Wandering

Here's the next installment of Kris, Emma and James's story.  If you've missed some, follow the tab labelled One Night In Dusseldorf and it will link you to the previous entries.

Kris started to talk but his words droned in my ear making no sense.  In a fog, I turned and walked away into the woods not paying the slightest bit of attention to where I went.  It felt as if I’d been sucker punched.  All the crap Mom told me before she died was real.  I always believed it was just drug-induced ramblings from her treatments.

Looking up, I found myself in a clearing.  A small pond sparkled in the center of the lush green grass dotted with tiny purple flowers.  I flopped down at the edge of the pond.

“God I wish someone could just explain all this to me in a way that makes sense,” I muttered throwing the occasional pebble into the water to watch the rings ripple away.

“He is a good man, you know.  Rather impatient, particularly for a faoladh, but a good man never the less,” a soft voice came from behind me.

I whipped around half rising and ready to fight.  The waif of a woman before me was clearly no threat, though, so I sat back down.

“What?”

“Kris.  He’s kind, loyal, honest.  A bit blunt and impatient sometimes but it’s a small price to pay.”

“Who are you?”

The glimmer in her eye told me what her words did not.  I didn’t really want an answer to that question.  At least not yet.

“I can understand how you are feeling right now.  You came back to the old country to look for your sister.  You feel responsible for her, more so since your mother died.  Kris will help you.  He will find answers for you.”

“How do you know that about me?”

“Did you not just wish for someone to explain this to you?”

“Uh, yeah.”

She reached over and smoothed the wrinkles in my brow.  The touch of her hand brought a wave of peace that washed over me like a tidal wave.  My instincts said I could trust her.  Somehow she must have read that thought in my face somehow.”

“Trust those instincts.  Yours, unlike modern people, will not lead you astray.  They are part of your birthright.”

“As a druid.”

She nodded.

“This really is real.  I haven’t fallen down some hole into never never land or been fed some acid or ‘shrooms or something?”

She shook her head with a slight smile.