The Master Apprentice

[SamL]

Chapter 18

 

I opened my eyes and blinked, temporarily blinded by the weird colored sun in my delusion.  As I tried to rub the delusion out of my eyes, I realized that my peripheral vision thought it was seeing something else – something green.  I slammed my eyes shut immediately trying to process the incongruous information my eyes just sent me.  It had looked like trees.  It couldn't be, but it did look like them.  I took a second to review the information quickly: trunk, branches, leaves.  I tried to arrange them another way in order to make sense out of them but I still came up with 'tree'.  “The heck with the tree, there's a flippin' sun up there!” my mind screamed, trying to get my attention.   I pushed the thought aside and ignored it.  ‘Tree’ was already way too much information; one thing at a time.

I honestly don't know what possessed me to throw open my eyes but I think it was a combination of panic, confusion and curiosity.  Ignoring the brightness all around me that was supposed to be the dimly lit dojo, I looked for Daniel.  A half-moment later I found him propping himself up in the middle of a field chewing on a long piece of grass, looking ridiculously like a farmer.  “Daniel,” I asked tentatively after a long moment, “I've lost my mind, haven't I?”  I decided to close my eyes again as I waited for his answer.

“Though neither is the answer your looking for, it would actually be more correct to say that you found it.” Daniel said with his 'way too cheerful for the current situation' voice.  I allowed myself a moment to consider how much I hated cheerful sounding voices while I was going nuts.  I decided that I hated it a lot.   “Are you panicking a little?” Daniel asked.

“No,” I answered honestly, “I'm pretty sure I'm panicking a lot.”  I found myself marveling at the sound of my own voice.  It was remarkable how steady it sounded.  I had always thought they'd be more screaming and running around when a person went nuts.  

“Well,” Daniel said, “Panic is a function of the mind and so, if you are panicking, you have a good hold on your mind – or rather, your mind has a good hold on you.  Either way, you're not losing it.”  

I sat there for another moment with my eyes still closed before saying, “I thought I saw a tree.”  

“Oh,” Daniel said with a note of real concern in his tone, “that is a problem.”  Oddly enough, once Daniel acknowledged that he too thought there was a problem, I felt much better.

“There has to be at least fifty trees in the immediate vicinity and you've only seen one.  When was the last time your mother took you to the optometrist?”

My eyes flew open and I looked toward Daniel making a very special effort to not see anything else. “You see all this?” I asked.  

“Well, if you mean the fact that we are outside sitting in a field surrounded by all this loveliness, then yes, I see it as well,” he said.  “If you understood what you've done, you'd actually be quite pleased with yourself.  Although I can't imagine that serving any useful purpose so you may actually be better off this way.  In the meantime, you probably have a question or two, eh?”  

“Daniel,” I began slowly as I tried to think of a question I wouldn't regret asking, “where in the world are we?”  

Daniel shook his head, “Try another question; you're not going to like the answer to that particular one.”  

“Probably not,” I agreed, “but let's try me anyway.”  

“Okay,” Daniel said, his face looking like it was grinning and grimacing at the same time,  “I can tell you this; you're not in Kansas anymore.   

“I see.” I replied, and then after a pause I opened my mouth to ask something else and then realized that no answer that I could get, to any question that I could ask, would clear this up.  I closed my mouth.

“If it helps,” Daniel offered, “we are right here.”

“I actually knew that,” I told him in a measured voice.  “Furthermore, I know that we are definitely not in Kansas.  What I am wondering is where, in the non-Kansas world, is here?”  I noticed that my peripheral vision was working overtime trying to take everything in, but I steadfastly refused to look around.

“From your perspective, we're not on earth any longer.”  Daniel let that one sink in for a bit before continuing.  I suspect that I had the odd look of someone who tongue tied themselves without ever having said a word.  “There are thirty-one planes of existence.  The life you know is on one of those planes.”  “This,” Daniel gestured around him, “is another.  How did you get here?  Your meditation practice.  As you know, the deeper in meditation that you go, the different experiences you have.  There is a depth at which you pass beyond a veil.  From there, you can enter any one of the planes.  I chose this one, and you followed along.”

Genius that I was, I decided to point out some incredibly lucid fact.  Instead what came out was, “But, I've never been to Kansas.”  I looked to Daniel, desperately trying to determine if he was pulling my leg, but how else could we be sitting in a middle of a field.  

“Seriously,” Daniel asked, “you've never been to Kansas?  We'll have to go sometime; it's a nice place.  I think you'll like it.”  I decided to ignore Daniel for a moment as I was pretty sure he wasn't going to say anything helpful for a while and, shielding my eyes, glanced up toward the sun.  It was the wrong color.  “This sun is cooler than our own,” Daniel offered.  “It's actually much more common than ours too; it's about four times more prevalent than our own color sun.”  

We sat in silence for a few minutes while Daniel let me adjust to these new developments and then he offered me something to hang on to.  “One of two things have happened,” Daniel said.  “You are either on another plane of existence or you've completely lost your mind.  Does that sound like the two most likely choices?”  I nodded because I still didn't trust myself to speak.  “Excellent!” Daniel exclaimed happily.  “In the event that you have indeed lost your mind, and I mean 'mind' in the colloquial sense, then it is extremely unlikely that you shall find it again.  When people lose their minds, it's almost always permanent.”  

“If, in fact, you have lost your mind and are not able to find it again, then there is little value in doing anything other than exploring and enjoying your new surroundings.  After all, it's not like you will be going anywhere.”  “On the other hand,” he continued, “in the event that you haven't lost your mind, and you really are on another plane of existence, then there is little value in doing anything other than exploring and enjoying your new surroundings.”

“It's frightening how much sense that makes,” I thought and decided to look around.  As I took in the immediate surroundings I decided to ask the next question before I lost my nerve, “So now what?”

Daniel beamed, “Do you remember me telling you that we were going to visit some friends of mine who needed some help?”  I thought about denying that I remembered to buy some time while I sorted this all out but simply nodded.  “Well, I suggest we get going and head in their general direction,” Daniel said.  Dinner is served right at sunset there and so, if we head out now, we'll make it in time for a free meal.  What do you think?”

I sat there dumbfounded, completely and utterly blown away.  I was on a different plane of existence. For all intents and purposes, I was on a new world that fifteen minutes ago you couldn't have convinced me existed.  It was a little much.  Now Daniel was asking me if I wanted to go catch dinner, as nonchalantly as if we were at the dojo and he was asked me if I wanted to order take out.

“My friends are really good cooks,” he offered, as if that was the reason for my delayed response.  

Don't get me wrong; I was excited beyond words.  The problem was, in spite of Daniel's reassurances, I still wasn't convinced I hadn't lost my mind.  “Oh well,” I decided, “if I did lose it, I wasn't going to find it here.”  Getting to my feet, I looked toward Daniel.

“Let's go.”

[SamL]

Chapter 19

 

We walked through the meadow and I found myself trying to avoid stepping on the beautiful wildflowers that were all around us.  It occurred to me that in this place, I was probably trying to avoid stepping on weeds but even on our plane I never did understand how someone decided that the marigold was a delicate flower and the dandelion was a worthless weed.  Perhaps I was simply saving the life of a plant that these folks spent their life trying to eradicate.  

If I were sitting where you are right now, I'd probably be rolling my eyes at me.  I mean, here I am in a different world, on a completely different plane of existence, and I'm sitting here talking about flowers.  Unless you've been here and are just reading along to assure yourself that you're not crazy and someone else has seen it too, you probably think that flowers are a pretty lame topic under the circumstances.  If you have been here before and can remember your first visit, then you have a pretty good idea of how badly my brain is bleeding right now.  I'm lucky I can talk at all.  Fortunately, I have Daniel for moments like this; he could still talk.

As we walked, Daniel explained a little of where we were going, “My friends that I mentioned live about ten kilometers from here.  It's a small village, comprised of about a hundred people who call themselves the Tindi; it's an ancient word from one of this world's original languages that literally means, the People.  In many ways, they live much like a Native American tribe from the pre-European times though they have had outside contact.  Unlike many Native American tribes, they have not lost their spiritual inheritance and they still live as they have for thousands of years.”

“Anyway,” Daniel continued, “the village is at the foot of a mountain and the beginning of the Ditcili – a huge desert that extends for tens of thousands of square kilometers into the mainland.  Do you remember the shaman I spoke about?” Daniel asked as he crouched down behind some bushes and motioned for me to do the same.  

I nodded, “She is the one who first taught you the difference between you and your mind, right?”

“That's her,” Daniel said, as he lowered his voice.  “She's a member of the People and you'll meet her today.”

“I look forward to it,” I whispered honestly.  “Daniel,” I asked quietly, “why are we hiding behind these bushes and whispering?”

“Just watch,” he breathed.  Just then I became aware of a rumbling gaining in intensity.  I couldn't see anything that could be causing it, but followed Daniel's line of vision to a nearby horizon where the land seemed to fall away.  The rumbling became louder and I'll admit I was more than a little nervous but Daniel had this look of anticipation and a complete lack of concern which I took to be a good sign. Suddenly, six horse-like creatures broke the surface of the hill at what can only be called a gallop. Before I could register that there were six, another dozen or so came over the hill.  Ninety seconds later, there were something like two-hundred of them.  

We crouched there and watched them as they galloped past us, some coming within a few meters of our hiding spot.  Ten minutes later they had disappeared the way we had come.  They were definitely horses of some sort; being a few meters away had helped with the identification but they were unlike any horses I had ever seen.  Their legs were stockier and their bellies were a bit flatter than the rounded belly of regular horses.  Their backs were higher than I'd ever seen on a horse but all that aside, it was awesome watching them gallop past and I sat there a little overwhelmed, on top of already being extremely overwhelmed. 

Daniel flashed me a grin and explained, “The desert horse isn't dangerous, though I wouldn't want to have been standing in their way as they came by,” he said.  “We only hid so that they wouldn't change course and rob us of the view of them coming so close.”  “Evolution,” Daniel continued, “gave the desert horse two stomachs; one for food and one for water.  Its wet stomach lays on top of the dry stomach separated by a bony spinal column.”  “The horses,” he said, “seemed to develop this unique anatomy with a rider in mind, for a rider on a desert horse with a full wet stomach rides on a cushion of water not unlike riding a waterbed.  A rider would know when his horse was thirsty for when the stomach emptied, the rider would find him or herself bouncing along on the horses spine with no cushioning.  A rider who ignored his horses thirst would pay for it with a very sore backside.”

