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The Dreaming..

Kaliska tugged the animal skins over herself, half asleep as she was. She had trekked far today, finding herbs for the medicine man and now she was fairly exhausted. Now warm and drowsy, her eyes finally shut and she fell into sleep.

Hours passed, and the moon travelled across the night sky. Kaliska was now dreaming, her eyelids flickering as her eyes moved beneath them.

Kaliska found herself standing in the Village, the midday sun blazing down on her head. She had her bow across her body, a quiver of feathered arrows on her back, a stone headed axe in her hand. She smelt something odd on the breeze; the sickly sweet smell of death. Her breath came sharper now, her heart thudding in her chest - fear of the unknown. She walked on through the Village, finding torn up earth and splattered blood but no sign of anyone or anything. After a time, she heard a flapping noise - it filled her ears and became all she could hear. Whirling around, screaming for whoever it was to show themselves she saw the sky above her blotted out by a shadowy pairs of wings....

Which was when she awoke, sitting upright, her body streaming with sweat, shaking. She rolled out from under the skins, the weight of them stifling to her right then and fell against something. She scrambled to make a light, hitting flint and lighting her lamp. Holding it up with a shaking hand, she gasped at the basket beside her. She knelt beside it, running a hand over the weave, and it shook faintly beneath her fingers. Kaliska snatched her hand away as if it had been burned. Where had this come from? It was silly to be nervous of what was obviously a baby Soquili but it appearing by her side as she had that nightmare? Coincidence or more... but there was nothing she could do in the dark, and her mind was too tired to comprehend this properly. What could the basket do? Nothing, and she figured the foal wasnt about to come out either. It was safe to sleep, and so extinguished her light and curled back under the skins, warily looking at the dark spot that was the basket as her eyes drooped and she finally fell into sleep again.

In the morning Kaliska pulled back the animal skins and peered across, half expecting the basket to have vanished - thinking it must have been the product of a tired mind and an over active imagination. But no. The basket still stood there; and the early morning light that filtered through a gap in the entrance of her teepee fell on it, illuminating and revealing the silver sheen of the basket's weave, interlaced with a purple patterning on one side and ornamented with a purple gem. It was beautiful. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and moved over to kneel beside it, leaning in and listening. She could hear the faint echoing sound of the foal's heartbeat, and a rustle noise - which she guessed was it moving about inside the basket. She smiled a little, sitting back on her heels and just looking at it happily.
As she woke up a little more, thoughts began to occur. Many that she knew would probably not be answered. Like where had the basket come from? Did someone leave it here for her? It was well known in the Village that she had wanted to become the friend to a Soquili; from what she knew of the other's it seemed like an enriching experience. So had someone felt generous....or was there a link to the disturbing dream. She didnt want to think those thoughts. This little life was an innocent. And she would care for it when it emerged. She could not see into the future; she had not that gift and she didnt want the great surprise ruined for her.
Kaliska nodded firmly. She would dress properly, and go into the Village to break bread and share with the others what she had been gifted.




Kaliska had patiently looked after the basket that had shown up in her teepee almost a moon's span ago. Sometimes she could hear the foal within moving around; more often during the cool of dusk it seemed. As the days passed she grew a little worried, but she was assured by her friends that the foal would emerge when it was ready to.
The night that the foal finally left the basket, the new moon hung low in the sky, a white eye staring down at the earth. Kaliska was wrapped in a worn fur, its pelt was soft from long use as a blanket and cloak. She rubbed a bare patch on it, looking up from the entrance of her teepee into the cloudless night sky. She was just considering turning in for the night, when the basket beside her began to move alarmingly, rocking from side to side as though it would up-end. She got to her feet quickly, bringing a lamp close and watching the basket shift around. It vibrated as though being impacted from within and as she watched the lid moved, then was pushed back as small hoof slid out from within, followed by a thin leg. As the lid moved further off the top of the basket a slender head peeked out, ears flickering and eyes darting as it did so. Another hoof was placed outside of the basket, and the foal pushed upwards before stepping awkwardly from it. It wobbled as it found its feet, the bat-like wings opening and closing slowly as it stretched them, the odd tail flicking behind it.
Kaliska had watched all this in stunned silence; was this really a Soquili? A thought was suddenly pushed into her head;
What this place? the foal demanded, having finally found the source of the strange smell in the crouched human.
'K- Kawani Village,' Kaliska managed.
You sleep here? the foal asked, the projected thought sounding feminine to Kaliska's overwhelmed mind. The foal was a filly she realised. The light from her lamp caused the foal's pelt to shimmer like liquid metal, and Kaliska again wondered what manner of Soquili it really was. The foal found the skin bed and folding its legs under itself, comandeered her bed. Kaliska didnt mind, as there was no way she would be falling asleep whilst the foal was in her teepee. She pushed the basket outside, closing the teepees entrance and sat with her back to it, the fur wrapped around her again...she waited for morning to arrive.