A One Night Break!

I'm too tired to write tonight.  I just ate after a fourteen hour work day.  Tomorrow we will return to our regularly scheduled craziness.

Chapter 37: "Aren't You Scared?"

            The lotus settled gently onto the surface of the sea and the fox raised her head.  “Are we there?”

            “No, dear,” Bhodi said.  “There’s someone bouncing along the edge of the land there that I think we should meet.  Someone very concerned about life and death and failure.  He’d probably be happier if he trusted in karma to work itself out.”

            “I… think I understand him.”

            “Yes, you blood-spirit guides are all very tangled up.  Your friends are in their mortal bleeding times and so their spirits are full of fire and strength.”

            “Was that an insult?”

            Bhodi laughed. “No, fox. If anything it was a comment on your state of being.”

            “Oh.  All right then, I think.”

            The lotus floated close to the shore, where a spit of rocks thrust into the water and a very excited goat bounced up, shaking magnificent golden horns, his golden hoof flashing.  “THERE you are!  I swore I’d find you, now we can go to Naida all together—“

            “Hello, Chimera,” Bhodi said.  “Shall we have tea?”

            The goat bounced high into the sky and when he came down on all fours the rock under his hooves cracked. “NO!  We need to get to Naida and get her home NOW!  I’ve waited fourteen years, almost fifteen to grow up and stomp that monster who nearly killed her and now she’s got her ushera and you fox look powerful enough to bite the bits off anything that could threaten her!  MY friend has been alone long enough!”

            “Do stop shouting,” the fox said.  “We should go, Bhodi.  Can you float all of us?”

            “I could,” Bhodi said quietly.  “But it would be harming this spirit.  He is on the cusp of something important and if I do that he’ll fail.”  The lotus rose slowly out of the sea, dripping as the Chimera raged below, jumping higher and higher, trying to reach them.  But the flower wasn’t speeding off as fast as it could go, only staying out of reach of the ushera’s possible violence.

            “NO! What? You need to come now I NEED to get back home I need to you aren’t going to just float away and leave me bouncing along in the dust like a child! I… I…”

            “Come along then,” Bhodi said. “You can do it for yourself.  You don’t need my help.”

            The fox covered her ears with both paws as the Chimera roared.  The roar began as a baa and deepened, deepened further and broke into a lion’s cough. A second head appeared next to the goat’s head and a black mane burst forth.  Four gigantic wings unfolded, blinding light appearing in between every feather and the goat’s tuft of a tail unfurled into a long, slender, tufted plume. The Chimera flung itself into the sky, wings working, paws outstretched to seize the lotus and Bhodi took hold of one massive paw and petted it.  “See, I told you.  Look at you now.”

            The roar cut off as though the boy had cut both throats.  “What?  Aren’t you scared?”  The voice was like a thunderstorm and when he shook his mane, stars twinkled in it, fluttering away in the blast of air from his two sets of wings.

            “No, of course not.  Let’s go and see your Naida girl.  You say she’s in trouble?”

            “That’s MY girl,” the fox said.  “She called me all the way from the Floating Lands.”

            “Oh, my, that’s nice!” the lotus and the Chimera flew beside each other, the flower and its passengers undisturbed by the Chimera’s lightning and falling star passage beside it.  “Tell me all about it.”

            “My name’s Asteri,” the goat’s head said.  “Chiati!” the lion roared and the goat rolled its eyes.  “Yes, yes.  We are Star Mane.”

            “I’m Bhodi.”

            “And I’m Kurama,” the fox said and curled up again, apparently not noticing that Bhodi was petting her third tail that she hadn’t had before.

            “When we get to the desert lands,” Bhodi said. “We’ll have time for tea.  After all its not every day that a Chimera transforms and a fox gives up her name.”  He grinned and both Asteri and Kurama howled with laughter.

Chapter 36: Rot You

           The tent fit into the palm of her hand and as far as Naida was concerned magical, though Temis had snorted and said it was just ‘good design’, especially for a Kushite princess on a quest.

            A Kushite princess.  Hmm.  I suppose.  I need to get it set up and get us both in before it goes flat dark.

            It snapped open and Naida pulled the flap out before she managed to squeeze herself and the boy inside, with her sitting up and his head in her lap.  The lamp gave off its usual glow at night, even as it continued to rattle slightly with the force of Sybaris’s snoring.

            The two of them were quickly warm with the tent mostly closed, frosty night air puffing in the one open flap that Naida left so things wouldn’t get nastily stuffy.  Naida began looking the boy over carefully, in the lamplight, to see if she could spot something, some reason for his continued stillness.

            He wasn’t truly unconscious or he wouldn’t be able to swallow and he had eagerly drunk all she could give him.  There was nothing on his head, not even stubble of hair. She pulled her own braids – still as tight and clean as the day Syb had beaded them – into a knot at the back of her head, out of the way.

            She thought she saw a shadow of dirt on his neck and tried to brush it off but it wouldn’t move.  It was a single strand of hair around his neck. She managed to get a finger under it and pulled, trying to break it.  It cut into her skin and into his neck almost enough to break the skin but didn’t break.

