The Answer Cometh

The desert opened before me. The desert at night. The stars brighter than they should be .. the moons closer than possible. The sand shifted beneath my boots and I saw the dark haired boy sitting upon a dune playing with a toy wagon. He did not acknowledge me until I drew closer and then he glanced up and spoke.

"Why do you seek her?"

"I have been asked for an omen."

"It has nothing to do with you."

"The omens I seek rarely do."

The boy crouched over his toy and I saw a spark ... then the wood of the wagon caught and started to burn. The boy gestured me over and I sat there before the burning toy as I had before the small fire in the Spex wagon.

She rose from the fire .. lifting up to her full height. She glittered in her greens and blues and the ost curved and twisted through her hair. A shimmering hand reached to caress the boy's cheek before she turned to me and queried .. "You are not who I was expecting .. what do you seek of me Fonce of the Tuchuk?"

I replied .. "I am to seek an omen for the moving of the herds."

"Follow the grass."

"The Ubar wishes to see further."

"The Ubar is wise but he can not avoid what is to come."

"Are there words to give him?"

"There is only a song when it is done."

"Is there nothing I can give to him now?"

"You may give him this." And she reached up and pulled the ost from her hair and threw it at me .. I caught it just behind the head .. wrapping my fist around it as it coiled and squeezed my arm in its embrace. I struggled with the thing as it tried to reach me with poisoned fangs. I heard her gentle laughter as the desert faded and I felt the polished wood of the Spex wagon beneath me .. but the ost did not fade.

I fell backwards with the force of returning .. rolling over I thrust the ost against the boards slamming it into the wood. It twisted and turned .. shape shifting within my fingers.. taking on the vague shape of a woman .. something about her familiar .. her eyes wide as I crushed her throat. Then returning to the reptilian form before its life force faded and died within my hands.

Shaken .. I rested back against a trunk wiping the sweat from my eyes as I struggled to regain my breath.

The meaning of it all too real but there was very little I could do about it. It was not mine to change or even comment on.

When I had control of my breath I left the Spex wagon seeking Ba'atar. But he was not to be found. I left word with one of his close Commanders that he was to follow the grass .. in the direction he had offered to me. That .. what was to happen could not be avoided. That the events had been sung in the Sky all ready and soon would be sung here as choices followed the path to their natural consequences.