The world was quit and still. Night had fallen on the Homewood and everynoul and critter had gone to bed hours ago. It was a dark night, the moon was sleeping too which created a blanket of blackness except for the stars. But Betty new the way home, her first trip still fresh in her mind and the path was well worn form other nouls making their way to the Great Tree. Betty Bay returned form the Grandfather tree in a bit of a daze. She did not even really remember the walk through the barrens. It had been dark by the time she had left but some how she had made it back to the Homewoods safely. "What just happened?" she said aloud not for the first time on her walk back but this time someone was there to hear it.
"I was going ask you the same thing." A familiar voice pulled Betty form her dazed stat. Chenoa was hopping along side her hoofs now. Though her hop was still effected by the healing broken leg still but she could get around now. "Hello are you going to answer me?" Betty shook her head trying to clear the fog away. "I went to the Grandfather Tree." She said as if it explained everything. "Yes I gathered as much because you are walking on the path from there." Chenoa's voice was filled with past worry and now frustration. "How long had I been gone." Betty wondered but it was dark and there was no moon to indicate how much time might have past.
"I have ascended Chenoa." The amazed wonder was still heavy as she told her friend. "The Grandfather Tree as deemed be worthy of ascension." The quit that followed was deafening but neither really knew what to say. After all what do you say, the Great Tree had already spoken. A silly question popped into Chenoa's head and she could not help but ask "Are you marked now?" Betty had not even thought about that and since it was dark Chenoa could not see a mark herself. "I am not sure. I would think so but I have no idea." Betty's brother, Ryan, who had long since ascended once told her that to be marked would feel like a burning coal pushed into your skin. Her other ascended siblings had laughed and said it was not so but she was not sure who to believe and her brother made it sound so real. Betty did not feel any pain though, so she now knew her brother had only been picking on her like normal.
Betty's voice was distant in the far off memories of her childhood but she managed to say "We should bed down for the night." With that she lay right down not looking for shelter or cover just right down in the path. Chenoa was a little confused when Betty late out in the open but did not want to say anything since Betty was clearly somewhere else. No Chenoa just decided she would watch over Betty and lay right on top of her, just in case Betty needed her.
Betty was exhausted and shocked. She had ascended and she had only just been gifted in the last two months. "Can one ascend that fast." her mind thought but of course they could because she had. Her last waking though was what her family would lthink. No one in her family had every ascended this fast. "What will mother say?" "Probably nothing like always." her muze piped up before nesting for bed herself. With that last thought Betty fell into a deep peaceful sleep to tried to even dream.
--------------------------------------------------
A cry ripples through the night jolting Betty form here sleep. Looking around there does not appear to being an one around. "Was there a noul in need? Was it a dream?" Betty does take notice that she had been laying in the path. "That's no good?" Chenoa is a wake now to, the scream having woke her up as well, that and Betty had jumped up make Chenoa tumble form the bed she had made on Betty's tail.
"What was that?" "Im not sure it sounded like a noul in distress." Betty knew in her heart that she would not be able to sleep again until she at less tried to find the creature that had screamed. Plus they she could not just lay back down in the path. "Come hop up here and we can have a look around." Chenoa complies with a grumble about how she needed her beauty sleep, which makes Betty chuckle.
It does not take long before Betty stops where she believes the sound had come form. A blue zebra dun buck is standing in the night air just outside a den. He looks to the stars and Betty can just make out the sent out sweat. "It has to be that buck." Chenoa whispers from Betty's shoulder. "shhhh" Betty can see by the buck stance that being intruded on would only make things for him worst.
He turns and walks back into the den. Betty can hear his restlessness and knows she can help him. "Use your gift. Help him find rest. He looks like he needs it." A voice in her heart tells her what she already knows is right. Taking a deep breath she sends a red restful mist to the buck in the den. Leaving her she watches as it swirls its way over to the den and into the den. She knows it has worked when she hear a deep even breath pattern characteristic of a buck at rest.
*Sign* Her gift has taken the very last amount of energy she has for the night. Laying down in the bushes she used as cover from the buck, Betty falls into a peaceful sleep. Chenoa cycles around a couple of time and lays back in her place on top of Betty's soft tail and find sleep as well.
wc:1003
