Welcome to my seemingly endless journey.
A trip that will take you to places I might have visited many moons ago.
It´s a tale that came back to me when I meditated on one of my past lives. A life I told you about in my unbelievable true story.
As promised in that story I will now share this story with you.
Chapter 48
“There, beyond that mountain, less than a day's walk away..., was my village,” Cabilah utters after swallowing the leftover tears.
“Right here on this mountain is where I looked back, once and then kept running. It was early morning and I expected to see those men following me, but I saw no one."
"Here, at this place, I left everything behind, my father, my mother, my village and all that was familiar. Sorry for those tears, it's all coming back to me now. All the memories I put away, all the tears I had hidden.” Tears roll down her cheeks. Her voice squeaks and cracks as she recalls fragments of memories.
Numico and Retsj are there to offer her support. I keep my distance. Comforting was never my strong suit, I never know what words can ease the pain. I'm always afraid of making it worse and because of that fear I usually do.
We could go on for several more hours, but something tells me not to cross this forest today. I also don't want to use the edge of the forest, because that rider doesn't sit well with me.
On the west side of the stream, the vegetation seems a bit rougher, at least a bit higher. That could possibly be a thicket of some kind of undergrowth. From here it seems large enough to obscure us from view. I have this weird notion not to be visible from the edge of the forest.
After Cabilah has managed to control her tears again, we descend the mountain through the tall grass. Low thorn bushes with vicious points make it hard to get down this mountain without scratches. Judging from the blossom, these plants would bear fruit at a different time of the year.
Unfortunately, just like the past few days, we will again live on roots, nuts, and seeds.
The stream may yield some fish. Although I don't know if that is as appetizing to the other. In any case, I wouldn't object to it, it would be a welcome change from the rations we've been enjoying for the past few days. I certainly miss the delicious food from Kosa's wife.
The warm afternoon makes this the best time for fishing. The lack of oxygen due to the heating of the water causes the fish to come to the surface more often. Then it's just a matter of waiting for the right moment and skewering them. Something that you learn as a young boy and in which the excellers continue to grow.
It had never really interested me, probably because I didn't excel, but I had always been able to spear a few fish. My mouth was already watering, but I didn't dare to count myself rich yet. After all, you never know.
I remove the last bones of the fish, which had been deliciously cooked over the flames of the fire. Even Retsj couldn't resist them. Only Numico thanked me and said that it smelled delicious, but that he had consciously never eaten an animal and that hunger had not yet driven him to the point of madness to do so now.
It felt good to eat something different again. Soon memories of the overloaded table at Kosa came flooding back. The variety of this trip was great, both in landscape and in food.
How long has it been since I thought I would die in complete solitude? How long was it between that moment and the moment I managed to save a woman I barely knew from death?
My life and my world had already been turned upside down several times, yet I felt myself getting stronger. That gave me the feeling that we were on the right track. Perhaps the latter was more because nothing contradicted it. Everything seemed to be going well, of course, we had had some delays here and there, but there was no planned goal. There was no due date, so any delay was just a detour and nothing more.
Twilight set in late, it had been a beautiful mild early evening. The sky had many colors. In the east, it was already getting dark, but in the west above the mountains, the sky turned pink-red changing into orange-yellow, and then ended in an aquatint with soft blue edges. The few clouds above us partly reflected the pink glow, a beautiful palette of colors in a sky that would soon turn black.
Retsj and I decided to get wood for the fire. Numico would stay with Cabilah, who wanted to wash herself in the water on the other side of the undergrowth. I hoped that the cold water could wash away some of the memories and sadness of the past day.
While wandering in search of wood we heard her voice in the distance, for the first time since she had been with us, she had started to sing again. It was wonderful to hear and feel her voice, but at the same time, I was afraid that her singing could carry so far that it would betray our presence here.
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