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Here is the 4th instalment of my novel Flying South.
Chapter 4
Something bumped. Slowly I became aware of an unnatural sensation. Stillness. No wind coursing around me. Too much trouble to open my eyes and move, because then I'd have to do something and admit that I was awake and alive, when I didn't know that I wanted to be either.
Finally I opened my eyes. I sprawled on my back, arms and legs splayed over flat, stony, burning-hot ground and I wasn't alone. People stood all around me. Panic made me scrabble to get up on my elbows, at least. Then I realised they weren't immediately trying to kill me, and stopped, gazing up at that circle of interested faces.
Their skin was a lot darker than that of anyone I knew, and they were wearing very little clothing or none. All I could think of for a few blurred moments was to wonder why they weren't sun-blistered like me.
I sat up slowly. The circle of people shifted back a little and I could see the huge boulders behind them. We were on a reddish-tawny plain, mostly bare ground with a few tufts of hardy vegetation growing in the shelter of the boulders. "Hello," I said, more to test whether I still had a voice than because I believed they'd understand me. The words husked out of my dry throat and I coughed. "Can I have a drink?" My own voice sounded very loud in my ears and I felt a buzzing sensation as though a hive of irritated bees circulated inside my head. Then I blacked out.
My hearing came back first. I lay on something softer than bare rock, maybe animal hides, inside somewhere. People were talking over me. "She must be a returning spirit, to fly with the sky serpent."
"He showed images of a cold land, being forced down in a storm. The people there would have killed him. She is of a bloody race."
"But she helped him." A woman's voice, I thought, though husky. "She helped him back to the sky path so he could finish his first flight. He returned to find her. She's no spirit, Waru, and no warrior either, Yukungadak. Do you think the sky serpent would have brought her if she was dangerous?"
“Perhaps he brings her to warn us,” one of the two men said.
I decided I'd better become conscious. I made a slight sound and shifted a little, then opened my eyes. Three people, very close to me, stared back. The only light was from a small fire. We were, as I'd sensed, inside what appeared to be a one-roomed hut put together of branches, bark and leaves. Its roof was very low, more like that of a tent, and the two men crouched beside me, the woman standing.
"My name is Amber," I said. By the sudden tiny movement they made, I knew they could understand me and hadn't expected to. When I spoke, something odd happened. The words which came out weren't exactly the same as those I formed in my mind. If I let my thoughts drift a little, I heard a stranger's speech. Amber. Sun Woman. One of the men nodded in satisfaction. He was the only one not surprised, I thought.
"My name is Skyfire," said the woman beside me. She looked somewhere in her early twenties, with a calm, gentle face and a great mass of dark curly hair about her shoulders. She wore a wrap of animal hide tied about her waist, so completely unaware of her semi-nudity that after the first few moments of shock, I began to get used to the idea. Her name wasn't "Skyfire" either, not quite, it was a rattle of alien sounds that combined to give the sense of sparks flying from a campfire into a dark sky. "This is my uncle, Yukungadak and my father, Waru."
The older man - Waru - nodded, though his eyes were still intent and suspicious. The younger man smiled.
"Yukungadak" seemed to mean both doctor and sorcerer. "Waru" held the suggestion of a hunter. "You must have powerful spirits protecting you, to fly so far," Yukungadak said. "We have never seen anyone like you."
"I had to. The dragon . . . he was hurt. I helped him to find his own people. I was in trouble - somehow he knew and he found me." Those were basically the facts, I decided, too complicated to try to tell the whole story. Did he know I'd heard them? I decided to act as though I hadn't. Though he seemed friendly, Yukungadak had named me as one of a bloody race.
"Are you julagoling?" he asked. "Or Djandga?" Between admitting myself as a young woman powerful in witchcraft, or a spirit, one of their own returning home, there wasn't much of a choice.
"I'm a sorceress," I said wearily. "So burn me at the stake. Give me a drink and then do it before I wake up again."
Yukungadak laughed and the others smiled, seeming relieved. "We will talk again when you are well." He and Waru left the hut/tent and Skyfire brought me water in a clay cup. I drank greedily. She refilled the cup from a bucket and brought me another.
"Where's the dragon, Skyfire?"
"With his people. He brought you to us because we could care for you."
"But what happened? What did you see?"
