Dee!

DEE! It was the first voice I had recognized in a long time. It was the first name I could remember as well. I heard her, and I shed the nightmare I was dreaming like water sluicing through that swollen valley. We hugged tightly in front of the watchful eyes of Healer Hans and his companion Gurtha. Gurtha was asking Dee if this was her, which I assume meant me. Dee was nodding against my shoulder while I heard Gurtha in the background tsk and add that they should have just let all us animals drown. I remembered hearing that same thing somewhere in the maddening memories of time.

His hands were cold like ice. Tiny prickles of coldness that invaded everything, forcing my breast to the side and delving into the sweet heat between my thighs. I had pushed him away with the cross of one leg against the other and tried so hard to force the throbbing pain from my head. Bright white hot searing light kept cutting into my brain like a sharp knife. His voice was thin, sharp as the light, demanding that I open my eyes and speak to him. I couldn't think of what to call...things. I couldn't think of names. In between the blissful shades of darkness, I tried so hard to tell him what the feather in my hair meant, the bells around my ankle, and even how I needed to be lighting a lamp and flying in the clouds.

They, the voice with the cold hands and another, a woman, told me several times that I must have been hit by a barrel. I couldn't fathom what a barrel was doing in the middle of the plains. It hurt my head too much to try and sort it out and I found if I closed my eyes long enough they would go away. My chest felt heavy and wet inside, as if every breath taken was fighting a deluge of mist. I heard them arguing once, about who they should tell. The woman said I might be worth a bosk roast and just give me away. The man said I had bells, and those were someones bells. They just had to figure out who's. The woman said they were what made me worth the bosk roast.

I was sitting, patiently, for my earlier impatience had earned me binding fiber around my wrists. I just wanted to go home. I just wanted to find home. It was there, inside me, even if I couldn't describe it or give it a name. Healer Hans was speaking softly, gently, as if he had suddenly gained compassion, telling me they had taken the feather from my hair and the amulet I had been wearing and asked around the wagons if anyone knew who I belonged to. I felt like an unclaimed sack of grain at the market. And I couldn't even remember my own name. He told me that would most likely come back to me as my headache eased and the swollen lump on my head subsided. It was early evening now, of what day and time, and what location I still wasn't sure. And then I heard Dee's voice outside in the fresh balmy air.