Blank Pages

My time at the main fires of the first wagons were quietly reserved now without adding much to the conversations. There is no intention of cloistering myself away from others but for now I enjoy time to myself. Despite appearances I had learned hard lessons.

The kaiila handler's low back ache concerns me. The barbarian healer that Tarra had once told me of has come and he has offered her an unusual technique for easing the pain that seems to work. She assures me she is fine and that her slaves will tend to her but I was still relieved that she will spend time with Tarra. It is good to hear that the Spex has joined us though it was disturbing to know she had been injured. She stays on my mind a great deal of late, I'm sure she knows this. I've missed her. Is it any wonder that many things she has spoken to me about, the treasure chest of wisdoms, go through my head over and over? I'd worn more than a few of the baubles with pride, just not enough of them. When I can I will go see her.

Perhaps the year keepers will call this time the regathering of family. Not only are the ones that had a slower migration coming from the north joining us but Trilock has returned too. I now have the barest taste of how Noya must have have felt. He is injured but ... home and that is all that matters. The bond among those who share blood and promise is strong like the threefold chord of ancient days and I could only sit there watching as family shared precious moments reuniting. How long I sat there I am not sure, nor when I rose and slipped away to leave them their privacy.

Perhaps it was the news that Silken will be here soon that began a cleaning spree through all of the wagons all my row, perhaps it is the need to spend excess energy. From one to the other, down the line from those that belonged to her through to one Me Too sleeps within, I had the children help dust, straighten, fold and put away. It would all be spic and span. The last to be seen to was the newest one. This one I would do myself. I would see the boy's things moved into it once we reach the south and should Cana wish .. the one she had allowed Me Too to occupy would be returned to her. He will have one to call his own once he has earned his scars and his name.

Ebet's extra wagon was the last that I entered. It wasn't hesitance to tread there because of the ferocious beast we'd found but more the feel of treading some one's intimacy. It was as you would expect in some ways, a man's wagon for storage. The spoils of pillages and raids must have some place to be, this had been his. There was something unexpected there among the haphazard stacks of copper pots, pelts and wooden utensils. A chest that bore his markings held items that had been a woman's. The fragrance though musty from the turnings that had been stored away still held an unmistakable essence of heather. The dried blossoms fragile to the touch were moved carefully to see the other contents below. Beneath there were two diaries bound together with a strip of aged leather. I peeled the corner back on each only enough to see if there was indeed writing inside. One of them was filled from front to back with the scribbles of an effeminate hand. The other held nothing but the lily white purity of blank pages. This one I took out bringing a few wrapped charcoal sticks with it then everything else was returned as it had been.

Once inside my own wagon, things were moved around so that it would not be found by any one's eyes except mine and perhaps one day someone that would cherish the reflections of my journey to the horizon and beyond. I knew once I sat down with the markers, the pages would flow with tears and joys as fast as my hand could offer them. They would no longer roam aimlessly but have a home. I hope they find comfort there.

Turning to the first page, it was only one word I jotted along the top. It said it all ... Onward.

Η αγάπη θα δει