Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Blog

Blogathon 2006: Chapter 20.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post

The week in the cave gave Dove a chance to think. Everyone could do with a sight more thinking and less moving.

It's not that he wasn't prone to thinking, but rather, he could think without the background noise of meeting the day straight on, without his back to the wall wondering what trouble was coming up the road next. He hadn't heard from Bliss beyond a basket of bread and some fruit; she was still trying to dig up information.

The first two days he wasn't sure about the skirt-hiding, letting her do all the work, feeling a bit lonely on the mountain, but on the third day a herd of horses ran down below where the ledge seemed to meet the sky and set him at ease. That was what started him on the thinking.

There was nothing as beautiful as 30,000 on the hoof, or even a number much smaller than that. The cracking sound of rock against hoof, the thunder in the midst of a hot sun with no clouds, the smell of the sweating animals - he was fine with sitting down, really sitting down, at last.

Envy was the word. Running with the wind for the sake of running, nothing driving you, no demons, no memories, no human wishes for destruction. The call of the canyon coerced the horses onwards, a whispering suggestion, no cracking whips or baying dogs.

Dove was always running - he knew running well enough - but it was a driven run. His was a run from all that would think to tame a land, from all that would think to keep it lawless.

His was a run of confusion.

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Labels: blogathon