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12. THE GREEN MISTS
“Fairn! Look!” cried a large woman scrambling up the riverbank, as she spotted two people smothered in sleeping bags on the open green. Beside the prone bodies stood a massive, gray-white stallion.
The scene puzzled the woman. Why would people be sleeping under the sun in the morning? Everyone knew mornings were for awakenings and to be honored, as the sun awakens the sky. No one ever slept them.
Fairn responded to her cry, and hopping from his boat, he skipped from the river onto the luscious green. “Are they in Contemplation?” he asked, walking toward his mate.
“It could be,” answered the woman. “But I feel a moving closer. Wisdom seems to be missing here.”
Fairn patiently watched his lady, Veronna, head towards Tyber and Freegirl, as he knew never to question the intuition of a female.
When Veronna reached the sleepers, the horse snorted. Putting her hand onto the animal's nose she asked, “What is it boy?”
Upon closer look, she could see a very sick young man. She hollered gently to her mate, “Fairn, come quickly!”
He did not hesitate. Knowing the tone of her voice, the giant man leaped to her side.
Freegirl stirred at the newly arrived sounds. She sat up, as two unfamiliar people, hair and skin the softest color of green—green—were awakening Tyber. Quickly, the sleepy girl told them a trembler had bitten the boy.
“We will take him to our pool,” explained Veronna. “He is too sick to heal himself.” The strangers lifted Tyber while still in his sleeping bag—which had gained weight from his sweat, and the water Freegirl had dabbed on him.
They carried him down the path, leading to the river’s edge. Freegirl and Wilson followed to the river, where a large watercraft awaited Tyber’s urgency.
Freegirl did not know what to do. All of her and Tyber’s belongings were still at their camp. The elements and the animals might make a hapless mess of them. “Where do you live?” she asked, trying not to sound nervous.
“Not far get in!” was the rapid response from Veronna. Freegirl did what she was told, and quickly, as Fairn began to sail the boat upstream. Wilson followed upon the bank, with complete awareness that his buddy was upon a strange riverboat.
All was quiet as the boat reached the dock—a long wooden finger extending on the river. Tyber, who was in and out of awakening, was lifted off the boat by Fairn, a man built like a tree, and another large man of the green color.
As they carried him over the wooden planks, they heard a low voice, mumbling, “Where...un...uh... am I?” It was Tyber trying to talk, while Veronna was near him, watching.
“We’re taking you to our pool.” said Veronna. “Your friend says a trembler snagged you.”
“Oh yea…” sighed the exhausted young man, remembering, as he relaxed for the ride that carried him, and his sleeping bag to some unknown place.
The pool was pale green, like fluorescent moss—transparent and sparkling.
The two men helped Tyber out of his bag, onto his feet, and removed from his shorts. He slid into the warm pool of water.
“Stay in as long as you can,” said Fairn, “and make sure your snakebite is submerged.”
Freegirl did not follow Tyber, giving him privacy. Feeling lost, and in the way, she went to where Wilson stood—the stallion having followed the entire way along the bank.
The pool was embraced with thick plants, and the horse was too big to squeeze through the vegetation, but he knew his buddy was on the other side.
Freegirl put her head against the horse’s neck and sighed, wondering about the nearness of Death. It came so unexpectedly—so swiftly. Why, Wilson? Why?”
Soon, Veronna came to the young woman and the stallion, and offered the girl a bowl of fruit—the horse an apple. Freegirl accepted gratefully, while Veronna told her about the green people.
The river tribe to which Veronna belonged was known as the Green Mists—having taken their name from the healing pool and the green mist that arose at dawn every morning.
The mist, she told her, had more rejuvenating powers than the water itself, but the mist was not present once the Fireye burned into the day. Fortunately, Tyber had been discovered before the mist was completely dissipated by the morning sun.
Veronna was the Medicine Leader of the Green Mists. Fairn was a fisherone, and her husband. The band of the Green Mists had skin the color of pale moss green. All of them had eyes the color of green, in all of its many possible shades. Awareness for these slightly hidden people was always green, as green is the color of Nature—her greatest creation, trees. Their misty territory was riverbound, and shaded in green.
The Green Mists pool was an obscured waterhole—a giant bowl with greenery thriving along its edges. It shimmered in flickering sunlight—for the Fireye sprinkled through the encircling trees, flecks full of golden light.
The whole enclosure was enveloped in a green mist—the water was a transparent green—the air an emerald haze. Beyond the misty pool of green, lay Shadow Meadow, the sea of green. There was subtle warmth everywhere, emanating from the color green.
The vaporous emerald water holding Tyber would heal his spirit—giving him the strength to heal his own wound, and to dissolve the remaining toxins in his blood.
“What is your name?” asked Veronna. She was ample in size, tall like a tree, and thick. She could almost rock Freegirl in her arms, for a small person the girl was, in comparison to the woman of the Green Mists.
