrows, their joys, their fears everything that makes being human .. human. Energy. There is so much energy.

Cana, the Ubara, graceful, gracious, with such a giving soul. She had offered to give me a kaiila of my own. How do you respond to a gift of that proportion? Father was not so ambitious that he gathered great wealth which meant we lived within our means. Our values were of an older time with importance focused on integrity, courage and honor. It was because of this, I was awed and overwhelmed by her generosity. I regretted not making it to her fires as I had promised. I had no wish for her to think I was ungrateful. She added to the list of her virtues, understanding. I gave her a handful of small pebbles to tuck in her cheek to help with thirst. It is not much by comparison. The click of the stones together remind me of the sounds of women when we gather. Animated and alive. There is a different sound to a gem than there is a stone, very subtle but it is there.

There is the elder Haruspex, Tarra, that has reached out in her way to make me feel more comfortable among so many. Her smile is rare but like a light at the far end of the darkness. It seems when there is too much, too many around me that I grow quiet, she offers small bits of wisdom and carefully crafted bits of advice that sound like everyday conversations to those around us. I pluck them out eagerly and tuck them away. She allows small glimpses of the woman inside though I see how few others notice them. Myself, I am hoping I do not miss many. She is like the earth, a foundation that creates solid ground one can stand on.

The artisan, Seveya, has been there for me from the first moment Tao dragged me to the inner wagons. Her smile is always warming and bright each time I see her. There is always the sound of laughter that follows her and fills the air like the wind. There is a strong heart there, one that is capable of holding enough for two. I hear her silent prayers for her Father and know the tug that it brings in my own. She knows she will know loss soon yet she still offers to everyone around her without fail. There is an admiration and respect growing for her like the mica flecks in granite.

I know very little of the leather worker except that she comes alive in small ways when she is close to another. She reminds me of a honing stone because everyone she touches comes away more defined though they leave their mark on her surface. Her heart is young and open to be filled and she has an eagerness about it all. She has spoken of caring for one of the warriors with both excitement and trepidation in such a way that it makes the layers of her emotions wondrous.

I told Mother that it had been Asria and Lei that have been in my thoughts most often. I couldn’t explain why just that they fill my thoughts and more often than I can name, they bring a smile. I’d given Lei a cocoon I had watched form, a silken orb made of many fine threads. Imke has become Lei’s confidante and protector. He feels very important in his new role, one he takes very seriously. Ask him.

It was a story that included all of them and more that Mother found of great interest. It all started with Yamka darting beneath a wagon to save one of the elders from a horrifying beast. Using whatever she could find to whisk under the wagon wheels she shooed out a stray vulo. It strutted and squawk its way across the flow of wagons heading in the wrong direction. Its salvation and its demise is the saga for this tale.

While more of the women began to gather I watched as Veeza snatched up the bird and hurried back to her wagon. Now, rumor has it that she was once a kanda addict but had left it behind long ago. She is a wisp of a woman, gaunt and frail though her willowy fingers and the pinch of her mouth belie she may have returned to the opiate’s seductions. I excused myself away from the others to pay the woman a brief visit. All that I did was hold out my hands for the bird. There was embarrassment that plumed Veeza’s face as she extended it back to me. Regret showing deep in the dark of her eyes. I held her hands between mine before I relieved her of the fowl and reassured her that this night she would feed the Ubar himself. Such beauty shown through from behind the life weariness of her eyes and the smile was one more radiant than I had seen in a long time. I left a few of the small pebbles in her hands as exchange.

Rather than pluck the vulo, I skinned him there turning the feathers inside though I kept the head to tuck away beneath my belt. It took no time at all for the meat to be rent from the bone and added to a kettle. The trails are long and dusty especially with dried jerky to chew on. This would be a treat for the parched and famished warriors coming in from the drag or the point. One small vulo would barely feed one hungry warrior much less a Tribe so I was never so proud as I was that night as women from wagons near and far met the demands by sharing their means regardless of how meager they were. One by one they came to add to the pot until it could hold no more.

Mother was completely enrapt in the story. She leaned forward over her basket to ask why the vulo was crossing in front of the trail of wagons in the first place. I winked at her and laughed as I told her because it was a glorious day to be Tuchuk.