We got up and continued walking again.  I was a little encouraged by the thought that if we continued in the direction the horses came from, then we'd be walking downhill in a moment.  While we walked I asked Daniel, “Are all the plants and animals on this plane different from our plane?”

“No,” he replied, “though many of them are.  Too, some are slightly different in ways that really won't make much of a difference to you or I.  For instance, in the meadow we landed in, the trees behind us were almost all a variety of oak.  Now it's a variety that we don't have on earth, but unless you were a botanist, you'd be unlikely to notice the differences.”  “On the other hand, this plane of existence is also home to the dragonflower,” said Daniel, “which has no equivalent on our plane.”

As we walked, I alternated between taking in the world around me and asking Daniel questions. Fortunately, he was in a pretty generous mood and answered them without commentary regarding the quantity of questions coming his way.  “Do the Tindi ride desert horses?” I asked.

“Not usually,” Daniel replied.  “They are capable riders, and have been known to ride on occasion, but the Tindi do not pretend to own other sentient beings.  When they ride, it tends to be a ride of cooperation.”  I cocked my head not understanding and Daniel got the hint.  “If the rider and the horse determine that it is in the best interests of their true natures to cooperate, then they make a formidable team.  Typically though, amongst the Tindi, it is considered the height of arrogance to ride a horse without true need.  Getting to a watering hole that one can easily walk to would not be considered acceptable.  Riding a horse to warn a nearby village in time that they are about to be attacked, saves lives and therefore, is something that the horse would actually insist upon.”

“Horses insist here?” I asked incredulously.

“Not in the way that you are thinking,” Daniel responded.  “Communication with the animals is not impossible, though most are not interested in learning the language.”

I felt kind of stupid asking, but I had to, “Does each species have a different language?  Like one for horses, but a different language for dogs?”

“No,” Daniel said emphatically.  “The language of all animals is the language of the heart.  Although, perhaps it would be more correct to say heart-energy.  Let me ask you this, let's say that you wanted to send a message to a friend who lived far away and did not have a cell phone.  Would you text him?”

I shook my head, “No,” I replied.  “If he didn't have a cell phone then I'd have to call him on a land line or send him a letter snail mail.”

“Exactly,” Daniel nodded.  “Likewise, all animals are sentient beings, but only humans have the prefrontal cortex.  Any attempts to communicate through tools available in the prefrontal cortex, such as the speech center, are bound to fail because the one to whom you are speaking does not have the internal technology to decipher the message.  Just like sending a text to someones home phone.”  “On the other hand,” Daniel continued, “if you try to speak to them through means that you both have at your disposal, then yes, you can speak to them.”

I thought I'd better just hang on to my questions until I had some time to digest what he had said.  I still wasn't operating on all cylinders; I think I had plane lag.  It's pretty similar to jet lag but hits when you travel on planes of existence instead of planes in the sky.  I just made that up – I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as plane lag.  I just hadn't fully accepted that my entire world just got turned upside down, shook me off and dropped me on another world.  I was pretty sure that I was going to need at least a couple of days.

We came out of a thick grove of trees and spied a small river rushing by about a hundred meters away.  “Though not the most direct route, this particular river leads to the village,” Daniel said stopping and glancing around meaningfully.  “We cross here and it's just another couple of kilometers upriver toward the mountains and then we take a right.”

I barely registered the river, or for that matter, anything Daniel had just said; my attention was drawn to the desert beyond it.  “Oh my gosh, Daniel,” I muttered, “it’s beautiful.”  On the opposite shore of the river, the Ditcili stretched out as far as the eyes could see.  I know that usually one thinks of a desert as barren, lifeless and not particularly beautiful, but the sand of the Ditcili was abalone and the sunlight reflecting off of it was mesmerizing.  It was like a sea of rainbows or every color of the aurora borealis dancing across the ground to the horizon.  

Daniel just smiled and nodded as he looked out over the desert.  I know that he had seen it before, but I think it would be difficult to take its beauty for granted.  It was then that I realized that we hadn't stopped because I came to a stop, but because Daniel had.  “We've stopped,” I observed noncommittally.

Daniel scanned the river's edge as he spoke, “This is the only water source around here, and that means it gets plenty of traffic.  We're just stopping to make certain we aren't going to disturb anything unfriendly.”  Apparently convinced it was safe for the moment, he began heading for the river and I followed closely behind, wondering what form 'unfriendly' took on around here.

“Are there dangerous animals around here that we need to be concerned about?” I asked.  Daniel said nothing but looked at me and held my gaze.  “Right,” I said, “you wouldn't have stopped to make sure we were alone if there wasn't something to be concerned about.”  Daniel's smile was a bit less cheerful than normal and, I noted with more than a little discomfort, I had seen him smile cheerfully at some incredibly inappropriate times.  I decided to just follow along quietly for a bit.  

We made it to the river's edge and I followed Daniel in.  The river was only about seven meters across and by the time we had reached the middle it had only just come up to my waist.  I was still wearing my gi and I found it a little tough to ford with the current pulling on the heavy material but it was manageable.  I was about to navigate a couple of rocks in front of me when Daniel's arm shot out and stopped me.  Before I could ask what was going on, I caught the look in his eyes and followed them to the shore we had just come from.  

There, I saw a creature that came directly out of someone's nightmare who has a much better imagination than I do.  

[SamL]

Happy Christmas baby_k, bohobabe84, and anyone else tagging along incognito.

 

Chapter 20

 

I didn't need anyone to tell me that this was one of the dangerous animals that Daniel had been looking for before proceeding.  I've got to tell you, I don't consider myself a coward but if I had known that such things existed here, I would have never left the meadow.  I'd be meditating right now looking for some elusive veil that I could pass beyond and get the heck home.  Unfortunately, it was too late for that.

So here we were, standing as still as statues in the middle of a river about five or six meters from a walking nightmare who had stopped to get a drink.  I'd like to say that I couldn't begin to describe it, but that's not really true.  The truth is, I don't want to describe it.  Describing it means thinking about it and I'd rather think about almost anything else.  The beast's core was probably grizzly bear size or maybe a bit bigger.  That, however, was not the end of it.  It had a two meter long tail that moved like a cat's, swishing back and forth, but this particular tail sported a scorpion like appendage that appeared to be every bit as deadly as a two meter long stinger on a huge, mutant scorpion would be.  If I had to guess, I'd say that it was about 600 kilograms and its mouth was filled with serrated daggers for teeth.

We stood there silently and hoped, well at least I hoped, I have no idea what Daniel was thinking, that it would simply drink its fill and move on.  There was a gentle breeze that had been at our backs most of the way which suddenly shifted.  I thought we were still safe as it still wasn't blowing in a direction that would carry our scent to the beast but I was wrong about being safe.  It's not that the wind carried our scent to it that made the change so dangerous, but that the wind shifted so that it brought the beast's scent to us.

As soon as it hit me, I gagged involuntarily and almost puked.  It was the most putrid, disgusting smell I've ever experienced.  I had almost gathered my senses and got the nausea under control when the winds shifted again and I got a respite from that foul stench.  The bad news was, the same shift in the wind brought our scent to the beast.  It looked up suddenly and directly at us.  He, it turned out it was a he, rose up on its hind legs.  He must have been almost three meters high and it let out a triumphant roar which, I thought, was pretty poor form considering it hadn't eaten us yet – or even caught us.  I suppose though, that from this distance it simply assumed it was a done deal.

The beast took a step toward us and roared, covering half the distance between us before dropping to all fours.  As soon as it did, I was hit with the full force of a foul stench that made me retch; it was its breath.  I doubled over and vomited into the river which prevented me from seeing the next few eventful moments.  Apparently the beast had opened his mouth and raised an enormous paw meant to knock the life out of one or either of us but before it could swing, another one of the beasts came crashing through the brush behind it and leapt onto its back.  

Daniel grabbed me and sprung backwards barely avoiding the crushing weight of both animals as the forward momentum of the second, larger one drove them forward into the very spot we had been standing on.  “Good martial strategy there,” quipped Daniel matter of factly as we dodged death, “when someone strikes, don't be there when the blow arrives.”  Daniel continued to pull me back away and toward the far shore.  The larger of the two quickly killed the first and then turned his attention to lunch while keeping an eye on us as we came to a stop still a meter or two from the shore.  

“What do we do?” I whispered when I found my voice at last.  

“Nothing we can do,” replied Daniel.

“So what?  We're supposed to stand here and wait to be eaten?” I asked incredulously.  

“Well, alternatively we could run for it,” Daniel offered.  

“Can we outrun him?” I asked hopefully.  

“Not a chance,” Daniel said,  “he'd be on us in a second.”  

“What about if we just allow the current to sweep us along and head downstream?” I asked him.  

Daniel looked at me admiringly and whispered, “I must say, you've really made a good deal of progress since you've began.  Most people's minds would paralyze them with fear about now and they wouldn't be able to come up with solutions.  You've done incredibly well in a short amount of time in quieting your mind.  Unfortunately, your idea won’t work.  The bodily fluids of these creatures is extremely poisonous and floating into the same water that it is bleeding into would result in a more painful death than the one we have coming if it doesn't fill itself up with its friend there.”  

I whispered back, “So you're saying that it might be too full to mess with us after its meal?”  

Daniel shook his head, “Well, that's what I was saying, but it looks like it's still hungry.”  I looked up to see the beast facing us and rising up on its hind legs ominously.  “On the other hand,” Daniel said, “the maramelee's only soft spot is on it's underside, a well aimed arrow or spear while its on its hind legs could hit the heart and kill it.”  

I cringed, “We don't have anything like that do we?”  While I was waiting for a response I found my mind was busy being pleased that we had a name for the beast now.  It was called a maramelee.  I tried to figure out where the happiness was coming from.  “How important could it possibly be to know the name of the animal that is about to eat you?” I thought.  

