To the Horizon

Some steel wool had done wonders for the rusted bit I'd been working on. Although it was still dinged and dented, the surface had taken on the silver finish of it's original luster. I was rebraiding the bridle at the fires when one of the Mistresses came for blackwine. I've seen her a few times now so she is not unfamiliar to me. I'd just finished seeing to a hot morning meal of eggs and tarsk strips for her and answering questions of who I was and where I came from, when Master Kam made his way to the circle. The simple fact that he wished nothing this morning was enough to tell me that it was time.

Everyone within the kaiila clan knew that his kaiila had served a long and wonrously rich life but the weariness of age had begun to incapacitate the animal. His suffering was our own and we actually felt it within. It was natural to ask if he wished someone to go with him. I didn't know if a slave would be allowed such an honor and yes, to me it was. More, he gave me option of settling in the saddle before him or behind him on this last journey with his best friend. I chose to face the wind, teasing him about the view never changing from the back. Not that it isn't a nice view, mind you. Was it my way of soothing, helping heal to add humor? The taunts were light hearted and he took them that way.

The ride was one that will stay with me for as long as I am able to access it in my memory. I took in the plains from the eyes and heart of a magnificent beast, savoring every precious glory of them. I saw them for the first time from the ferral stand point of being .. being animal, being a base creature and I saw them as they would be if this were my last availability to inhale them. I will always owe Brute for showing me this wonder.

Kam had chosen a beautiful little outcropping, like an oasis. Falon joined us the dutiful grand daughter so devoted to her family. A tree so rare out here stood looming the little grove as shade from the burning rays of the central fire, a shelter from the winds and in my mind a companion for a warrior of many battles through the ages.

I kept constant watch on the Master while I built a fire and we all broke bread together in a manner of speaking though for the Tuchuk that is jerky. That holds a significant meaning to me going back to former beliefs. Brute indulged in not one but two bowls of paga. The first held the elixir that permanent dreams are made of. While each of us said our farewells, I told Brute the tale of Orachu, the shadow rider, our protector between this world and the next. I wove the story of his life, his triumphs and his majesty. He would be the beginning and end of many tales of courage and honor.

For as fierce and staunchly unflinching as men of the tribe can be, they have a capacity for a gentleness that is an unfathomable depth as well. The Master's hands so skilled at taking life, bestowing torturous pain the likes many can not begin to understand now rested against the pulse of the mount that had been with him through the best and worst of times for more than two decades until it ceased. It was done. The patina of the man never cracked though the turmoil of emotions unseen beneath the surface seared through me. I watched as the wind caught dust and a few dried leaves to swirl as if Brute's spirit touched us all one last time before he charged into the skies with vim and vigor and renewal of an old soul. I felt him as he raced to the horizon and on ... on to the beyond.

Kam chose to walk back to the camp alone and I could remember that tidbit of the two chiefs. It was part of the gift.