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Guessing her thoughts, Temken placed a hand upon her arm and gently squeezed.
"We can never have what was Before," he offered, "but we can build again. The Survivors are building again."
The warmth of his hand, even through her damp tunic, allowed Gwe
"Titania is dead," she said, feeling the void inside and wanting to-needing to-share it. She swallowed against a coppery taste, her throat raw and constricted. "Gaea has abandoned us."
"But she hasn't," Temken insisted. Taking Gwe
He stepped off the trail into a patch of sparse, wet grass that bordered a small puddle of muddy, insect-choked water. Laying a hand on the ground, right where a beam of gray light had worked its way past the dense growth above, he half closed his eyes in concentration.
A sense of foreboding washed over Gwe
"Don't," she said, reaching out to shake Temken by the shoulder.
Gwe
Already, though, the dark force that had been stalking them since Temken entered the shadows rallied to the challenge. The darkness danced at the edge of Gwe
Gwe
The punishment came swiftly.
Darkness broke over and around them both in a wash of despair. Gwe
"No building again," she said, voice laden with the tears her eyes no longer cried. "We can none of us leave. It will never let us." Then the shadow passed again.
Temken's eyes rolled back, and he pitched forward, collapsing into the muck.
Calling the collection of ramshackle huts and utility buildings a village was optimistic to Temken's way of thinking. The clearing looked up to a gray, moisture-laden sky, but the poorly thatched roofs could not possibly keep out anything stronger than a morning dew. Walls were full of holes. No one thought of or bothered to make a mud and straw mortar to fill the irregularities between branches. Certainly mud would not be hard to come by here. Doors were commonly a piece of hide stretched over a light frame and leaned into place over one of the larger openings. The huts sketched out a crude circle, which might have been considered a rough tribute to nature's cycle except for the large opening that framed a path leading deeper into the bayou. At least the ground here appeared drier, though Temken wondered if that might simply be relative to his own muddied and sodden state.
It was not quite the way he had intended to make his entrance, he and Gwe
Nothing.
No words of welcome, no questions after kinfolk who might have been part of Temken's enclave. He read their harsh lifestyle in the gaunt and drawn faces as much as in the poverty of their living. Resignation and defeat shadowed their features, even the young ones who were obviously born in the After. Not for the first time since entering this forsaken land, he wondered why they remained here. The plains to the north were dying as the climate turned worse every year, but certainly there were more hospitable stretches of forestland nearby or the coastal regions to the nearby south. If the ocean reminded them too much of what they had lost, at least it would provide nourishment until a suitable refuge could be located. Why did they stay here? Another question answered him, swimming up from the depths of his mind, teased up by the shadow dancing at the edge of his consciousness. Why not? That was not an answer, though. He refused to accept it, and the shadow retreated.
What had happened to him back along the trail?
Gwe
"This is Temken," Gwe
There were nods all around.
"Only as long as necessary," he amended Gwe
More nods, though to Temken they still seemed to be agreeing with Gwe
"There are other Survivors. They are heading west- to warmer forests, we hope. But we'll be together," he finished weakly.
"We're already together," Gwe
She stepped over to a large pot simmering over an open fire, a community cooking area, the charred ground showing the remnants of other fires. Someone handed her an implement, and she dipped out a ladle of broth, shocking Temken by not offering it to him first as a guest. Instead she drank deeply. He covered his surprise by wiping mud from the long braids hanging before his left ear, then tucked them back over his shoulder. Gwe
Temken reminded himself of how long these Survivors had been cut off from others, of the conditions under which they currently lived. He nodded thanks to Gwe