Daniel interrupted my thoughts with his answer, “Well, I know I didn't bring anything like that, no.”

The maramelee let out a thundering bellow and dropped into a charging position on all fours. Without knowing anything about these creatures, it seemed to me that once it had dropped into a charging position on all fours, the charging would begin almost immediately.  Instead, it just stood there for a moment as if perplexed.  Slowly, its front legs buckled and it dropped to its knees, its head dropping just below the water.  It made one valiant effort to resurface, convulsed and dropped dead.

“What just happened?” I asked, too stunned to move.  

“We have company,” Daniel replied casually and turned.  “Son-see-a-rae! What took you so long?”  I turned to see a beautiful, barely dressed, middle aged woman standing on the shore with an arrow notched to a powerful looking bow.  She looked like I would have imagined an American Indian princess about a hundred and fifty years ago.

“I am sorry, my friend.” she said as she smiled and let her bow relax.  “I came as soon as I discovered that you had arrived.  It is so good to see you again.”  She then turned her attention to me.  “Welcome Josh; it is an honor to have you as a guest.”  I shot a look at Daniel but it was Son-see-a-rae who spoke, “We have met before, Josh; do you remember?”  she asked.

“No offense, ma'am, but no, I don't remember ever having met you before.”  Privately, I was thinking that if I had ever met a woman this beautiful, even if she was my mother's age, I would have never forgotten her.  I followed Daniel out of the river and stopped and looked away as the old friends embraced.  

She cocked her head at me and smiled.  There was a pause as if she was going to say something else, and then brushed it away.  “Well then, I look forward to us getting to know each other better, young Josh.  I believe though, we should head back to the village and get you two out of those wet clothes and perhaps find some hot food and tea to get the chill out.”

[baby_k]

Merry xmas, good yule, great joulu and so forward to the writer *bows*  and all fellow readers

[SamL]

Chapter 21

 

On the way to the village, Son-see-a-rae told me more about the maramelee's and all I could think of as she spoke was how grateful I was that I didn't know all these things back there in the river.  There was no good news.  Actually, that's not completely true.  Well, the part about being glad I didn't know was true.  The part that wasn't true was the 'all I could think of' part.  The truth is that a good portion of my thoughts were about how incredibly beautiful she was.  I told you that I was fourteen, right?  

According to Son-see-a-rae, maramelee's are the premier predator on this plane which isn't too hard to imagine.  Full grown females weigh between 450 – 500 kilos, while males are typically between 600 and 750 kilos.  It seems that my first run in with one was with a small male.  Though the teeth look deadly and they are, it is its saliva which is actually the most dangerous.  A maramelee's saliva is extremely acidic and venomous and if a victim escapes a bite, paralysis is near instantaneous, followed by a quick death.  In addition, its blood, like its saliva, is also extremely acidic and venomous.  

Apparently, the venom is so powerful that the potency would contaminate the water downstream for kilometers for well over a week.  Son-see-a-rae explained that all desert animals have evolved so that they can smell the bodily fluids of a maramelee in water far more diluted than it needs to be.  By doing so, they can avoid inadvertently drinking themselves to death.

Many have struck a killing blow only to have the maramelee's blood splatter upon them, burn through the skin and into the bloodstream resulting in death for both hunter and hunted.  Primarily scavengers, they feed on the kills of others when possible but if hungry they won't hesitate to hunt and kill any creature.  Fortunately, their first choice, after carrion, is other maramelee's.  It is this tendency that keeps the maramelee population under control.

Apparently, the maramelee's only real weakness, aside from that difficult to reach soft spot on their undersides, is an extreme susceptibility to elevation changes.  They live at sea level and anything but the smallest changes in elevation can be fatal.  It is believed that there is a delicate balance between the venom in their blood and atmospheric pressure so that any changes in pressure allow the venom to attack the maramelee itself.  So now you know everything I do about these creatures, which is way more than I ever wanted to know.

After Son-see-a-rae had given me enough information on maramelee's to fuel a lifetime of nightmares, the three of us walked on in amicable silence for a bit until something she said came back to me.  “Son-see-a-rae,” I asked, “can I ask you a question?”

“Of course,” she replied with a smile that could have probably stopped the maramelee if she had been out of arrows.  “I welcome questions much more so than our friend Daniel here does.”  Daniel rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything.

“Thanks,” I replied.  “There's two things actually.  The first...”

Now Daniel interrupted, “Get used to it; Josh is a master at asking two questions for the price of one.”  He grinned at us, Son-see-a-rae giggled and my mind went blank.  Try picturing a middle-aged beauty with a powerful bow resting against her shoulder who just faced a 700 kilo monster.  Now picture her giggling.  Can't do it, can you?  Well, I was there and I can tell you, there was nothing weird about it. In fact; it fit her better than any sound that could have come out of her mouth and way better than any giggle coming out of anyone else's mouth.

I shook off the distraction and continued, “You said that we've met before.  I don't remember ever meeting you; where was it?”

“We've met many times.  I first met you about twenty-seven years ago,” she replied.

I blinked.  “That's impossible though; that's like thirteen years before I was born.”  She just smiled and looked to Daniel who shrugged.  

“Time, my friend, does not always work according to how we understand it,” she said as she turned back to me.  I liked this woman; a lot, and I really didn't want to argue with her.  There was something about her that had nothing to do with the fact that she was beautiful, or that she had just saved my life and the life of what is probably my best friend.  It was like, and I know that this is going to sound incredibly lame, but if you were seriously depressed and in a dark room so that you couldn't see anything and she walked in, your mood would lift and you would start to feel better.  I decided to just let it go.  Maybe she was right, maybe time does work in ways I don't understand.  Planes of existence certainly do.

“You said that you had two questions,” she purred.

I nodded, “You told Daniel that you came to meet us as soon as you had discovered that we had arrived.  How did you know?”

“Josh,” she began slowly, as if choosing her words carefully, “if a bee walks down your arm, are you not aware of it?”

“Well sure,” I said, not at all sure where she was going with this.

Continuing, she said, “It is thus that I felt your arrival.  Do you understand?”  

“What?  No.”  I tried to be more specific but couldn't.  I couldn't even see how that began to address the question.

“Are you aware of what your true nature is, Josh?” she asked.  I nodded and began to try and figure out how this was relevant to my question and then decided that I might be better off clearing my mind and simply listening.  I took a breath and released it, watching it exit.  My mind cleared instantly.  She looked taken aback for a moment and then smiling she turned to Daniel, “How long?”

“About five weeks,” Daniel replied.

“Incredible,” she said quietly, “it appears that time does not always work according to how we understand it.”  I was lost, but what else was new.  She turned back to me and said, “When you internalize your understanding of your true nature, then you will understand.  Before one experiences something, explanations are often not helpful.  I will tell you this however, you still believe your body to be you.  If anything happens on your body or to your body, you are capable of being aware of it though not everyone is.  Do you understand this?”

“I think so,” I said.  “It's like, some people are aware that a mosquito has landed on them before it bites them.  Others aren't aware of it until after it bites them.  Everyone is capable of knowing that the mosquito has landed on them before it bites, but most people just don't pay attention.”

“Exactly,” she said, her face breaking into a huge smile.  “I do not believe that this body is me.  I am consciousness wrapped in this body.  These are not mere words; this is how I see myself and, if I might speak for your teacher, this is how Daniel sees himself also.”

I frowned.  I felt like I was standing on a precipice and the answer was just out of reach.  I don't know what possessed me but I turned to my mind.  “Can you help?”  Like I said, I don't really understand what made me think that was a good idea but heck, if my mind could keep track of time, maybe it could do other things.

Son-see-a-rae suddenly looked surprised and turned to Daniel.  “You have explained to him the relationship between him and his mind?” she asked, but the question sounded rhetorical.

“No,” Daniel said firmly.

Her brow furrowed in what I had decided, even after only knowing her this short period of time, was a very unusual look for her.  “Then how...” she began but Daniel cut her off, “Instinct,” he replied.

She shook her head slowly and a radiant expression overcame her.  I swear, it seemed like her face actually began to glow.  Neat trick; I know I was impressed.  You ever have the feeling that you are in way over your head?  Between Daniel and Son-see-a-rae I began to get that sense that I was a special ed kid who was already really struggling to keep up and had just been jumped a couple of grades in school.

Fortunately, the only thing waiting for me in the village was something hot to eat and drink and some sleep; all of which I was really good at.  To add to my hopefulness, we rounded a bend and I could make out the village in front of us at the base of a mountain, a few hundred meters away and not a maramelee in sight.  I had this rogue thought that tried to infiltrate my head just as the village and the distinct lack of maramelee's came into view.  I tried my hardest to ignore it because it just seemed like the most dangerous thought I could imagine.  I took up this chorus in my head that went something like this, “La-la-la-la-la I'm not paying attention to you.  La-la-la-la-la.”  But of course, it was no good.  No sooner that the thought presented itself I knew I was in trouble.  As soon as I tell you what it is, you're going to kick yourself for not figuring it out on your own. “Nothing could possibly go wrong now.”

 

[SamL]

Chapter 22

 

Okay, truth be told, nothing went immediately wrong, per se.  It was more that the promise of something going wrong had presented itself.  Or very right.  Either way, my mind got blown again.  In the distance and coming at us fast, was a girl running toward us.  From a hundred meters away she looked like the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.  Somehow, she managed to get more beautiful the closer she got.  

“Is that Anadia?” Daniel asked incredulously as she approached.  I got the sense that his question was more a function of his surprise than it had been a real question.  Son-see-a-rae simply nodded.  Seconds later, as the girl reached us, she jumped into Son-see-a-rae's arms.  

“Mom!” the girl exclaimed.  

“That explained a lot,” I thought to myself.  I thought back to a conversation Daniel and I had had some weeks ago about people's true natures and how he had said that language has not developed in such a way as to describe it properly.  Apparently, on our plane of existence, no girl had ever looked this beautiful because, I decided immediately, language had not yet developed to describe her either.  

Mind you, I'm going to try, but it feels sort of like describing the sun to someone who has never seen it.  Not only would it be hard enough with no frame of reference, you can't even look directly at the sun to get an accurate description of it or else you'll go blind yourself.  Which, incidentally, would not be a bad way to go blind if you were going to anyway – I'm talking about looking directly at this girl, not the sun.  

