(V) Silhouettes

Things don’t go always as you plan and while I was satisfied that I’m not late with my expedition, something unexpected changed my situation. When I waked up after the first night with my new mates – the “pariah”, the one with the long hair was playing at a some sort of a guitar (which seemed to be modified to fit his bag). I guess that people who travel a lot don’t have too many ways to have fun. Standing there, near the river, at the sunrise, was obviously that these three persons are innocent.

We’ve gathered our bags and leaved. In the first hours we’ve moved slowly; we’ve been gathering some mushrooms, I’ve made some juice from pine cones again (that was a surprise for my fellows) and ‘Oldie’ tracked the migrating groups trail. This part of the trip was nice; the mountains and the cool air were improving my mental state. I think that it was also the relief that the group of three is harmless.

As we were getting closer to the migrating group, we’ve planned that I have to present my self as a trader. The goods are missing, but I know that I can invent a story to explain my lack of goods. I would present my self as a doctor, but I have no knowledge about medicine (except surviving skills) and I could easily fell for a simple scratch. Anyway, the equipment that I carry it shows enough what I’m not. We were at less than two hours of walk to the cave. The road in front of us is turning left after a hill and then goes right again and in the distance I can see some campfires, crowd and people moving, working and lots of action.

As I stand now I can’t see all of that anymore. While gathering food from the bushes, I’ve felt in a trap. The migrating people have arrived here with enough time before us to set traps for animals, and one of these traps had pointed me with the legs against the sky and the head against the soil. A rope tied in a tall tree caught my legs and launched me into the sky, but not before hitting my head in the dirt. I’ve been unconscious for one hour after my calculations. When I waked up I was dizzy and standing with the head directed to the soil. The rope was crunching by time to time as it was moved by me and the wind. From here I can see “Oldie” standing below me and watching how I was swinging and floating above it. From a not so big distance a few silhouettes struggles to put a tree down. I can’t see too much in that direction as the mist dominates the atmosphere now, but they are for sure members of the migration group. The sunset doesn’t fight anymore with the mist. Two of my fellows are preparing again to camp, while the one with beard tries to climb the tree to get me down. It was obvious that this day is ruined and we have to wait till tomorrow morning to leave.

I can see clearly the silhouettes while hitting with their axes in the tree. The wood spreads the echoes of their beats and as I am hanged with my head down, I can feel the air vibrating around me. I’m bleeding quite badly. The head wounds usually bleed more and since I’m standing like this, all the blood is directed to the head. I can see blood drops that falls around my old dog.

Sooner or later I will get down from here. Either “Long Beard” will cut the rope, either I will have enough strength to cut it, or hopefully not, the hunter will get its prey. For the moment, until I regain my strength, I must make a plan to test those herbs. Is the last night before the big meeting and I must to understand the effects of the herbs over the mind. So, here it is how it should happen: first, we will drink the tea together; during this time I need to make my questions heard; also, I have to think at something that they should think that is one of my hidden thoughts. After going to sleep, in my dream I should be in their persons, answering the questions. In their dreams they will be me and here my thoughts. Tomorrow morning I will have the results.

The plan is good, but what exactly do I need to test? If I can manipulate their thoughts? Or if I can find secrets that interests me? Probably both. First I will try to manipulate them. While drinking tea, I will think that the pine cone juice is poisoning. And what secret they might have? I think that they know more about the migration’s group leader. I remember that once, while talking about how is the migrating group organized, they’ve been evasive.

The migrating group has established their base for the winter. Probably a part of them will stay inside the cave, and else will have tents built out of the trees that are lumbered in the vicinity. It’s a good position. The cave is safe as a shelter, the river is quite close, so they can fish, the wood surrounds this place and they have fire to warm. I wonder if their leader really believes what is prophesying or is just a way to take advantage of these people.
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The mist is gone by now. I can’t sleep right now, even if is past after midnight. I’ve been unconscious one hour when I’ve felt in the trap and other two or three hours after I’ve lost a large quantity of blood standing hanged with my head down. I couldn’t even try to release my self from that trap. “Long Beard” have untied the rope and he felt badly too. I appreciate his almost four hours of effort. I’ve recovered myself fast with a big quantity of fresh water from the river and a few birds toasted by my fellows. I’ve reached my purpose for this night; I and the three “pariah” shared the tea and I gave them a cigarette too. I’ve left one to smoke alone while walking with “Oldie”. Now I can only go to sleep and start dreaming. I will see tomorrow what I can do with the herbs in the future.

SIDENOTE

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I don't know if the man dominates the nature or is dominated by it. Sometimes a person when is in a dramatic situation senses that the nature has the same tense as its feeling, or the atmosphere around has the same pattern. This would look like a moment of panic, but in reality I think that the nature contributes somehow to this tension. Is true that the man is inducting to itself this feeling by imagining that a tree has a scary form, which in a different situation would look banal, but the natures offers the stimulents, the tools and sometimes the reason for this feelings. At this moment the person is at the border between normal and panic and at any single wind pale it might fell on one of these sides...

