In the stillness

I woke in the middle of the night. I tried to squeeze a few more ihn of sleep behind my closed eyes without any luck and finally rose. There would be blackwine made before Master Rook woke this morning. I would even beg forgiveness when he did for sipping a little of it myself.

It seemed I was not the only one that sleep eluded. The crunch of dirt beneath the bared feet was enough to tell me who it was without looking up. He crouched next to me in silence for a long time before he spoke. He asked if it was a dream that had awakened me and I answered yes. He had thought so, he had one too. My probing of its contents was not going to make it unfold. There were simply queries that came instead. I smoothed over the tale of the fishing bait by telling him that it was treasured so much that I was now his. He never turned to look at me but spoke to the fire itself with the voice of an old soul. He knew the truth.

As if lightening the dark mood that thought put me in, he turned the probe to me. What was my old world like, those that I left behind, my name and its meaning? Most of it just washed over him until the last. He rolled it on his tongue several times as if tasting the flavor of it. He had no idea what a lion was but he liked the derivation that formed. lin ... lin ...linna. Linna it would be then. I sort of liked it too.

A gentle reminder that it was going to be a long day and even longer without much sleep was met with a shrug. It almost hurt to see not the silohuette of a boy stand and begin walking back to the wagon but a glimpse of the man he was going to become. I felt that screaming inside ... Let him just be a boy, let him enjoy the wonders of now before he had to bear the weight of the future. There was only a flicker of fingers and a snap of them that brought me to my feet to follow.