Hammered

emotions ruled me right now. But it’s not as if he isn’t ruled by his own emotions and loyalties. He has gone off with his buddies to give manly battle to a thunder god, and for what?
    For a fantasy and trick of fame, they go to their graves like beds … and the Morrigan cannot help him in Asgard.
    But now I am looking through the same window as he. I will see all that he sees soon enough. It’s clear now that he cares nothing for politics because there is no harmony to be found in the squabbles of men. It is found in the song of this river, in the taste of desert wind, and in the stark verses I see in the winter branches of cottonwoods.
    It is in unchained laughter and aged whiskey, and in those rare moments when words can capture the shirttail of something ineffable.
      Oberon startles me with a couple of barks from the riverbank. Atticus asked me to look after him, but I rather suspect he also asked Oberon to look after me. I know Oberon can understand what I say perfectly well, but I cannot hear him like Atticus does, and I won’t be able to until I’m a full Druid.
    » Just checking in? «   I ask him.
    Oberon barks once and gives me a very human nod.
    » You’re not too bored entertaining yourself while I work, are you? «
    This time he barks twice and then shakes his head, wagging his tail all the while. I feel like I’m in an old episode of  Lassie   where they ask the collie, » What’s that, girl? Farmer Bob fell down the well and has a compound fracture of his left tibia? «   or something ridiculously complex like that. But I get the feeling Oberon would just laugh at Farmer Bob if he was dumb enough to fall down a well.
    » All right, thanks for checking in, «   I say.   » I’ll stop for the night soon. «   Oberon chuffs at me, but I pretend not to notice. Atticus told me that when Oberon chuffs, he is highly amused. In this particular place, he cannot be laughing at anyone but me. I must look extraordinarily stupid and not like a badass Druid at all. One last bark and he returns to his canine pursuits, disappearing into the brush.
    It is good he is here, I think. My mother taught me never to wander alone upriver in a wet suit when it’s near freezing outside. Or she would have, if such behavior had been imaginable to her. Thank all the gods of twenty pantheons I’m not in Kansas anymore.
      In my stepfather’s house there are many rooms. None of them is mine.
      I am stiff as I lie down for the evening between a small campfire and Oberon. I made it halfway upriver thanks to Sonora’s assistance in locating the crawdads. Tomorrow I will go the same distance and then turn downriver and clear out the opposite bank. I expect to be epically sore in the morning—and crispy. Oberon had been laughing at my sunburned face; I am susceptible even in winter.
    //Rest Druidchild// Sonora says. //No creatures will disturb//
    //Gratitude / Harmony// I say, already losing consciousness.
    //Harmony//
      Birdsong wakens me. I do not know what kind; I am miserable at identifying them, but that’s only because I’ve never bothered to pay attention. Usually all I hear is the purring coo of pigeons; the more melodic species usually avoid the city. Now that I am going to spend more time in the forests, I think perhaps I should take the trouble to identify them by name.
    Half wincing, I stretch, expecting loud complaints from my legs and back from the abuse they suffered yesterday. I expect to feel a warm tightening across my cheeks from sunburn. But I feel nothing like that; instead, I feel quite refreshed and not the least bit sore. It’s so disorienting that I wonder if perhaps I dreamed yesterday—but then I dismiss it, because I clearly wouldn’t have woken up here if that were the case.
    //New day dawns / Sonora greets Druidchild / Query: Sleep well?//
    I say   » Yes, thanks, «   out loud before I remember to concentrate my thoughts and emotions and let the turquoise send these to the elemental.
    //Druidchild greets Sonora / Slept well / Feel well / Query: Sonora healed me?//
    //Yes//
    Smiling, I send her my gratitude. //Will continue work soon//
    //Harmony//
    Oberon yawns loudly and stretches his long back legs. Then he swoops in unexpectedly and delivers a sloppy lick up the side of my face.
    » Eww! Oberon, gross! «   I try to slap at him, but he already has bounded out of reach, chuffing at me. I smile at him.   » Crazy dog. «
    He barks joyfully and trots off into the