Echoes of Home by Elles Lohuis

Author:Elles Lohuis [Elles Lohuis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Elles Lohuis
Published: 2023-03-08T00:00:00+00:00

twenty-four

My stallion’s hooves patter like a fine drizzle on the stone slabs. It treads with care, as if it knows. I shift in the saddle, but fail to find my seat. My jaw clenches. Every move jabs a serrated blade through my chest bone. Every breath scours my ribs with a gritty wheeze. Om Tare.

My body hurts, and I won’t wish away the pain. I’m strong enough to feel it and to endure it until time will lessen it all.

I lift my face to the sun. Her bisque beams trickle through the soggy sky, swollen with the promise of rain. I roll my shoulders. Brave. I’ve decided to be brave and let the hurt live in my heart as a poignant reminder of the young woman’s agony and my own fortunate fate.

A placid neigh steams from my horse’s mouth. Another steep crossing is coming up and there’s nothing we can’t handle after last night.

This day too brings scanty paths winding around sheer, craggy cliffs, and spanning crevasses of infinite depth and wild roaring rivers. My feet tread on patchy planks while my mind tramples the daunting fear. Karma was right—the first one’s the worst. A drip of salty sweat stings my lips.

We track through the stretches of woodland where the monkeys munch on spouting treetops. Swinging themselves in a blasé way above us, their long coats shine a rich golden among the green. Clay slated roofs pop up, and a few dwellings of smeared mud on wood hurdle together. An old woman bears a toothless grin on her sunken face.

A lone musk deer twirls his white-furred ears as we reach its patch of grassland. It shoots away before any of the men can even reach for his bow. A small creek flows in a bed of moss and scattered boulders. With the sun at her strongest, a clammy veil covers my skin. Our convoy slows its trot—it’s time to rest and let our animals graze.

The icy water steals the heat from my soles, palms, and cheeks. I gasp. Cold! Clear drops dangle from my lashes, twinkling the tiniest of rainbows from within. This is good. I stretch my back and roll my head. A warming wind whispers and smoothens the goosebumps on my skin.

Dendup has made his bed in the shade of the swaying white pines. Karma stays with our horses, quenching their thirst further downstream. Norbu sits next to Dendup and I know he won’t let it go—ever since this morning, his eye’s been on me.

I put on a smile and decide to join him. No use in avoiding him as he did me for the last few days.

“Get some rest.” Dendup draws his hat above a wide yawn.

My legs buckle a bit as I sit down—my body’s not eager to bend. Norbu tilts his head to me and I glance aside.

“I’m so sorry,” he says. “Here.” A slice of fresh bread comes my way.

“It’s nothing.” I try again, but he shakes his head. A ruby shade of amber deepens his eyes.

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