I finally spot Cai the next morning.
After our camp was packed up and Lolo taught me how to roll up the yurts and attach them to the wagons. Myself, as well as the rest of the young girls, loaded back up into the same covered wagon that we rode in the day before. Then we began our travelling again to who-knows-where.
I see Cai travelling with our group. As if he is a part of it, none of the nomads around him question his presence. And he's riding his appaloosa horse again, the one he sent off as a decoy. I wonder how he got it back...
Being nomadic must be tiring. Always travelling, never able to rest in one place for long. If I remember correctly from my history lessons back at the Palace, The Earth Nomads are the only people who do not own land in this whole world, although they are welcome to travel freely in between the other three kingdoms. I wonder what it must feel like to have no home. Do the earth Nomads care? Or would they rather constantly be on the move?
I would ask Lolo, but I know the kind of answer I would get: none. That being said, everyone I've met so far in this travelling caravan seems genuinely happy. They are all so kind, and didn't Dilera say something about Earth Nomads being the only people who married for love?
For some reason my heart aches when I think of my old maidservant, and I wonder how she is doing. I wonder about everyone I knew at the Palace. And most of all, I wonder about Altan... Will he find another Water Mage to marry now that I'm out of his grasp?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Look at you."
I look up from my bowl of curry. Another day passed and the evening ended with a different but equally delicious bowl of curry. I had been gulping it down when Aunty Ava decided to come at talk to me.
"Oh?" my mind blanks when I see her. I hadn't had a chance to talk with her since she found me tied up and nearly dead. I've thought of thousands and thousands of questions I wanted to ask her but now that she's standing before me I can't think of any of them.
"You clean up good." She remarks and takes a seat on the ground beside me. "The red hair suits you." she flicks one of my curls with her pointer finger and I smile. "So how do you like our home?" she asks and for some reason the question confuses me.
~How can a travelling caravan be a home?~
Aunty Ava seems to catch my train of thought... or maybe she reads it, "A home doesn't just have to be a single place, you know? It can be any place you like, or a million different places."
"I guess so." I agree with her and look into her eyes.
"You've only ever called one place home." She states it like it's a fact, and it is. When I think of home I think of the small apartment my family owned in Seattle. It wasn't much, but it was where I grew up, and there was a certain comfort about being there. "But I think it's time you find a new one."
I blink at her mysterious words. "Can you... See the future?" I ask.
She laughs like it's a funny question, "No, I'm not that kind of Seer."
~There are different kinds of seers?~
"I can see a person's entire life behind them." She says, "Although none of what is before them."
My heart beat quickens at this. I never knew such a power existed, "Then you can see..."
Aunty Ava smiles, she knows exactly what I'm about to ask, "All of this life..." She takes my hand then whispers, "and the one before it too."
I gasp and then look around us quickly to make sure no one is listening. Lolo has finally left my side and is across the fire from us, talking to Willard. "Is my situation-" I begin, feeling excited and nervous all at once, "this reincarnation, or whatever... Is it normal? Why can I remember my past life? whose body am I in?"
She shakes her head at all my questions, "I know nothing about your body, I can only seen the memories of the soul. However, this situation, as you called it, is not normal."
"It's not?"
"No, no..." she shakes her head, "nor is it a coincidence."
My eyes widen, "what do you mean?"
"I think this was all the work of the gods." She goes on and rubs my hand with her wrinkly old one. "I believe it's the work of Jala and Vohan."
"The water and fire gods?"
"that's right," she lets her voice fall into a whisper again, "I think you are destined to end the war between their people."
I take my hands away from hers all of a sudden. I understand the implication, she's saying I'm supposed to end the war... She's saying that I'm supposed to marry Altan. But I've already decided I wont do that. "I thought you said you can't see the future?" I say and I let the skepticism ring clear in my tone.
"I can't" she shakes her head, "but that doesn't mean I don't have intuition."
"intuition?" I repeat, but sound displeased.
"That's right." Aunty Ava never stops smiling. "just like I imagined you wouldn't be happy about me telling you this."
I laugh uncomfortably, "But it's just intuition, right? you could be wrong."
She shrugs, "Perhaps... But I rarely am."
"But what if I..." I stop and lower my voice, "What if I don't want to marry him?"
"You know what I once heard a wise man say?" she puts a hand on my knee.
"what?"
"Don't knock it, until you try it." she raises her eyebrows at me then stands to her feet again.
I stare mouth agape at the area where she sat.
How the hell could that be an expression in both of our worlds?
Not to mention, It was an expression my father always said to me. He always said it to force me to try things that I thought I wouldn't like. He told me that to convince me to eat oysters and I hated them. Ever since then I held animosity toward that expression. And now aunty Ava is saying it to me as if she knew my father... Or wait... Is that where Aunty Ava heard the expression? Could she see my memories of my father telling me that?
"Well, anyway." she pats me on the head, "I just wanted to tell you that, before you go."
I look up at her and pinch my brows together, "before I go?"