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 49
Numico listens and becomes entangled again in the beauty of Cabilah's voice. Enchanted and slowly falls into a trance. When he opens his eyes, he stares into a snout filled with teeth. The razor-sharp points are less than a meter away from his face. As soon as he realizes what is going on, he talks to the dog.
Apparently, the dog doesn't understand him because it starts growling more dangerously than it already did. It comes closer one paw at a time, jaws open. The deep dark brown eyes focused on its prey, which remained motionless while still trying to communicate with the beast.
The dog clearly is not interested in a good conversation; it drops down and with a jump clamps its jaws around the body part that it can grasp first. Determined not to separate them again until its prey lies still and does nothing but bleed. The beast pushes off and opens its enormous jaw so that its long teeth seem to float through the air like spearheads. Its snout and then its body land on top of Numico.
Numico lies still, buried under a large portion of the dog, which probably weighs more than the boy. I, standing meters behind him, panting, raise my hand. "Nothing to thank me for," I say. Numico looks extremely pale and does not think my semi-laconic attitude is justified.
“Martio, this isn't funny,” his voice still trembles. “That animal did not understand its own language or did not want to understand it. Something is seriously wrong here.”
Not understanding, I say, “Maybe you spoke the wrong dialect.” Again Numico makes clear that he doesn't think it's funny.
“I know you don't understand, but believe me, something isn't right here. This is not a wild animal. There is more going on here; this dog has been humiliated and tormented by people. Yes, probably tortured. In its eyes, in its voice, nothing but hatred and fear could be heard. It had only one purpose, to destroy. Even those who understand him are enemies. This animal is a weapon, nothing more than a weapon."
“And that's not the strangest thing,“ the words come out in fits and starts.
Numico takes a few deep breaths, puts the water bag to his lips, and takes a few long sips. From my vest pocket, I take a small bladder with the drink that Kosa made and offer it to him. “This will help you recover from the shock.“
Numico takes a few sips and hands it back to me. I also take a sip before putting the rest away.
“Tell me what's stranger than an animal that doesn't listen to you,” I immediately follow with a 'sorry', knowing that this is not the time for jokes. But tension has the effect on me that I fall into making lame, sometimes insufferable, jokes and often don't know how to stop in time.
I'm seriously looking at Numico. “Tell me, boy, I'm listening.”
When Numico starts talking, Retsj stokes the fire a bit, and Cabilah rushes over. She looks shocked when she sees the huge dog lying there but sits down in silence.
All eyes are on Numico. “As you know, I sometimes have dreams, Martio calls them visions. They remain images of things that my consciousness is not familiar with. But the moment I dream them, I know things. Things I could never know."
"I dream of a man, always the same man, high in a white tower with a strange round top. He has deep eyes, a strange beard, and his face has no emotion. He tells me he rules the world. Since our tribe has almost no hierarchy, I do not understand this. But I feel he means it. I could even feel that the world around him believed what he said."
"My reason for taking this trip was to get to know this man. To point out to him the impossibility of his idea. To convince him that the world cannot be possessed, to let him experience emotion by reminding him of its beauty."
"As it happens, I have seen this man many times before, but when Cabilah's song just carried me away and I saw him again, he was also aware of my presence. He looked at me as if he knew I was there."
"Never before did I feel like he saw me. Until now I was, as it were, a spectator, invisible and inaudible. Something has changed that and as I stood face to face with him, I saw the doubt growing in his eyes. I felt that he was trying to make a decision, but he didn't succeed. I felt his inner struggle and his strength turning into fear. That fear changes him, his human form takes that of a huge dog, almost similar to this one.” Numico lifts the head of the animal next to him.
“The man-dog leaves the tower with a jump descending to where I stand. Startled, I opened my eyes, something I would rather not have done. Because even though I was no longer dreaming, the dog had not disappeared."
"I owe my life, or at least my health, to the fact that Martio saw what was happening just in time."
"It wasn't the same dog, but it's no coincidence. This animal, this weapon of a beast, bears the marks of this man," Numico takes the dog's right ear between his fingers. “Literally the spurs,” he says as his fingers jerk the ear. The ear tears and Numico holds something up. It's too small to see clearly. In the light of the fire, it looks like a ring.
He gives it to Retsj, who passes it on to Cabilah. When she hands it to me, I see that all the blood has drained from her face. The story of Numico was not so blood-curdling that this is its effect, I think to myself, while I inspect the gem. I see that the ring is some kind of earring. An earring with a symbol as a closure. A flower and a pearl, again.
Click The Next Button for The Next Chapter