            “Blast!” Naida stuck her finger into her mouth and checked to see if the hair had cut either of them.  Aside from a red dent it hadn’t broken skin.

            Obviously she couldn’t just pull it off.  She pulled out her eating knife but stopped when the hair put a nick in the blade, digging into it, and into the boy’s skin again.  She paused to pour more water into his mouth while she thought about this.

            “Someone doesn’t want that coming off you,” she said to the boy, not expecting an answer. It wasn’t long enough for her to pull off over his head, just sliding up his chin until it was almost choking him, but wouldn’t stretch and she couldn’t find a knot anywhere on the circle of it.

            She didn’t have Syb to just fix this, or Asteri.  She was by herself.  I cannot cut it or break it by metal or by hand.  I don’t see how air or water would break this. She sat and listened to her breath in the silent desert, felt her heart beat and his.  Not air and water, she thought.  Not violence or force.

            Her moon blood was days away if she had settled into a rhythm but she had her knife.  She pricked a finger, the droplet of blood standing up on her skin like a polished little red bead.  Naida breathed over it, whispering “Life. Life and Change.”  In the distance, clearly even though it was a long way away, she heard a fox yip.

            She turned her finger over and rubbed the droplet over the hair in the hollow of the boy’s throat.  “Poor baby.”  Was that a grimace on his face for a moment?  He didn’t like being called a baby? “Poor young man for having an enemy willing to do this to you!  I have an enemy who tried to kill me when I was a baby, too.”

            The hollow of his throat, the softness where the pulse beat was where the solid hair lay with her blood on it and on his skin.  She dribbled a bit of water and suddenly the whole tiny puddle looked like blood.  She breathed over it again.  “Rot, you,” she said and again the fox yipped.

________________

Sorry about the short post today.  I was at Anime North. 

Chapter 35: I Didn't Know Lamia Snored

            The ship was a small dot on the horizon, heading west, by the time Naida made it up to the top of what had looked like a small cliff.  She stopped at the top, sweaty and panting.  “Sybaris is this REALLY the way I need to go?  How is this going to get me into AEgypt?”

            “You really need to go this way, my daughter.  I don’t know why but I do.  Do you have enough water for the rest of the day?”

            “Yes, yes.  But I suppose I’ll head straight south then, like you said.  Maybe I’ll find a place to pitch the tent tonight.”

            Sybaris gave what sounded like a jaw-cracking yawn.  “I’m going to be napping for a while.  The wind took it out of me.”

            “Oh, I’m sorry,” Naida started to feel guilty about Sybaris profligately using her power just for her. “Are the Sun Twins going to spot you out of the cave? You said They’d punish you if They caught you.”

            “No, no, dear.  I’m safe inside here.  Don’t worry.  You’re giving me access to a lot of power, just by yourself, even with the occasional side snack like that thief!”

            Naida shook her head, not wanting to know.  “Rest well.”

            “Call me if you need me, dear.”

            Naida turned and began trudging south.  At least she was on the same land as her homeland.  The sand slipped and slid under her sandals and the wind blew the dust into her face, hard enough that she started getting granules between her teeth whenever she opened her mouth to pant.

            She stopped to drink and re-arrange her head scarf to cover most of her face as well as her hair. Things shimmered in the distance, that looked like trees, or flocks of ostrich, lakes and clouds, that turned into none of these things.

            Sand. White white white sand. With grey green spiny bushes forcing their way out of the white.  Naida sat down in the shade of one of the dunes set the lamp down and had to giggle.  Sybaris was really sound asleep because the lamp was reverberating with her snores.

            More water.  Why do I have to go straight into the… hmm.  Those really are ostriches.  They’re acting kind of weird.  She jumped to her feet as three ostriches ran straight at her, stopping in front of her, but well outside kicking range.  Then they started to jump up and down and squawk at her.

            The male put his wings out and flapped them, blowing sand all over her. “Hey! Hey! Stop that!”

            They all danced in a circle, stopped facing away from her, along their back trail, then all three turned their heads and looked expectantly at her.  “You want me to follow you?”

            The birds didn’t move but made hissing noises.  When she stepped forward one step, the birds all did too.  “That’s a yes, I suppose.” She wanted to ask Syb but she was still asleep.  Naida checked her gritty scarf, picked up her lamp and began following the ostriches.

            The Goddess’s Veil of Night was creeping up fast, and with the deepening shadows the night chill began to tiptoe into existence.  Naida blinked once because one of the mirages she saw looked like a woman crouching over something protectively.

            The sun’s barq was just above the horizon, about to set, when another flock of ostriches rose up out of the sand in front of them, met the ones who had led her so slowly and carefully across the sand.  They all hissed and clattered beaks together, Then all of them turned to Naida, bowed and then ran away, wings spread.

            “What? What is that all about?  Why here?”  She addressed the dry air but there was no answer.  She looked at the world all around and then realized there was something odd about the bird’s nesting place.  Another step brought her staggering over to uncover the little boy in the sand.  “Oh dear, oh dear.  They were protecting you.”

