First Tea

   I had barely managed to stand up before Lady Demton started shrieking at me something about running around in such improper clothing like some hussy and how my heathen ways would not stand in the way of her being companion to the king’s ward, or something like that. My body hurt and now my ears were ringing so I tried to ignore her. Goodness but she had a high voice. I barely managed to roll out of the way before her cane came down hard on the flagstones I’d crumbled down upon again. I knew it did no good to avoid her punishments, they only got worse as she got more angry, but I wasn’t in the mood for more pain. I could deal with her starvation techniques at meals as I had been taught how to summon small amounts of food while in the herd. It was her beatings that I had trouble with.
   “Mrs Demton!!!” a male voice roared from the door behind her and her eyes grew large as saucers before she swallowed and meekly turned to face the man who had introduced us two months ago. “I believe it is time to pack your bags! Go, we will discuss this later. Now!”
   “Yes, My lord, profuse apologies if I have offended you,” the seemingly meekest servant of all murmured just loud enough for him to hear as she curtsied her way out of the room.
   “As for you, my girl, your maid will be coming soon to help you wash. I do not know where you flew off to just now but have been told we owe you a great debt for something not yet explained. I do not know what that means, but I do know you were riding a griffin a long time and that it has been over two months since last you rode anything. Also, that jump could not have helped. Hot water is very good on sore muscles. Relax for a few hours. Mid-meal will be sent up here and before late-meal you will have tea with my sister. She is in her time of isolation and needs some company. Tomorrow you will get a new…companion. For now, rest with our thanks.” He ended as a manservant entered with a nearly over flowing bucket of water on both sides of his neck, hung on a wooden object that reminded me of what had attached the horses to the wagon in the caravan. He dumped both buckets into the washbasin in a corner of the room and left, the well dressed man following him out.
   As soon as they had left Meg stepped out of her spot behind the door chattering about how happy she was they had now left so she could see to me proper-like and how it was so nice of His Lordship to remove that villainous “Lady” from my presence, even if it was after two months. I let her babble wash over me and sooth my mind as she scooped out two smaller bucketfuls of water from the washbasin and hung one above the fire and the other was placed nearby to be ready. When the manservant returned, she took another bucketful of water to put near the fire and after the manservant had finished his third trip to the washbasin with water, she bolted the door and carefully helped me fully undress and slip into the soothing water she had dumped the first two bucketfuls of boiling water into. The water was now delightfully warm and some of the burning in my muscles eased. I was just starting to dose when she brought a light meal to “break my fast,” as they say here, meant to be eaten with my fingers. That done, she washed my hair with the last bucket of boiling water before dumping it into the cooling water. Eventually I got up and dressed in a light night dress and my wrap before hiding my tiny bundle and settling into a fluffy chair to practice my writing and read some before eating the mid-meal, again designed to be easy to eat and for my body to handle.
    As Meg took the tray away, I pulled out my sampler, as Lady Demton had snidely called my attempts at sewing for society instead of functionality. I forced myself to work on it, carefully sewing each letter of the dictations Lady Demton had read to me on how to survive in court, whatever that was. After two lines I deemed that I had done enough and pulled out the book I had chosen the last week in the library. It was about the history of two lands that were always verbally picking at each other and whose courts joined together for two weeks each year at an ancient castle for tournaments of all kinds from swordplay to hairdressing competitions between lady’s maids and sewing competitions among the ladies. My tutor hadn’t wanted me to read such an unlady-like book so I picked up a book on confusing poetry and picked up the history book while she wasn’t looking.
I hadn’t gotten far in the book before Meg reappeared to dress me in more layers than the simple chemise, shift, and dress I’d worn with Lady Demton. For this meeting I wore a chemise, a stiff high belt around my waist that raised my breasts a few inches and made them seem thicker, a shift over that, three layers of what Meg called “petticoats” from my hips down, a dress over all that and another dress over that which had a large opening down the front to show off the first dress under the laces. After all that was put on, Meg did up my hair in a bun that had more curls than I’d known my hair could allow and put on an odd necklace that had a heavy stone pendant in front and a stiff cloth collar behind seeming to hold up the stiff curls. If this was just for tea with a sister, what would late-meal with society be like? All this time Meg was rejoicing in finally being able to dress me as a “proper lady” instead of a servant or such. All this for tea?
