price6a

He hit me only once. I’m in pain and move slowly upstairs to put my
few personal items away. I choose a room with delicate cloth that
looks like spring flowers, covering a large soft bed. It will be my
refuge. From the window, I see One With Wind walking along a winding
trail of brush. It shows promise of still having running water. I
suspect he won’t be returning for awhile. This gives me time to
think.

I go downstairs after settling into my room. One With Wind swaggers
into the house sometime later and hands me a snake, his grand
contribution to our next meal. I take the dead snake into the kychyne
and set it on the counter. I search for fuel and fire but can’t find
anything that will serve to cook the snake. I decide it will be a
waste of time to look further, as The House provides food, and I have
no desire to go outside, into the hot day to build a fire for this
pittance. I take the small snake out the back door and throw it off
the porch toward two crows not far away. He is already back outdoors,
with his bow and arrow ready to hunt again. He loves to hunt and
kill, even when there is enough food. It is wasteful and mean. He
walks away, heading south.

Sometime later he returns without a kill. My quiet time is over. I
tell him his meal is ready. He grumbles but eats the food, making
noisy slurping sounds. When he finishes, he throws his plate at me.
I duck but the plate hits my arm, just missing my face. He prances
out of the room like a rooster. I hear a crash, run to the large room
and find a wooden structure with many flat thin wood pieces atop One
With Wind. He is struggling to get it off of him. I help. He
scuttles out from under and heads for the door. After he leaves I pick
up the scattered flat leather squares and put them back onto the
structure the way I remember them being.

Many times I tried to speak to him about The House and what is
expected in order to live here since I found out what is expected. He
growled as he twisted his lips into a curl. Once he spat toward me
and left.

When One with Wind comes back from a late in the day hunting attempt,
he stomps to the front door and grabs the handle. The door will not
open. He shakes it without success while banging on it loudly. I look
through the window seeing his enraged face and realize at this moment
that The House is keeping him out and away from me. I never imagined
being protected by anything like The House.

Giddy with relief, I turn away from seeing him bashing at the front
door and leave the room. He is not going to come in here again. I
feel it in my heart.

One of the rooms I passed earlier caught my attention and I want to
look closer. Entering the large room I find it filled with leather
bound soft covered items with thin layers of drawings and markings I
look at all the full shelves and say out loud, “What are these?” and a
voice answers “Books holding written pages in a language you will soon
learn.” I jump, grab my chest that is pounding and nearly lose my
balance. Who spoke? Where did the voice come from? My heart beats
even faster. I manage to speak loud enough to be heard, “Who said
that? Who are you? Where are you?” I twirl around looking for the
source of the sound.

“ I am here to help you learn and answer all your questions. “

“Are you in The House? A spirit?”

“No, I am not a spirit, but I am real, although not as you are accustomed to.”

I look all around the room.. “Where are you?”

“Everywhere, yet nowhere. I am not skin and bones like you.”

I am puzzled. Is this some wag-wit? I calm down enough to go along
with it. “Are you evil or elf?”

“I am your helper.”

‘What is this room?”

“It is a library where books are stored. Those are the soft leather
covers and pages within that you see. These are records of the people
who have lived here all filled with information that will be useful to
you.”

“I don’t understand all the scratches on the…..what did you call them, pages?”

“Yes, pages. The scratches are words, I will teach you. Just get a
book, and point telling me what you see or simply touch it and I will
answer what the word you point to means. Soon you will understand
written words. If you ask, I will answer. You can be anywhere in the
house and I will know what you want.”

I sit down in a comfortable chair, in an attempt to stay calm, and
concentrate on the voice in The House. I begin my first lesson as I
want to learn about these books. The sun moves down behind the
mountains before I stop. I realize I am stiff from sitting a long
time and sore from the many days of walking in the hot sun carrying
the heavy load. My back aches from the weight I carried. It is time
to rest. I thank The House voice, although I find thanking the voice
seems odd as no one is there to see.