"The sky serpent landed upon Boorlo with wings spread to catch the sun. You clung astride his neck. A gathering party saw you and hurried towards him. He allowed two of the women to help you down, then touched you with his nose, upon your forehead, before he once more sprang into the air and flew over the Little Water to his country."
So goodbye with never a thank you. Then I thought about how I understood their language. Maybe the dragon had thanked me. Skyfire didn't seem to know any more or understand why the dragon had returned to my land to help me. "Enough questions now," she added with more than a hint of Mariel's manner in her voice. "You need to rest."
I slept again, but I don't think anyone would have called that rest. In my sleep, the voices and images of people I'd left behind me persisted, demanding to know what I thought I was doing and telling me what trouble I'd be in when I returned. Audryn's ice blue eyes burned into me, yet despite her anger, I felt no fear of her. She knew I'd done what I had to do and would punish me only because the law expected it. Mariel also came to lecture me in my sleep. Nick told me off for going without telling him. Even Catri appeared; angry with me but guilty that she had argued just before the dragon snatched me. Then a stranger took Cat’s place, banishing her image mid-sentence. He was dark and elegant, wearing the rich garb of a lord at the Royal Court, but in unusually sombre colours, black velvet and silver-gray satin.
"You're the one," he said, and smiled. "I've been looking for you for a very long time, ever since you broke my spell over Dampenrook. Your power really flared like a beacon when you met the dragon. But you're only a girl - are you even sixteen yet? Come to me and I'll help you discover your powers. No one will be able to touch you then and you will lend me your power so that I too may achieve my dreams. Come to me."
"But who are you?" I heard myself ask, the dream-self I never seemed to fully control. "I don't know you."
"My name is Warwick Asherley, Lord of Cairenor. Come to me swiftly, Amber, before it is too late."
Cairenor. The word rang like a song, a song of shadows and watchful eyes from my cold homeland. More than that, it was a familiar song, the terrifying taste of my dreams, the borrowed dragon-power which had drawn this wizard to find me. I threw myself out of sleep, forcing my eyes open to the light of day, the blazing, hot light flooding through the doorway and the cracks of the hut. The light of the Land of the Dragons. Skyfire stood with her back to me, talking to someone at her door. Amazing how determined a back can look. "No," she said firmly. "She's not well yet."
"I only want to see her." The other voice was young and male and full of that supreme confidence which seems to go with both. Unseen, he reminded me achingly of Nick.
"Skyfire, who's here?"
She turned at the sound of my voice, which gave the caller room to squeeze in, which he did. I'd been right about his age. The boy didn't even look as old as me. Though his skin was dark, the sun had bleached his hair to a tawny gold. His muscles were lean rather than bulky. Since he wore only a sort of loincloth, this was easy to tell. He looked at me with the sort of wonder I'd like to get used to.
"I saw you first, when the sky serpent brought you," he said.
"And you'll be the first out my door this morning, Kulal," Skyfire said. That Mariel-tone snapped in her voice and Kulal reacted to it, reluctantly backing to the door. He grinned at me, his teeth very white. Then he disappeared and Skyfire let a flap of animal hide fall back across the door.
"Yukungadak's son," she said, in a tone which added: what more do you need to know?
"Does he have magic too?"
"More than his fair share," Skyfire said wryly. "Still, he'll be Waru's problem for a few more seasons. Can you eat something now? I'm supposed to bring you to see the elders if you're able to walk."
"I can walk." Maybe I should have waited to try before I said that. Skyfire had to help me, my legs didn't seem to want to straighten out and they ached ten times worse than after a long donkey-ride. We went very slowly out of the bark and leaves hut and I got my first proper look at the Land of the Dragons.
Low hills rose about the clearing where Skyfire's hut and six or seven like it stood. They were forested, the grey/green trees bent over like very old people, bushy and twisted. More trees stood among the huts. Many bare feet had worn paths among them. From nearby I heard splashing and children's shouts, then the irate complaint of an adult. I let Skyfire lead along the path, which twisted around a knot of trees and led towards a larger hut than the others. "Wait here," she said and walked on alone, saying something to the person who appeared in the doorway. "Come in, Amber," Skyfire added to me.
The bright hot daylight dimmed to bearable intensity inside the hut. After my eyes adjusted, I could recognise Waru and Yukungadak, who were, if not friends, at least people I'd met. The others were two old women and one old man. I was surprised to realise that the whole set-up felt familiar, then I realised why. The atmosphere reminded me of the Aradian Order House in Skarrel, where I'd practically been dragged to see Witch-mother Audryn first off. She'd taken me apart with her eyes pretty much as this lot were doing now, but at least she hadn't brought an entire council along.
