DCCLXXVII

The dawn was just starting to make itself seen along the horizon. I laid back in the grass still in the process of catching my breath and letting the heat seep out of my body into the cool grass.

Well ... what now? I mean ... what the fuck? Was there some massive conspiracy against me? I regretted asking that mental question as soon as it formed .. for I was afraid of the answer. I would not have been surprised if there had been an resounding thunderous "YES" left to echo around me. But there was only silence. That same nagging frustrating silence the Sky always gave me.

Fuck the Sky. Fuck the dreams. Fuck the woman and the tem. I gave the universal sign to the Sky that I figured it as #1 on my shit list. I had no weapons in hand and I was not mounted. My weapons had been destroyed .. save my quiva ... along with Folgers and my saddle and gear. So .. fuck it.

I was going to lay there until something good happened. Or until I got my breath. I wanted a drink. I wanted to break something. I wanted to tear it apart with my bare hands. I wanted to do something that made it all different .. the woman was NOT dead ... the tem was NOT a pile of ash. The pain in my chest reminded me I needed to redress the wound ... with what exactly? Gesture to the Sky again.

There was no way I was making it back to camp in a day and a half now. Like it mattered at this point. Let the omen rot from the inside out like the maggot infested corpse it was. Not a damn thing I could do about it at this point. It could go up in smoke like the rest. I was fucked. The dream war was fucked. And I was damned happy about it all too.

A slow exhale before I slid a glance over to where Beo had come to sit up and lean his forehead on his knees. And what was up with that anyway? Beo .. I mean. Was he protecting me? Had he saved my life or gone a long way to making it much more difficult. Did he have to kill her? Was it the impulse of the moment .. the motive to save my life ... or something else? Just who was Beo here for? I was still not sure.

And I had to ride that scrap-heap of a kaiila back to camp? Could my day get any worse?

I regretted asking that one also .. right about the time it formed on my mental tongue.