Like her mother, she looked a bit like I'd imagine a Native American princess from the mid-eighteen hundreds.  She was about my age, maybe thirteen or fourteen years old, a bit shorter than I was, and tanned in that way that you're not really sure if it's a tan or her normal skin color.  She had long, jet black hair that hung to the small of her back and looked ridiculously like one of those airbrushed advertisements for some shampoo ad.  She was dressed similarly to her mom.  They both wore tops that were made out of what looked to be a light cotton or linen.  It kind of looked like a bikini top that had become one with a cut-off diaphanous shirt that covered her shoulders but left her arms and midriff bare.

She clearly was incredibly toned but she didn't have the cut look I would have expected.  I'm not suggesting that she was chubby or anything.  On the contrary, I don't know how her stomach curved in as much as it did without showing some ribs or well defined abs but it didn't.  All I could think of as my eyes took her in was that sign by the mountain road close to home that says, “Dangerous Curves Ahead”.

Her bottoms seemed to be made out of the same, almost diaphanous material as her top and consisted of a nothing more than a bikini bottom that you could just make out under a short wrap that looked like a skirt that wouldn't have come close to passing muster with the dress code police at the door to a school dance.  She completed the ensemble with a pair of boots that came to mid-calf and looked like they were made out of some kind of bleached leather.

Despite all that, I really think the most amazing thing about her was her smile.  I didn't get it immediately but it was completely free of agenda, worry or concern.  I never realized it before now, but it was so genuine that I wasn't able to pinpoint what it was about it until the next morning when I saw a mother holding her baby and the baby was smiling up at her.  It was that kind of smile.

While I was taking stock of the situation, she broke from her mother's hug and literally threw herself at Daniel who picked her up in a big bear hug.  “Who is this all growed up girl?” Daniel asked rhetorically.  

Apparently she didn't have a firm grasp on the idea of rhetorical questions because she was quick to answer.  “This girl is Anadia, Daniel.  It is so good to see you again; I have missed you!” she exclaimed.  I was taken aback by the sentence structure a bit.  I hadn't given it too much thought before now, but Son-see-a-rae spoke without an accent as if English was her first language.  It seemed now though, as I was thinking about it, that it would have been strange if they had spoken English here.  I quickly assumed that Daniel must have taught Son-see-a-rae and she had taught her daughter who hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet.  It turned out that like most things I've assumed lately, I was wrong about that, too.

Daniel put her down and she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and bounced over to me.  I am pretty embarrassed to tell you this but I couldn't make eye contact.  I tried, but my head just dropped as I muttered out a hello.  Then, suddenly, everything was right in the world as she threw her arms around me in an unexpected hug.  “I am so happy to meet you, Josh,” she cried.  “Welcome to the Tindi; we are honored to have you and Daniel here.”  There was a moment of deep disappointment as I felt her begin to break the hug and I lifted my head to try, once again, to make eye contact and keep a hold of this moment for just a bit longer.  Then suddenly, all the disappointment in the universe vanished, as she leaned her head forward and gave me a quick kiss – on the lips.  

I like Daniel a lot.  In fact, I hadn't thought about it much before we narrowly escaped death a half hour ago, but he's quickly become my best friend.  Might even go so far as to say that I love him; you know, like a favorite uncle or something.  That is not to say that he can't annoy the hell out of me sometimes.  This probably would have been one of those times but I was simply too close to heaven at the moment to be affected by his laughing.  Heck, I felt like laughing myself.  I simultaneously felt like my legs were going to stop supporting me at any moment and like I could run a marathon.  

Anadia took my hand in hers and reached around her mother to grasp Daniels as well.  “Come!” she called, as she began running toward the village dragging us along.  Son-see-a-rae laughed and took off running till she had caught and passed us.  Anadia, having none of that, kicked us into another gear till she had closed the distance and then we all settled into a jog as we entered the village.  We were met immediately by friendly smiles and waves from everyone who saw us and then a gaggle of younger kids, from like four years old to eight or nine years old, surrounded us as we slowed to a walk.  

Two of them, a little girl who couldn't be more than about six years old and a younger boy that turned out to be her brother, wrestled Anadia's hand away from mine and took up positions on either side of me, each taking a hand.  I looked toward Anadia, who had her two of her own midget chaperones in each hand by now as well.  “It seems that the children like you, too,” she said flashing me a smile.  

I must have looked like a bobble head doll for a second as I found myself, once again, not being able to meet her gaze and dropped my head.  Then the significance of what she said hit me and my head bobbed up again.  She had said, “It seems that the children like you, TOO.”  That meant she did?  Please.  The problem was, as soon as my I lifted my head, I made eye contact for the briefest moment and found that I couldn't maintain it.  I looked past her toward Daniel and Son-see-a-rae who had their own child escorts and fortunately were either too busy with the kids or something, because they, and by they I mean Daniel, didn't laugh this time.

“Are you not feeling well, Josh,” Anadia asked.  “Your face is turning red; are you okay?”

Son-see-a-rae, saint that she is, replied, “Josh has had a very long day today.  Both he and Daniel traveled a long way to be here and they had an encounter with two maramelee's earlier.  I think he is just tired and needs some sleep.  In fact, he is so tired that he has forgotten that it is his birthday today.” I looked up shocked.  She was right.  I wasn't blown away by the fact that she knew, I was getting used to that.  No, I was blown away by the fact that I had completely forgotten it.  You know that you've had a strange and overwhelming day when you forget your fourteenth birthday.

Even Daniel was cool about it.  He completely ignored the fact that I had been caught blushing and he just turned to me looking as serious as I had ever seen him and said, “Happy birthday, my friend.”  I smiled gratefully at him.  

Son-see-a-rae looked to Anadia, “I will show Daniel and Josh to their kin; would you and the children fetch them something dry to wear and some dinner?”  

“I will!” Anadia said jubilantly not, I began to suppose, because running an errand was the highlight of her day but because she did everything jubilantly.  Then addressing the children who were still all around us she asked, “Who shall help me?”  A chorus of voices went up and Anadia laughed and took off toward the center of the village with the children running behind her like a bunch of goslings following their mother.  

My eyes followed her for a moment; I found that it was much easier to look at her when her back was to me.  Shaking my head to clear it, I turned to Daniel and he bailed me out before I had to ask aloud and look stupid, “A kin is a dwelling,” he said, looking around meaningfully at the structures around us.    When we had entered the Tindi village we had walked between two of them and they appeared to be arranged in a roughly circular pattern.  There were perhaps thirty of them from what I could see but I didn't know where the village boundaries were and so there could have been more.

Son-see-a-rae led us to the one that apparently would be ours for the night.  The kin looked like someone had built a corral for miniature horses and then stuck a teepee on top of the corral and lashed the two together.  The entrance wasn't visible from the direction that we approached it and we had to head around to the side in order to access it.  The entrance was only the height of the corral part of the kin, which meant that walking in standing up wasn't going to work.  Son-see-a-rae dropped to her knees and crawled in and Daniel motioned for me to follow.  A moment later we were all standing inside the dimly lit kin as Son-see-a-rae untied a cord and rolled back a portion of the wall letting in some light.

There were two bench type looking protrusions that were built into the interior walls that I assumed were beds.  I know I don't have a good track record with assuming, but they were about two meters long and had blankets on them so I figured that even if I was wrong I'd be using one of them as a bed tonight and so, I'd make myself right.  There wasn't much else to the kin.  There was a fire pit in the middle that was about a meter across and it had been dug into the earth a bit.  The only other noteworthy thing I noticed was a small enclosure that looked like it would have been right where a third bed could have gone.  I peeked in while Daniel and Son-see-a-rae were talking and found what I could only figure was a toilet of some sort.

I walked over to the wall where Son-see-a-rae had rolled the wall back and discovered that the walls were made of cattail like stalks that had been tightly woven together into mats.  Some were really long and wrapped themselves all the way around the kin, and other pieces were smaller like the piece she had rolled and tied back so, I figured, you could do precisely what she did and make a window.  I heard Anadia and the children before I saw them and a moment later Anadia came sliding through the entrance.  She flashed us all a smile and then reached up to take our care packages from the kids who waited outside.

She dropped a package on the bed that I had decided was going to be mine tonight and reached back to take the next load from the children.  A steaming bowl of something came next; it turned out that it was some sort of tea and three cups hung from the side of the bowl.  She glance at her mother while she handed it to her and said, “I did not know if you would be joining our guests for tea tonight but I brought an extra cup.”

Son-see-a-rae took the bowl and set it aside as Anadia reached for another bundle, “Not tonight,” she said, “we'll all visit in the morning over breakfast.”  Anadia let out a happy squeal at this news and brought forth a bundle of food.  That was another assumption.  I didn't recognize anything but it smelled so good I think I would have eaten it regardless.  The last bundle she brought through the entryway was flowers in a vase of some sort.  It looked like it was stone but it was probably pottery of some sort.  The flowers though, were incredible.  

I know you guys have to think I'm a bit strange but before you dismiss me for being mesmerized by a bunch of flowers once again you really should see them for yourself.  They looked almost like orchids but the colors made every flower on earth look like trash.  The petals of the flowers were abalone, like the desert and they rippled as you looked at them.  Not the petals mind you, the petals of the flowers stayed in one spot but the colors rippled.  My hunger and sleepiness forgotten, I approached the vase that was still in Anadia's hands.  I was at arm's length when I caught the scent and tasted strawberries. “Dragonflower!” I exclaimed, looking to Daniel for confirmation.  He nodded and held out a cup of tea that he had poured for us while I was distracted by the flowers.

“Do you have dragonflower where you come from, Josh?” Anadia asked.  

I shook my head, “No, but Daniel had some dried dragonflower and I recognized the smell immediately.”  

“Daniel.  Josh.” Son-see-a-rae interrupted, “You have food and drink, some dry clothes and some flowers.”  She smiled at her daughter as she mentioned the flowers.  “Can we get you anything else tonight before we leave you to recuperate from your journey and the events of the day?” she asked.

“I can't think of anything else tonight,” Daniel said.  “We'll just meet you for breakfast in the morning and discuss the days plans then.  Thank you for everything.”

