First Reply The Wounded Exile

[Braze]

Perched high above in a tall sequoia maple, Braze watched the waves crash endlessly along the shore. The sweet scent of flowers drifted on the evening winds, soft yet strange, carrying perfumes unlike any he had known in the Temple’s gardens.

The stars here looked so different from back home. He gazed at them as though they were strangers.... brighter perhaps, but colder, distant points of fire that did not recognize him. His white hair stirred against his face in the breeze, as he sat still, knees drawn up, letting the ache in his body settle against the branch.

Exile was supposed to feel like freedom. Yet perched in the dark canopy above an alien coast, he felt only the weight of being unmoored... adrift between what he had lost and what lay ahead, if anything did at all.

 

[Hwo]

Puffs of smoke curled into the air as the kindling caught fire. Hwo gently blew on the newborn flames, cupping his hands to funnel the oxygen needed to feed its life. After a couple of minutes, the smaller sticks and twigs began to burn, allowing the ranger to leave it be while he finished preparing his dinner.

Hwo made quick work of the freshly caught fish, gutting and cleaning each before tossing the white meat into the small pot. Next he chopped a small local root vegetable and added it to the concoction. He followed this with a mixture of saltwater from the sea and fresh water from the bladder in his pack, gathered from the spring a short ways into the forest. A humble meal, but it would do.

By now, the larger sticks and pieces of driftwood were beginning to catch, and the fire was fully alive. Hwo sat the pot on the makeshift tripod just above the flames. It would take some time to cook. Sitting with his legs crossed on the sand, he closed his eyes and began to breathe, deeper and deeper, letting himself go as the gentle wind blew across his face.

A moment of peace. A moment of solitude. But wait. Another presence. Maybe he was not alone after all.

Braze