   I finally made it down to the lady’s parlor and instantly realized she was in “isolation” because she was pregnant with twins. She couldn’t know they were both boys, she may not even know there were two of them, but they were healthy and would be rascals, one more so than the other. The lady I was to have tea with sat in a large fluffy light purple chair doing embroidery and listening while one of the other ladies read aloud from a book. There were four other ladies in the room, three of them sitting on a soft but not necessarily comfortable red couch embroidering while the one reading sat on a soft orange chair. A servant led me to a yellow couch and I was about to sit before the lady on the purple chair beckoned me to sit closer on the blue fluffy chair. Some look passed between the other ladies in the room but no one said anything as I took the seat and pulled out my embroidery. As I worked on the precise stitches needed to cover the pencil marks Lady Demton had left when she designed my sampler, I glanced at what the others were stitching. The only letters or numbers I saw on those were names, and only those in small print on a corner. One lady was stitching a number of different birds above a simple cottage like those that dot the edge of the Great Forest, another was stitching what appeared to be a man fighting a very bad rendition of a centaur while neither had weapons, and the other was stitching a number of different flowers in some sort of repeating pattern. I also realized the book being read was an adventure, some man riding a horse on some quest or other. It was not a book Lady Demton would have allowed me to read. We sat in that stuffy room for about a half hour before tea came and the lady on the fluffy purple chair ordered the windows be opened slightly. With the tea having arrived, she put down the small blanket she was embroidering a scene of horses in pasture on and everyone else put down their embroidery. Teatime meant conversation and it tended toward family for a while. The lady sitting in the middle of the couch was the oldest of the ladies in the room and seemed to be a grandmother, her youngest grandchild, a boy, had just turned a year old and she was stitching the cottage scene to be the focus of a wedding quilt for her youngest daughter, set to enter society in the next few months. The lady to her right had all her children at school at the moment and seemed to be rather unhappy with her husband, though she didn’t say so aloud. I sensed she was the least intelligent of the ladies present but was not one to anger. The third lady in the room was doing the bad rendition of the centaur and I sensed that though she longed for adventure, she was content with listening to her husband’s stories of his adventures. Unfortunately, her beloved husband was not so thrilled with her and his stories were as false as her idea of a centaur was. The book reader was the quietest, though I guessed more from her lack of high rank than of her own choosing. I was right in sensing the sister was with child. She said it was a recent announcement but as it was her husband’s first child and the first grandchild of her father, she was put in isolation as soon as the announcement had been made to protect the child.
   Once tea was finished she shooed her ladies-in-waiting, whatever that meant, out of the room for a moment to speak to me. “Ariadne said that you should thanked and kept safe for what you did today and so I shall thank you most prettily. My brother informed me that I was to judge your training and decide on a new companion for you as the one he chose was a mistake. I cannot imagine what she would have done to make him admit that but those days are over. Show me your embroidery. Oh dear, where did you find those rules? Oh, never mind. I thought I had ordered that book removed from the library as too old and no longer useful. Those dictates were written years ago by a man who thought morals were being forgotten. A more stuffy book I have never read. Although they are interesting to keep in mind, especially around some of the dowagers who forget what they did years before, for the most part you can ignore these. Find something better to embroider. I shall have you taken to my arts room where you can pick up some cloth and thread to make something else. Also, I believe you are able to eat with the court. Starting tomorrow you will be allowed to eat whenever you want with the court, my brother will assign you a seat. Also, have you learned to dance? No, we shall remedy that. Music? No? That will not do. I shall have my maid look at your wardrobe as well. If your companion chose those, they may need to be replaced quickly, most especially before the ball and the Season starts. Now, I know you can’t speak, but how you look, your other accomplishments, and being my father’s ward should get you a husband quite nicely. Do you paint or sketch or such? No? That must be at least attempted. I’ll speak to my brother and make the arrangements. I do believe you will be more than ready for the ball and the Season it opens. Now, go rest. The footman outside the door will show you to your rooms and my maid will fetch in my ladies for more tedious embroidery. You need not remain here,” she replied with a swish of her hand towards the door.