I piped up, “Seriously, thank you so much.  It was really great to have met you both.”  I looked toward Anadia first because then I'd have an excuse when I looked away toward her mother.  

“Wait!” Anadia said suddenly, “Their clothes need washing too.  We have brought new clothes for tonight but we can wash these for them tonight after dinner.”  Son-see-a-rae nodded and Anadia turned back toward both Daniel and I, “Take your clothes off, please.  We will wash them for you tonight.”  I don't know who my eyes flew to first, Daniel or the mother of the girl who just nonchalantly asked me to take my clothes off.  Remember, I just saw this woman kill a 700 kilo monster, I figured killing a 60-something kilo guy wouldn't be a problem for her either, but her expression didn't change.  

Daniel saved me from dying of embarrassment and said, “Perhaps tomorrow, if you don't mind.”

“Of course,” said Anadia looking a little confused.  “Tomorrow is also good.”  She then came and gave Daniel a hug good night while I got one from Son-see-a-rae and then they switched places. Anadia gave me a hug and kissed me lightly on the cheek this time before she and her mother headed out.  They had just made their way outside when Anadia stuck her head back in and smiled up at me and called, “Happy birthday, Josh!”

[SamL]

Chapter 23

 

“No way!” I bellowed from behind the partition that held the bathroom.

“Come on, Josh,” Daniel said with more than a little mirth in his voice, “I'm sure it's not that bad. Come on out and let me take a look see.”

“I am not coming out of here,” I insisted. “Toss me my gi, please,” I begged.  Son-see-a-rae and Anadia had left about a half hour ago and Daniel and I had made short work of the food that Anadia and the kids had brought us.  Now I was trying on the napkin sized piece of cloth that someone had mistakenly thought were pants.  The shirt was actually pretty cool looking and it felt even better.  It was made of some super soft material and just hung loosely on me.  The bottoms though, the thing that was supposed to replace my pants, was nothing more than a flippin' loincloth.  Not happening.

“Your gi is outside,” Daniel said.  “I tossed it out there with mine and some of the kids already picked them up.  They are, what you would call, outta here.”  I groaned.  “Look,” Daniel said patiently, “you might as well come out here and get some sleep.  There's a blanket here for you and if you're that embarrassed, you can just cover up with that.  Maybe when you wake in the morning, you'll feel differently.  Besides, I didn't miss you appreciating Anadia's outfit earlier today.  Perhaps she brought us these because she wants to see your legs.”  “Or,” Daniel said in a way that sounded kind of menacing and prompted me to stick my head out, “it might just be that this is what everyone around here wears and no one will be looking at you like you're weird - unless you don't wear it.”

I knew he was right.  I did, really.  I just didn't care.  I couldn't even look at this girl without falling apart, I really didn't think that I could manage to be half naked in front of her.  I stepped out from behind the partition without making eye contact with Daniel and headed over to my bed, grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around me before trying to navigate laying down.  The bed was firm, but the stalks or reeds that they had used to build the part of the bed that you'd lay on had a little give to it and decided that it was doable, even on a day where I wasn't exhausted.  Tonight though, it felt like a feather bed.

We said our good-nights and I closed my eyes for a second before sitting up in a bit of a panic, “Daniel,” I asked him, “I'm not dreaming, am I?  I mean, I'm not going to wake up like Alice in Wonderland or something?”  

Daniel chuckled, “We are all dreaming until we wake up, Josh, but no, you are not dreaming in the way you are thinking.”  I almost asked him what the heck that answer was suppose to mean but decided that I'd just hang on to the 'no' until morning.  I was too tired for anything else.  I don't even remember laying back down.  I think I fell asleep before I actually got there.  Despite my earlier concerns about maramelee nightmares, I slept like a rock all night and didn't remember dreaming at all.  

I awoke to having the air forcibly removed from my lungs and opened my eyes to see the two children who had led me into and through the village yesterday on top of me.  “Wake up!” the little girl giggled, grinning like a maniac at me as she prepared to bounce on my stomach again.  I tried to jump up but her brother was laying across my legs which were wrapped up in my blanket.  They had me.  

Then, just as she pushed off, I remembered a technique from home for getting out of situations just like this.  “Careful,” I whispered ominously, “don't wake the monster.”  

They both froze.  In fact, the little girl seemed to freeze right in the middle of her jump.  “What monster,” her brother asked a bit frightened and his sister looked anxiously to me awaiting the answer.

“What monster?” I looked at them as if shocked that they didn't know.  “What monster, you ask?” They nodded fearfully.  “Why, the tickle monster, of course,” I cried, as I attacked them both.  For a second, I found myself thinking that they'd be able to hear the squeals and giggles all the way back home and glanced at the entrance to the kin instinctively, waiting to see a bunch of armed warriors or something rushing in to save the children from whatever it was that was attacking them.  Instead, what I saw was way more frightening than that.  Sitting cross-legged in the entrance was Anadia.

Up until then I hadn't given a single thought to what I was wearing or the twisted condition of the blanket.  Suddenly though, I became acutely aware of both and tried to cover up those parts of me that had failed to stay covered up.  The children were having none of it though.  They knew nothing about modesty and everything about playing and they weren't giving up on what they knew for what they didn't.  It was a really uncomfortable moment for me and then somehow, and I really don't know how it happened, I just said, “Screw it.”  

I looked back to Anadia and called out to her, “Help!” before I dove back under the covers.  I heard her laughing from the entrance, “I would love to help you Josh, but your enemies are too fearsome.” The kids were trying to return the tickles from the wrong side of the blanket and I let out a long, low growl before sticking my head out again and roaring.  Both kids instantly froze, their eyes got really big and they looked at each other and together, silently came up with a plan.  Their plan consisted of jumping off of the bed screaming and running Anadia over as they made a break for it.

Anadia fell back as she was trampled and I jumped up to make sure she was okay.  I know the kids were just playing but that doesn't mean that you couldn't get hurt just because the tramplers weren't trying to do so.  Anadia was flat on her back blocking the entrance.  Most of her was outside but I couldn't get through the way she was laying there without trampling her too.  I dropped to my knees and saw that her eyes were closed.  “Oh man,” I thought, “she's been knocked out!”  

I was about to yell for help when she began laughing uncontrollably.  All the tension went out of me and I began laughing, too.  We sat there for a couple of minutes; well, I knelt there and she laid there, just laughing our butts off until she suddenly opened her eyes and said, “Good morning, Josh.” “Come,” she said, while getting to her feet, “let us go get breakfast.  Mom and Daniel are waiting for us.  I look forward to discovering what they have planned for today.”  

Moment of truth time.  I took a deep breath and stepped out of the kin in my shirt and washcloth. Anadia didn't seem to notice which thrilled me for a second until I realized that I was half naked in front of the most beautiful girl I had ever seen – and she didn't seem to notice.  “Wow,” I thought, “I hope Daniel can't read my mind from a distance cause he would have way too much fun with that thought.”

Breakfast was being served from a central fire in what I learned was the middle of the village.  It was less than a minutes walk from the kin and when we arrived, we saw Son-see-a-rae helping Daniel clean up a small mess amidst a great deal of laughter, especially from the children who it seemed, were everywhere.  “Do it again!  Do it again!” went their cry.  Before I could ask what had happened, one of the children called, “Make the tea come out of your nose again, please!”  

“Okay, mystery solved,” I thought, “It seems that Daniel can read my mind from a distance.”  Any doubts that this is what caused the accident were squashed as Daniel looked up toward me and literally fell over laughing onto the ground.  Son-see-a-rae looked up and gave me a wink as she stifled a laugh herself and I gave serious thought to just turning on my heel and taking my loincloth covered butt back to bed.  Okay, it wasn't really a serious thought.  Maybe Daniel was right; maybe my sense of humor was improving.

Daniel collected himself and the four of us sat down to eat.  I was still a little bit uncomfortable but part of me was having a good time and I figured that I could only do one at a time right, so the heck with it, I was going to have a good time until I had a better reason to be uncomfortable.  It was kind of like Daniel said back at the dojo when he was teaching me katas.  He would always tell me, “You will make mistakes sometimes, but make them with all your might.  Focus and then commit.”  I decided to focus and commit to having a good time.

As we ate, Son-see-a-rae asked how we had slept and if we enjoyed our dinner.  When I said that I had slept fantastically, Anadia interjected with a giggle, “He slept well until Analea and Mosul found him.” and told them about their attack on me this morning.  I realized that those must be the children's names but I was a little concerned that I didn't know which was which.  I had never heard either name before so trying to figure out which was the boys name and which was the girls was going to present a challenge.   I had a pretty good idea that Analea was the young girl's name but just because it sounded like a girl's name on my plane didn't mean anything.  Besides, Mosul didn't sound like a name at all and apparently it was one here.

I had set my empty plate to one side and was just enjoying the morning, the conversation and my tea when the little girl appeared on my lap thanks to a running, well placed leap.  “Hi!” she said looking up, “I'm Analea!”  I was hit instantly with a terrible fear but Daniel wasted no time in putting me at ease.  

“Coincidence,” he said and I was relieved beyond words.  Can you imagine if these little kids knew what I was thinking?  I mean, not knowing which name was hers for sure might have hurt her feelings but the same thought that had Daniel spewing tea out his nose would have been mighty inappropriate. Anyway, her brother was off playing somewhere and so the five of us sat and talked till everyone was done eating.  

Then Daniel spoke up, “Son-see-a-rae and I have some things we need to attend to today that's going to keep us busy, pretty much all day.  I thought that you should help us but she doesn't think that's such a good idea.”  

I felt like I had just been rejected pretty out of hand and turned to Son-see-a-rae, “Are you sure?  I don't mind helping.”

“No,” she said firmly, “I know you don't mind, Josh.  There are many things that you can help with, including what Daniel and I have planned for today, but you are in that place where one foot is in childhood and the other in adulthood.  You must find balance for both parts.”  I really didn't like the direction this was going.  It sounded like she was saying that I couldn't help because I was still a child in some ways.  I couldn't really argue with that, but I sure did want to.

