As she walked, Sha'a'an's thoughts often dwelled upon her grandfather's ill-fated shoosh'tah-dai and upon Newman. At first, they were mostly sad; but as the trine turned into nantah, they grew increasingly bitter. "Hey-yumshio-ka." Grandfather's last words. In the moment of his death, what had he seen in her sweet brother to think him the legendary Gift-from-the-Sea? Despite Newman's odd looks and ways, he seemed as ordinary as any H'lomeh man. Worthy as he was, Newman had too many failings to be any messiah come to lead her people back to the Old Lands. She'd loved a man; not some incarnated Power or Ancient One. Tears squeezed out and rolled down her cheeks as Sha'a'an remembered the feel of his smooth skin next to hers. Blinded, she was forced to stop long enough to wipe them away with a sleeve. She started walking again as soon as she could see. She remembered the joy she'd shared with her grandfather and his men, when they liberated the B'ha'an from the Bhar-kar-d'esh. Now, they're all dead--Newman, too--and the Power-box lost. She brooded, recalling the two years of sacrifices and trials she'd shared with Newman. Sometimes, during this past year, Sha'a'an found herself wondering about her lover. She kept hearing rememberers from her childhood speaking the words of Arrvak's Vision. There were days when she believed her sweet brother really Hey-yumshio-ka come among them--and there were days when she balked at the idea and scoffed. Not since they'd climbed the Great Wall, though. It hadn't come in a flash of illumination: she wasn't Omanii. Her knowledge had been more like a foncil spore; quietly taking root within the fertile soil of her beliefs, sending up a small, curled shoot, then gradually unfolding until it stood tall and graceful, dominating the landscape of her soul. Mostly, it had been this past year, she'd been convinced. She came to a halt, surprised. "No," she muttered. The spore had rooted long before the Great Wall. "The first time was right after Newman's capture." "...He shall bring out the gift." Some of Arrvak's words. She'd believed the Powers were telling her Newman could be saved from the Bhar-kar-d'esh. It had given her the courage to attack their ghostly enemy and rescue him. Now she wondered if the Powers hadn't also been telling her, even then, that Newman had been Hey-yumshio-ka. Sha'a'an shook her fist at the sky. What good was a dead messiah? Why had the B'ha'an helped them survive the Great Wall only to cast them over the waterfall? Her sweet brother was dead! She wept bitter tears. Why had they suffered so much for nothing? "Why?" she screamed at the sky. ****************** Definitions: shoosh'tah-dai literally means "raid of silence." Nantah of their moon and of their month. Hey-yumshio-ka a messianic title that literally means "gift from the sea." B'ha'an literally means "power box" or "box of power." It is a matter transmutator and more. Omanii is Sha'a'an's younger sister and she is a farseerer. The above is an excerpt from my novel manuscript, The B'ha'an: Book II, The Daughters of the Four Directions, copyright 1994. CREDITS: Bryce 6.1, Poser 6.0. Waterskins: Net freebie. Sha'a'an figure: DAZ V3 figure with head remorphed and skin texture by me; her hair is DAZ California Hair; her clothing also modeled by renapd and thip but retextured by me using leather textures by Nikita Creed and Judith Ward. Sha'a'an's bow, arrows, and quiver: AofD's Woodland Ranger, but retextured by me. Ferns: Net freebie. Other plants: Shmonglers by Dreampaint.