She opened and closed her eyes as she sighed. This technique was so new to her. It was almost like she was teaching herself. Her shoulders slumped a little as she looked into the fire.

Dakarai seeing her posture, nodded his head slowly, "It's alright. It'll come to you. Don't try to force it, or you'll never get there. What has always worked for me was focusing on the calm of the water. Once I do that, the other parts come together, but it's taxing."

Mary smiled and nodded a bit sadly. He didn't understand and she wasn't going to be the one to tell him. She didn't want to lie to him, or the rest of her pack. She could get flashes from time to time. Her pack hadn't needed her to ever use this part of herself. And now Dakarai is telling her that it may be possible for her to see more than she even thought possible? It was like being told a mid-term exam was two days away and she hadn't studied at all for it. Looking into the flames she knew one thing; she would never relax if she was focused on the stress of it all. She decided to let it go for now.

After a while the three boys came back and they were carrying two freshly killed strange little animals by their tails. They sat down and Acharya and Aiman immediately started cleaning the carcasses.

"What in the world are those?" Malikah asked.

The animals had a long deer like face and ears, but its nose looked just like that of a pig. It had the body of an armadillo, and a short rat tail.

Dakarai smiled, "Those are Aardvarks. They're a little tough, but not bad eating, all things considered."

Malikah looked a little pensive. Tara responded, "Come on Malikah, we're here. Why don't we try some of the local cuisine, you can always shift if it'll make you feel better."

Malikah shook her head, "No, no I'm ok it's just that, well, they're kinda cute."

At that moment Aiman ripped the body of the Aardvark open as he continued to prep the animal to go over the fire.

"Well, it was cute anyway," Mary said dryly.

* * * * *

After they had eaten and had laid down to sleep, Mary stared up at the stars. The moon was dark and the sky was filled with an impossible number of stars. The Milky Way slashed through the night sky like a river.

She couldn't help but feel connected to all those astronomers, and scientists, and curious people who gazed up at those stars and wondered throughout all of human history. The ones like Carl Sagan, Johannes Kepler, Copernicus, Vera Cooper Rubin, and all the rest of them. How they must have looked up at the stars and wondered what is out there?

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Unfortunately, her problems were a lot closer to home. She didn't have to know about Dark matter or planetary travel and gravity. She just had to figure out how to 'see' into a hidden sanctum, and discover the secret number of followers or aides or whatever they were, that made up the Bultungin Matriarch's inner circle. Sure, no problem, while she was at it, she would go ice fishing on Europa.

She turned towards the slowly dying flames of their fire. The fire was always pretty to look at. It reminded her of their fire place back in her home when she was a little girl. It always felt so warm and the light it gave off was so happy. She felt close to her family when there was a fire in the fireplace. They didn't seem to fight as much, and the nights slid by in a quieter, but more contented aura.

She closed her eyes and breathed. She pictured a clear, still bowl of water in her mind. She placed her hand on the earth and tried to reach out and connect herself with the earth, through her mental image of the water.

The flame gave off less and less heat as she breathed deeply. Her eye lids were closed but relaxed. She just breathed.

She jerked awake to find that the sun was shining.

She grimaced into the early morning light and hit the ground with her fist. She fell asleep?! Yeah, what a great Scout she was turning out to be. Yup, I'll find whatever you need, I'm a Scout. It's my job to see things that others can't. Oh, um, could you like wait a bit while I go to sleep through the night? That'd be great, thaaanks. She wanted to punch herself as she stood up.

Asclepius was laying down under a bush, while everyone else was in varying degrees of preparation for the days travel. She jerked herself around and stalked away from the group to clean herself up, thoroughly pissed off at the wasted opportunity from last night. Coming back, she and the rest of the pack headed off south.

"Dakarai?' Malikah asked, "Who exactly are we going to go see?"

The old blacksmith smiled, "We're off to see the wizard, of course"

"What wizard?" Malikah asked.

Dakarai, faltered a step, "What do you mean, 'what wizard'?"

Malikah looked at him wide eyed and blinked twice, "I really don't know what wizard you're talking about."

Dakarai looked around the group, none of them seemed to know what he was referring to. "The Wizard of Oz?"

Acharya and his pack collectively 'ahh'ed with a nod and kept walking.

"You kids do know who the Wizard of Oz is, don't you?" Dakarai asked very puzzled.

Malikah knew about the Wizard of Oz, who didn't? Wicked was such a great musical, but she really didn't know anything about the actual Wizard of Oz. She didn't want Dakarai to feel bad either though, so she nodded and said, "I do. I just didn't know that's who you were talking about."

Dakarai twisted his lip in a sour expression. "I know, you haven't seen anything that happened before you were born. Its fine. Don't mind the doddering old fool who still watches VHS tapes. People do still use those in America, don't they?"

Malikah shook her head, "No, I don't even know what those are. Are they like DVD's or blu-rays?"

Dakarai shook his head and stared at the ground, "Never mind."

They walked in silence for a good while. Malikah felt horrible; she hated when she made other people feel bad. And she knew that she had disappointed Dakarai. She didn't mean too, but what could she do? It's not like she could will a memory of something into her head that she had never seen before.

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