Giovanni's voice carried in the pops and crackles of the fire, but Daysha could make out a foreign accent. His final word sounded to her like "geese".

"I will soon be sending two of these guests to you, Giovanni.”

Giovanni looked bewildered, but amused, "You, yourself have never come to me, Billah. Has this line of contact been compromised? Why send me a herald?"

"Because it is not a message that is important, but that they have your help when they come. I've brought them to you today so that you would know their faces and they, yours. This is Maisen." The Chieftain lifted his hand in indication. "And his mate – wife – Daysha."

Daysha glanced at Maisen whose face seemed frozen in shock, though upon hearing his name, he nodded. Daysha mimicked him, acknowledging Giovanni silently.

“Hello, Maisen and Daysha.” Giovanni nodded to each of them, before glancing at Keti.

“This is Daysha's mother, Keti. She will not be traveling with them.”

Giovanni bowed his head to her politely before asking, “What help do they need, Billah?"

"A strange thing has occurred, Giovanni. You know the dreams that young men of my tribe experience. But these two, Maisen and Daysha, have a connection to The Histories that only your people can help to explain.”

“They both do?” Giovanni sounded very taken aback, and his image in the flames flickered.

“Yes.” The Chieftain heaved excitement, “Daysha in particular has been given insight that I cannot explain. I daresay even you will have to consult others to give her the answers she seeks.”

“Ah,” Giovanni breathed in recognition and the fire brightened, “I don't bring others to the flames, Billah.”

“I know this. Just as you know that even I have never brought my tribeswomen to the hearth before.”

“Do with your people as you will, but do not ask me to compromise as you have. My people are much too fragile.”

“Never. Which is why I must send them. Be as careful as you see fit. But I can assure you that you will want to hear what they have to say. And I am sure that you will want to hear what your learned people have for them as well.”

Giovanni snorted. "Go on and send them, then, as it seems they have more to say than you!" The coals beneath his image flared.

Taken aback, Daysha worried the Chieftain would take offense at his insolent remark. But the Chieftain laughed, as did Giovanni while the fire snapped loudly.

"They have a long journey ahead of them. They come at my urging and they should be welcomed in peace."

"And they will be! Tell me, though, do Maisen and Daysha know what waits for them here, Billah? Do you? Even as I admit I know little about your tribe beyond your stories and those in my people's books." Giovanni spoke to the Chieftain, but seemed to be eyeing Maisen and Daysha with interest.

"Truthfully, they know very little. Their journey will be enlightening in many ways. As it already has been to me. And will be to you."

"Ah, you seek to enlighten me, Billah!" Giovanni jeered playfully.

"I thought you would welcome the opportunity, friend."

"I do! I do!" Giovanni's hands slid through his hair before dropping to his sides again. "How will I know to greet them when they come?"

"That, too, is a mystery to me," the Chieftain responded. "But it shouldn't take them longer than the quarter moon to reach you. When they do, they will need proper rest and provision. Can you give them these things?"

"They will be shown the luxuries of my people. Maisen, you are a tracker, yes?"

"I am." Daysha jumped to hear Maisen's voice beside her.

"Coming from the north, you will need to ascend the mountain to reach us. You will be tempted to follow the river to the west, around the mountain to approach from the south. But this will add several days to your journey and will undoubtedly exhaust your supplies. When you reach the mountain, to the east, the path of the chamois will show you. It is a steep climb, but I trust you two can manage it. Watch for the herd in the late afternoon. After Mid-Sky, as you call it. If you follow them, you will reach the city by nightfall."

"Thank you for your help." Maisen's voice sounded parched, but steady.

Daysha looked to the Chieftain who caught her eye and smiled.

"I want to ask one more thing of you, Giovanni," the Chieftain turned his gaze back to the fire. "Once rested and fed, not a moment sooner, I ask that you would teach them The Histories."

Giovanni looked taken aback at the request. "Is this not something you've already told them?"

"Only the Collapse of the Aydo. But they need to hear your telling. I know your people's books and collections can show them more than my words."

Giovanni straightened with pride, "Do you send me teachers or do you send me students?"

"The greatest among us are both, are they not?"

"Good man!" Giovanni shouted through a blaze of the flames.

"Have your watchmen on the lookout. I will send them with a gift for your hospitality."

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"I am eager to learn more. Maisen, Daysha," they straightened at his acknowledgment, "I trust you know what a rare honor it is to be the first guests from your fair tribe to visit us in many generations. Billah would not have alerted me if it weren't."

"Your willingness is a boon to us, and I thank you," Maisen asserted with great authority.

"As do I," Daysha managed.

"I ask only that you alert me to their safe arrival, Giovanni," came the Chieftain's voice.

"I will call to you when they sit here at my hearth. But in all seriousness, Billah, I must know why you have chosen to take this action. Allow me to know what has gripped you in this way, that you send me guests.”

“Maisen has experienced the Haunt Dream as some of our young men do. And yet he has persisted as a noble hunter in spite of it. All this time, he has endured the dream in secret.”

Giovanni looked very impressed. The Chieftain even straightened with pride as he gazed sidelong at Maisen who kept his shoulders squared, but cast his look downward.

“Daysha,” the Chieftain continued, “has had a dream unlike any I have ever heard. In fact, Daysha, tell us once more the details of your dream.”

Daysha swallowed hard, stumbling to find her voice, “I… I'm in an ocean. A large black ocean.”

