There

I knew the hands that gingerly plucked me from my cocoon, the ones that wrapped my cloak around me and carried me as if I were a child to the safety of my circle of wagons. I knew and yet I was surprised. I buried my face into the strong shoulder offering no challenge to the authoritative air he projected. It was perhaps all that I knew or cared to know. I was succombing to the ravaging forces of life and their denials. Each were taking their toll. There were Tuchuks that rode the skies that threw wager on both sides. Instead I gave in to the swirling vortex and it took me beneath its ebb without any battle on my part at all. I slept. I slept with the kind of intensity that etches your dreams into your sub-conscious. So deeply that waking has no effect on the multicolor communication between it and the conscious. It lingers, though I remember only rising to the surface in brief searches and feeling a reassurance of ... not .. being alone before I drifted away once again.

The vivid landscape of the Carolina coastline washed its way up around my toes like the tide that carried the sea. the touch of those breezes like no other as they touched my cheeks with salty kisses. The rich verdant green of the tall grass dancing with me as I ran to the top of the lighthouse cliff. It seemed from there I could see the continental shores on the other side. I felt the strands of my hair cling stubbornly to my face no matter how many times I tried to brush them away. It was a reminiscence of days gone by. From within the waves of emerald she seemed to flow as if the winds themselves bore her to me. The doe-eyed redfruit cheeked field sprite whose laughter was so contagious that you found yourself laughing too. Nahla. She came and danced within the stalks of grass, circling around the hem of my skirt, spinning me about just to follow those beautiful eyes. I loved her with a passion I had never known before. One that I craved enough that it ached. She called to me over and over with dimpled grin and slid her hand within mine. "I will come to you, I promise. Will you still dance with me?" I knew from a place that was deeper than my heart that the answer would always be yes. Others joined our little soiree and we sang and we danced and made crowns of purple talendar tossing them into the sea. When it came time to go, I kissed each of their foreheads and whispered against their temples. In time my precious, in time.

Such a peaceful feeling. This was how it had felt long ago when my painted warrior would come whisper to me in my dreams. Had he returned in some other hauntingly twisted form? Had I conjured my imaginary play friend once more, mulitplied him into the faces of many? I would not have doubted that the thin patina of my sanity itself had cracked and this palette's spill was end result. It didn't truly seem so important ...

What was important was I survived the chasms of pergatory and soared the lighter than air journey

... there

... and back.

I had returned with a full heart.

Despite the night before, my awakening the following morning was quite languid. I found myself stretching lazily into a stream of light permitted by Deenyet's entrance. Long before I tried to peel back my eyelids and explore the world I was in, I could smell the blackwine she carried. I simply could not help the impish smile I turned up to her and her cluck of tongue only made me draw the top fur up across my nose and peek at her over the edge. I was ready to start my day and felt fully petulant when scolded that I would do no such thing. She chided me that part of living to your fullest is knowing when to see to the needs of the body and the soul. I couldn't argue with her although I did make an attempt too.

She had brought back up to stand her ground. Sage was much harder to coax into letting me have my way.