“Yesterday, your birthday passed without a lot of fun,” she continued.  “In fact, you worked so hard yesterday just getting here, then the shock of arriving, the maramelee's...not to mention discovering the dress code around here.”  She threw that last bit out with a knowing wink.  “It was a tough day.  Today I was going to ask Anadia to show you our home with strict instructions to have fun.  But, you are our guest first and foremost and so if you have your heart set on working with us today, I shall allow it instead.”

Anadia grabbed me by the arm, “Please Josh, stay with me today,” she pleaded.  “You will have fun; I promise!”

“Yeah,” I thought, “that pleading and promise was necessary.”  You recall what I've told you about sarcasm before, right?  I didn't bother to respond and just stood up, placing Analea on the ground as I did.  I don't think Son-see-a-rae needed to be able to read my mind to know what I was thinking about now anyway.  I gave a quick glance to Daniel and he nodded his agreement.  Then, looking toward Anadia, “Lead the way.”

[SamL]

Chapter 24

 

“Yay!” Anadia exclaimed as she jumped to her feet and grabbed my hand.  I glanced down at Analea just in time to see a pout forming on her face.  I bent down to six year old height to say goodbye but she was having none of it.  

“Are you going to be at dinner tonight?” I asked her.  She continued to stare at the ground in silence. “Because I was thinking that I'd bring you something but I'll need to know where you'll be so I can give it to you.”  Analea lifted her head a bit and her eyes strained to reach the rest of the way to mine.  “So, can I count on seeing you at dinner then?” I asked.  She nodded half resigned and half hopeful.  “And will you sit with me at dinner or are you just going to come take your gift and run away and go sit with someone else?”

“I'll sit with you,” she said solemnly lifting her head the rest of the way.

“Then we shall see you tonight, lil Miss Analea,” I said getting up again.

“With the present?” she asked quickly.  I assured her that I would and then Anadia and I said our goodbyes to her mom and Daniel and I was dragged off.  Anadia had asked me if I had anything I'd like to see but I just left it to her.  I didn't know anything about this place and so, I was going to leave the tour to the expert.  She decided that the place she referred to as 'the farm' would be our first stop.  

The farm was only about a half kilometer from the outskirts of the village, straight up the mountain.  It wasn't much of a climb as it wasn't terribly steep at this elevation and there was an extremely well worn path leading to it.  There was a good deal of vegetation though, as soon as we got beyond the sand of the desert, and the path seemed like it was designed to make as many twists and turns as possible.  As a result, one couldn't see much beyond the two or three meters in front of you before the path veered off out of view again.

As we walked, Anadia pointed out dozens of plants and bushes, explaining how they were used by the Tindi.  “This plant,” she would say, “has excellent tubers and we often use them as the base for a hearty soup.”  Another time she pointed out the berries on a bush and said, “The berries of this bush are bitter but very good for you.  Oftentimes, we mix the berries with the tubers from the plant I showed you earlier and crush them both to make a sort of paste from it.”

It didn't sound all that appetizing but I started thinking that it wouldn't have been a bad description if one had been describing potatoes and berries becoming mashed potatoes and berries.  Actually, that didn't sound nearly as bad and I made a mental note to try that back home some day.  To tell the truth, I wasn't going to be ready for a test on this information any time soon.  I was listening and all, but really it was just the sound of her voice that I found interesting rather than the words she was saying.  It was about this time that I began to think of potential dangers on the path.

I didn't know if they had snakes here or not, but I had seen two maramelee's since I've arrived and wasn't looking at all forward to walking around a bend in the path and coming face to face with one again.  “Do maramelee's ever come up here,” I asked, trying to sound casual.

“Oh no,” she responded.  “Maramelee's cannot travel up the mountain at all.  Our village is actually in the foothills just outside their territory except in the most extreme cases.  In my lifetime there has only been one instance of a maramelee entering the village.  It must have been in a great deal of pain,” she said, looking a little sad at the thought of it suffering.  I couldn't actually bring myself to feel sad for one of those creatures after the other day, but that fact got me thinking about what Daniel had said about forgiveness and I guess I got more quiet than I realized because Anadia stopped.

“What is wrong, Josh?” she asked.  I tried to brush it off and told her that nothing was wrong but she knocked me upside the head.  No, not literally, though it might have felt better if she had.  “I understand,” she said, to which I managed a smile.  Then she continued, “It is that you do not trust me. It is okay; you do not have to.”  Ouch.

“It isn't that I don't trust you,” I exclaimed, “it's just...”  As I searched for the words I realized that she was right; I didn't trust her.  Since the moment that I had met her I had been debating the existence of love at first sight; I was so twisted up over this girl that it wasn't funny.  And the really good news was that I think she liked me too.  However, that said, I wanted to keep as much of me covered up as possible so she wouldn't see something she didn't like and stop liking me.  I didn't trust her to really know me and still like me.  

I sat down on a rock at the edge of the path and she joined me.  “Daniel has told me, “ I said, “that everyone's true nature is consciousness.”  She nodded matter-of-factly like I had just stated that the world was round.  “You felt sadness at the idea of the maramelee suffering in pain and when I examined my own feelings, I found that I could not.” I saw her nodding from the corner of my eye and continued, “So I figure that I'm stuck in an illusion in which I see the maramelee as different than me in spite of knowing better.”

Anadia sat there for a few minutes with neither of us saying anything and finally she broke the silence, “You are finished speaking on this?”  I nodded, though I had really been hoping that she was going to say something.  Turns out, she wasn't going to disappoint me.  “I don't understand,” she began. “You know of our true nature.  You know that the maramelee being a maramelee is an illusion.  You know that you can not yet see beyond the illusion.  You use effort to see beyond the illusion and when you do not achieve the results that you think you should, you mourn for the truth that you are missing. Is this all correct?”  I nodded miserably.

She began laughing and to tell you the truth, I was a second or two from getting up and walking away from her and back to the village.  It was just a little too much.  Then she spoke, “You are a funny boy, Josh, and I like you very much.”  Okay, maybe I'd stay a while after all.  I considered pretending I didn't hear her so she'd have to repeat herself and I could hear that last part about her liking me very much again but decided against it.  I had played this honest up till now, no sense getting dishonest now.

“Are people less steeped in illusion where you come from?” she asked.  “Does everyone know the truth of their existence there?”  

I smiled to myself before answering.  Turns out I'm not the only one who asks two questions for the price of one.  “No,” I said, “Daniel is the first person that I've ever known who understood his true nature.”  She looked taken aback.

“How many people are in your village?” she asked.  

“Well,” I thought aloud, “we do not actually live in a village.  I actually live in what we call a city.  In my city we have over a million people.”  

She cocked her head at me obviously confused.  “I do not know that word,” she said.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” I said quickly.  It hadn't occurred to me at the time but yeah, she lives in a village, what would she know about cities?  So I began describing a city to her but she cut me off.

“There is a city to the south of us where many, many people live,” she said.  “What is, over a million?”

“Ah,” I thought.  “This is going to be tough.”  I mean, it's not hard to explain what a million is but someone who isn't familiar with the word is probably unfamiliar because they've never dealt in numbers that large and so I was about to make her brain bleed.  “How many people are in the city to the south?” I asked her.  

“There are many thousands,” she said, “perhaps twelve.”  It is hard to say because they are a warrior people and sometimes they go to war and assimilate entire villages while other times they go to war and many of them die in battle.  The number changes all the time.”

I nodded my understanding and then let her have it, “My city is made up of over a thousand thousands.”

She looked at me confused.  “I do not mean the plane from which you come, but your village itself.”

“I understood that,” I said patiently, glad to have a chance to be patient with someone; it seems that everyone is always being patient with me instead.  “On my world,” I began, there are over seven billion people.”  Then realizing that she wouldn't know the word billion either, I phrased it differently, “On my world I live in a city that has over a thousand, thousand people.  A thousand of such cities would make a billion people.”

“I still do not understand,” she said slowly.  “It sounds to me like you are saying that on your world there are seven thousand cities in which there are a thousand, thousand people.”  I nodded and her eyes got huge.  “And Daniel is the first person that you have met on your world who understands his true nature?” she asked.  I nodded again.  Anadia frowned in concentration.  Finally she looked up at me, “I made a mistake before.  I said that you were a funny boy but you are not.  You are a very, very funny boy.”

I laughed with her, but still, I wanted her to believe me.  “I am telling the truth!  Really.”

Anadia looked at me, obvious confusion of her face again.  “Of course, you are telling the truth, Josh. I am sorry if you thought that I did not believe that you were telling me the truth.”

Now it was my turn to look confused, “Well, when I told you that there were seven billion people on my world, you said that I was very funny.  As if you thought I was not being truthful.”

“Oh no,” she countered, “I said you were very, very funny.  But not because of the number of people on your world.”  She smiled one of those smiles I had a hard time keeping eye contact with as she continued, “You live in a city with over one thousand, thousand people; what you call one million, that is in a world where there are over seven thousand such cities, and after fourteen years of living there you have only met one person who understands his true nature, yes?”  I nodded.

“So,” she continued, “it sounds as if you live in a world where it would be considered fortunate if one person in ten thousand understood their true nature.  We are fortunate here in the village that many know the truth of themselves, but beyond the village perhaps one in a few hundred understand their true nature.  Of those who understand their true nature, fewer still see the maramelee's true nature. They understand in their head but not in their heart.  Do you understand the difference?” she asked.  I nodded vigorously, I had a few cases of that myself – understanding something intellectually but not internalizing it yet is how I think Daniel put it.  

“Even amongst those who know in their head and their heart,” she said, “many have difficulty living it because it is so easy to believe that which you can see over that which is unseeable with the eye.   Amongst those who fall into this category, how many of them diligently apply effort to dispel illusion and suffer and mourn for the truth?”

It was a few seconds before I realized that she was waiting for an answer, “Not many.” I suggested.

“It is, perhaps, even less than that,” she replied, and I noticed from the corner of my vision that her eyes begin to sparkle in excitement and joy, “It would take a very, very silly boy indeed to be saddened by the idea that he is one in million.  You are one in more people than I have on my entire world.”  I looked up at her gratefully, managing to meet her eyes for the first time.  It was as close to a spiritual experience as anything I had ever had in my life.  For that moment, she wasn't unfathomably beautiful; she was fathomably more beautiful than I had imagined.   Her eyes were the abalone of the dragonflower and they shimmered and moved just like its colors do.  