   I gathered up my embroidery and had stood up before I turned back to her and spoke for the first time in nearly three months. “They are fine, my lady, they are healthy. The babies are, I mean,” I continued at her perplexed expression. As she made no comment, I turned to go. I only got a few steps before she spoke, clearly uncertain whether to believe me or not.
   “Babies? As in plural?”
   “Yes, My Lady, you carry two healthy boys that will be a handful to raise, no matter what age they are.”
   “You are positive? Ariadne could not even tell if one was healthy.”
   “With all due respect to her, she is too distracted by humanity to listen to the words of the world. The stars are silent enough without her trying to interpret them herself.”
   “But you can listen, you hear more than her?”
   “We hear the same things, I just hear fewer things. Her thoughts, her wants, and the demands of others have added so much noise to her mind that she has trouble hearing her inner voice. My thoughts are simple as have my wants always been and no one demands anything from me. Also, I was taught when young to hear only my inner voice when it speaks. It is now my constant companion.”
   “Speaking of speaking, why have you not spoken before?”
   “I am new to this land and still learning the language. My accent can be thick at times and my vocabulary is limited. I often read words I do not understand. I would not like to embarrass your family after all they have done for me.”
   “Hm, yes, I see your point and can think of no reason to tell my brother nor my ladies that you speak. We can do so alone if needed.”
   “Thank you, My Lady. May I continue on my stitching? It may be meaningless words but it is a challenge and will give me time to think of something to stitch in parlors. When I finish this I will start something else.”
   “I see no reason you cannot finish that. You have a point. Tomorrow you will start a number of lessons, I believe I will have you taught how to use a loom as well, another useful thing for a wife to know. Whether you use it or not is up to you. Do you have a preference as to what instrument you learn?”
   “I do not know what an instrument is, my lady.”
   “Hm, good point. I will ask that you learn all of the ones available and tell me which you would prefer at the end of next week. That will give you time to get past any dislike due to awkwardness and decide on the merits of the instrument itself. Anything else?”
   “Could you inform whoever that I may eat at the big table for only one meal a day for awhile?”
   “Hm, less pressure on you to eat there every meal? Yes, yes, I like that. You can get comfortable in society without getting swamped with it too fast. Very well. However, you will eat at least one meal a day at the table downstairs or at my table with my ladies and possibly my husband, brother, and father and their men. The choice of meal is yours but I will not allow you to hide completely anymore. Is that acceptable?”
   “Yes, My Lady.”
   “Lovely, now, what is your name?”
   “I do not remember my human name. The herd called me Star Chaser but that is what they called every young one.”
   “I am sorry for your loss. You must have been very young when they took you in if you do not remember your name. We shall think of something similar. You should go and rest now, you had a busy morning and the next few days will be hard as you adjust to your new schedule.”
   That said I curtsied and left. The footman took me back to my quarters where I pretended to embroider but really just stared at the fabric debating on what to stitch next. Nothing quite felt right, none of the scenes I thought of. Eventually Meg brought the late-meal with word that my day would begin with dancing lessons shortly after I broke my fast in the morning so I should get to sleep early. It felt good to be able to slip into the cushion on my balcony without trying to hide it from my guard of a tutor.

Madre Awakes

   I had been working with “Lady” Demton two months by the fateful morning I woke up to the red sky. Instantly I jumped out from under the thin blanket I slept under and ran for my wrapper.  Meg, the maid assigned to me, Had showed me how to wrap it so it seemed like a dress when I stood on the balcony, but I would need it for more than that today. This time I awoke terrified. I knew only one thing that could turn the sky that red in the morning and it did not bode well for this town or any other one on this island. She had awoken.
