There is a place

“Defenseless under the night, Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light, Flash out wherever the Just, Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them, Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same, Negation and despair”
W. H. Auden

There I was, on the edge of the precipice, with everything spread out underneath: the plains, the valleys, and then, in the distance, the shimmering, spangling City of Turia. This is why I had come to this place ... this vista before me. The others I had left behind for these few ahns of serenity and meditation.

Here there were none to step up in my face with demands for the position I had not even been granted. Here there were no pressing responsibilities for family, for clan .. it was a moment of indulgence for the health and well being of the woman within. To center her world, to attain enlightenment and strength for all that was to come.

To find peace.

The cord that held the amulet Tarra gave me was wrapped several times around my wrist until it lay just at the heel of my palm. The tap of it there a reminder that in some way she was with me .. watching over me. Mother vulo that she is. It made me smile. I kept my promise to wear it and just as easily as I donned the charm, it was forgotten, it was so much part of me. My toes hovering over the sheer drop left bits of dirt cascading down the drop and I imagined all my worries .. all my cares careening off the walls and those that weighted me most, I imagined pierced on the jagged spires below.

It was just as I closed my eyes that I felt a hand slip within mine. I clinched my fingers tight around his and I looked up. It wasn't the face that I had longed to be there with me but the dedication was strong enough to make my pulse skip a beat.

"I won't let you go alone."

"Then you must trust me."

No matter how valiant a man is, there is a point he faces his fear and steps beyond what is expected. His courage pressed to the very edge even for his own imaginations to comprehend. Did my protector understand what was about to happen? I could see him swallow and that brought a touch of bittersweet smile. It was as much preparation as I had given myself.

"Don't let go"

With that, we fell from the mountain to set our souls to soar.

The crisp snap of wing caught air so that gravity and distance was no longer challenge. Where the wind drifted so did we. Across the prairie northward beyond the walled place of dwellers and further still. From heights so great, the rivers seemed like silver ribbons tossed by the Sky to the ground and forgotten. Groves of trees lay like a carpet below so that even their lushness was merely color against the backdrop of russets and sienna. The bosk covered the land with an inky hue that reminded me of oil spilled from a lantern .. they spread shifting and drenching the world they owned.

This was our home .. the plains as far as the eye could see. It all belonged to us .. the Tuchuk.

From my bird's eye view I watched as my companion savored this venture, rising higher and higher until silhouetted by the sun itself. The brilliance of its rays dazzling the air around him until he disappeared within them. His plummet at first set my heart to race. Had he flown too far .. too close? The leveling out onto a wind sheer made me laugh and I banked to join him. Lower and lower toward a lake of shimmering gold in the waning light. Across the water, the touch of our wings glanced the surface sending a rain of droplets into the air behind us. Then climbing again as we made another ascent.

It was time to return and our course retraced the air born path we had just come. Even the others of our entourage seemed tiny beneath us as we passed them by for that summit once more.

The excitement, the thrill had been powerful for the warrior. Nothing .. nothing had ever been such an experience for him and as we touched again upon Terra firma he reached for my face to begin telling me so. With wide eyed wonder his words never reached my ears. I could see the movement of his mouth but we were slipping over the edge, the ground crumbling under our boots. I was farthest out and he struck his hand outward locking onto my arm. The amulet itself pressed under his palm gouging into the tender part of my skin. One quick tug and he tossed me back over the ledge onto the plateau behind him and I sat there in a dusty heap just shaking my head.

"I told you to trust me .. I told you not to let go"

"You were falling ..

We were falling!"

The tip of my finger pointed down to his boots. They were right where they had began ... unmoved. Next to the prints were a perfect likeness of my own. We laughed that nervous kind of laugh that you really don't feel is so funny on the inside then looked at each and laughed with the heartiness that this venture truly deserved.

The mind is a wonderful place, like the canyons, it has worlds within worlds within, and for a short time, Ol'ngyuen had joined me inside mine.