“Now, come with me, silly boy.  We have been instructed to have fun and so far we are not doing a very good job of it.”

 

[SamL]

Chapter 25

 

Apparently, that conversation was exactly what I needed, because the rest of the morning and afternoon was effortless.  I found myself recalling what Daniel had said after my first meditation session about how trying to control your mind requires effort and the way to a relaxed mind is effortlessness.  I wondered if it was the same with life itself, and supposed that it probably was.  

We began the rest of the day, after our conversation, heading to what the Tindi called the farm.  Along the way, Anadia explained that the reason for the twists and turns in the path leading to the farm was because the Tindi who laid out the path, did so by working with the land.  For instance, if a straight path would require them to uproot a plant that could not be transplanted safely, they went around it.  If the path crossed an animal run,then they would, if possible, choose a direction that would not cross the run and disturb the animals.

The farm was pretty small by our standards, perhaps six or seven acres, but Anadia assured me that it was sufficient to meet the needs of the Tindi, when coupled with wild foods that they gather.  While there, I learned that ten of the twenty-six families that make up the Tindi village, were off across the mountains on a gathering excursion that would provide a significant portion of the Tindi's protein needs for the year.  The Tindi are mostly vegetarian it turns out, but not strictly so.  

While they do not hunt animals for food, there are rare occasions when an animal will die of natural causes and there is a Tindi present to clean and protect the meat from spoilage.  In such a case, the Tindi would eat the meat rather than allow it to spoil.  The families that were out foraging now were going for a specific plant that grows by the ocean.  Anadia's description sounded to me like she was describing a type of legume which makes sense because I know from home that they are high in protein and without meat as a staple in their diet, they would need something.  

There were six people tending to the farm when we arrived and amongst the people I got to meet while we were there was Analea and Mosul's mother, Marica.  She was real friendly and sent us off with a basket of food for lunch.  It was a good thing too, because when we took off this morning, I hadn't stopped to consider what we were going to do for lunch.  The farm itself wasn't laid out like a regular farm back home in a square or rectangular pattern but was, like the path leading here, laid out according to the needs of the land and the animals who had lived here when the Tindi first broke ground.  It was kind of shaped like a foot, with toes and everything.  I immediately took to calling it 'the foot in the foothills'.  

From the farm we continued to head up the mountain and Anadia showed me more wild plants that the Tindi harvested for a wide variety of uses.  The stalks that made the mats covering the kins didn't just look like cattails, it turned out that they were cattails.  I don't know if they were indigenous to this plane or had been transplanted, but it's one of the few plants I can safely identify back home without a field guide and so I'm pretty confident that I got that right.

We traveled parallel to a mountain stream for most of the trip up the mountain.  Though the path meandered here and there, it wasn't nearly as twisted as it was prior to reaching the farm.  While we were walking, Anadia explained that her ancestors chose this location for a variety of reasons.

First, their location in the foothills of the mountain allowed them to make use of many more gifts of the land than if they had been elsewhere.  The Tindi's location here allowed for a wider range of edible, medicinal and utilitarian plants because they are on the edge of multiple ecosystems.    Another reason was the relative safety of the village from the predatory maramelee's because of the elevation.  Lastly, despite it requiring travel over a mountain range, the plants that they needed that grew on the other side of the mountain was a two day trip on foot which, might sound like a lot to you or I, but for the Tindi it was almost considered next door.

We had been walking straight up a mountain all morning now and I was beginning to get a bit hungry; not to mention hot. We might not be in the desert at the moment, but it was high noon and I had learned from Marica back at the farm that it was late Spring.  Anadia didn't look like she was thinking of slowing down at all and I began wrestling with the idea of asking her if she was ready to stop for lunch.

If you're wondering what the wrestling was all about, think about it.  Imagine that you're going on a walk with a girl and you get tired and she's still plugging along like this is a Sunday stroll through the mall.  When do you cry uncle?  That's right; so when my legs fall off and I land in a clump after a heart attack or two, then I might consider it.  Not now.  The only hope I had that she was starting to feel the effects of this trek was that our conversation had died out about a half hour ago.  Hopefully that was because she was getting winded, too.  

Not twenty paces later we came over a rise and the land flattened out.  We weren't at the top of the mountain but rather in a shallow natural valley that hosted a lake.  Anadia turned to face me with one of her, to die for, smiles, “Do you know how to swim, Josh?” she asked.

“Oh yeah!” I cried, as I caught up to her and saw the lake laid out in front of me.  We had been sharing the task of carrying our lunch; Marica had given us a basket full of food and some type of skin filled with something to drink.  Anadia carried the skin and I managed the basket while we were walking but now she handed the skin to me and asked, “Could you hold this for a moment?”

“Of course,” I said, reaching out to take it.  No sooner than I did so, she grinned at me, turned tail and ran straight for the lake, jumped and broke the water like a fish or an Olympic diver.  She surfaced a moment later, blew me a kiss and disappeared under the water again.  Yeah, about the perfect invitation as far as I was concerned.  I set the food and water down and pulled my shirt off.  I had forgotten to be self-conscious about my clothing the last couple of hours and about now was actually almost grateful for them.  It was pretty easy to transition from hiker to swimmer in this get-up.  

I didn't know where the shallow spots were to jump in safety, but I knew where Anadia had entered the water and aimed for that spot.  I took a running start and dove.  My mind was critiquing my performance because, of course, it was pretty intent on impressing Anadia.  All in all, it was a good dive and the water felt amazing, almost bath water temperature.  When I surfaced though, I couldn't see Anadia anywhere.  I assumed that she had simply went underwater and waited for her to resurface but as the seconds began adding up I began to get a little nervous.  

I shouldn't have worried.  At least about her.  I stood stock still trying to find some sign of her when a dirt clod hit me in the back of the head.  I spun around to see her sitting, pretty as you please, on shore digging into our lunch and pretending to be oblivious to my presence or any knowledge of the missile that had just struck me.  She looked up and pretended to be surprised to see me there.  “Josh, what a wonderful surprise to see you here!  Would you care to join me for lunch?  It seems that I have enough for two.”

I decided to let the missile go for now; as the saying goes, revenge is best served cold.  I'd get her back when she wasn't expecting it.  “I would love to join you,” I said pleasantly as I emerged from the water.  “What brings you to this spot today?” I asked, keeping the charade alive.  

She shut me up pretty quickly though when she responded, “I heard there might be a cute, silly boy up here and I decided to see if he was as cute and silly as I've heard.”  What do you say to that?  I could come up with a million possible, cool responses now, but at the time, the quick witted part of my brain short circuited and nothing came out.  The only response I came up with was a little chortle and a deep abiding interest in my feet apparently, because that's where my eyes fell to.

Lunch was pretty awesome considering it was thrown together seemingly haphazardly from a garden with no warning.  The skin that I thought was filled with water turned out to be a juice that was tart like lemonade but fruitier.  Anadia told me that it was made from the berries she had shown me on the trail and mixed with water that diluted the bitterness perfectly.  After lunch we decided to wait a bit before we went back into the water.  Apparently the old adage that you should wait a half hour after you eat to go back into the water was big on this plane as well.

We laid back in the sun and closed our eyes.  Well, at least I closed my eyes.  Once they were closed I couldn't tell what Anadia was doing; that is, until I felt her cuddle up to me.  I kept my eyes closed and tried to figure out what the heck to do.  I considered putting my arm around her.  Then I considered not putting my arm around her.  I considered pretending I was already asleep.  However, before I could come up with a plan, I heard her breathing change and realized that she had fallen asleep.  

The next thing I knew, I was waking up and trying to resist the idea; I felt too comfortable except for a fly or bug or something that kept landing on my nose.  I tried to swat it away but it kept moving. Eventually I gave up trying to sleep and opened my eyes to find Anadia upside down and her nose touching mine.  “Morning sleepyhead!” she whispered from an inch away and sat up giggling quietly at my expression, which must have been pretty funny actually.

Anadia put a finger to her lips and motioned for me to follow her.  I didn't know what she had planned but I'm pretty sure I would have followed her anywhere about now.  She walked to the edge of the lake and slipped into the water without a sound, motioning for me to do the same.  She swam away slowly making sure I was still with her and keeping almost entirely underwater except for her eyes and nose.  We swam about half the distance of the lake when she almost completely disappeared into a tight patch of cattails.  

I lost sight of her immediately upon entering the cattails patch but she slithered back and took my hand, leading me.  The water was getting shallower and it was becoming difficult to both navigate through the stalks and remain submerged.  Just before the water got too shallow to continue though, she stopped and pulled me toward her.  Once again she put her finger to her lips and then looked away toward the shore.  I followed her gaze and she slowly and carefully separated the cattail stalks almost imperceptibly and there on the shore, not a meter from my face and getting an afternoon drink, were three deer.

We lay there in the water watching them for probably a half hour.  There were two does and a fawn and I was pretty sure that about ten minutes into it, they spotted us.  Our scent was pretty well masked by the water and we weren't moving on purpose but perhaps the water lapping on the shore moved our bodies in an entirely uncattail like way.  Or maybe it was just the opposite and our lack of movement while everything else was flowing with the water was the giveaway.  

The fawn was the most curious and stepped forward toward us.  It didn't take much forward momentum to bring us nose to nose and it leaned forward cautiously until it's nose touched mine.  It was absolutely amazing and I almost laughed out loud as I realized that I had, in the last thirty minutes, touched noses with the two most beautiful girls on the mountain.

 

 

[Guest BohoBaby84]

Would you be kind enough to post the next chapter?

[SamL]

Chapter 26

 

The deer meandered off after they had quenched both thirst and curiosity, and we retraced our way through the cattails in silence.  The deer were still close enough that they still might be spooked if we made too much noise but the real reason for our silence, or at least my silence, is that it would have felt like sacrilege, like yelling in the middle of a sermon in church.

We swam back to shore and I threw my shirt on.  I was still soaked but it was hot out and I figured it would dry long before we made it back down the mountain.  Anadia grabbed the skin and offered it to me as she laid out the rest of our lunch for the deer.  I broke the silence first, “Thanks for waking me up.  That was beyond amazing.”  She didn't respond immediately, she just looked up and flashed me a radiant smile.