I remembered the test of courage and fire, the proving of my power and later, the way the sorceresses had walked through my mind, searching out the evasions and the lies. Whatever these people had in mind, I'd be ready for it.
One of the old women spoke. I couldn't understand her. She smiled broadly, her toothless mouth open. Her dark skin contained so many seams and wrinkles till it seemed there couldn't possibly be any more room for them. I opened my mouth to tell Skyfire I couldn't understand, then caught a slight shake of her head. "Amber, Jinini is asking why you keep those hot coverings over your body."
The heavy woollen gown stuck to me with sweat and brine, but I'd never thought to do so much as unlace it. Some rebel. "They also want to be certain that you are human," Skyfire added softly. I glanced at Waru, guessing he'd been claiming I was a spirit, then swiftly unlaced the front. No way would I show that they made me nervous. I pulled the gown over my head and dropped the mass on the ground in front of me, standing in only the light cotton shift. A soft murmur of talk broke out among the five elders, much pointing and even chuckles from Jinini. At Skyfire's direction I turned about and lifted my feet to let them see the soles. Goddess only knew what they wanted to check there.
The old man spoke, a husky, unhurried murmur. His hair and beard were pure white, startling against his dark skin. Skyfire interpreted, "Banguruk asks whether you have offended a powerful spirit, that your skin is pale like a fish's belly."
Wonderful. From maybe being a spirit, I'm now some poor wretch who insulted one. "Uh, no. All the people in my land are pale like this."
Another babble of conversation. I ventured to sit on the earth floor and nobody stopped me. When I sat completely still, the aching of my legs and the rest of my body wasn't so painful. "Amber, Yukungadak is going to ask your spirit why it has come and whether it means us harm," Skyfire said. Was it my imagination that her speech came out quick and nervous? "He says don't fight him or it'll be worse."
I opened my mouth to ask what was worse and found myself slammed to the earth. Not physically. Yukungadak never moved, never touched me, but he reached out of his body and held me in a grip as cold as icy water and hard as the desert rock. Feathers brushed by my cheek and something scaled and clawed dug into my shoulders.
Darkness blotted out my vision and I had the sense of
standing at the furthest edge of a precipice, the wind blowing up from the depths to surround me. It blew through my head, scattering my thoughts out in shards of ocean and dragonflight and cold. I held nothing back. I couldn't.
I showed them my country; the crowded town of Skarrel, surrounding farmlands. I showed them the Order House and the faces of Audryn, Mariel, Joanna and Catri, one by one. I showed them a troop of soldiers, swords at their sides, tramping grimly down the main street of Dampenrook as I had once seen them, with no idea whether they went to war or simply were marching to a garrison somewhere. I did not choose the images, it seemed, or the speed at which they passed. I dwelt on the sun-bright blades, the unsmiling faces of the men. Back to the Order House then, running swiftly through the lessons in sorcery which I had been taught.
Geofrey appeared and I felt again the sickening emptiness which was the absence of my magic, and the fear. Geofrey had never harmed me, but the Order he represented well might. We flicked past the journey to the coast and the embarkation to Harp Island, the rough seas and my own unease as I sensed an unseen presence observing me. Then the dragon swooping down.
In a shock of nightmare, I jolted back to myself, sitting on the earth floor in a hut of bark and leaves, staring at six people who nodded and chatted casually to one another. The old woman Jinini put a question to Yukungadak, who answered with conviction, nodding his head at me. Though I'd understood him clearly enough in Skyfire's hut, here he talked gibberish like the rest.
"Amber," Skyfire said at last, "you're to be my sister. Yukungadak will be your uncle too. Do you understand?"
"Are they satisfied?” I asked shakily. “What did they want me to tell them?”
"They are." She smiled; the Everything Will Be All Right Smile, but she didn’t answer my second question. That kind of trust doesn't work for me. "Welcome to Boorlo. Welcome to your family."
Chapter 4
Something bumped. Slowly I became aware of an unnatural sensation. Stillness. No wind coursing around me. Too much trouble to open my eyes and move, because then I'd have to do something and admit that I was awake and alive, when I didn't know that I wanted to be either.
