| |
15. THE CIRCLE OF SECRETS
The winds came with gales full of passion.
The herd of horses began frolicking in abandonment—dangerous, wild, and free. As the force of the surging waves lifted the animals off the ground, the wind’s cease abruptly dropped them, flinging them like scattered leaves everywhere.
Then again, the winds would collect, and grab the horses by their nostrils, add static to their fur, and spin them. The whirling of the creatures would continue as the'd strut and dance—and when the blowing halted they would graze, as if an invisible wall was suddenly erected before them, stopping them abruptly.
At this moment of ease, the horses relaxed with their energy, and mellowed within the atmosphere’s unexpected silence.
Time passed, as the children sat gazing at the livelihood before them. The now mellowed horses twitched their tails and munched grass.
Mentioned a thoughtful Tyber, “A lot has happened since I met you six days ago.”
“Now that would be an understatement,” she mumbled under her breath, though perfectly audible.
Tyber looked at his new friend closely. “You saved my life, you know?” he said.
Absent-mindedly, she answered, “Fairn and Veronna saved your life. Timing saved your life. And for that matter, so did the vapors of the Green Mists. All I did was give you herbs to sustain you.”
“That was enough. The poison would have killed me before Veronna’s coming, if you hadn’t been there. I don’t know how many times I’ve traveled and camped this meadow alone…thousands of nights, I’m sure, and never been bitten by a trembler—or anything that would bring me near death. I thought I was going to die, you know? What a dream I had.”
He stopped for a moment and Freegirl waited, knowing he had more to say. “Isn’t it amazing? The one time my life is threatened, is the one time I have someone with me.”
“Life is like that, isn’t it? Destinies are inexplicable.” She shifted her seat on the grass and breathed in the air, making a hush sound in her nostrils. Then she continued. “I look at it this way. You are saving my life now. Your helping me…Rainbow’s helping me…having a horse lent to me…traveling gear…a change of clothes. These are great things that have come because of you. I had no idea how I would ever pay you back, beyond words. Well…” she smiled slowly, “I guess I paid you back.”
Tyber put his arms around Freegirl. She smiled and put her arms around him too. They gave each other a great hug. Tyber had a relaxing, euphoric sensation as he thought of kissing the young woman on her mouth, but he knew she was not to become an intimate friend.
Children of the Glimpse fell in love young if that was their urge, but usually they waited until they’d experienced four decades of life before marriage. By that time, they probably discovered their first love was not their eternal love.
Freegirl thought of nothing but her daring future, getting back on the road, arriving in the north before the snowfall, passing through the entrance of the Lore Halls, and being embraced by the Images. She wondered if her life would ever be anything but driven and alone. She had wanted to marry her friend, Leon of Mount Gold, one day, ever since she was a little girl. But as she grew older, she knew her soul mate was a long way in the future—presently beyond her reach—two distant lovers awaiting each other’s calling—to become the person of each other’s Dreams.
A melodic whistle sounded lightly in the air, and with puckered lips animated, green Veronna approached the oaktree where Freegirl and Tyber sat.
“Look, Freegirl!” called the woman of the Green Mists, who was riding a small yellow mare. A tiny white cross was printed upon the center of the mare’s forehead. The giant woman filled the horse’s back, her large, muscled, pale green legs extended beyond her pink dress, and dangled just below the steed’s belly. Her draft horse, Monster, had been left with one of the Sauls, a man excited about riding the giant creature.
“I traded Leaven Featherly the holy basket for her! Isn’t she cute?” Veronna slid off the yellow horse and lead her to Freegirl. “If she chooses to stay here in the Circle, we must let her return to her family. But if you lead this horse and she follows, the mare is yours.” Veronna gave Freegirl a confident wink.
The new horse had no gear upon her body, other than a leather rope looped around her nose and over her ears. Attached to the slim harness were two long leather straps, the reins. Her ears were perked forward and she looked alert.
People upon Photopia did not require intense training or gear—for the union of minds between horse and rider was potent. Horses obeyed requests, not commands. Out of simple love and trust—and the understanding they’re being protected from Predators—horses bonded with people.