“Such moments are best not experienced alone,” she finally said.  “Thank you for being here to share it with me.”  It was my turn to respond with a smile.  Words just seemed like they'd cheapen the whole experience and I was feeling both humbled and in awe by the whole thing.  “Josh,” Anadia said softly, breaking the silence but just barely, “What were you thinking when the fawn touched noses with you?”   I thought about it, trying to recollect the experience but I couldn't recall a single thought during that moment.  I gave myself a little kick for not paying attention and then just shook my head, “I don't remember.”  I could see her looking at me out of the corner of my eye but avoided her gaze.  It was amazing how quickly thinking of this particular failure was killing my euphoria.  

“Are you in a hurry to return to the village?” she asked.  I shrugged noncommittally.  “Would you sit with me a while then?” I nodded, still not feeling like talking.  Wordlessly, she folded her legs and dropped her hands to her lap, closed her eyes and began meditating.  It had been over a day now since I had meditated, which might not seem like much, but it was longer than I had gone for some time.  I surprised myself by how much I had found that I had missed it.  A few seconds later I found my mind relaxing and every bit of my new found tension slipped away.

I can't describe what happened next because I really don't understand it myself but shortly after I began watching my breath, there was nothing.  I had experienced this twice before but what made this experience different was that I was shocked out of mediation by a realization that I couldn't place where it had originated from.  Be that as it might have been, I knew exactly what I had been thinking when the fawn and I touched noses.  Nothing.  I opened my eyes which flew to Anadia.  She was watching me and smiling.

“You understand now?” she asked.  

“No,” I said slowly.  “I know what I was thinking now but I don't understand it.”

Anadia looked at me quizzically, “You are indeed the silliest boy I have ever had the good fortune to meet.”  She certainly had a way with backhanded compliments, I thought to myself as she continued. “The language of the deer is the language of the heart,” she said and I sat up surprised.  Daniel had recently said something very similar but I hadn't fully understood then either.  “You can not speak to the deer with words, or even thoughts.  You can only speak to the deer through the heart.”  She paused then and closed her eyes as if she was trying to recall something.  Then her eyes opened, the colors in them flashed brightly and she looked directly at me, “You can not text her.”

I've said it before and you're probably sick of hearing it, but I can't even begin to describe my shock at hearing her say that.  Not only had Daniel used the same exact phrase, but this girl lived in a village that hadn't discovered electricity yet and she knows about texting?  I began to say something but she held up a hand to stop me.  “Had you not silenced your mind, you would not have had the moment that you did.  Once again, you do something special, that only the rare person has learned how to do, and you criticize yourself for accomplishing it.  I was there, Josh; it was a good conversation the two of you had.”

I tried to focus on what she had said but all I could think of was her reference to texting.  Before I could ask her about it however, she volunteered, “People too, can speak through the heart without words or thoughts.  No, I do not know the word 'text' but it is the right word.”  It wasn't a question; she knew.  “Do not place too great an importance on my ability to find a word written on your heart.  You did the same with the fawn.  Like most things worth doing, it can only be done effortlessly.”

I still didn't quite get it, even intellectually, but the cloud that had settled over me had moved on and a tamer version of the euphoria that I had experienced before had returned.  I stood up and held a hand out to help Anadia up.  She got to her feet, took a step closer until we were touching and looked up and into my eyes.  “I discovered something today, too,” she whispered.  We were too close and I averted my eyes again muttering something that was probably incomprehensible but was supposed to be, “Oh yeah, what have you discovered today?”  She then leaned over to whisper directly in my ear, “I discovered that he is even cuter and sillier than I was led to believe.”

Anadia immediately spun away after that line and bent down to grab the basket and toss me the skin. “Come, let us head back to the village,” she said and began skipping toward the path we had taken to get here.  I realize that teenagers skipping isn't real big back home, but I'll have to admit, she made it look kind of fun.  Really though, I was just glad she was leading the way because after that 'cuter and sillier' line I had felt the blood rush to my face again and she couldn't see it with her back toward me.

We had only gone a few steps before I remembered a promise that I had made earlier.  I called out to Anadia to stop her because I was going to need her help.  I had promised the little girl Analea that I would bring her a present at dinner.  I didn't promise her a gift without having something in mind before I did though.  It wasn't like I could just run out to Walmart and grab her something.  Anyway, I had planned on bringing her some flowers and realized now that it might be worth it to start looking here and find some flowers that didn't grow lower down the mountain.  You know, so they'd be a little more exotic to her perhaps, and she'd like them more.

I explained to Anadia what I wanted to do and asked her if she could help me avoid picking poisonous plants or flowers.  She explained that there was only one dangerous plant in this area and then pointed it out.  Apparently, it is a lot like poison ivy except it is has large flowers on it and I totally would have picked it if she hadn't warned me away.  After picking a few samples from the other wildflowers, we began heading down the mountain and I picked others as we passed them.  By the time we had reached the farm, I had almost too many flowers.  I thought I'd be done and then see one that was too pretty to pass up.

The folks working the farm had finished for the day and were gone.  I was going to leave the basket and the skin at the farm since there was no one to return it to left, but Anadia suggested that I use the basket for the flowers and we'd bring the skin back to clean and fill it for the farm workers to take with them in the morning.  As I was arranging the flowers in the basket, Anadia giggled.  Immediately I felt a little self-conscious; she had that effect on me constantly though; I was beginning to get used to it.  

“May I make a suggestion, Josh?” she asked.

I continued to look down at the bunch, arranging the individual flowers, “Sure.”

“I would reconsider giving her all of those,” she said.  “Perhaps you might leave out the dragonflowers.”  I had found these particular ones near the lake and had been overjoyed when I had.  I loved these flowers and I couldn't imagine anyone else not liking them.  

I was reluctant to get rid of them and so I asked her, “You don't think she'll like them?”

“Actually,” she said, “I am concerned for you that she will like them.”  

Anadia confused me a lot but it was at times like this that I began to wonder if she did it on purpose, “Why would that be a problem?”

She smothered a grin but her eyes continued to smile, “Dragonflowers are the flowers of love and lovers.  They are usually only given to a sweetheart.  Do not misunderstand me, Analea is a sweet child, but she is only six years old and so I think perhaps you do not wish to give her such a message.”

I couldn't believe how close I had come to giving the equivalent of a bouquet of red roses on Valentine's Day to a six year old girl.  In my sudden panic to be rid of them, I plucked them out and, completely without thinking about it, handed them to Anadia.  The significance of what I had just did hit me almost immediately and I glanced back in her direction just in time to walk into a kiss without actually walking anywhere.  “Thank you, Josh,” Anadia said, almost ecstatically.

It wasn't that I didn't want to tell Anadia what I thought of her, though to be honest, she would have to be pretty dense to have not figured it out by now and she was anything but dense.  The thing was, I'd been getting broadsided by the things that she said and did all the time and it was kind of disconcerting. I didn't want to start broadsiding myself.  It was one thing to tell her how I felt on purpose; it was quite another thing entirely to accidentally tell her how I feel.  It felt like I just got caught saying some pretty private things in my sleep and having the person I was talking about sitting there listening.  

The path was wider between the farm and the village because there was a lot more foot traffic between the two then there was between the farm and the lake.   And so, Anadia took my hand in hers and we walked the remaining way side by side and holding hands.  She had split the thick stems of the dragonflowers and put them around her head like a necklace.  I don't know if that was a typical thing to do with a gift of flowers amongst the Tindi, but if it wasn't, she certainly looked good enough to start a fad.

As we made our way into the village, Anadia walked me to the kin where Daniel and I were staying so that I could drop off the flowers that I had picked for Analea.  There was still another hour or so before dinner and I didn't want to carry them around until then.  The kin was empty when we arrived.  I didn't really expect to see Daniel there but didn't know how long his business with Son-see-a-rae was going to take.  On my way out the entrance, I noticed my gi was back on my bed.  It appeared washed and folded and I considered changing into them quickly but figured Anadia, who seemed to have no concept of modesty, would offer to help or something.  

She offered to show me what she called the kakin, which was a larger dwelling that no one actually lived in.  It served as a meeting place and could fit the entire village in it.  Apparently it was like a giant multi-purpose room or community center.  It had many uses.  For instance, the Tindi used it for a Winter festival they observed because it was too cold outside that time of year and the elders would meet there when they had to discuss something important.   Too, it served as a dining hall during the coldest months of the year and on those rare occasions when the snow reached the foothills.  

While not the most important of things, Anadia explained to me how the name of the kakin came to be and I thought it was pretty interesting.  Once, the Tindi only spoke their ancient, native language, which is called Vajatindi.  Now, of course, it had passed pretty much into obscurity although they still used their native language in the elder's council meetings and certain ceremonies.  

The word 'kin' actually means 'home' in Vajatindi.  Here's the part I found most interesting though, there are adjectives in the Vajatindi language but they are never used alone.  For instance, the Vajatindi word for 'big' is 'ka' but they combine the two words to make a new word, 'kakin' meaning 'big home'. Big, beautiful home would just create a longer single word, which would be kalaikin, by sticking the Vajatindi word for beautiful (lai) in there too.  The word Vajatindi is an exception to the whole adjective thing they have going on because Tindi can be used as multiple parts of speech – in this particular case vaja is the Tindi word for language (or voice) and so translated, Vajatindi means 'Language of the People'.  

It's the first language that's really ever interested me and I caught myself wishing I could satisfy my foreign language requirement in school by learning it.  I can just see me talking to my guidance counselor back at school about this.  “So Josh, Vajatindi you say?  The language of the Tindi?  What part of the world are they from?”

“Oh, they have to be from this world?  Never mind.”  Yeah, that would go over well.

Anyway, a tour of the kakin seemed like a good way to spend our time till dinner, seeing as we now had less than an hour.  It was only a minute away; actually nothing in the village is more than a couple of minutes away but the kakin is centrally located so it's less than a good stone's throw from any kin in the village.  Just before we reached it though, a shadow raced by us; then turned and the shadow and its accompanying body, blocked our way.