Finally I opened my eyes. I sprawled on my back, arms and legs splayed over flat, stony, burning-hot ground and I wasn't alone. People stood all around me. Panic made me scrabble to get up on my elbows, at least. Then I realised they weren't immediately trying to kill me, and stopped, gazing up at that circle of interested faces.
Their skin was a lot darker than that of anyone I knew, and they were wearing very little clothing or none. All I could think of for a few blurred moments was to wonder why they weren't sun-blistered like me.
I sat up slowly. The circle of people shifted back a little and I could see the huge boulders behind them. We were on a reddish-tawny plain, mostly bare ground with a few tufts of hardy vegetation growing in the shelter of the boulders. "Hello," I said, more to test whether I still had a voice than because I believed they'd understand me. The words husked out of my dry throat and I coughed. "Can I have a drink?" My own voice sounded very loud in my ears and I felt a buzzing sensation as though a hive of irritated bees circulated inside my head. Then I blacked out.
My hearing came back first. I lay on something softer than bare rock, maybe animal hides, inside somewhere. People were talking over me. "She must be a returning spirit, to fly with the sky serpent."
"He showed images of a cold land, being forced down in a storm. The people there would have killed him. She is of a bloody race."
"But she helped him." A woman's voice, I thought, though husky. "She helped him back to the sky path so he could finish his first flight. He returned to find her. She's no spirit, Waru, and no warrior either, Yukungadak. Do you think the sky serpent would have brought her if she was dangerous?"
“Perhaps he brings her to warn us,” one of the two men said.
I decided I'd better become conscious. I made a slight sound and shifted a little, then opened my eyes. Three people, very close to me, stared back. The only light was from a small fire. We were, as I'd sensed, inside what appeared to be a one-roomed hut put together of branches, bark and leaves. Its roof was very low, more like that of a tent, and the two men crouched beside me, the woman standing.
"My name is Amber," I said. By the sudden tiny movement they made, I knew they could understand me and hadn't expected to. When I spoke, something odd happened. The words which came out weren't exactly the same as those I formed in my mind. If I let my thoughts drift a little, I heard a stranger's speech. Amber. Sun Woman. One of the men nodded in satisfaction. He was the only one not surprised, I thought.
"My name is Skyfire," said the woman beside me. She looked somewhere in her early twenties, with a calm, gentle face and a great mass of dark curly hair about her shoulders. She wore a wrap of animal hide tied about her waist, so completely unaware of her semi-nudity that after the first few moments of shock, I began to get used to the idea. Her name wasn't "Skyfire" either, not quite, it was a rattle of alien sounds that combined to give the sense of sparks flying from a campfire into a dark sky. "This is my uncle, Yukungadak and my father, Waru."
The older man - Waru - nodded, though his eyes were still intent and suspicious. The younger man smiled.
"Yukungadak" seemed to mean both doctor and sorcerer. "Waru" held the suggestion of a hunter. "You must have powerful spirits protecting you, to fly so far," Yukungadak said. "We have never seen anyone like you."
"I had to. The dragon . . . he was hurt. I helped him to find his own people. I was in trouble - somehow he knew and he found me." Those were basically the facts, I decided, too complicated to try to tell the whole story. Did he know I'd heard them? I decided to act as though I hadn't. Though he seemed friendly, Yukungadak had named me as one of a bloody race.
"Are you julagoling?" he asked. "Or Djandga?" Between admitting myself as a young woman powerful in witchcraft, or a spirit, one of their own returning home, there wasn't much of a choice.
"I'm a sorceress," I said wearily. "So burn me at the stake. Give me a drink and then do it before I wake up again."
Yukungadak laughed and the others smiled, seeming relieved. "We will talk again when you are well." He and Waru left the hut/tent and Skyfire brought me water in a clay cup. I drank greedily. She refilled the cup from a bucket and brought me another.
"Where's the dragon, Skyfire?"
"With his people. He brought you to us because we could care for you."
"But what happened? What did you see?"
"The sky serpent landed upon Boorlo with wings spread to catch the sun. You clung astride his neck. A gathering party saw you and hurried towards him. He allowed two of the women to help you down, then touched you with his nose, upon your forehead, before he once more sprang into the air and flew over the Little Water to his country."
So goodbye with never a thank you. Then I thought about how I understood their language. Maybe the dragon had thanked me. Skyfire didn't seem to know any more or understand why the dragon had returned to my land to help me. "Enough questions now," she added with more than a hint of Mariel's manner in her voice. "You need to rest."