“Hey, girl,” chimed Freegirl, sweetly, when the yellow horse touched her nose to the woman’s hair. Without hesitation—for this animal was intended to carry Freegirl several more days—the rider touched her brow gently to the forehead of the mare. Freegirl went into the horse’s mind, picturing herself seated steadily on the back. The horse, too, saw the mental image. When Freegirl was sure the equine was relaxed and full of Mind, the girl hopped onto the horse’s back.
This method was used by all Children of the Glimpse before mounting an unfamiliar horse, or one that had never been ridden.
As a test ride, to see how well each one understood the other, they strolled into the clearing, moving forward, backward, side to side, walking, trotting, and loping. Feeling safe and comfortable, Freegirl brought the horse back to Veronna, and saying thank-you, she turned and rode into the meadow again.
The child and the beast got along so well, they stayed together until after sunset.
After a long day of winds, horses, and a floating man, Freegirl, Tyber, and Veronna, visited Leaven Featherly in his tree house. Besides an evening of intelligent conversation, the airwalkers carried Tyber and Freegirl on a floating carpet through the trees.
Various tree houses could be seen secluded within the leaves. To one of these tree houses, the children were taken.
The morning came quickly, as the sun burst through the windows of the cabin in the high tree, where the visitors rested. They slept about seventy feet off the ground, and as Freegirl looked through the glass window to the land below her, she thought of Leaven Featherly.
He was an illusive man, alluring with riddles that made her ponder. The previous night, he had mentioned the word Prophecy, then left the cabin. She did not want to pursue what secrets he had, so mentally escaped by thinking of when she was high in a tree. It was the morning Black Raisin had deserted them, and surprisingly, she started giggling.
“I can just see those pants hanging from that tree over the river! Ha-ha! Ha-haaaaa! With my belt attached! Aaaah! My only belt!” She was cracking up, and Tyber knew she was avoiding what weighed heavily on her mind. “It’s a splendid thing Veronna gave me this belt, or I’d be losing these pants, too! “Haaaaa!” And so continued her laughter.
After reverently saluting the Fireye, the company took baths in the Circle of Secrets, where warm springs occurred naturally. Veronna was the only guide now, for the Sauls were true to their nature and unseen.
It was time to leave the Verdure Ring. The Sauls did not appear that morning to see the travelers depart, but an unusual thing took place while they were on their way out. To remind them the Sauls were watching, the horses spoke.
As the company passed through the thick forest wall, a powerful roar began to swell. The sound became so tremendous the visitors were forced to cover their ears. They could hear nothing else over the incredible volume. The tones echoed, reverberated, and deafened their ears, until eventually, the ear-splitting became a thousand horses whinnying together. The resonance was so moving it practically lifted the riders off the ground. Wilson, and the carriage horse, Monster, and Freegirl’s new mare, joined in the chorus. As the singing animals reached the pain threshold, just before the riders began to grimace, the onslaught abruptly halted. At once, as if the mighty hand of a choir master suddenly snapped the chorus into silence, the horses quieted.
The resulting hush was jolting, to say the least. Tyber thought this place makes me nauseous. Freegirl was intrigued and fascinated by the power within the giant grove.
Veronna smiled contentedly.
Arriving at last to the outside of the trees, the lady of the Green Mists said farewell to the young adventurers. “Never forget what you’ve learned here,” she said, “in this land of the power of the winds. The mare seems very settled with you, Freegirl. Trust her.”
She handed the child a translucent-green crystal that grew in a crystal cave near the Pool of the Green Mists. It was attached to a leather choker. “The color green is for grounding,” she explained. “Keep it near your body to stay planted. It will absorb your Will, then reflect it back to you in highlights.”
Then the great Veronna of the Green Mists boarded her buggy, clicked to the horse called Monster, headed toward the river, and disappeared from sight.
The two companions walked upon horseback in the silence and headed north, to follow the Whisper Waters.
The whole day went slowly and very quietly. They rode until evening, stopping twice to have relaxing meals—always with a morsel offered to Mother Nature to show their trust in Her abundance—and to have a stretch. Then they would continue their journey.
On the starry night of that evening, as they were tethering their horses to set up camp, Freegirl commented, “Lucky for me Leaven Featherly had a wonderful horse who chose to stay with me.”
Tyber glanced at his partner with a blank gaze.
