Life in Each Other

They stopped a little further down the road, calling on the following to stop around them. Camping at the top of a small hill with a stream running below it, they watered the horses and filled every container they possessed, as they knew the stream would be nothing but a muddy trickle by morning, sucked dry by the people of the following. They gathered firewood, enough for the night. Illumina felt sick looking at the countryside around them, knowing that everything would be gone by morning. Every tree would be stripped bare, the grass eaten or burnt; every creature in the vicinity unable to hide or flee would be dead. The death march would utterly consume the place and leave nothing behind it but bare earth and a foul stench.

Later that evening, they were all sitting round the fire; Manueline looked to Illumina and asked, "What do you think will happen tomorrow?"

"I don't know." She took a deep breath and covered her face with her hands for a moment and then looked up again. "I don't know. The people of Norton might try attacking the following, but I doubt it. I think most of their mounted men were lost at the bridge. I hope they will talk to us, agree to help us and accept that 'helping' means feeding the following and giving them somewhere to live." She shook her head, "I don't know. It just feels as though its taking too long, things are going too slowly; too many things have to come together. I don't see how we can get out of it all and still have anything left of ourselves. Maybe everything has to be scorched down to bare earth; everything, everyone has to die before the story can end."

Wals had been sitting on the other side of the fire. They were all sitting on the ground. He got up and came round the fire to sit next to Illumina. "You mustn't look at things that way. There are ends other than death, not every story ends when everyone in it dies. Please Illumina; you have given us all hope and strength. You have seen a purpose in all this where the rest of us failed. I look at you and I see life, not death. I still see it. I know sometimes it is hard to see ourselves, but look at us, see yourself in our eyes."

Illumina was close to tears, she took his hand squeezing it and smiling at the same time. "Look at yourself. Its true for all of us, we see life in each other. Despite everything happening around us there is life in us yet and that's what matters." She looked round the circle, not realizing that Nina was missing or at least sitting next to her and shifted back so Illumina did not see her. Nina was shaking again, her head going from side to side, a blank lifeless look in her eyes. All of them were focused on Illumina and no one saw her.

There was quite a crowd round the fire; as well as Manueline and Libby, there were Cosimo and Felice, Brac and Drem, Tormond and Silis, Wals and Illumina. Tormond and Silis had fallen behind during the day but caught up in the evening. They just walked into the camp and took a place by the fire greeted by the others as they arrived. Daisy and the wolf were sitting on the edge of the light watching the crowd around them.

The spring was over and summer was upon them. It was the first really warm night they had experienced since setting out from Loro. There was no need for the fire for anything other than light and cooking. It also offered a sense of focus and security for the group. Sitting round the fire gave visible evidence of their existence as a group and made them feel close and comfortable in each other's company.

Cosimo sat watching the exchange between Wals and Illumina. He disappeared for a moment and came back carrying a small single reed instrument. Illumina clapped her hands in delight before he even sat down. "Cosimo, you haven't played for us once on this trip."

He smiled as he sat down, "There hasn't been much opportunity. I will play, if you will dance."

Illumina promptly stood up. "A three step then."

Cosimo looked at her for a moment still smiling as he raised the pipe to his lips and started to play. The pipe had a surprisingly low, mellow sound for such a small instrument. He watched Illumina and played a slow three-four melody. She laughed responding to the challenge he gave her. Illumina had expected a faster rhythm but Cosimo deliberately posed a problem for her as the dancer, making the rhythm of the tune far slower than it was ordinarily played. Illumina stood for a moment, swaying from side to side, listening to the tune. She took a step and flowed into the dance adapting her movements to the pace of the tune Cosimo gave her. The group was sitting round the fire but well back as there was no need for warmth, leaving Illumina plenty of space to dance between them and the fire. She started circling round the fire, circling and turning as she did so. First Felice and then Manueline started a slow clapping, catching the off beats of the three-four time. Wals just sat watching Illumina, smiling at her, content to be a silent spectator. Illumina went round three times and then stopped, swaying in front of him.

"I'm not dancing on my own all night. Come and dance with me."

He laughed, "I don't know how."

"It's easy, stand up." She reached down taking his hand and pulling him to his feet. She stepped back looking down at their feet. "Like this. Step back, step to the side, feet together, only I do the opposite. Then we turn and you step forward and I step back" She stepped back to him taking one hand, putting the other round her waist. "No, your left foot first, try again." She got him to move with her and soon enough the two of them were circling the fire to Cosimo's slow, mesmerizing melody.

Illumina had never heard Wals sing. She was taken by surprise when he started a wordless counter melody to Cosimo's tune. He sang very high, Illumina thought for a moment it must be Manueline singing, as she knew Nina could not sing that high. She almost felt as though the voice was her own as she could feel her body responding to the sound. Wals was moving his mouth but the correspondence between what he appeared to be doing and the sounds he was making eluded her. They went right round the fire before Illumina accepted that the voice was his. Then she embraced it, taking the voice into herself the same way the dance took her into the tune played by Cosimo. Although there was sadness in it, there was grace and beauty as well. There was also a profound complexity to it. Illumina had heard the tune many times before but never realized that there were endless melodic implications to it. She allowed Wals to lead her through the dance, taking her through a landscape that was completely new to her; a landscape that, before then, she never even knew existed.

Cosimo obviously recognized the landscape as he subtly changed the tune, following Wals' lead; adding ornamentation or breaks in the rhythm that clearly followed from what Wals did with the melody.

Wals and Illumina danced round the fire for a while then Libby got up and danced with Manueline. He turned out to be an accomplished dancer and quickly taught Manueline the steps. The four of them swapped back and forth sometimes Manueline dancing with Wals, sometimes the women dancing together, Wals and Libby laughing with the others as they danced with each other.

Cosimo swapped between different three-four melodies but stayed in the same mode, the tunes being slow and tender, honoring the real affection between them all round the fire. Manueline danced with Felice who was also very good, leaving Libby standing on his own for a while. He turned to Nina, still sitting on the edge of the light, holding a hand out to her, not saying anything. She stood, tears in her eyes as she walked up to him and he took her in his arms, taking her into the circle of dancers round the fire. She was not sobbing, her breath seemed quite even, but tears ran down her face as she looked up into the darkness of the night. Libby said nothing, letting her cry as he led her in the dance, eventually holding her against his chest, not really dancing any longer, just rocking her in the rhythm of the melody as Cosimo played and Wals sang his strange counter melody that took them to worlds they had never seen before.

Illumina made a point of drawing all of them into the dance in some way. Drem and Brac laughed when she made them stand and learn the basic steps. They were both graceful in their movements but strange as they had a different dance tradition among their own people. They never did partner dances and naturally drifted off into solo versions of the steps Illumina showed them. She also persuaded Tormond and Silis to dance, teaching Tormond the steps first and then leaving him to teach them to Silis. They laughed and complained they were too tired and too old to dance but joined in anyway until practically everyone except Cosimo was dancing round the fire. One by one, they stopped and sat down again until only Illumina and Wals and Manueline and Libby were still dancing. Libby had taken Nina back to her chosen place on the edge of the light leaving her there with a kiss and a smile. Illumina watched him, also smiling and shaking her head, amazed at how much he had changed. His compassion for Nina was a remarkable thing to witness; to her, it showed what he could have been and what he might yet become.

To follow this thread in the story go to: Just Beginning to Open

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