The Second Vision

Ehawee sees her body below her in the sweat lodge and descends into it, still deeply troubled by what she saw and not particularly wanting another vision like it. As she looks around, she sees that Kohana and the shaman both look to still be deeply in their trances. Her own lightheadedness, however, is beginning to fade. Surprisingly, she doesn't feel tired at all. In fact, she feels oddly...refreshed. It is obvious that the ceremony is not over though, at least for the others, and the chanting and drum beats continue outside. She frowns as she realizes this, wondering if she woke up early because she's a spirit, a woman, or both. She closes her eyes and tries to meditate on her vision, looking for some meaning in it, much as she disliked the whole experience. She wishes Kohana would wake up, so that she could find out if he saw the same thing. Part of her also wishes that she could have another vision, one that gave her more guidance, but she reminds herself that one cannot dictate that sort of thing.

Time drags slowly forward for Ehawee. She can tell from the amount of light sneaking into the lodge that it's hardly mid-afternoon, and the sweat lodge was supposed to last until sundown... She groans inwardly as she realizes that, rapidly becoming bored. She begins looking around the lodge for what might have made her lightheaded before, hoping that maybe she can expose herself to more of it and have another vision. Thinking back, she recalls that there was the strong tasting drink from earlier, and the water the shaman poured over the hot rocks. Since the rocks themselves look normal, she looks by the shaman for the water and finds the bowl and ladle that were used sitting next to him. She picks the bowl up and sniffs at its contents experimentally, trying to detect if there's anything in the water. She can tell that there is medicine in it of some kind, but one that smells different from the medicine she drank earlier in the winter lodge. She decides not to throw more of it on the rocks, since everyone would be exposed to it then, and Kohana and the Shaman are already in a trance. Instead, she sticks her face close to the surface of the water and inhales, hoping there will be some of the drug in the vapor. This works nicely, and the more she breathes of the medicine bowl, the more lightheaded she begins to feel. She puts the bowl on the ground, not wanting to drop it by accident, and leans over it, inhaling deeply until she feels as lightheaded as she did before her first vision. Then she crawls back to her spot by the fire and closes her eyes, giving in to the floating feeling again.

As before, Ehawee finds herself hovering over her body. She concentrates for a moment, trying to sense if she feels drawn in any particular direction, but senses nothing. Lacking any guidance, she floats out the entrance to the sweat lodge, curious to see if that's any different than going out through the roof. It doesn't appear to be, as she finds herself once again in the dark land of swirling mists. She moves forward through the mists, this time keeping in mind what she hopes to gain from the vision, namely a sense of what her place in the world is, and what destiny awaits her, if any.

The mists part to reveal a strange land. The sky is an iridescent purple and the grass looks black. There is a tall, thin lodge on the top of a hill made entirely of stone. The wind is blowing fiercely, and strange cries travel along it, cries she has never heard before.

Ehawee begins walking towards the lodge, studying her surroundings as she goes. Much to her surprise, the black grass, which extends as far as she can see, does not appear to be burnt, but is unlike any grass she has ever seen before. She picks up her pace a bit, beginning to feel unnerved by the cries that she can't identify. The tall, stone lodge grows a little closer, but is still very far away. She begins to jog, looking around hopefully for a horse she might be able to ride, but there are none. Nor is there any sign of the animals making the wailing noises. All of the plant life is shrouded in gloom, and the wind is cold on her naked flesh. She shivers but keeps running, not seeing any other way to reach the stone lodge, which she figures must be important to the vision since it's the only lodge she can see.

Ehawee's bare feet pound against the packed earth of the trail, and the wailing of the beasts becomes fainter, but there begins to be a matching pounding to her feet against the path. Glancing over her shoulder, she sees what she thinks is a rider, far behind her. Given what happened the last time she encountered a rider in a vision, she decides to conceal herself just off of the trail, so she can observe the rider and decide if it's safe to reveal her presence. Crouching behind one of the great, dark trees off the side of the road, she sees the rider approach. He rides a frightening beast with fire for eyes that is only vaguely horse-shaped. Like Kohana in her first vision, the rider is encased in metal, but this time the metal is dull black. He is carrying a long pole, sharpened at one end, and has a metal shaft much like the one Kohana carried. He seems to be heading toward the large, stone lodge. Frightened by the beast, and not recognizing the rider, Ehawee decides to remain concealed. Better a long journey than being attacked by one of those strange weapons again. Her instincts agree, telling her not to move. They keep telling her that until the rider has nearly disappeared down the road.