   Glancing out the open doors to the sky beyond, I knew time was running out. They were coming for me and the people would panic, even though they should already be worried. When she woke up without her guardians there, she must have been confused. That confusion obviously didn’t last long, I thought as I raced through the building heading up. I barely noticed anyone as I ran, I knew that what I was doing was improper but it had to be done. If they got here before I was visible, things would get bad, real bad. Up and up I ran, not thinking about the pain I’d be in while I tried to go faster up the spiral staircase. Finally I reached a window large enough to climb out of and jumped down to the roof below just as they reached the city and the outcry went up.They flew straight for the roof they saw me on before the foolish humans could prepare the weapons. Landing rough as we needed to travel fast, the two griffins rushed for the far edge of the roof as I sped towards them. I made it onto the larger one’s back moments before they jumped off the roof to resume flight. Wings outspread, they soared around the building the humans called a palace and headed back for the Great Forest. We flew for nearly an hour over the Forest before I saw her. The great dragon, one of the original Children of the Greatest, was soaring around a growing clearing, fire sprouting from her mouth on her whim.
   “Madre mios, madre mios,” I started to sing as we approached. Immediately she spun on us, her ears fine tuned to the well known song. “Madre mios, madre mios, why do you scare them so? They are not your food, they are not your foe. Madre mios, calm down, I am safe. Relax yourself, madre mios, relax. I am well, you are too. What need is there for anger?” By now the dragoness had quit her query, likely an unfortunate human caravan again, and was following us. No longer breathing fire, I knew she had calmed herself and was ready to talk. With a word to my griffin friends, we flew higher above the trees so I could be eye level with her, though necessarily far away as the griffins would only get so close to the ancient one. “Madre mios, why are you awake? You still have many years before your nap was to end.”
   “I am weary, my dear. I do not wish to be awake, surely you know that. I know not why I am awake, I feared you had woken me in need of assistance. Why else would I be awake?” she queried in her gravelly voice as she spoke the slurred speech of the ancient reptiles in the Great Forest.
   “Are you ready to go back to sleep, Madre dearest?” I asked, well aware what could happen if she chose not to.
   “I am weary, love, and you are well. Why should I stay awake? Let us return and I will sleep.”
   “Good, Madre, you need your sleep,” I said just before she dove under the griffins and I slid off the griffin’s back and onto her hard scales. That done, we flew deeper into the Forest, following her path of destruction, both brand new and centuries old. Finally we came to her cave and though the griffins refused to enter, Agalia flew me deep into the earth that sheltered her ancient den. Once there she lay down and I redid the sleeping spell that started her hibernation cycle. As I listened to her breathing, I searched for what had woken her but found nothing had changed since I had left with the herd so long ago.
   I had nearly left the den, shaking my head at the puzzle, when I stopped. There was one thing I had left here, one thing I didn’t bring to the herd. It had meant nothing while I had been with the herd, but now I was among humans. It may mean something there one day. One day I may wish I had that little bundle that he had wanted. He hadn’t known I had it, he thought they had left it when they brought me. Maybe there was some significance to it in the human world. With that thought in mind, I quietly crawled over the horde Agalia had accumulated to a small cave in back for her guests, or as the villagers had once called them, sacrifices. There in the back of a drawer under a pile of mold-free clothing was the little bundle, still wrapped in the blackened handkerchief I had saved from his fire. That in hand, I hurried up the wide passageway to the griffins and they flew me back so I landed soft enough not to break any bones on my balcony before heading back to their family.

Civilizing Begins

   I awoke to the frantic talking of a young female. I couldn’t understand her rushed accent but she seemed to be explaining something in panic and she was in the room I’d been given. Climbing out of the bed I’d made myself, I adjusted the clothes that had moved to cover less than they should over the night before entering the room through the curtained doorway. Inside I saw the girl I assumed was my maid frantically explaining something to my male visitor from the night before and an older lady. Since my maid had her back to the door I’d entered through, the male was the first to notice me.
   “Enough, she is fine,” he stated with a slight smile, his eyes still on me. “M’lady, lovely to see you this morning. I trust you slept well. I take it that you took the blankets and slept on the porch?  Unusual but it may be what you are used to. This is Lady Demton. She will be showing you how to survive in society. I wish you luck, good day.”
