Missing Brush

That afternoon I saddled Kel .. the colt out of Kai and Ula ... so many memories. He was no longer a colt though .. given to a warrior .. after the warrior left I took the kaiila back. He was too special to me. For many reasons ... to allow him to just be another kaiila among the pens.

Kel has developed a nasty habit of sneezing on people. It is for more reason than the cruel fangs .. that I am wary of the front end of Kel.

The afternoon was partly overcast .. clouds banked themselves up along the horizon. Piled up on some wall of energy that kept them climbing higher instead of spreading out over the entire Sky. The air was a mix of sudden warm breeze and then instant complete stillness. The kind of stillness like freshly fallen snow .. or the pause .. the cosmic inhale before a universal kind of sneeze.

For some reason today seemed to be about sneezing. As a Haruspex I should probably find some portent to read in that.

Accompanied by the snorting of Kel .. the creak of leather and the jingle of gear ... the breath of the air that touched my cheek occasionally with the scent of far off rich soil ... and the whispering of my own thoughts .. I directed Kel along the edge of the stream heading down towards the watering hole I had mentioned to Seveya. The one where the large tree had made a natural damn of sorts that spread water out for the bosk to find not only a quench to their thirst but mud.. mud which was vital to their own protection from the gnats and flies and other parasites.

When the weather got too warm for the mud to be of any real use .. they would use the many small shallow dust bowls .. found dotted across the plains ... rolling in the dust to gain much the same end.

Today however I expected to find plenty of mud still .. making my own attempts to search the water side of that log ... one of expected hardship. But I had given my word and I would try to retrieve the missing brush for the Artisan.

Kel's stride was solid and strong beneath me. It was good to feel his youth and stamina .. something I felt waning in Kai and Rocca. Not enough that I had retired them yet ... but a hint of things to come. It tore my heart up to even think about it .. Kai my very first kaiila ... but today I would not dwell ... I would simply allow the pure enjoyment of the day to reach me.

As I neared the area I was looking for .. I saw that the old log was still in place .. preserved well beneath the water ... catching plenty of things within the grasp of broken branches that still jutted out from the length. I rode Kel as close as I could get .. throwing a leg over to drop to the grass .. ground hitching the beast.

As I strode near .. a silver kind of glint flashed at me from the depths of the water .. bubbling and frothing against the side of the tree. One end of the log was stuck solid into the bank of the stream .. the other had water flowing around the end. Upstream side of the log had a large pool .. shallow and spread out .. downstream side narrowed and flowed on as usual. I went to the end that was near the bank .. the mud was soft and tried to suck my boots in as I climbed up on the log .. the water vibrated the length of it and it too me a moment to get my balance ... water moving over the tops of my boots as I moved carefully along the length. The sparkle in the water .. my sudden goal. My curiosity needing to be sated.

I slowly got down on one knee .. as I reached about a third of the way out on the log .. leaning carefully to reach into the water .. grasping the object that still glittered and winked at me .. reflecting the light that refracted through the stream. My fingers closed around it and brought it to the surface and I stared at it for some time.

It was a paintbrush .. yes ... it was .... but it was a paintbrush that had been bled of any color at all. It was not "painted" white.. it simply lacked the color that the elements used to make the brush usually had. Wood .. metal ... the hair of the brush. All white. As if perhaps it was waiting for color.

I could not imagine Seveya not telling me .. this particular unique quality of her brush. So was this brush hers? Was it something else? Had something happened to it while traveling on the current of the stream? There were many questions but .. I had no way of figuring out the answers. I would have to take her the brush and let her answer as many of them as she could.

I was very curious.