            His skin was as dark as hers and she had no idea what his hair was like because he was shaved smooth, not even a child lock on his head.  His lips were cracked and his eyes closed, but he breathed.  She pulled him up onto her lap and didn’t want to waste any water, so sucked in a mouthful of water and passed it to him from her lips to his.

            He gasped and licked his lips dry and sank into apparent stupor once more.  Was he ill? Why was he in the desert? Why wouldn’t he wake up? She dribbled more water into his mouth and then laid him down with her satchel and pulled out the magical little tent that Temis had packed into it.  It was going to get very cold soon and he needed shelter.

Chapter 34: Look For Us Again!

            “Hey, Fox.  How are you feeling?” Bhodi’s hand stroking down the fox’s back was soothing and she sighed, before sitting up, labouriously.

            “I’m hungry.  I can go catch another fish,” she said, but Bhodi shook his head.

            “A fish just attained enlightenment and sacrificed its mortal shell for us.” He waved a hand at the enormous fish lying before them on the river bank, glistening on the rocks.  “See?”

            “Oh!”  The fox pounced and her words were muffled by a mouthful of fish.  “S’anks to the fish!”

            “It’s unfortunate that you are still entangled in the woes of the material world.”

            “Aren’t you?” Half the fish was gone.

            “Nope.”

            “I see.”

            “I’m going with you,” Bhodi announced.  “Or, rather, we are going together.”

            The fox said nothing but as she licked her paws and muzzle clean and her second tail shimmered into existence again, skepticism radiated from her.

            “Ready?” Bhodi asked.

            “Yessss.” As she said yes, a lotus appeared, cradling Bhodi and lifting him gently off the rocks as he chanted softly, his mala beads clicking.

            The fox’s tongue lolled out of the side of her muzzle in a grin as she hopped up into his lap and settled in with her muzzle on his knee.

            The holy river shimmered softly blue green and the lotus rose into the sky, Bhodi’s skin beginning to shine a light and glowing blue.

            “That way,” the fox said, pointing with her nose.

            Bhodi’s chant didn’t falter but they floated high above the tree tops and then shot toward the horizon like a blue falling star.

**

            Re lay in the sand, fuming. He was still stuck in his mortality unable to move, unable to call on his divinity.  Blast that priest, he thought, as an ostrich shifted and a puff of dirty feathers settled across his face.

            He was thirsty, despite the water the ants and lizards had brought him. He will spend a thousand years in Amat’s gut.  He will be reincarnated as lice on Lebanese sheep, stepped on by a hippo, and then born as a chancre on a diseased camel’s backside…

            The sun was going down again.  He lay, struggling to move even an eyelash but they all just as stubbornly refused to budge.

**

            The ship bobbed at anchor, just off the coast. There were no buildings, no quays, no barracks.  There was a small cliff of sandstone where the Sahara drifted off in curling sprays of sand to fall on the beach and into the water. Beyond that was only dunes as far as the eye could see.  The wind that had blown them there, still blew, steadily, relentlessly.  It was hard to see the ribbon of wind any longer because they’d left the clouds behind some time ago.

            “Las--- Wise Maid,” Sukka said, scanning the waste.  “Are you sure this is where you wish to alight?”

            “Yes, Captain,” Naida said., even though the barrens made her heart sink and her stomach clench.  Sybaris had been quite firm about it, since the Port of Alexandria and indeed, all Aegypt, was closed to foreigners.  “You can go home to Carthagi just as well from here.”

            “How did you?  Ah, never mind.”  Naida clutched her lamp close, her satchel slung over her shoulder and her shawl wrapped around her head shielding her from the brutal bite of the sun.

            Just as she made to step over the rail, Allial called from his blanket.  “Wait!” She turned, startled at how desperate he sounded.  He crawled over to her, trailing his bedding behind him and knocked his head on the deck at her feet. “Maid,” he stammered.  “Wise One.”  His voice quivered.  “I confess most abjectly to having tried to steal from the illustrious personage and accept what punishment she decrees.”  

      

            Naida stood looking down at him and wondered just how Sybaris had already punished him to get this level of humility out of him.  She’d asked, but Syb had just said ‘It was suitable” and since he was apologizing Naida figured she was right.

            “Your punishment is finished,” she said, somehow finding the words on her tongue.  The last thing she wanted to be was like Yal or Pero.  That kind of mean didn’t help anyway.  “I am told that you are a powerful man and were led astray by a vision of being even more powerful.  My Godmother tells me that if you find a true partner in blood then the power you seek may be yours, as long as you respect and cherish them.”

            The Curser looked up, startled.  “Wise One?” He swallowed. “I… don’t understand.”

            Naida sighed.  Temis had hammered this idea into her head one long night in the library.  “Just imagine that two are stronger than one, if they work together, rather than fighting one another.”

            She turned and stepped into the tiny coracle with a sailor to row her to shore, already feeling as though she could have happily sailed for the rest of her life.  The Captain waved and called “If you need a ride, Maid, look for us again!”