Upstairs I look for the big soaking bath I was told to use, as it will
relieve my body’s pain. I find a big thing called a tub filled with
scented hot water swirling around. I watch it awhile, put my hand
into the moving water and find it is warm and soothing. I decide it
is safe and undress then slowly step in. I soon begin to relax as the
warmth of the swirling water eases my pain.

After the bath I venture into my new sleeping room. I stand in the
middle of the room with many bright ideas and realize how tired I am.
I can accomplish much after resting. Everything will wait.

The following day One With Wind continues to bang the outside of The
House while hollering. He has been unsuccessful but noisy all
afternoon.   I continue to ignore him. I am comfortable, it is not
hot as it is out of doors. I feel there will be no further harm to
me. I feel safe.

In the third morning I hear strange screams from One With Wind as
though he is away from The House. I look out the front door window and
can see him. He is acting loco. wandering in circles, looking all
over. He acts as though he cannot see The House. I watch awhile.
Finally, I am sure he cannot see The House.

As days pass, I seldom see One With Wind in his wandering about
outside. He doesn’t yell anymore. I stay inside, away from his mean
spirit.

I think of my family and realize how fortunate I was to have been
given time with them and how cruel One With Wind was to take me away.
I try to remember their faces and voices. They are too far away to
ever see again, yet I dream about them every night, and keep my dreams
and longing for them close to my heart.

I climb to the top floor and discover the view from the copula. It is
a complete circle where I can see everything around the house. Three
figures are walking toward The House from the path One With Wind and I
followed several days earlier. The figures are a distance away. I
stand still and watch their progress toward The House. Two seem to be
children while the other is a tall man. His gait looks familiar. I
cry out. It is Ho-Mu-Kai, my mate, with Vechi and Ma-yee, my children.
They tracked me and found me, after all this time. I fly down the
stairs and out the door, running toward them. I hear him yell, ‘Sun,
Sun’. Suddenly I am on the ground, writhing in agony. An arrow is in
my side and blood is oozing from the wound. The pain is intense. I
hear screaming and yelling. Everything goes black.

Ho-Mu-Kai, shoots an arrow at the offending warrior. He realizes this
brutal man is One With Wind, the strange one that came to their clan
and stole Sun, his mate. His arrow pierced her. She is dying. Anger
wells up and he becomes enraged thinking of how to rid the world of
this evil scorpion.

Before Ho-Mu-Kai completes his thought, a strange dust devil appears
over One With Wind, picks him up and carries him into the sky. One
With Wind’s screams are chilling. His wailing only becomes remote
after long minutes pass. Ho-Mu-Kai shakes in terror. We look for him
after we carried my sweet mate into the large dwelling not far away.
When she was safe, resting and healing we searched further for the mad
man. He is gone forever. One With Wind’s personal items, with blood on
some was all that was found of him.

I wake up, lying on the sofa in the living room of The House.
Ho-Mu-Kai, my beloved mate, is intense, looking at the big book. He
discovered how to help me by studying the drawings and now notices I
am looking at him. His worried frown eases as he comes closer to me.
We hug and murmur loving words, kissing, and feeling relief at finding
one another. My children are watching me. Their worry turns to relief
as they realize I am alive. They run to me screaming, “Umma, Umma”.
My loving family smothers me in hugs. Tears of joy flow, like water
in a stream, from my eyes.

I am full of gratitude and thank The House. I know it has saved me
once more. My mate asks “Kai Whaa Chi?” What happened to you?

I have so much to tell him. I reach up and lay my hand against his
cheek. “There is time for that my mate.” I ask him, “What happened
when I was outside and hit with the arrow?”

My mate looks at me, smiles and says, “He truly became One With Wind”.

I see in his eyes there is more to be told. I will wait. Relief washes
over me. I know I am going to heal and live here with my family in
peace. We will follow the wishes of The House.

                                                   EPILOGUE

The House keeps journals and books on the lives of all who live there.
It is a living memory and tribute to those passing through.

Inhabitants are taught the language that one day will be universal.
In time their history will be discovered and be remembered as myth or
marvel.

                          The House waits…….once more.

End of Part Two