Freegirl sighed again. As always, she heard the word Heart in her mind, but upon answering she replied, “I am Freegirl, of Thunderbold Under-the-Mount.”
Veronna smiled happily, her fluorescent green teeth shone vividly. “Thunderbold!” she exclaimed merrily. “We know Thunderbold! We’ve traded with your family many times at the Spring Meetings! I am good friends with his sister, your Aunt Mermaid.” The woman of the Green Mists was very excited to meet a member of Mount Gold. “I even knew Mermaid’s husband, Ryner.”
Ryner was Freegirl’s uncle, an ocean sailor who traded along the coast. On one of his trips, he disappeared with his sailing vessel. The mood momentarily shifted to solemnity, as the two females thought of the missing Ryner being thrashed on the sea by the Rule Winds. He had been missing for almost five years, his presence still unknown to anyone.
“I have never met Mermaid’s daughter, Pala, as she has always been too young to travel to the Spring Meetings,” said Veronna, politely.
“Pala is becoming a great singer, but she was mute for quite awhile after her father disappeared. I guess she’s intimidated by the ocean, since Ryner was lost on it. But I believe she will be going to this year’s Spring Meeting. She just turned ten.”
Freegirl became lonesome for her family, but it lasted only a moment, for she felt her destiny roaring—and thundering inside her.
The ladies continued talking about Freegirl’s band—the people who lived in gold. To be surrounded in golden caves, or emerged in a pool of green vapor—neither could decide which home was the most awe-inspiring.
No metal was higher than gold, for the sun’s reflection it was. But water was the most profound element, with more power than any element, as it could change all the others. And green water in the form of mist was, indeed, a spiritual healer.
Wilson stomped his foot and changed the subject of the women’s conversation. The horse missed his brother, Tyber, and was hungry and bored.
“Hey you!” spoke Freegirl to the anxious horse. “Where do you think you’re going with that foot stomping? It’s not as if you can walk through those trees, you know.” She was referring to the interlocking branches that surrounded most of the pool in which Tyber meditated.
Wilson snorted his answer and the two women laughed.
“So you were up all night long tending to your friend?”
Freegirl was staring. She inhaled hard through her nose. “Yes. It was very scary. I thought he was going to die.”
“Well he is a strong young man, and your people instructed you wisely in what to do. The most important thing, of course, when faced with a situation like that is to remain calm.”
“Yes,” agreed Freegirl, “and it’s also the most difficult thing.”
“And you missed the morning shadow of birds?”
“Oh! The birds. Didn’t see a thing. Have you noticed how they’ve been crossing the meadow at unusual times? I thought they were only supposed to fly at dawn.”
Now it was Veronna’s turn to stare. “Yesss,” she slurred slowly, as she nodded introspectively.
“Why is that? asked Freegirl.”
The green lady shook her head and made a funny face. “Beats me!” was her answer.
The two pondered a moment, while Freegirl reached her hand to pat Wilson’s nose. “Who was the man who helped your husband carry Tyber?” asked Freegirl.
“That was Tuaca,” answered Veronna. “He’s even bigger than Fairn. I believe he’s six-foot-seven.”
“Wow!” exclaimed Freegirl. “Are all of the Green Mists large people?”
“Ohhhh yes,” was the reply. “We are green here, you see, and green means growth. All of us are like trees. I am six-foot-two.”
“Do you know I have never seen a green person before I saw you?” questioned Freegirl, with gleam in her eyes. “My dad says all skin colors exist, but I have only seen black, white, and brown.’
“Ohhhhh!” enthused Veronna. “You have never seen a person from Color Paradise?”
“No,” said Freegirl, “but I heard they look like rainbows!”
“Ahhh yes…and each rainbow-painted skin is a bit different than the next one. Some have more red, some have more green, some have more purple. Some are missing a color here or there. The tribe is quite a sight, and a rarity.” Veronna shifted her seat on the dry but soft moss. “Were you and Tyber headed somewhere or just camping?”
Freegirl took a breath through her nose. Every place she went, she figured, she would have to explain her journey’s purpose. She was beginning to tire of her urge for importance, and chose to be playful for a change. “Well, we were headed to a friend of Tyber’s, and then we decided to camp, because his horse was getting tired, because there’s two of us on his back.”
“Ohaa,” Veronna said with a sing-song voice, her eyebrows lifted. At the same time she nodded her head, stretched her lower lip downward and winked an eyelid.
Freegirl giggled and decided she liked Veronna very much, for the older woman was rather jovial and easy.
Wilson stomped again, only this time he put force into his hoof. “It shouldn’t be much longer,” spoke Veronna to the horse.
Meanwhile, Tyber could barely hear the women talking, so deep into his Dream of healing he was. After a long Contemplation, miracles! He was alive. As he steadily rose from the pool, he remembered the rattling of his challenger. Tremblers were deadly, and he could have died.
