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Tuuli listens to the description of the people and what they have told Mies, Njir and Arn as their point of origin. How they have come to explore new paths and villages for trading and how they were surprised to find someone to form trading relationships with and promised to return.
He is worried, that much is sure. The wrinkles around his eyes have grown deeper and his eyes a little darker than usual for the bright and happy elder man.
"Father…" Arn asks concerned.
He can read his father even better and is as alarmed by the reaction as Mies is, looking at some of the other village men who have assembled.
Tuuli slowly looks towards the fire contemplating his answer. "There is no village on the other side of the mountains, sons, none that has been inhabited in many generations."
Arn and Mies look at each other.
"But they said…" Mies begins.
"They have lied to you."
"Why should they do such a thing?" Mies inquires. "I mean, why should they lie about their origin, they didn't look as if they meant to harm anyone."
Fine, the Doctor Brown had not known much about what she said was her profession but there was still the off chance that neither sleep flowers nor triple-horns lived on the other side of the mountains.
Tuuli shakes his head. "Why should they say the truth?" He leans forward, fire reflecting in his eyes. "There are many people out there that do not cherish life and peace like we do, they need to explore and expand their grounds and they do not honour other people's traditions or gods."
He pushes himself to his feet with a bone-tired sigh, which for the first time since Mies has been with them, shows a little of the age the elder man must really be.
"The bringers of shadows, those that overcast the world with darkness and conjured the time of ice and frost upon our forefathers, came here much with the same intentions," he explains. "They talked about safety and protection, about trading and evolving, but what did it bring our people? Nothing but death and cold, until the great Mother and her sons sacrificed themselves to bring the light back…"
Arn seems to know what is coming now; Mies does not.
"Father."
"We will go and ask the Mother what it is we shall do should these people return," Tuuli says after a long moment of hesitation. "You will both accompany me my sons."
Arn and Njir seem to know what that means and nod before leaving to gear up for the journey. Mies can see Arn's wife by the hearth fire, looking worried as he tells her that he will leave and frowns at the worry one simple visit of strangers can create in their community, even if he has to admit the group of Lorne's men was a little bit strange.
"You as well," Tuuli says and a hand comes to rest on Mies' shoulder, squeezing hard. "It may have been a sign that the Mother sent you to us at this time and made you the first to meet with these people."
Mies chews his lip, hesitating; he knows where the place is the Mother is supposed to live in this time of the season. When she doesn't walk the circle of the sun, she sleeps close to the spot in the ice where he had been found. A place only spoken of in whispers and stories the children should not hear. The most sacred place of them all, the one their village has protected and cherished for unnumbered seasons. It is what makes their village special and well known amongst the other settlements, what makes it a goal to pilgrimage from the other villages at the end of every dark season.
"Let's hope that," Mies says after another long moment and Tuuli smiles and leaves him to change as well.
He isn't sure he wants to go with them, doesn't know why either, so he swallows his hesitation and slips into the layers of clothing that the cold temperatures up in the mountains require. He has not visited the place since he was found and perhaps that is all there is to his insecurity, that and nothing else.
But maybe not, maybe it's the dreams and the sky all over again. The longing for the blue hasn't gone away at all, and running around in the forest and hunting things seems like a minor distraction. Somehow the meeting with Lorne's men has made him just more desperate for it than he was before; it makes the longing sharp and fresh again. He looks up to the hole in the ceiling through which the fire's smoke is supposed to escape and catches a glimpse of turquoise and white.
"You should not go there."
He turns and finds Vinte standing not far behind him, worry clearly written in her eyes. She looks at him as if he is doing something very wrong as he pulls the fur coat over his shoulders, something very, very wrong.
"You really should not go," she says and puts one of her crippled hands on his arm to keep him from turning and following the other men.
They must hurt, he thinks, and covers her hand with his own. "I have to."
"Because Tuuli asked you to?" she says without accusation in her words, merely worry for him.
"Because the strangers could become a problem."
"Do you think they will be one?" she asks and he is not sure.
He has started seeing Lorne in his dreams and is not sure if he is there because he has just met the man or if he was supposed to be there before he had seen him in the woods. It is confusing him more than the fact that Ilren has been replaced by Elizabeth and that he is about to die in his dreams.
Which alone should freak him out a lot.
"I don't know."