   “I can see I am just in time. Now girl, you must never NEVER again sleep outside! No civilized female would dare sleep outside..” the lady started as the man walked to the door.
   “Madam, loathe as I am to interrupt, I disagree. She is used to sleeping outside. I see no problem that could come of her sleeping on her porch in her own room, as long as she stays low and is not seen indecently clothed by anyone below. We will need her wide awake for training. If she is not comfortable in a bed, perhaps we can find her a cushion that will fit on her balcony.”
   “Of course, Sir. It shall be done,” she replied submissively before he left. As soon as the door closed, she turned to me and I saw by her expression that she did not like being contradicted. “Now, let us begin. I can see I will have my work cut out for me if we are to take the savage out of you in a few months, heathen.”

First Night

   They expected me to sleep here, I thought as I stared at the soft yellow cloth draped above me over the massive bed I lay on. It had been a long day but I couldn’t sleep.
   This morning the caravan of white clothed humans I had traveled with for the past moon, since the destruction of the only family I knew, had dropped me off at some gate and driven off. When I had tried to follow them, to continue on with those that I slightly knew, they sent me back to the gate. The leader of the white clothed humans had spoken to a man dressed in darkened animal skin from neck to knees, not counting his upper arms that were open or the metal wrapped around his lower arms from slightly below the elbows to just above the wrist. He carried a thin but straight stick as tall as he was and disappeared inside the gate when the leader walked away. After I was forced to return to the gate, he returned a few minutes later and a younger man dressed much the same way motioned for me to follow him. He led me into a room filled with drying plants where I stood for a long time before a lady came towards me and reached for me. I started to back away but realized she meant me no harm. I sensed the youngish looking lady was really much older than she looked, in fact, she reminded me of the Seer in many ways. At this point she was merely curious. She spoke to me but I couldn’t understand. When she approached me again, I refused to back up. When she touched my face numerous times I sensed she was confused and scared. Something was happening that she had no clues to and that was very different from what she was used to. Her confusion was blocking her inner sight but she did not realize it and I had no way to tell her. After touching my face a few times she stepped back and looked at me for a moment before spinning and walking off.
    I stood there for a while until someone brought me a liquid filled with juicy meat and soft vegetables that I ate by hand and drank as they gave me nothing else to use. I was aware that to do so was rude to humans, to eat with one’s hands, but I had no choice as they gave me nothing else to use, just the dirt bowl they gave me. I had watched the humans in the caravan have this type of food at night around their fire but they had used small wooden things in their hands to poke the meat and vegetables and a different wooden tool to pick up the liquid. Having only been given the hard meat or raw vegetables I found when I wandered into the forest they refused to enter, I had never learned to use those tools. However, I knew enough to know it was likely rude that I had not been offered those tools to eat my meal. Still, I said nothing when the girl left the food and when she came back some time later to retrieve it. Not that I could say much as the language they spoke was different than the one the white clothed humans had spoken and I had just started to understand what those humans had told me to do.
   Eventually three women had shown up and led me to this room where they took my cloths off and laid my skin coverings, the ones the herd had helped me make that I had worn under the whitish cloths the members of the caravan had insisted I wear, on a wooden curved box against the back wall. Completely naked, they scrubbed me down until my tan skin turned red and they poured extremely hot water over my head. It ran down my skin to pool at my feet in the large wooden bowl where I stood while it cooled and the women roughly dried me before leaving the room. A few moments later a young women barely older than a girl came in to help me dress in a few layers of cloth that covered me completely from neck to toes. That done, she took the whitish cloths I had been wearing and backed out of the room smiling nicely.
