Etiqueta

Stuff your eyes with wonder . . . live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.
Ray Bradbury

The best part of having risen so early was being able to have some extra time in my day. I made my way to the pens to spend a little of that with the newest addition. There was something intriguingly soothing about the kaiila that Cana had found so I perched atop one of the rails to watch him. It is a natural instinct for the animals to twitch their ears so that they can tune in on sound much like I had done in my dream. The swivel of them rotating to find that one spot that they hear the best. It is what turns the eyes to focus except that this one, only had one fully functioning line of sight.

He had such a carefree demeanor in the sway of his head from side to side, as if tossing a stray lock from his forehead but the more I watched, the more I realized that he was turning that line of sight to what he heard. When he wished to listen, it was the milky opaque orb that affixed to the subject. That was what brought me off the fence and into the pen with him. The kaiila breeder had said that he craved attention so he was not so difficult to get close to. He would shift and move so that he could bring the more functioning eye around to see but he wasn't completely protective of the other. A good scrub of fingertips into the itchy spot both humans and beasts have along the side of the neck almost had Ciegue thumping one of his hind paws while I rubbed.

He was so open, so trusting for the most part. The only time he truly tensed was when you got too close to that blemish then he drew back protectively. Turning that haze away to be able to see and hear better was only part of his mannerism, the rest was to shield the flaw.

Shoot, that critter was loving the attention so much that he leaned his massive maw against my chest like a little boy wriggling in his Momma's lap so that I had better access to caress a few more of those affection deficits. It did give me a chance to observe the caul that plagued part of his sight. Once both eyes had been the same color, perhaps even so far back as his birth. The hue was still there in the depths of the iris, beneath that veil. I saw it contract and dilate with the change in light and dark that passed before it. Whatever he saw through that one, was more like a mist. It is said that those born with such a gauze had a gift.

The longer slower strokes through his pelt just seemed to stir a richer emotion in the animal so that he nestled in closer and turned even his gaze up to find mine. In the capture of reflection there was something that just stopped my breath for a few moments. It wasn't the same green or red glow that most animals have depending on their species, his ... was prismatic.

I studied the vista that unfolded there for me. The vast distance that seemed to go on forever ... of lights, and colors and motion that all swirled around .. if I had to find one word to describe it .. it would have been a nebula. A collection of gas and dust clouds that spread a mesmerizing array of wonder for any who had the chance to see.

This animal had touched me when I first met him and now that connection seemed more intense. In Hakan's, Holo's and even Sin's eyes, I had seen the mirror of myself in them. This time as I leaned back I realized that he was a reflection of mine.

I'd asked something of Cana when she first introduced us that now I was even more glad to have. It is rare that I ask anyone for anything and how I made the request was far different than I would have usually done. I made her promise that he would have a good owner. He deserved someone that would take the time to understand and accept him. There would be no more fiercely loyal companion to someone who could. I wondered too if he had greater abilities than what was just on the surface. But listen to me .. silly jit that I am, giving romantic poetic hope of something more even to a kaiila, but then I had found redeeming values in even Holo.