New Glory.
An eye cracked open, then another as Havillah lifted up her head from the hard lumpy pillow that was her knapsack to look out into a cloudy horizon. She stretched out her neck and a vertebrae cracked from the stiffness of laying down on a hard flat ground for an extended period of time. She yawned even as she rubbed off the last remnants of her sleep and the dry gunk from her sticky eyes peeled off as well.
Something was different. She noted as she continued to gaze out into the eastern horizon where the sun had just began peeking out from above the tall forest canopy. It was still early. Very early infact and the forest was just waking. The songs of songs birds filled the air, crickets serenading a new day that was yet to begin and despite her worrying, Havillah realised that she had not overslept as she had once feared.
The girl reached out a hand and anchored herself to the base of the tree. She slowly rose up on two wobbly feet that ached even as she struggled to find and maintain her balance. Unbidden, her hands rose up to her sides even as another yawn racked her body, escaping her lips rather noisily. Where was this weariness coming from? Havillah wondered. She flexed the muscles of her aching arms as she did so she remarked at how sore they also felt.
For someone who had ever spent an night on a branch of a tree before, tied down to its hard bark, the level of exhaustion she had felt then was nowhere close to what she was feeling right now. Her legs were aching. Her arms as well and the palms of her hands were stinging like tiny razors or claws had sunk their teeth into them, slicing through her skin and into the very depths of her soft and delicate flesh. Her body was torn and worn out,the feeling being much like she would feel had she been flying around the whole day and all night long without a single rest stop on the way which was something that she had never done.
It was funny really, because she hardly needed her body muscles to do so. She had never needed them for flying. All that was required was just her mind and thus making this weariness she was feeling, a thing to wonder about.
"It must have been all that flying I have been doing lately." She mused even though she knew very well that that was not true. "Or the trekking?" She thought even as she brought up the palms of her hands all the way to her eyes, with every intention to check them for the source of the persistent stinging.
"Blue?" Her eyes were momentarily distracted. Her initial plans for inspection flying out as the sleeves of her gown came to full view. "Blue!?" She all but yelled out, confusion filling up her mind. Her eyes looked around frantically, looking for the answers that would not found there. Her questions being many and piling, with this new development bringing the latest but not the least of all of her queries.
Would she get any answers now? It was frustrating how, whenever she tried to fish for answers, to seek understanding, her guide would either be unavailable or unwilling to help her. His excuses were also lane and last she checked the thing that could not really be called a man or woman, for it lacked a gender altogether had abandoned her and left her all alone to fend for herself. What reason would he have to show up now? In his eyes, was she even worthy of these answers that she felt were owed to her?
"What brought this on? Where did this train of thought come from?" The voice suddenly spoke shocking her out of her reverie and the dark path she had once again embarked on. It behaved like it was quite oblivious but Havillah knew better. This thing knew more than it was letting on.
"I do not know... You tell me. Speaking of which isn't that what you usually do? You are always abandoning me all the time. So much for being a Guide!" She muttered, frowning as she resumed her detailed inspection of her altered Triban robes. The sting on her palms was already forgotten, pushed back to the back of her mind in the wake of this new development.
"As your Guide, I can never really leave you alone. That said, there are– certain struggles that you should be allowed to seemingly face alone, but the truth is, you are never really alone. That is something you should always bear in mind."
"Seemingly? Anyway, what are these struggles you talking about?" A distracted Havillah continued to questioned her Guide, her thoughts still held, captivated by her newly blue gowns, deep as the colour of the sky at midday with a golden trim around the edges and a newly changed embroidered pattern that shone brightly against the white rays of the morning sunlight.
"Ah...I see. You are quite distracted by your newly acquired glory...Well– Well and good, but tell me Havillah? Have you wondered why your hands are stinging like so? Why your body feels so tired and weary even after a full night of sleep upon a soft mattress of earth and soft dry grass? "
"Why?" The girl shook her head with a frown, disbelieving of his tone and still distracted by the silky blue of her once red Triban robes. She thought again of the mattress that could have definately been softer and shook her head. Did he know how hard her pillow had been? Either way, it didn't matter and something that her Guide had just told her had caught her mind. New Glory, he had called.
Something that she had thought would never be possible, at least not where she was concerned that is. With her low levels of First Virtue, it shouldn't have been possible, but here she was achieving what she had always yearned for and all ahead of the time predicted for her cohort. If only this had happened back home- she thought.– Then what Havillah? She pummeled herself, forbidding her thoughts from taking that particular route that could only be full of regrets. Would it really have changed anything? In sooth, she could not really say as her mentor had seemed so bent on ridding himself of her and nothing short of a miracle would have saved her from his nefarious plans.
"Just have a look." her Guide cooed softly, pushing the girl to finally bring up her palms to her eyes and to acknowledge the sting that had been previously forgotten but that was still there. Her robes momentarily forgotten, the girl gasped at the multiple cuts and lacerations and the bruises that were slowly forming on her palms, crisscrossing the once smooth surfaces, marking them with a ruggedness that told of a very dark story.
"What on Triberias is this?" She muttered even as she turned her palms to examine the back of her hands with scratches and more cuts that had proved to be clearly, the source of her sting. "What happened to me?" She cried out again.