Nightmare Burning, Part 4
The blue-eyed warrior clan matriarch sighed, realizing she had no writing charcoal and no parchment. She really needed to find a way to get a message to her outlander union mate so they could get supplies. She also wanted to send for a few frame healers; she needed to learn about whether they understood camp diseases and what to do to prevent them.
She was still sitting alone as the sun began to sink behind the distant mountains. She heard a commotion from the edge of camp closest to the distant mountains. A crowd was gathering.
She rose and started to push her way toward the crowd. She heard terms like strangers and money and supplies.
When she reached the inner edge of the crowd, she was amazed at the sight before her. There were three men who weren’t from anywhere near town, a long string of unknown animals tied together, and tons of supplies on those animals’ backs.
The townspeople couldn’t get them to speak. They had given up and backed away from the men.
The men had eyes that were almost black, and they didn’t speak. They made hand motions; she had seen some similar ones when her outlander partner was telling her stories of some other lands and clans he’d traded with.
She didn’t understand all of the signs. She recognized a few: giver, free, stuff, tent.
“Are you selling these things,” she asked.
The men didn’t answer and stared blankly at her. One made a sign for yes, and another made a sign for no.
“Are these free,” she asked.
The men stared blanked and made no response. Again, the group gave both the yes and no signs.
“Do you have clothes and tents,” she asked.
The men gave the usual mixed response of silent yes and no.
One man tentatively stepped forward and handed her a tent sack with an unusual insignia. She felt cold and odd as she accepted the tent sack. The second man handed out tent sacks to all the other adults. The third man handed out outfits.
The old green-eyed warrior, as he received his outfit, caught the eye of the warrior clan matriarch. Using the tip of his sword, he drew two signs in the dirt. One insignia was a combination of blessing and curse, indicating reality might differ from perception. The other insignia was used among only War God followers to indicate an unknown deity might be involved.
She felt sick as the sounds of joy in the camp mingled with grunts of effort as camp was being set up and her own thoughts about the source of their supplies rose unbidden to her mind. It was too late to reject the supplies they all needed so desperately.
Her head began to ache, and her joints still felt too old for their age. She also grew concerned as the odd men disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.

