Beinn 6.1

Katashi studied him silently giving him time to take in what he was looking at. The truth was, Katashi was surprised that Jaala made no move to reach for the object. That he seemed to value it highly there was no doubt, he was very content to let Katashi hold it though. The emotions that clearly played across the face of the short pot bellied man faded into the same enigmatic smile at which point their eyes met. Katashi was content to let him be the first to speak. He didn’t, and while Katashi was content to let the silence extend out as long as necessary he decided to force the situation. He drew his arm back and to the side making as if to toss the item into the weeds.

“No Katashi!” Jaala said softly but firmly. “You must not do that.”

“What is this?”

“It is Cuauhtemoc’s pin.”

“It doesn’t look like a pin at all Jaala.”

“That is because you don’t know what you are looking at and what it is used for.”

Katashi found Jaala’s response typically cryptic and perhaps it was standing in the midst of dead highlanders, barbarians but fallen warriors nonetheless, that put Katashi a bit on edge. He surprised himself that he felt anger welling up inside him. He stayed with it, silently, while he let Jaala’s words sink in and watched the man content to do no more than smile. After a minute or two when he felt calm again he spoke.

“Jaala. You seem to be withholding information from me ever since we met. If we are to continue this journey together you need to be more forthcoming or our paths part here. I understand that each of us has our secrets, but if yours extend to not answering simple questions such as the one I asked then perhaps a journey alone is better.”

“I answered your question,” Jaala replied, smiling.

Silence hung between them which was broken when Katashi slipped the artifact into a pocket inside his robe. “Farewell,” and with that he turned and began to walk towards the other side of the clearing.

~ by ridgewalker on January 10, 2009.