Kindred Spirit Lodge Presents

The Gift


by Nessa
August 30th, 2004

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The road to the mines on the other side of the mountain was getting more rocky. Klancy and Nessa had to dismount and walk Bracken and Tuttle down the steep trail. They were going to look for the special metal it took to forge the braces needed for the Lodge after the earthquake of last year. Something kept feeling somehow “off” to the Highlander. She knew the old mines were closed and might be dangerous but they had to get what they could. The Lodge needed fixing and protection from any further damage from the elements. Without proper bracing another quake would finish the large structure.

Finally just as the sun was highest in the sky, the two warriors reached the mines. “Here’s the place, Ness” Klancy said through panting breath. Both were tired. There were problems at the Lodge that both warriors felt concern about. Klancy tried to talk to Nessa once again as they gave water to their horses. “What is it tha is happenin’ to ye caraid? Ye don’t join in festivities and ye canna come to dinner anymore. All ye want to do is ride off into that bloody forest and be alone! Is your love for Killian so heart breakin’ tha ye canna even be in the same room?”

Nessa dropped her eyes. She thought for a moment. “Nay, it isn’t Killian. There is something I am missing, Klance. Sure, Caitlin’s return had a lot to do with my withdrawal at first but then I got to thinking of how I need my own green home.”

Klancy knitted her brow and said “All ye had to do was say so. I would be takin ye m’self on my clipper if that was your need. Everyone needs to visit their families.” She laid a large but graceful hand on her friend’s shoulder.

“Oh I know you would take me but it is more than the family I need.”

“Not another lass in the works?” Klancy asked raising an eyebrow hoping her friend was not trying to fill and unfillable space.

Nessa smiled. “No Klancy. No woman has what I need. There is a place in me so empty I can’t fill it with friends or love. It is a need for a much older and wiser me. I am someone I think I know but then that someone is elusive.” Nessa waited and saw her friend was listening. “I am having visions Klancy and they are of an age beyond this one. Sometime long ago”

Klancy scratched her head and looked up. “The sun is movin’. We ha’ to start working but we will talk more of this later.”

The two women entered the mine. Rope and picks were their tools. The metal they needed was not so far in. Klancy sent a powerful blow with her pick ax into the wall of the mine. Pieces of rock with shiny veins of silvery stuff piled at their feet as they both chopped at the wall.

Suddenly, with a strike of Nessa’s pick ax, a rumble began behind the wall inside the mountain. Instinctively, Klancy dropped her pick ax and grabbed Nessa’s arm, pulling them both back. The rumble stopped and both women gazed at each other for a time as if waiting for it to begin again. “What was that Klance?” Nessa asked.

Klancy stepped even further back. She appeared to be listening then said, “It is a beginning of something coming.”

For a moment Nessa thought her friend a bit dramatic and snickered, “Maybe it is old Tantalas coming up from her grave to snatch up our Lodge’s lasses.”

But the feeling in Klancy was not spacious enough for levity. What she felt was something not known to her before. Sailing the seas for many years gave her plenty of memories and scores of stories to tell of strange things. But nothing ever felt so tight in her gut as this.

Nessa saw the concern in her friend’s face. She said, “Let’s get this load to the horses, old friend. It’s probably just a tremor.”

“Aye, Ness. It’s a tremor alright but not one like we ever knew before.” Klancy swung her whole body around to look at the wall they just mined with their axes. There was a light shining through a small hole. “Look” she said. “There is light shining out of a dark mountain. It’s impossible.”

Nessa gazed at the light in wonder within only a second she saw a flash of another kind. It was a battle coming as a picture in her mind. Swords were clashing; bodies falling, people screaming. She fought and she searched and fought again only to miss the one she sought. Then she was present again. The Celt glanced over at Klancy and wondered if she had the same vision. She was compelled by this light and moved closer to it. Suddenly she felt the hand of her friend grabbing her arm and turning her around.

“In the land of the Highlands, there is a story of the dream light coming from a dark mountain. The strongest of warriors could get drawn into it. It offers the fulfillment of desire,” Klancy remembered what Nessa told her earlier about how she was dreaming of being home. The one thing Klancy knew was that once taken, the light never brings one back. Nessa stood in the sunlight packing the horses with the metal rock. She tried hard not to think about what just happened. To go back to Brittania for more useless searching for Morgan was not what she thought she wanted. She grew to hate the battles so filled with rage and blood and suffering and the endless search for the Fianna who helped unite the Celts.

Klancy worked beside her friend until the final rock for metal was loaded on the horses. She attempted small conversation but knew the Celt was preoccupied now with the draw of the dream light. The Highlander swallowed back hard and pulled in a breath before she said what she had no desire to say. “Go ahead, Nessa my caraid. We are bonded through the ages. I will miss your sorry butt and I understand. We have been led to the dream light for your journey. Now you must go.”

Nessa pulled a strand of red hair away from her tear streaked face. I… I love you friend of my Spirit. I will think of you and your fingertips will tingle. I will miss you.”

Klancy could not stay for this. She wore stoicism as her manner to shield the sad heart within her. “Go, Nessa.”

Nessa gazed at Tuttle. “Will ye take her to the grove of old Oaks? They will send her too me.”

“Of course, she’ll be taken tomorrow” the Highlander said sadly. The light calls, Nessa.”

It was all the Celt could do to turn away from the one she knew she would call friend always. But destiny gave her no choice. She turned and went into the mine where she stood before the light that took her to the one she never stopped loving.

Klancy led both horses up and then down the path that led to The Kindred Spirit Lodge. It seemed to her that everything was changed. But it was not bad, just different. Suddenly her fingertips began to tingle and a smile reached her beautiful mouth. “I’ll be seeing you caraid” she whispered to the breeze.

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The End - 'The Gift' - by Nessa

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