Passage

“Forfeit your bodies! We will live beyond the Great Plane!”

I awoke from a light sleep as the ashy wind blew past. I clambered out of my lean-to and moss bed to find a bedraggled man staggering in down the road below. He didn’t look like a trader— closer to a forgotten prophet. The fringe of the road was green, filled with young growth hiding me.

Some men hide age in their bodies. Others have each year carved off their frame like the reaper wouldn’t be able to carry more than a hundred pounds. The would-be wise man of the spice road fell towards the latter. I hoped he’d quit his yapping since the mews of a hungry cat had echoed through the passage of my dreams. Too little sleep left me as prickly as the pine trees.

I stuffed my blanket in my bag and walked in the shadows of the shrubs as I trailed the man. Breakfast would have to wait— there would be others on his trail soon.