Into the Mist

With the mists came silence. Sounds muffled and shrouded with the moisture laden air. People talked to me less .. I talked to them less. There was simply to exist.

Perhaps they caught the vestiges of horror that still clung to the edges of my being. Perhaps it was simply because as long as the big black bosk laid himself in the middle of the trail .. the superstitious Tuchuk would go no further. Locked within this time bubble of mist and waiting.

I spent a morning with the prospects ..Yamka .. Seveya .. and Mezoo. They did not come to speak to me as I ate and warmed myself by the fire. They were busy with some crafting of some sort. I could tell there were beads and leather involved. Most of my attention was on the fire .. the way the mist grew heavy enough to sizzle upon the hot rocks that surrounded it .. to disturb the pattern of light upon the coals. I was not impressed with the object lesson following up the most recent conversations about the elements. I did not feel I needed it shoved in my face.

I do not like the mists .. it is heavy and hard to breath in. I do not like to be shrouded and hidden from the Sky. I do not like to be swaddled in wet wool .. unable to break free into the clean clear air that I know is out there somewhere. I do not like to be blinded .. unable to see more than a wagon length in front of me. I do not like to be spread out like this .. thinking about defense ... when I can not see what might be approaching.

I can feel the electricity building .. the forces of the storm gathering beyond me and around me .. and yet I can not quite reach them ... these forces. I can not quite find my place among them. I feel dense .. stupid. Even when people are close .. I feel as if I can not quite find them.

Catch cut through it for a brief time .. her brightness like a sharp edge that cut away the mist with a eagerness and smile that lit up when she saw me. She rushed to my side and cast herself into my arms. I could tell Dee was frustrated and disapproving of her tossing aside all the teachings that Dee had shared with her. But I did not mind .. not that day. I did not mind that she burst through the mists and touched me .. found me ... forced me to shake off the gray shrouds for a moment. I told her she was an untrained cheeky kajira. But I did not think that was so bad .. the fresh air was too welcomed. Someone gave a shit enough to crawl into my dead space and they lit it all up with rays of life.

I chased her away from the First Fires. I did not want her to be reprimanded for her lawless love of life and me in it. Her lack of training was ultimately my fault .. but ... I would not have traded her for a cold pridefully trained kajira sitting on the edges and asking only to serve the masses. No .. I found the wiggling squirming mass of female flesh deposited into my hands to be a warmth I could not resist.

Like the breaking out of the Central Fire from behind a cloud .. bathing my scars and my shoulders in rays of warmth and life ... so too I find this brief encounter with my slave Catch.

Unfortunately it was not long before the mist closed in around me once more. I must wonder if anyone else will find me through this fog.