Dragonfly Web: Whitestuff

Thirty Two | FarmSchool's My Home

"I just want to sit with the tree for a while before I go, is that okay, Sky—er, I mean— Torgney?"

You're my prrroxy! I'll be right here.

Ciara sat on the stone slab with its winding roots, her back against the ancient maple. She breathed the air of the immense valley. It all smells so sweet. Everything's different. Each living thing here has it's own smell.

"And color," she thought she heard Walter squeak.

Am I starting to hear you now, as well, Walter?

Useful, she heard.

Thank you for your strength in the Council chamber.

She heard and felt a rummaging inside her bag.

"I suppose I should have given this back. Do you suppose I should worry? This is a library bag."

Ciara heard nothing. Soon Walter's head popped out. His tiny paws held something between them.

"What's that? Do you want to come out?"

Walter ducked in and Ciara gingerly pinched the outsides of the opening to pull the string wide. She put the bag gently onto the surface of the slab seating. Walter plopped through.
"What do you have there?"

Walter struggled in an awkward fashion but managed to drag the bright glittering object along her rock surface, to the point she could see.

"Its a crystal! That's beautiful. Is it a gift? That reminds me, I forgot to leave my moghorse brush for Skye with Sadie! I might have to go back? Thank you for this." She inspected the crystal.

"Leave it to me," Walter squeaked.

"Oh, dear—I really can hear you."

You will need quartz, "squeak."

"Thank you." She looked closely at the crystal. "I can see inside of it. There are bits of color, frozen and floating. I can see white. Whitestuff! Is this where he is?"

How, "—squeak."

"This is how to get to Whitestuff?" Ciara looked at the rat. "I thought Torgney was going to take me—?"

Crystal—

"Crystal is needed to get through the tree?"

"Squeak, squeak," Walter cried and jumped off the stone, clutching the bag.

Ciara startled and then watched as Walter and the awkward library bag, with the moghorse brush still inside it, disappeared through the grass. After a while Walter was so far down the alcove that only the tops of the grasses wavered.

A coyote rummaged along the ridge, then lay in the sun. She sat and she watched as the breezes came up. She remembered Skye's words in the clouds. She thought of all the instructors and students and her friendship with Sadie, Alphonse and Magtha, and now of all the others in Aulde Mountain School, hidden away from the world on top of the skyline. I am a tracker, I guess.

Okay, Skye!

Are you ready to go and track something now?

I guess, yes I am—Thank you.

Ciara took a last breath full of smells. I wonder if somewhere there are moghorses breathing this air?

White wings? asked Skye.

White wings—

Ciara clutched the crystal from Walter. She closed her eyes. She breathed—in and out—
And after that she didn't remember.