Rings

I was caught in the middle of a rock and a hard place and
I needed a soft place to fall
Then you showed me the reason to rely on my feelings
I had nothing to fear at all
~Oleta Adams

Beginnings without ends. It was what was going through my head while I touched the healing salve into the nostril of one of the mares. The rings of wagons, nose rings the women wore, rings of steel the slaves wore, nose rings the bosk and kaiila wore, rings of fire, birth and death ... the circles of life. Those thoughts never took off to go anywhere but returned right where they began .. just that idle thoughts. I knew there was something to them, some revelation beneath the dizzying swirl but it was lost on necessity as I went to the next mare.

Cana had asked that I help the men ring some of the new colts and to see the healing salves were used on two of the recently ringed mares. Calamity was going to be just fine. The piercing was doing well and already beginning to seal up leaving the ring to slide easily in the opening. It was the one I called Molly that I was concerned over. She had jerked against her tethers just as the nose ring was being slid into place, ripping the tender membrane. Not bad, just enough that meant extra attention. That was why I called her Molly ... unsinkable Molly. The ring was affixed but she had at least let her captors know that she held fire in her soul. I know the area is sensitive and I tried to be gentle in trying to calm her enough to dab the poultice where it needed to go. It was not going to be until I grabbed the bridle and forcibly held her still that I managed to get it swabbed good. Giving her a good pat along the silky maw, I found myself cooing soft sounds to her to let her know it was all going to be alright.

Barhk was getting impatient, boot toe tapping with his arms crossed, one eye half closed by the time I had the jars put away. 'There is a whole herd to take care of and you are lingering over one high strung female'. I never gave a thought to telling him that, first ... it was what I was told to do and, second ... she was just as much part of the "herd" as any of the others. We didn't have time to finish the argument when a shrill whistle signaled that the others had the first colt roped, ready to ring. There would be nine in all that would bear the gleam of metal in their snouts.

The first three I held the rings ready to offer, safeguarding them and having them available as soon as the handler had the beast subdued. The next two I was allowed to help hold the ropes, not that I felt I could have done so all by myself but even though it took two to three others as well, I could feel the power and strength the creatures possessed. The following two, I was handed the jar of salve and as soon as the ring was settled in the membrane, I leaned in to lather it onto the wound. I didn't come away from the last one pristine clean but covered in the spray of blood and medicine she snorted out. It would be the last two that stayed with me long after I left the pens. For these, it would be by my hand.

He was massive even for a plains mount. Sinewy, with an untamed spirit that was fighting to the very last not to go down. His struggles took an extra man to cinch up in the ropes enough for me to step in with the little circle that was to change his life. I knelt one knee against the side of his throat to help secure his movement and was just about ready to glide the sharpened point through the tissue when he bucked his head. There was no time to think or be scared. I leaned in closer so that my weight light as it is pressed him back down. The shriek was deafening so close. I could see the defiance in his eyes and hear the terror in his cries. For what felt like an eternity in one moment, I could hear inside of him. Not just him but all of them. I could feel the wounded wild spirits of everyone ... feral, domestic, animal, human ... all of them bleeding inside, whispering screams. It was a lonesome melody and song of hope. Transfixed there, poised motionless I just spoke softly to him ... 'I hear you' and as he stilled that beginning without end found its home. I looked up, looking for Cana, looking to see if maybe she had heard it too. When my eyes caught hers she simply nodded and went right back about what she was doing.

I stepped back and turned to catch the rail. I didn't want to face the next one. Thoroughly sure I could not go through that again, but Trang was calling my name and saying hurry up, they couldn't hold it all day. They weren't going to let me give up and I wasn't about to let them down. I was prepared for the wheeze, trying to steel myself against it but it never came. The first was still echoing even after the colt was up and on his claws again, tossing his head and almost prancing with his new prize. It was over before I knew it. I had simply stepped in at the right moment and done what I was supposed to do. Maybe it should have felt anticlimactic after what had transpired before but I was energized with a sense of pride and accomplishment. Even Trang's hard club of my shoulder, that almost knocked me off my feet, couldn't slice through the feeling.

I'll speak with Cana about the one I call Sinewy later.