I slept again, but I don't think anyone would have called that rest. In my sleep, the voices and images of people I'd left behind me persisted, demanding to know what I thought I was doing and telling me what trouble I'd be in when I returned. Audryn's ice blue eyes burned into me, yet despite her anger, I felt no fear of her. She knew I'd done what I had to do and would punish me only because the law expected it. Mariel also came to lecture me in my sleep. Nick told me off for going without telling him. Even Catri appeared; angry with me but guilty that she had argued just before the dragon snatched me. Then a stranger took Cat’s place, banishing her image mid-sentence. He was dark and elegant, wearing the rich garb of a lord at the Royal Court, but in unusually sombre colours, black velvet and silver-gray satin.
"You're the one," he said, and smiled. "I've been looking for you for a very long time, ever since you broke my spell over Dampenrook. Your power really flared like a beacon when you met the dragon. But you're only a girl - are you even sixteen yet? Come to me and I'll help you discover your powers. No one will be able to touch you then and you will lend me your power so that I too may achieve my dreams. Come to me."
"But who are you?" I heard myself ask, the dream-self I never seemed to fully control. "I don't know you."
"My name is Warwick Asherley, Lord of Cairenor. Come to me swiftly, Amber, before it is too late."
Cairenor. The word rang like a song, a song of shadows and watchful eyes from my cold homeland. More than that, it was a familiar song, the terrifying taste of my dreams, the borrowed dragon-power which had drawn this wizard to find me. I threw myself out of sleep, forcing my eyes open to the light of day, the blazing, hot light flooding through the doorway and the cracks of the hut. The light of the Land of the Dragons. Skyfire stood with her back to me, talking to someone at her door. Amazing how determined a back can look. "No," she said firmly. "She's not well yet."
"I only want to see her." The other voice was young and male and full of that supreme confidence which seems to go with both. Unseen, he reminded me achingly of Nick.
"Skyfire, who's here?"
She turned at the sound of my voice, which gave the caller room to squeeze in, which he did. I'd been right about his age. The boy didn't even look as old as me. Though his skin was dark, the sun had bleached his hair to a tawny gold. His muscles were lean rather than bulky. Since he wore only a sort of loincloth, this was easy to tell. He looked at me with the sort of wonder I'd like to get used to.
"I saw you first, when the sky serpent brought you," he said.
"And you'll be the first out my door this morning, Kulal," Skyfire said. That Mariel-tone snapped in her voice and Kulal reacted to it, reluctantly backing to the door. He grinned at me, his teeth very white. Then he disappeared and Skyfire let a flap of animal hide fall back across the door.
"Yukungadak's son," she said, in a tone which added: what more do you need to know?
"Does he have magic too?"
"More than his fair share," Skyfire said wryly. "Still, he'll be Waru's problem for a few more seasons. Can you eat something now? I'm supposed to bring you to see the elders if you're able to walk."
"I can walk." Maybe I should have waited to try before I said that. Skyfire had to help me, my legs didn't seem to want to straighten out and they ached ten times worse than after a long donkey-ride. We went very slowly out of the bark and leaves hut and I got my first proper look at the Land of the Dragons.
Low hills rose about the clearing where Skyfire's hut and six or seven like it stood. They were forested, the grey/green trees bent over like very old people, bushy and twisted. More trees stood among the huts. Many bare feet had worn paths among them. From nearby I heard splashing and children's shouts, then the irate complaint of an adult. I let Skyfire lead along the path, which twisted around a knot of trees and led towards a larger hut than the others. "Wait here," she said and walked on alone, saying something to the person who appeared in the doorway. "Come in, Amber," Skyfire added to me.
The bright hot daylight dimmed to bearable intensity inside the hut. After my eyes adjusted, I could recognise Waru and Yukungadak, who were, if not friends, at least people I'd met. The others were two old women and one old man. I was surprised to realise that the whole set-up felt familiar, then I realised why. The atmosphere reminded me of the Aradian Order House in Skarrel, where I'd practically been dragged to see Witch-mother Audryn first off. She'd taken me apart with her eyes pretty much as this lot were doing now, but at least she hadn't brought an entire council along.
I remembered the test of courage and fire, the proving of my power and later, the way the sorceresses had walked through my mind, searching out the evasions and the lies. Whatever these people had in mind, I'd be ready for it.