Ehawee remains crouched behind the tree until the rider is out of sight. Then, after peering back up the road to make sure there aren't more coming, she emerges from cover and begins moving down the road again, wishing that this was one of those dreams in which you could fly. Unfortunately, her feet refuse to leave the ground, but she once again has the road all to herself. She continues to watch ahead of and behind her now for more riders heading in her direction.

After a very long time, the stone lodge looms on the hill above Ehawee. She begins climbing up the hill, keeping an eye open for the rider, or anyone else, for that matter. She sees two men to either side of the gate, far above. Each is coated in the same strange black metal as the rider and they have the same sharp metal weapons. She can't see any of the strange bows from her earlier vision, though. She studies the landscape more closely, looking for a route to approach the lodge that will keep her out of the sight of the men guarding the gate. Unfortunately, perched precariously on the cliff like the strange lodge is, there are no other ways to approach it besides the path the two men guard.

Curious to see if her spirit abilities are with her in this vision, Ehawee tries growing the spikes on the back of her hands again. Much to her delight, they grow easily here. Next, she tries to grow claws from her fingers and toes, ones long and strong enough to be used in climbing. This is easily done, but now it feels awkward to walk, so she shrinks the claws on her feet enough to walk safely and moves off of the path. As the way grows steeper, she grows her claws accordingly, moving to approach the lodge from an angle beyond the sight of the men.

After careful stalking, Ehawee finds herself at the wall of the stone lodge, where she discovers something amazing. The stones of the lodge appear to have been cut! They were cut, stacked and somehow stuck together to make this great dwelling. Surprised and a little awed by the wall that soars some hundred feet above her, Ehawee spends some time examining the stones, wondering what could have possibly cut them, and how they are stuck together. Their crafting and assembly remains a mystery to her, however. She tries her claws against both the stones and the substance holding them together, trying to determine if she can get a good enough hold in either of them to scale the wall, but the stone is much harder than her nails and does not give way underneath them.

Not particularly wanting to fall to her death, Ehawee continues moving around the wall, looking for another way in, or a better spot to climb. She doesn't go far before the cliff next to the castle drops off into nothingness. At least she thinks it is nothingness. The longer she looks at it, the more it seems to churn and boil, as if perhaps it is made up of something unfamiliar to her. Before the drop off there are two small, barred windows. Ehawee peers inside one, her eyes slowly piercing the gloom of the space beyond, trying to make out what's inside. It looks to be a stone room, with a cot, a brass pot, and a wooden door. In the door is another small window with bars. What is beyond the door she cannot tell. She peeks through the second window and finds it looks into an identical room as the first, still unoccupied.

Ehawee moves back the way she came, away from the edge, and stops for a moment, uncertain of what she should do next. She's reluctant to face the guards, certain that they will see her as an intruder, but on the other hand, she can't think of what else the vision might want her to do other than enter the lodge, somehow. She prays to the spirits for guidance, hoping they will give her a sign, but there are no answers to her prayers, at least none that she can detect. Wondering if she can make her body change to look like the guards, she tries to change her skin to look like the black metal they were wearing, starting with her hand, and then trying to spread the change over her whole body. It's a bigger change than anything she's ever tried before, but it works, although very, very slowly. She persists until she's as close to looking like the guards as she can, then makes her way back to the trail, emerging out of sight of the guards. She takes one last look down the trail, to see if anyone else is coming, then takes a deep breath, steels her resolve, and heads up the trail towards the lodge.

"Deadwood"
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All text on this page is © 2000-2001 by Kris Fazzari.

Last modified on March 29, 2001 by Kris Fazzari.