Wilson had shied from a slithering snake one day earlier. He thought that was an unusual coincidence. And here he was, after a night of pure misery, healed as if nothing had happened. The boy happily dried himself with a cotton towel and put on his shorts—he would get fresh garments later.
As Tyber wandered through the maze of the entangled vines secluding the pool, he heard Wilson’s whinny. “Hey buddy!” he called to his horse, with laughter and a joy that belted from his chest.
Freegirl and Veronna were situated upon the wide moss-covered ledge—below the pool of the Green Mists, at the edge of the river. When they heard Tyber’s voice, they turned to look.
Freegirl jumped when she saw her companion and exclaimed, “Way! You look great!”
“That green mist and pool are uncanny. I feel as if nothing ever happened to me.” Tyber lifted his arms over his head and did a jumping reach to the sky.
Veronna smiled. “Sometimes we live in that pool,” she mentioned. “It’s our rejuvenator and healer. It enhances our mind on a daily basis. You might have died, if it were not for the waters of the Green Mists.”
As Freegirl would eventually discover, all people of Photopia had a healing place that belonged to mother earth. Mount Gold was such a healing place.
“And for Freegirl,” added Tyber. Although Tyber had been unconscious most of the night, he knew how much effort she had summoned to keep him alive.
He turned to Veronna and thanked her for her incredible timing in discovering him—although they both knew the timing had been lead by Destiny. He also thanked her for the healing secrets of her home.
Tyber had lived in Shadow Meadow his whole life, and had been attending Spring Meetings for six years. This was the first time he’d heard of the magical pool, accenting the river near his home— upon his own Whisper Waters.
Veronna still smiled. Her teeth were a resonating white-green against the soft green of her skin. “It's a moving into the afternoon,” she said. Then she asked the children, “Would you like to dine with us? Fairn caught a huge salmon this morning.”
Freegirl looked at Tyber hesitantly. She did not want to get any more behind schedule than she was. She wanted to reach the Lore Halls before the first snow, which meant in less than four months. If they pushed constantly, she could make perfect time. With the desertion of Black Raisin, and Tyber’s trembler bite, the travelers had been extremely slowed. There was no time for more Obstacles.
“Our things are still sitting on the green,” replied Freegirl, with firmness, “if the animals haven’t scattered everything by now.”
"Wilson and I can get our gear and you can rest and visit with Veronna,” Tyber remarked.
As politely as could be, Freegirl answered, “I don’t need a rest. I need to get moving. You know, before the snow?”
“She gets restless so easily,” said Tyber with his head lowered. As he recalled the vision she was enduring, he patted Wilson’s neck.
The comment about the snow, of course, made Veronna curious. But before the green giant had a chance to form a comment of it, Freegirl firmly stated, “We have only one horse, remember?”
Veronna interrupted the enigmatic conversation. “We do not keep horses ourselves, or we could lend you one. But we know a tribe, not far from here, who would let you take one of theirs.”
The woman told them of a meadow clan that had lots of horses. “They live about thirty miles east. I will take you to them tomorrow, if you can wait that long.” Then she smiled, for Veronna loved company. Visitors and travelers were always a special event in this land, as they were so rare. It was nice to have people stay for a day or two.
“You saved my life after all,” said Tyber, cheerily.
Though Veronna would never have expected anything for saving someone’s life, the one who was saved might feel obligated to return the kindness. If becoming obligated did not interfere with his plans, Tyber would certainly return the favor—which in this case meant to stay and visit.
On the other hand, if Veronna had saved Freegirl, and Freegirl chose to leave with no more than spoken gratitude, that would be considered sufficient by all Children of the Glimpse.
Quite simply, no one ever became indebted to another. Gratitude required no obligations; saving another’s life held no expectations.
All people helped each other if they could, and never expected anything in return, for in mysterious ways more powerful than humans, the return always comes to the giver.
“Another horse, Freegirl. What do you say? In the time it takes Wilson to carry us both, we could stay the night and get one more animal.” Tyber was understanding and very convincing.
“You’re clear, aren’t you?” answered his companion. “If we can get another horse, staying does make sense.”
Said Veronna, “I’ll tell Fairn to make plenty of food—he loves to cook—and while Tyber is fetching your gear, I’ll show you a treehouse that hangs over the river, where the whole area is surrounded in blue-shells, flowers and purple vines. It’s absolutely beautiful.”
That night, after a delicious meal of poached salmon, chestnuts, acorn, turnips, and wild spinach, Freegirl and Tyber slept on plush, cotton beds. They were upon the floor of a small cottage built high in the trees, overlooking the river.
The suspended abode was woven out of limber tree branches and bamboo, making the support under their sleeping bodies as gentle as air. The guests slumbered deeply after four long days of Life.
Freegirl dreamed of Green.
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