“Of course,” continued Freegirl, “the Sauls have soooo many horses, I doubt they will miss her.” As she removed the blanket from the mare’s back, in a light-hearted tone she announced, “I’m going to call her A-Na-Ho. It’s an ancient term meaning air-horse. I’m naming her for the horses in the Verdure Ring.”
Tyber kept glancing at his companion, but was not following her flow of words. He remained silent, while he brushed Wilson’s coat.
Freegirl was too chipper to notice his lack of response. “How would you like to be able to float like Leaven?” she asked. “Leaven Featherly,” she rambled. “He is like a leaf in the wind. No wonder he is called Leaven.”
“WHAT!” Tyber finally asserted his feelings of bewilderment. “What are you talking about?” His face contorted.
“The Sauls, you silly!” she answered with a humorous frown.
A pucker-faced Tyber dropped his sleeping gear on the ground. Feeling weary from the day’s ride, he mumbled, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” and then he flopped onto his blankets.
Slowly, a realization crept over Freegirl’s shoulders in the sensation of a chill. Her friend could not remember the Verdure Ring. She froze for a moment watching him rest. His absolute memory loss was shocking to her. They had been there for one whole day. They had stayed the night in a treehouse and departed this very morning. She studied him, lying there on his sleeping bag. His face seemed void of thoughts or expression. An experience like the Verdure Ring was not something one was likely to forget. The Circle of Secrets, she heard her mind say.
“Tyber.” Freegirl interrupted his quietness with a very serious tone. “Do you know where I got this mare?”
He glanced up at her as if she was out of her mind. He looked at her again more intensely.
She too became intense with gravity. “I’m serious, Tyber. Where did this horse come from?”
He paused, frowned, then smiled and calmly answered, “She came from Veronna of the Green Mists, Freegirl.” He thought she was playing a game, for indeed, she was an unusual person.
Freegirl was dumbfounded. He honestly could not remember. Tyber, whose backyard was the expanse of green that edged the river, could not recall a place where he’d been an entire day and night, a place that was close to his own home, a place he’d just left that morning.
And then a deeper realization began to evolve inside the mind, of the child of Mount Gold. Her friend could not remember, but she could. Now came the swelling of fear unfolded upon her face, giving her the expression of a frightened wildcat.
Tyber, once again, looked up from his reclined position to watch Freegirl. He was calm and smiling, but curious. Keeping rational, he asked her, "Do you remember the Green Mists? They saved me in their pool of water after the trembler bit me. Remember the trembler? It hissed and rattled. Ssssssss…” And feeling a bit caustic, the boy added the sound of his tongue imitating a vibrating rattle. He was tired, but thought he ought to join in the game Freegirl was playing.
Quietly, and mildly dazed, she sat down very slowly. She could see Leaven Featherly as if he stood before her. She heard as clear as a whistle, Veronna and Leaven both explaining the nature of the Verdure Ring. A secret seed was being nurtured by the Sauls, and a veil had been put around the Ring to hide it. All visitors would forget its existence once they departed. Only the Green Mists, who lived very close, had recollection and freedom within the great circle of trees.
She looked at Tyber—who was becoming very concerned for her mental state—as she thought to herself, I can still remember. With a slight wince on her face, her head shook faintly.
Tyber kept studying her. She appeared confused and preoccupied with thinking.
And then she asked, very carefully, “Do you remember the horses and the winds?”
Tyber smiled, though his expression made a question mark. Not sure of his companion’s state of mind, nor why these inquiries were coming, he cooperated with her by answering, “I remember once, watching hundreds of horses dancing to wild winds. I learned from them to pay attention to the air. He smiled. “Why do you ask, Freegirl?” He was frowning, and squinting his eyes at her again.
Freegirl was beginning to lose her trepidation and started feeling intrigued. “Where did we sleep last night?”
For a moment Tyber looked baffled, then quickly replied, “In a treehouse next to the pool of the Green Mists!” The boy from the Big Bend closed his eyes, put a confident smile on his lips, and drifted into his Breathing.
Freegirl, still in slow motion, lowered her head, and unrolling her sleeping bag she mumbled, “Wow”, and crawled into her blankets, wondering.
|
|