Staunch Fate

Chapter 2

A hand brought her out of her reverie. "I... I'll be here." She knew Liza could feel her apprehension. She told her nothing of the man or the woman, she wouldn't share their plight, they confided in her on those nights.

"I know." Was that enough to appease Liza? Perhaps not but that was all she offered her.

She walks through the camp barefoot as instructed towards Bethany's vardo, bathing in the light of the moon. Is he dead or alive? Do they share the same moon or does he gaze up at a distant one in the future or the past? Had he seen her that one time? Can he feel her presence? Will he be her son or maybe he was her dead father? The woman she knows. She even knows how to alleviate her sorrow. She doesn't though.
She has no idea how to soothe the man turning beast night after night. A shadow is fighting over him and Anna thinks she must battle the darkness.

She waits for no one's permission as she barges into her tutor's vardo. Auntie Bethy is smiling, motioning at the tea before her. Anna knows not the recipe only that she'll be hungover the next day or rather noon and that she will remember tonight. That she dreads most of all. That and Liza's worried face as she fusses around her.

"Come girl. Drink..." She points nonchalantly at the herbal tea resting between them. "Drink. I'll show you the way our ancestors perused the trances. Do you let me?" She is always asking for her consent before their lessons. Anna nods as she takes a seat and starts sipping her cup of tea.

"This is the night of the Saviour." She starts explaining in a husky voice. "Tonight any ritual enacted will be a strong one no matter how powerless the one who casts it. Under the full moon, people rejoice. A prime night for the union of flesh and soul. Let the innate power of the moon's light spark inside of you. Let it guide you. Let it, child."

Her eyes feel heavy so they shut off of their own accord a moment later Anna startles awake into darkness. All she sees is smoke so dense it might as well be fog. She hears nothing. It is not only the lack of voices or loud noises she is missing rather there are no rustling chimes no crickets sharing their song. Her deafness brings forth an exhale. A loud one. Her breaths come from deep in her chest, slow and laboured. She grasps the pendant resting there hoping to ease her burden. She finds her feet dipped in mud. She has grown used to mud by now.

An anguished whine reaches her. It comes from far away she can barely hear it. She raises her shaking hands in front of her as she takes one step after the other and starts to follow it. The squeaky moan of wood draws her in a different direction. It's not long after she sees the start of a wooden roof. A vardo is resting amidst this bottomless field her dream conjured up. Anna approaches its door at a subdued pace. A rustling sound startles her the moaning she heard has grown faint. The panels of the vardo's window close shut the clatter echoing around her.

Peeking inside she finds a woman rocking back and forth by the hearth, silently, a rustling comes from the little bundle in her arms. She moves closer trying to determine whether the woman can sense the foreign presence intruding into her home. She can't but the baby can. His bright eyes are locked on her. He is cute. Anna smiles at him his little brows set in a frown as if he decided to make his mother suffer for the hell of it. Stubborn little man he is. Anna finds herself kneeling next to them. She looks at the woman's face to find no mouth, no eyes only a swirling mask made of skin. She focuses on the baby that she sees clearly, resting her hand on his head not knowing what else to do to help him she starts humming an old sweet tune.

The lyrics she has long since forgotten but the melody lingers in her mind. The little boy hears her it seems for he settles. He leans his fist on his chubby cheek eyes shutting down against his will. She hears the fire crackle and feels its heat scorching her and then in a blink of an eye she is kneeling in the mud. A man walks past her humming her song. Anna goes to follow him but stops as a metal food tray lands in front of her. She reaches for it and freezes. She knows what comes next.