The dream, filled her memory.

The cosmic ocean.

“I am pulled quickly to a silver shore.”

Drawn by the breath of the Aydo to the shores of Luna.

“I smash against what seem to be rock cliffs at first.”

Scales.

“I watch the water recede completely before an enormous eye opens right beside me.”

The dying Aydo.

“I jump away and catch a glimpse of the creature before a blazing hot column of fire shoots from its mouth directly into the silver sand. It's so bright I can barely stand to look at it. The column turns white, the sand glows blue. Just as I think I start to see something in the base of the fire. I hear the cry of an infant and wake immediately.”

Giovanni sat in stunned silence, his mouth agape with shock and amusement. He stared hard at Daysha who held his gaze sheepishly.

“Seven dreams,” the Chieftain added, “over seven cycles, er, months, Daysha has had the same dream.”

“How could that be?” Giovanni asked.

“I do not know,” the Chieftain chortled incredulously.

“Is it true, Daysha, that you knew nothing of the Aydo before this dream came to you?”

“Yes,” Daysha answered promptly.

“This is truly magnificent, Billah!” Giovanni and the Chieftain laughed with a mirth unshared by the others.

Daysha couldn't help but ask, “Do you know what it could mean?”

Giovanni tilted his head sympathetically, “This I do not know. It is clear that you know something about the Aydo that few stories discuss. I know nothing about columns of flames or crying infants.”

“But your people might, Giovanni. Isn't that right?” The Chieftain spoke with compassion in his voice. Daysha caught an encouraging look from him.

“Likely so,” Giovanni offered quickly, nodding at Daysha, “And this is why Billah is right to send you. I can already think of several in my counsel who will want to meet you.”

A cool feeling washed over Daysha. Something had turned into a sour weight in her stomach. She had no desire to be interrogated or scrutinized.

Daysha felt changed somehow. As if in the last two days she'd lived an entire life, separate from her own, having been born into opportunity, set on a path of deep discovery, only now to be used as a conduit to satisfy these leaders' curiosities.

Daysha steadied herself, exhausted. She wasn't being used, she told herself. This meeting would be helpful, necessary. But before she could stop herself, she heard her own words escape her lips,

“What has not yet been said, Master Giovanni, is that I have been visited with these dreams at the same time every cycle when The Follower is full in the sky. I want to know the purpose of this dream because… forgive me…" she started to feel ashamed, knowing that all the others were eyeing her intensely. She looked at Giovanni who gazed back, not with offense or indignance, but with deep interest. "I believe that they are connected to my barrenness.”

Giovanni looked at the Chieftain. Glancing at the Chieftain herself, all joy gone from his visage, Daysha felt her color drain. Perhaps she should have made this clearer to him first.

"Please explain to me why this is." Giovanni's tone remained light and gentle.

Daysha glanced at the Chieftain for approval and he nodded.

“Maisen and I have never conceived a child. And it seems that when the time is right that we might do so, this dream comes to me. Only recently, as we have said, but now with unwavering timing. So much so that I… it is very difficult for me to wake to the child’s cry, knowing there is none in my home.”

Searching her gently, Giovanni addressed the Chieftain. “Is barrenness common among your people, Billah?”

"It is not." There was no hint of anger or frustration in the Chieftain's voice, only a heavy tenderness.

"Daysha," Giovanni addressed her carefully, "you are right to hold the urgings as important. I thank you for your willingness to speak plainly."

Daysha nodded. "Thank you for understanding."

“I cannot tell you myself what these dreams are trying to say to you,” Giovanni continued. “I can only say that I agree with Billah that you must come and speak with others who may know something I do not. Though, I warn you, if this dream of yours holds any meaning, it is more likely that it speaks of the Collapse of the Aydo. I must speak plainly, as well. There may be nothing in this at all that will satisfy you in your desire for motherhood.”

Daysha nodded in understanding, though at her core, she rejected his warning. She knew better, somehow.

“I thank you for your time, Giovanni,” the Chieftain offered in closing. “Again, please alert your scouts. And inform me when they arrive.”

“You have my word.” Giovanni smiled and bobbed his head. “I am impatient already. Safe travels to you both.”

“Thank you,” Maisen and Daysha offered in unison.

Giovanni nodded to each of them in turn and reached for something beyond the image in the flames before his image crackled and split away like kindling singed by the consuming tongues of fire.

The group did not speak nor move for a long time. Daysha stared at the fire. Her heart raced. A sinking feeling came over her and without turning her head, she averted her gaze from the fire to see the Chieftain eyeing her. A horrible lurch in her gut made Daysha worry she might be sick. But the Chieftain’s eyes, in the glow of the fire, seemed watery.

The Chieftain’s voice was low and he spoke slowly. “Perhaps you both will gain strength from this. I am sure that, until now, you feel it has weakened you.”

Daysha nodded involuntarily.

“And truly, I hope that you will return with knowledge and wisdom that will benefit our tribe. At the very least, Daysha, this will be a grand contribution to the further generations of our people. I urge you to find your strength in that for now. This is a high and noble calling.”

Daysha considered his words carefully. No one promised her satisfaction. And yet she and Maisen had been offered great purpose. For the sake of their people, they would traverse the unknown.

Daysha reached for Maisen’s hand and gently wrapped her fingers around his palm. Meekly she whispered, “Can we do this?”

Maisen gazed at her with a loving grin. “I think we must.”