One of the old women spoke. I couldn't understand her. She smiled broadly, her toothless mouth open. Her dark skin contained so many seams and wrinkles till it seemed there couldn't possibly be any more room for them. I opened my mouth to tell Skyfire I couldn't understand, then caught a slight shake of her head. "Amber, Jinini is asking why you keep those hot coverings over your body."
The heavy woollen gown stuck to me with sweat and brine, but I'd never thought to do so much as unlace it. Some rebel. "They also want to be certain that you are human," Skyfire added softly. I glanced at Waru, guessing he'd been claiming I was a spirit, then swiftly unlaced the front. No way would I show that they made me nervous. I pulled the gown over my head and dropped the mass on the ground in front of me, standing in only the light cotton shift. A soft murmur of talk broke out among the five elders, much pointing and even chuckles from Jinini. At Skyfire's direction I turned about and lifted my feet to let them see the soles. Goddess only knew what they wanted to check there.
The old man spoke, a husky, unhurried murmur. His hair and beard were pure white, startling against his dark skin. Skyfire interpreted, "Banguruk asks whether you have offended a powerful spirit, that your skin is pale like a fish's belly."
Wonderful. From maybe being a spirit, I'm now some poor wretch who insulted one. "Uh, no. All the people in my land are pale like this."
Another babble of conversation. I ventured to sit on the earth floor and nobody stopped me. When I sat completely still, the aching of my legs and the rest of my body wasn't so painful. "Amber, Yukungadak is going to ask your spirit why it has come and whether it means us harm," Skyfire said. Was it my imagination that her speech came out quick and nervous? "He says don't fight him or it'll be worse."
I opened my mouth to ask what was worse and found myself slammed to the earth. Not physically. Yukungadak never moved, never touched me, but he reached out of his body and held me in a grip as cold as icy water and hard as the desert rock. Feathers brushed by my cheek and something scaled and clawed dug into my shoulders.
Darkness blotted out my vision and I had the sense of
standing at the furthest edge of a precipice, the wind blowing up from the depths to surround me. It blew through my head, scattering my thoughts out in shards of ocean and dragonflight and cold. I held nothing back. I couldn't.
I showed them my country; the crowded town of Skarrel, surrounding farmlands. I showed them the Order House and the faces of Audryn, Mariel, Joanna and Catri, one by one. I showed them a troop of soldiers, swords at their sides, tramping grimly down the main street of Dampenrook as I had once seen them, with no idea whether they went to war or simply were marching to a garrison somewhere. I did not choose the images, it seemed, or the speed at which they passed. I dwelt on the sun-bright blades, the unsmiling faces of the men. Back to the Order House then, running swiftly through the lessons in sorcery which I had been taught.
Geofrey appeared and I felt again the sickening emptiness which was the absence of my magic, and the fear. Geofrey had never harmed me, but the Order he represented well might. We flicked past the journey to the coast and the embarkation to Harp Island, the rough seas and my own unease as I sensed an unseen presence observing me. Then the dragon swooping down.
In a shock of nightmare, I jolted back to myself, sitting on the earth floor in a hut of bark and leaves, staring at six people who nodded and chatted casually to one another. The old woman Jinini put a question to Yukungadak, who answered with conviction, nodding his head at me. Though I'd understood him clearly enough in Skyfire's hut, here he talked gibberish like the rest.
"Amber," Skyfire said at last, "you're to be my sister. Yukungadak will be your uncle too. Do you understand?"
"Are they satisfied?” I asked shakily. “What did they want me to tell them?”
"They are." She smiled; the Everything Will Be All Right Smile, but she didn’t answer my second question. That kind of trust doesn't work for me. "Welcome to Boorlo. Welcome to your family."
What's happening back home?
(Anonymous) 2005-10-26 07:43 am (UTC)(link)I wonder what kind of stuff's going down back in Amber's country! Aiiee!
http://www.cafepress.com/aliciasmith
Re: What's happening back home?
Somebody in deep shit, far far away....
This applies in both directions :-)
More later. Work's been killing me and even though I'm off work today, I hurt too much to type...
Sue
no subject
:)
(Do I sound pathetic enough?)
Incidentally, are you doing the NaNoWriMo thing this year. http://www.nanowrimo.org/ In a foolhardy moment I committed myself to it. I haven't even got a story idea at the moment. Eeeek!