(IV) Pariah

I desperately need to rest. I am close to the migrating group. In two days I will catch them. My problem is that there is a small group which stands between us. They travel at about half of hour of walking in the front of me and they move slowly and with lots of stops. They slow me down and I’m still expecting changes on the road or on their behavior to see which should be my best move. I can’t make a detour. At the right is the river; at the left is this large cliff which will just kill my feet.
First time when I’ve seen them was last night before the dark. Actually the dog was acting strange and I become alerted. I’ve made a stop and I double checked the footsteps, the surrounding trees, and the riverside and finally after I’ve passed the corner of a hill I’ve seen a campfire. I got close and I watched the people around it carefully. There were three people in this small group. One was taking care of the fire, one was cutting something, probably some food, and the last man was standing on a trunk while speaking to his mates. The man speaking was trying to explain something thinking after his gestures. His long beard was shaking while he was talking. The man who was throwing woods on the fire has a blonde long hair and seems to be the tallest among them. I was careful with them because I believed that they are either members of the migrating group, either the hunters of that group. My first think was to check if there aren’t other people from their group in their vicinity. After that I’ve checked if they have athletics body. They have. That means that I have to be careful further on. After about two hours of watching, one of them leaved at about 150 steps from the others and collected something from the bushes, an animal probably. The ease that the animal was collected makes me believe that they had a trap and there could be more traps. So I couldn’t get too close to analyze more. Last night I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t make a fire; I was risking to be seen. Without fire, the cold got into my every bone till this morning.

Today I walked behind them, still analyzing and looking for a detour. I have to decide if I will get in touch with them. I didn’t eat too much in the last two days; I haven’t sleep and the night that approaches looks to be even colder. Here is also a higher altitude. But I have to get in contact with them before the dark; otherwise they may consider me hostile. In the last two days my only food was from the pine cones. I’ve managed to gather juice enough to fill the can made by the “smith”. My buddy, “Oldie” didn’t have to say anything about the food, but it surely understood the situation. For six days of walking most our resources of energy was this juice of pine cone, a few fishes and some bread left from home. I will hurry a bit and I will get in contact with them. Maybe they know more about the migrating group. If they are trails of the migrating group, it should be useful to travel with them. I’ve been rushed enough till now; the migrating group is not far, so I can take it easy. I am getting close to them. They’ve camped and now they are collecting branches for the campfire. My old dog is walking a few steps in front of me and it doesn’t seem to be angry at all. They’ve seen me. They didn’t hold their activity; the one with long hair is starting the fire again and the long beard one is laughing at the others. The last one seems to have appetite for talking. This is a good sign; a person who speaks a lot tells lots of things that shouldn’t be said. “You need help to start the fire?” I’ve asked the long hair one. “If you have some thatch, you can help. Are you interested in joining us at the campfire?”

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After a few hours of chatting I got some answers finally. The small group of three is not walking together with the migrating group. They’ve encountered the migrating group a few weeks ago. Lots of people from their village joined the people that were passing near their homes. The migrating group had camped a night near their homes, but it was enough to convince some people to leave their home and run as soon they’ve managed with the others.While traveling, the group got numerous little by little and now is about two thousand souls who walk through the mountains. I think that is a mistake; is not safe to go in a campaign when the winter is so close. If they are heading for the cave, they should be aware that is not enough room for all of them. Maybe there is enough space in the cave for all, but they can start the fire only where is an entrance; otherwise the smoke from campfires would suffocate a part of them. I’m sitting here, looking at the moon and trying to get some sleep. After talking with these three guys I think I can say that they are not a danger at all. They drink more then average people, but they don’t get drunk. Here, at a few steps by the river, in the middle of the mountains is colder then other places and the alcohol doesn’t effects your reality sense. In fact it warms you and moves your blood. They’ve tried to join the migrating group, but they were refused several times because they had some disputes about the actions of the group. They, the “pariah”, as they have been called, said that the people should stick together, but without going anywhere. The leader of the migrating group says that they need to go as far as they can, preferably to get to the cave.

The “pariah” explained to me the reason of this migration. It started when a few people found an old chunk of paper that represented a man, a dog, a map, a cave and some text. The text says that a person wants to lead them to death. After this discovery the people didn’t talked with anyone about this, but they organized them selves into a small expedition group with the purpose of checking if it really exist such a cave. While on the road to the north, they’ve encountered other people who knew about that chunk of paper and without any negotiation the group was getting numerous each day.

Let’s see how the situation right now is. There is the migrating group, of about 2000 people, which is in a state of some mysticism, mass madness or whatever that is. On other hand is this small ‘pariah’ group which would join the migrating group, but they are not in the same state of mind as the other group. And finally there is me, who am investigating all this. I’m feeling peculiar about that chunk of paper that moved all these people. It looks like it represents me and I don’t feel like being of any importance as long I’m a, let’s say, ‘neutral’ acting person. I’ve noted so far on my own chunk of paper some important points in my expedition so far.Me and the group of three, decided to travel together. I’ve kept the herbs out of them so far. I didn’t want to intimidate them so far, but I have to test it on them. Now I’ll watch the fire till I’ll fall asleep.

SIDENOTE

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When things looks so familiar and we get bored of doing same things over and over again, it happens something that we don’t expect. Same thing is repeating endless, but in different ways and we are just struggling to repeat that thing. Its just a paradox that we don’t realize; its like we are becoming a machine and we lose our selves on behalf of repeating things. Repeating things it becomes our main purpose.