Blood, sweat and tears

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou

Among the first fires tempers had seemed to run rampant the past hand or so. Feelings had been hurt and age old friendships strained to the yoke. It was not a place I needed to be, knowing my own ability to hold my ire. I was barely restraining mine as it was and was almost surging at the rein to turn the bitch switch loose. I think that is part of what made it so good to run into an old friend of mine and Tao's.

Caleb was the boy that used to pull my hair when we were young to get my attention. I had to admit that he had grown up to be quite a good looking young warrior. Even the scars hadn't affected the smoothness of his cheeks but those eyes ... now there he seemed to look through to your soul in a lazy sort of way. I enjoyed talking to him. In fact we spent many ahns through the night just chatting about nothing at all and all of the things that mattered to both of us. The parts you rarely share with anyone but always wished you could.

Where I was right this moment in my life he had an understanding of and an acceptance. Reasons he listened to, excuses he turned aside with such an ease it disturbed me. He cupped his hands beneath mine and told me not to forget what was important. I stared at him. The familiarity was unsettling. There had been someone else that had said almost the same thing when I first came to the fires. It created a constriction in my chest that was not going to go away soon. Not a bad thing just something that stayed with me even after I bid him a good evening later and went on my way.

The next day wasn't met with enough rest to be any more gracious than the day before. Testy would have been a good descriptive. One of the women had not been following directions to take care of herself so she could gain strength to tend to her family. Too stubborn to realize she was doing them no good by wearing herself down. I was on my way to rap some sense into that hard head and mulling over the things that Caleb had said when Orahjinn stepped in front of me. I growled at him to stand aside or pitch in and help but I did not have time for idle chit chat.

Then he said three words that stopped me dead in my tracks ...

I need you.