Dear Reader, I would like to share this story with you;

It will take you on a seemingly endless journey.
A trip that takes you places I might have visited many moons ago.
It´s a tale that came back to me when I meditated on one of my past lives.

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Chapter 4

What do you think now

What did you get into Dear Reader?

Does it remotely meet your expectations?

Or are you ending up in places you yourself would never go?

Maybe it will help you, like me, to stop and reflect on what is real and what is just your interpretation of reality.

I promise no dragons or murderous visions, for now, a chance to catch your breath before I drag you further in.

After my sister disappeared, my mother put me in touch with Oniko. My sister's disappearance and the images I had seen were the last nudges she needed.

Oniko is the "teacher of many ways." He was impressed by what I foresaw at a young age, but most of all he was able to make me accept that my gift was part of me and my being.

Without realizing I was heading back to the settlement. I walked along the tall reeds and looked at the trees at the edge of the meadow. They started to discolor, their dark red slowly turning brownish yellow. Along their trunks gathered the exhausted leaves, which had lost their hold.

I noticed some movement between the leaves and looked at the place that had just moved. For a moment I couldn't see anything, and then a white viper, bigger than I'd ever seen before. It slid past my feet into the reed-lined bed of the river.

Animals that cross your path tell of things to come. A snake stood for strength, but also for danger. A white snake, what was white supposed to mean?
White?
This color snake was very rare, but what did it mean?

Pondering I ascended the stone steps and reached the dusty plateau. The rainy season would come soon, that was one thing that was certain.

Lost in thought, I took the path up the mountain. My own hut was second to last before the top. The cabin was not deliberately built next to Oniko's, but in recent years I had noticed that I was taking over more and more of his tasks.

According to him, it was no coincidence that we both lived on the highest part of the plateau. "Those who seek wisdom will have to live with their feet on the earth and their cerebral in the celestial," he had once said.

When I arrived at his hut I knocked on the door, waited a moment, and then let myself in. Once inside I walked to the back part of the cabin. There he lay on his stone cot, his head resting motionless on the cushion of straw.

He had aged quickly these last few years, but his eyes still radiated strength. A strength that I found awe-inspiring as a little boy, but the lines on his face betrayed the pain his body was now giving him.

His days of teaching were long gone, but many still visited him when they struggled with questions.
I probably visited him more than any other, he could show me things so clearly. He would wash away my interpretation and leave me with the raw experience.

Over the years I learned how to take those steps back myself, and detached from the crayons I use to color my world. I learned to see the world from that universal perspective, but none of that mattered this time.

"Master Oniko, Master I need to talk.' I spoke softly. He didn't move. I spoke a little louder; "Master Oniko."

His arm lifted a little off the bed and his finger pointed to the pitcher of water. I filled a bowl with water and knelt beside him. With one hand I lifted his head, while I put the cup to his lips with the other. After a few sips he coughed, moistened his dry lips, and fluttered his eyelids.

'You managed to keep the celestial bird of prey from my body for a while, son, but its claws have already lodged in my chest and its beak has already eaten away at my heart. My departure is imminent, but that is not why you are here. So speak to my son,” his voice was soft and creaky.

I told my story and even though it was not that long I had to wake him several times. After my last sentence, his strong gaze was aimed rigidly at the low ceiling.

“After many generations, destruction threatens again. It keeps moving, like the sea we once lived by. This time we have been warned and we have taken years of precautions."

"I think you are right, the destruction does not reach us. But will come very close and will certainly affect us. Know that this time it is a warning, the snake underlines that. The white of the serpent…”

Oniko drifted off, I heard his breathing slacken, becoming irregular.

No matter how I shook him he did not come to. A few minutes later I heard his breathing halt completely.
The celestial bird of prey had taken his soul to the eternal.

With the cessation of his breath, access to all his wisdom was taken away from me in one fell swoop, without the answers I so desperately sought.

I was left stunned. With his departure, I lost my mentor, my friend, and the closest thing I had to a father. My mother never spoke of my father, he was her only secret as far as I knew.

I engraved our last moments in my memory. Then I lit the fire, burning incense until the hut was filled with the sweet air of autumn, pines, dried fruits, and flowers to ward off the black entities.

While sitting next to Oniko I remembered the day he told me about the origin of this ritual.

When we withdrew into the mountains we could no longer send the dead on a burning raft out to the sea, where evil spirits could not reach. That was no longer an option, the river would push the raft upon its banks in no time.

Hence we started using smoke to ensure the soul of the deceased could enter eternity in peace. That they could not be followed or harassed by the black essenceless. Those who still wander on the earthly level and love to seduce the souls of the dead to stay here with them, or try to join the flight of the deceased in order to enter eternity.

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Picture By Me And My Artificial Intelligence