The Cliff

Now Jaella spoke of nightmares .. and I was so there with her. I was going to have a few myself after hearing this entire thing. But.. then the more she spoke the more it seemed they were not exactly .. normal dreams. Perhaps something more. Perhaps something ominous. I told her I would have something to help her by the end of the day .. at this point I am thinking a talisman .. a dream catcher perhaps. Something to ease her sleep.

No big deal.

I told them both to get some rest .. you know ... they would need it and they both looked like they had been a batting toy of a larl. That I would do some investigation and get some answers.

No big deal.

Then .. Sahli started telling me how he had nearly scared Jaella into hurting him with a blade .. how ... he woke up sometimes not in the clothes he remembered nor in the same place.

Interesting.

So I said the answer to everything was there .. at the caverns. That as soon as that entire mystery was solved that the rest would be revealed and fall into place.

No big deal.

Sahli questioned himself. He wanted to believe he would not hurt her .. but he questioned himself. I told Sahli he would not .. But Jaella looked like someone had rammed a lance up her ass and she squared off on Sahli and told him he would never hurt her .. ever. That annoyed me .. I told Jaella he would not be a man if he did not question himself .. though I think I defended myself more than Sahli there. She said to me .. with a smile that eased her words ... that she was quite aware that he would and should doubt himself a little in the situation but she wanted him to know she did not doubt him. That she believed in him. Well that took all the sting out of it for me .. sounded like something T'zuri would say to me ... go Jaella. I found another measure of respect for her at that moment.

So this was a big deal.

I told Sahli he must take me to the entrance of the cavern.

WHAT THE HELL WAS I SAYING??????

Sahli agreed and those that wanted to .. all strode off towards the old stream bed after I grabbed a rope from my wagon. A particular rope. Those that wanted to were very few .. smart bunch of Tuchuk. What the hell was wrong with us anyway?

The group consisted of Sahli and I and Jaella and T'zuri ... and a slave named blue.

We got to the great crack in the plains .. the cliff ... and I stared down and .. knew ... knew for a fact that I was going to die down there .. the walls were going to close in and trap me forever inside with tons of soil on top of me until the maggots ate me from the inside out .. starting with my eyes.