Time around the Fire

It was late when I finally moved. My body aching as much for not moving as it had been for moving too much for too long. I was better for the bathing though and feeling a little more alive. Of course feeling a little more alive had given me a serious case of the blues. All that dusty emptiness around me.

I dressed .. well ... I draped my clothes on my body .... looking rather pitifully lost in them. Cinched my belt up tight and wrapped the extra leather around me. And there was a lot of extra leather.

The Central Fire had spent itself when I ducked through the flaps of my wagon and still the light seemed to stab at my eyes watering them up a little. The press of all those bosk .. all those people. My people .. just a lot more of them than I was used to. Made my chest feel heavy .. but it was still a comfort even if I felt like I could not breathe.

I made my way to the fire. My walk is a little like a shuffle/stride/swagger sort of thing. Long on shuffle and short on swagger yet. But give it a little time.

Tarra was at the fires. I crouched down near the warmth. Easy conversation. Easy except that my voice sounds odd to my ears. I started asking questions. Not sure that was self preserving of me. The answers were hard to swallow. Harder to wrap my head around. So much had changed .. so much was different. Some were good .. some where just different ... others .... well those were the hard ones. The ones that hurt the most and left me kind of breathless. Like I had been punched in the stomach. I felt it all the way down.

We were talking of people .. of new faces around the fire. Of old faces and how they were when Silken came within the light and took a lean on a wagon wheel. Now I have seen her do that before .. but ... she seemed a little different this time. Was it really different or was it just me?

Well she asked me if I had seen a healer .. and I told her I had seen Falon ... and now I had seen her. Counts in my opinion. was not like I had any holes I was leaking out of.

She said no .. had I been checked over. I told her there was a kajira that morning ....

She said checked over .. not checked out.

oh

Then she wandered off with a "you should see a healer Fonce" and that was it.

No .. I mean really. That was it.

I began to wonder if I was still stuck in a dream somewhere because that was not Silken. At least the Silken I remembered. Though I had been gone a long time .. so Tarra said. Hm.

Cana showed up and got me some milk .. and a basket with honey cakes and honey nuts. I was feeling pretty spoiled about then. But when I turned around to take the basket to my steps I realized my wagon was not where it used to be ... now you would think I would just go right back to it figuring I just left it. But habits it seems are hard to break and it took me a bit to find my wagon again. This was going to take some time.

A big Tuchuk came to the fires. A commander named Ayguili. I had heard of him .. Ba'atar's brother. Second in command. I am never .. not ever going to remember that name. He does not seem to speak much. Not long on conversation.

I told him I had heard of him .. he said he had heard of me too. I told him that actually did not surprise me and I said it with a dry chuckle.

He said .. "nothing bad and I see you have returned"

Nothing bad? Now that actually did surprise me. I told him that yes .. yes I had returned or so it seemed by all accounts .. most of me ... some of me ....

Cana told me she would wait a couple of days for me to gain some strength before she would chase me around with a spoon.

I told her that was terribly sporting of her .. but it made me suspicious.

Ayguili .. kudos to me for remembering the name .... was confused about the spoon thing. I asked him if he had not ever had her chase him around with a spoon? Brother/sister sort of thing? right?

He said no.

I said .. a pot?

He shook his head.

I asked him if the two of them spoke much?

He said .. not much.

I said well that would explain a lot .. had me worried perhaps Cana liked him better.

I could see my humor had gotten lost in the translation somewhere ... so I chuckled at myself.

Finding myself such good company I decided to take myself off and put myself to bed. Seemed all I could do was sleep lately. Drink broth and sleep. Drink broth and sleep and talk about who was not sleeping with me in my wagon any more.