Found!

I could never be a hunter or a tracker. Both Kohut and Vega tried at times to teach me things like that. How to notice the soft impression in mud, or a handful of bent grass or the sounds in the deadly silence. Sometimes, I was able to spot an oddity, or irregularity, but most often I found myself staring blindly into the world around me, hoping someone would point out the discrepancy. I still leave little symbols and signposts to map my way through the harigga so that I can find my way to one wagon or another.

Finding people is even more of a challenge. I am just not that successful in finding people, unless they happen to be looking for me too. I guess that is why Dee and I spent so much time together. Countless ahns were spent roaming through the plains, searching through clutches of warriors, gatherings of women, even searching the glassy ripples reflecting the Central Fire by the stream, but I just couldn't find my Master or the Mistress. I continued, leaving meals, finding them eaten, knowing I had once again been there at the wrong time...or the right time depending on how you looked at it. Since no one had come looking for me with blood in their eyes, I started to relax and figure everything was all right.

Then the drums started.

A rather large group was working near the main fires, enjoying the almost risque breezes that were skittering over the ground and grass. There was talk of work, there was the expressions of things to be tended to, a move soon to come, fresh grass in the near future, and the mating of Master Fonce and Mistress Seveya. Some of the stories I gathered enough to understand on my own. There were still a good many times that I turned to ask what that series of tones and sounds meant. It seemed it was a language I would never get the hang of, though I tried, occasionally to comic results. Today, when the last series of drumbeats sounded, a quiet consumed the air around me. I stood up, holding a wet tunic in hand and glanced around. At first I thought it was some deadly announcement, certain to spur an already traumatized and worn family of people into action. No one was saying anything, however, until I finally said..."What?"

I didn't know whether to shout first and run later or vice versa. I chose a combination of the two..running around rather crazily and whooping and dancing while chanting.."He did it!" "They did it!" Everyone pretty much thought I was a bit crazy and started laughing, then returned to the world of labor and chores. I was too excited to continue for much longer and hurried up to finish so that I could get back to the wagons.

Too many things started whirling in my mind. I was a little bit embarrassed to have found out this way, figuring I should have been more attentive to my Master and His Artisan. At the same time, I envisioned that they weren't in any hurry to be joined by a slave and so I set to work on something I knew I could do without ..imposing.

I had things in mind for the days ahead, but first and foremost I wanted to leave a little congratulatory gift. A package would rest upon the platform of Master Fonce's personal wagon, nondescript among the other gifts that would sit there waiting for discovery. Inside...a pair of gloves, but it would be easily seen that one glove was much larger than the other. No key would tell where it came from, unless one was familiar with my handiwork. The story behind it? I believed in dreams and future, but knew they took work. The only way for the couple to keep both hands warm and protected, was when they were holding hands. Which was about the best way I knew of to go through life.