Harmony

A Night by the Fire

After an enjoyable meal, and complements all round to Tau for creating it, Le settled with the group around the fire, resting on her backpack, all packed and ready for the walk in the morning. There was a significant amount of clothing available from the aircraft's cargo hold, so she had prepared some more practical walking gear for the morning: a pair of brown velvet-like pants and an earthy-coloured lightweight cotton-like shirt. Much more appropriate. She could not work out, though, why the clothing was way more advanced than she had ever seen before. She lived in Australia: a western country. No-one there made clothing anything like this. She had knowledge of denim flares, cotton t-shirts, woollen jumpers. This material was made of other fibres she didn't even recognise. It was flexible, soft and light. Why had she not seen it before? Le was still wearing her pink dress for now though. It was also constructed of some unfamiliar material. Something to work out later. Maybe at the village.

She was peaceful and content. This was partially because the packing for the next day's walk was done, and partially because she'd just eaten. It was also because she enjoyed the company of her new acquaintances. They'd only known each other for half a day, but everything was so easy. She could talk to anyone and they would listen. She could listen to anyone talk and be genuinely interested in what they had to say. Without memory it was hard to say if this was normal or not. She had a vague feeling that it wasn't, perhaps informed by her knowledge bank, and that feeling intrigued her.

For the moment, she sat silently and observed them all. Rais, Tau and Bia were deep in discussion. Rivo was quietly watching Prina, who was looking up at the sky. Le smiled to herself at this. She glanced at Prina, who was momentarily lost in admiration. Le followed her gaze and as she did, was amazed at the clarity and beauty of the thousands and thousands of stars that were visible to her. "The sky beautiful," she said. "So many star."

"Yes." Prina didn't even look away.

Le liked that the Milky Way was prominent in the centre of her view and guessed there must be millions of stars in that small section of the sky. It made her feel insignificant just thinking about it. A cluster of brighter stars within the section of the sky she was staring at stood out from the surrounding, dimmer stars. This must mean they were closer. The name Pleiades came to her, but it was an uncertain piece of knowledge. She dismissed it for now. They were quite pretty, and she felt peace and tranquillity just looking at them. Her thoughts seemed to drift off into an alternate kind of reality, where the whole scene around her faded for a moment. It was a curious sensation, and then it was gone.

She tuned back in to her fireside companions, feeling a little spaced out at what had just transpired in her mind. Rivo was now talking, responding to a question from Rais; a question she had perceived but not heard clearly because of her mind state.

"Switzerland. It has to be. I walk here one time. It look like northern Italia, a bit, but I think no; it's Switzerland."

"You sure, Rivo?" Rais sounded like he wanted to believe him.

"Almost certain. I do not think I have been right here, but somewhere same. I walk near Bern one time, to get away from bad things in Italia." Rivo might have been quoting from memory, which was curious to Le. So maybe some of the others had actual memories? She didn't think that she did.

"Like what, Rivo?" Prina wasn't gazing at the sky anymore now that Rivo was talking.

Rivo turned to Prina but was speaking to the group. "Well, Italia is not great place right now. I can see in my mind shootings on the streets, demonstrations. Police in riot clothes. Things like that. I don't remember what I did, but I have images in my mind. I must have been there. You know what I mean? Italia in some places – not so nice place to be. Some people want to physically fight for better things, no matter what side of the debate they are on. I don't like far right or far left. I would like the in-between. Where we all get along. People don't like this. They want class war. Not me."