   I had then used the rest of the water still in the massive bowl to clean the skins brought in by my trips hunting with the herd and laid them on the stone outside the door to a stone area suspended high above the ground below that allowed me to see for a long distance over the city below. I was just coming in when a man knocked on the door leading to the main room and entered. I immediately sensed a lot of anger was stirred in him at the sight of me though I didn’t know why. He reached out to touch my face and I stopped myself from backing up towards the door outside after a few steps. He meant no harm to me, in fact, his anger seemed to be on my behalf. His gentle stroking of my skin brought slight pain but I doubt I reacted. He muttered something I didn’t understand as he stepped back before standing tall and talking in a language I was surprised to understand. He said he was sorry for my rough treatment and would see to it that they were punished and I was never treated that way again. He understood I likely did not understand the words he was saying but that his father had taken me in as his ward and the son would make sure I was taught all I needed to know to take up that role, beginning with basic manners. In the morning a lady would meet with me to teach me things like how to eat, posture, curtsying, and hopefully how to speak. Once I managed with the basics I could be allowed to eat with the others in the main dinning room under the supervision of my tutor or choose to eat alone with my tutor until I was more comfortable. However, he told me there was a ball set for four moons away and I would be expected to be there and not be an embarrassment or his father would send me to live with a relative until I learned better. The way he spoke was very flowery and managed to say in two hours what I could have said in five minutes, as Hermana would have said, although I don’t believe he spoke for two hours. I had never before understood what she had meant when she used that phrase. Now I did and it almost made me laugh. As much as the herd would speak in riddles, at least they said what they meant. This man was trying to say I needed to learn to be human without saying anything was wrong with me. The way he contradicted himself all the time was most amusing.
    Anyways, eventually he backed out of the room assigned me and I was alone again. I was standing out on the stone area above the city when the girl returned with a long metal tray, I think it’s called, and a cup of hot water with plants in it similar to what I was used to from the herd and a juicy meat, vegetable, and wheat dish with the tools needed to eat it. The girl showed me how to use the tools and returned later to take the empty dishes. I ate very messily and was glad not to have an audience but soon the food was gone and I was again at a loss about what to do. After the tray had been removed, as had the massive bowl of dirty water, the girl had moved some of the cloths on the bed and motioned me to get in after helping me remove some of my clothes.
   Now I was in the bed and couldn’t sleep, even turning this way and that didn’t help. The clothes I still wore continually got tangled in the bed clothes and I couldn’t get comfortable. Finally I got up and stood on the stone area high above the city and stared at the stars. As with so many nights these past moons, the stars held no message but the familiar sight calmed me and I had no wish to leave the night for the stuffy bed. However, I couldn’t sleep there, or could I? The stone was hard and I doubted many humans choose to sleep under the stars when a bed is nearby, but could it be done? Rushing back to the bed I removed some of the thick blankets and dropped them in a messy heap in the stone before returning for a pillow and a thin cloth to lay under. With the cloths under me and some protection from the slight breezes as well as the stars above me, I finally fell asleep.

The Welcome

    The room in the massive stone building had only four people in it. An old man sat in an ornate chair while a younger man sat next to him and they both stared at the man and magically youthful woman a few feet in front of them.
    “Have you any news today?” the older man asked the woman.
    “No, Sire, nothing the normal way, Sire,” she replied.
    “And what about the non-normal ways?” the man asked, leaning forward slightly in his chair. It had been too long since she had shared anything.
    “A girl was brought in the gate this morning. For some reason I was drawn to her.”
    “Have you any idea why?”
    “She is different, Sire, I do not know how to explain it but she was not raised by humans.”
    “What was she raised by?”
    “I do not know but she has a reason to fear humans. What little she knows of us, up until lately, has only shown her terror.”
    “Where is she from?” the seated man asked the man standing a few feet away from the woman.
    “The Easterners who brought her said they found her in a clearing in the Forest that was soaked in blood, as was she. They said they knew not what to do with her but leave her at the gate.”
    “What do you propose we do?”
    “Sire, if I may be so bold, take her in.”
    “Why should I do that?”
    “I do not understand what is happening that the Fates can no longer speak to us, but I do know she is connected. Whatever is coming, she will play a large part in events. It would serve us well to have her on our side.”
    “That I can agree with. We have many empty rooms, see she is put in one and properly clothed. She will be my ward until things are settled. See to it," the man stated to the younger man seated next to him before the conversation moved on to the next item of note.

