Rooster Dream II

WatcherGuide

We woke together, for what reason I don’t know but perhaps a sound.  WatcherGuide ruffled her feathers and announced with no preamble; “WE MUST GO”.  I believed her but I’m not sure why.  I placed the kitten in a pouch and drew the strings closed.  We had not spoken perhaps because I can’t speak Cat or perhaps because it was still too weak but I didn’t want it jumping from my scarf or a basket until I know it more.  

  The kitten is awake but compliant.

 

Cogburn

 

Cogburn climbs into his own basket and I don the makeshift pack and gather up my other odds in the second basket.

 Watcher Guide is almost hissing now…Come on  ~ Come on NOW!

 We crawled out from the shelter of the bush and it is night.  So dark a night that the stars cast just enough light for us the see each other.  The new moon is so small it looks like a hen’s claw and the light it casts is far dimmer than the planet beside it.  WatcherGuide tells me to crawl, which is almost impossible with the rooster in the basket on my back and the kitten in one of the pouches around my waist but I crawl.  

Follow me she says and almost disappears, I follow.  

 We crawl to a tent, which has a tear in the front wall.   WatcherGuide goes first into the slit and I find that if I use my hands to open the slit I can enter too.  She walks slowly, turning her head to see if I’m following and uses her beak to untie a cord on the back of the tent wall.  This opening is even bigger and we all proceed out of the tented enclosure to what or where I don’t know.

 The moon is no brighter outside the encampment than inside.  I crawl for several yards but then must sit up as my body does not like the position and I’m not sure if I’m crushing or smothering the kitten.

 WatcherGuide says “Don’t talk but you may walk, just follow me.  I follow.

 I had thought the tented city was on level ground, which it was, but it was actually situated on a plateau and covered most of the flat surface.  We were at the top of a hill or a mountain and the decline was steep but there was a path of sorts.

 We continue on for some time in silent softness sneaking away from what I don’t know but I do know that I don’t have the feeling of dread I had before.  After some time we come to a little stream that has taken a crook so that it runs by the half seen path.  I stop to fill my water pouch and WatcherGuide says that it is acceptable to rest for a while.

 

I take off my basket pack which contains Cogburn and pull the kitten from the pouch.  The kitten speaks to me softly, just saying “Thank you” so I determine I do speak Cat too.  We all just sit…not speaking…just sitting and I feel a slight sense of freedom, a sense of escape and of excitement.

 Finally I say to all three; Where were we?  Who are you all?  Why are we here?

 

WatcherGuide clucks and pecks at my hands; Cogburn crows loudly and flies at my neck with his long talons, Trouble jumps from my lap and scratches and bites my face.

 Food my dear they said.  All is Food!

 I awoke!

 I dream of times uncertain, of feelings unknown, of thoughts too dreadful to contemplate