Butterflies of Blood

Chapter 12

The sound of laughter and the crackle of a fire drifted on the twilight breeze accompanied by the smell of hot food. Tai tilted his head back to look up at Aias who was perched on the rim of the wagon's overhead cover, his feet dangling beside Tai's head.

"Pull up for a sec," Aias said.

Tai clicked at Oberon and gently pulled him to a stop. Allowing Aias to kick off and land beside the wagon in a low crouch to absorb the impact. He rose and headed into the forest, his cloak lifting on the breeze. Lupine, who had been curled up on Jokarmun's back, jumped to the driver's seat, then to the ground and trotted after Aias.

He walked until he was well out of sight and then sought out the oldest tree. It was an old wood and most the trees were tall with age but to his left stood a true giant. Its base at least four times as wide as his waist and looking up it vanished into the green above. He pressed a hand to its trunk, lowered his head and allowed the life to flee his body, leaving it deathly still as the wind whispered past him.

Lupine lay with her head on her paws, her eyes roving lazily over the trees however her ears twitched and flicked at every sound.

Aias skimmed over the ground, the cool wind tugging him gently along. He slid between the trees, bumping into them and then adjusting to run beside them. He was drawn to the fire, the heat burning up the air and spitting it upward, mesmerising in its power.

Aias hauled himself out of the flow and dragged his wits back to him, barely in time to avoid the burning heat that would make him simple wind. He drifted back and then dropped lower to the ground. He pushed off and flew towards the outside of the circle, allowing his senses to quest with the wind and figure out his surroundings. There were twelve caravans parked in a loose circle around the raging fire. Most were painted in bright colours and some even bore elaborate designs. The clearing funnelled off the main road, the path just wide enough for an average caravan. Aias followed the flow of air around the group, counting people as he went, ten, twenty, twenty-five, thirty-six. People were clustered around the fire, telling stories and laughing while they monitored food cooking over hot coals. A young woman sat in the doorway of her caravan and nursed a baby who slept peacefully in her arms. To her left three young men were dragging large branches in from the edge of camp and others were braking them into usable logs, leaving the biggest to be burned in half during the night. At first they appeared to be Lyeron, red and brown hair framing square faces set with and grey-green eyes. However as Aias looked closer he saw other features too, the nursing woman had the half brown skin of an ocean child and others were built slight like Amarians. A girl and a boy playing a vigorous game of tag both had straight black hair but their skin was lighter that most Saine folk. Aias took his eyes of the people and turned his attention to the dogs that lay tied contentedly to the caravans, there was around fifteen of them and another four sat beside their owners, patiently waiting their share of the food. They ranged from knee height to mid-thigh and their features were reminiscent of wolves. Their fur was mainly brown or blonde but some wore a coat of salt and pepper. Finally he checked out the horses. Fourteen of them all up and fit looking. They were tied to trees by long leads and left to graze at the edge of camp.

Finally Aias let himself be dragged towards the fire, watching it closely. As soon as he felt the warm air catch and start moving upwards he joined it. The current bore him up high, above even the trees and into the open sky and from there he made his way back to his body.

Aias slid back into his body. He had to gasp for air and wait for the world stop rocking around him. He focused on his hand which was pressed to the tree and let it ground him. Then he lifted his head and smiled down at Lupine, she rose and gave him a happy grin.

"At-a-girl, all's well. Looks like there may be a show tonight," Aias said, leaning down to ruffle her fur.

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