The Story Begins

   I woke up this morning to see a dark white something swaying above me blocking the light of the sun. I couldn't remember ever seeing that before so I closed my eyes and tried again. It was still there.  The distance looked to be just barely above my head if I stood up. That was when I noticed my other senses. I could hear strange creaking noises, the plodding of unhappy horses at work, and voices speaking in an unrecognizable language. The smells were odd, as if only the most fragrant of plants in the Forest were put together in one place and died, covering the faint scent of human sweat. HUMAN sweat??!! As the ground beneath me suddenly dipped down to my left a little before dipping deeper to the right and leveling off, I scrambled to my knees and looked frantically around. The hard ground was really wood and from it sprouted a whitish "cloth", I think it's called, that went from one side of the wood box to the other, curling overhead. To one side I saw the back of a what seemed to be a person wrapped in a similar but dirtier cloth and holding the ropes to control four sad horses pulling this thing, lined up two by two. Out the other side I saw a person in similar garb riding another horse drawn contraption, wrapped so only its eyes were showing and even those were squinted.
   Instantly I hugged my knees to my chest as I recalled the distruction wrought by people in similar garb but the cloths were black, a nearly pure black that warned too late of their intent. They were dead, all of them, Gazer, Moonbeam, Starlight, Student, Scholar, the Children, even the Seer was dead. I could still see the distruction around Starlight's dead body, the blood on thier metal as they rode off on the armoured horses, the blood silently screaming as it seeped into the ground, the body pieces laying all around as I collapsed to their screams in my head. So much pain, so much death, I thought as I again surrendered to the welcome darkness.
   When I opened my eyes again, a human female was bending beside me saying something. She was trying to sooth me, I figured, but I slipped away from her hands, hands that can do damage at any second. But no, I felt no danger here, these people meant me no harm. Closing my eyes, I recalled what the seer had said the morning of the attack.
    "'Tis time for you to return, Young One. The time has come for you to find your place among your people."
    "I don't want to return, Most Wise One, they bring pain, you all bring peace and calm," I replied.
    "Yes, love, I know you have no wish to return but you must. The stars call for you."
    "Can you at least come with me?"
    "I wish that we could, Young One. I know that would make it easier on you, but the stars say that this journey you must take must be taken alone. There is turmoil in the stars, this we have all seen. What little can be understood these days must be obeyed. You can help clear the stars, the confusion among them and bring harmony again. You must follow this path as the stars summon you to."
   "I understand, Most Wise One. I just don't want to leave."
   "Many of us are called upon to do things we do not want to do but we must obey the Fates," he had replied with a far off look in his eyes as if he too had been asked to do something he had not wanted to. Moments later the black wraiths had descended upon us as I reeled in pain all over my body. Defenseless and in shock, I had watched the gloved hands swing the sharp metal at my peaceful friends as the panic grew. Starlight had fallen on me, begging me to stay down until they left with her last breath. After the horses had ridden off I managed to push her massive body off me and staggered to my feet, her blood dripping down me. The screams of the dead bogged me down and I collapsed in the middle of the circle they had been herded into. That was my last memory before waking up in this contraption.
   Opening my eyes, I saw the wizened woman again. More accurately, I saw her wizened eyes through the layers of nearly white cloth as she handed me something. It looked like reddish tree bark and felt much the same. She was saying something, trying to get me to do something with it but I didn't understand. Finally she pulled a smaller piece from her cloth and broke off a much smaller size and put it in her mouth before starting to chew it and pointing at the piece in my hand. Reluctantly I broke off a small piece of the meat in my hand and stuck it in my mouth. The taste was bitter and bland, nearly tasteless and I realized this single piece of meat, a little bigger than my hand, was tough enough to likely last the whole day. It wasn't like the sweet and juicy stuff the others used to feed me, the fresh squirrel or rabbit we got a few times a new moon. No, this stuff was old and dry but I sensed it wouldn't kill me so I ate it.
   It was time to start my journey to find my place in my world. It was time to look foward and act as these humans act. No looking back. I can never look back.