Sensual morning

As in employing all the senses.

First, when I was ready to go outside for the first time right after sunrise, I wondered what the temperature outside would be. Last night it rained, and I didn’t know if I needed a sleeve or not. Touched the glass on the back door and quickly determined, yep, it was chilly outside.

I’m not sure how cool it was, but it was humid and cool enough to make my nose slightly numb after a brisk walk. I’d guess around 40.  (Looked at the weather site to confirm and it said 38*F, so I was close).

One of the first sounds I heard this morning was an eagle somewhere in the sky. I couldn’t find it, but the sound is unmistakable, and they are here for the winter. The usual birdsong at dawn filled the air, but soon the jays dominated my auditory channel until a pack of coyotes on the hill broke the cadence with their yippling noises.

On the way back up the hill after finding the mullein I heard a flock of geese approaching, so I stopped to watch them. Their white undersides flashed in the sun when they suddenly switched directions and headed due south rather than the easterly they were on previously.

Speaking of finding the mullein, the sensory experience there was that of rose brambles clinging in a desperate attempt to hold me close to them. Their digging thorns would have been painful were I not dressed for the task.

As I pulled the velvety mullein leaves from their tap-root stalks, I breathed in the pleasant smell associated only with that plant and no other. It is a verdant odor, mingled with humus and microscopic life.

By the time I made it back to the house, distinctly aware of the blood pumping through my veins, I acknowledged that life was good today.

#teasertuesday – last snippet from The Calling

This will be the last teaser from this WIP, since this last snippet will mean I’ve posted about a chapter or so of it already. Next week will be from something new.

Tonight I’m heading out of town, so the posts from this point until Sunday’s will all be pre-scheduled and it might seem like I’ve dropped off the earth for a little while again.

The look in her eyes was worried, and the smile was gone.

                “What is it?” I asked.

                “The sleeper. He’s waking.”

            It was as if she’d suddenly reverted to wild, and her edgy behavior gave me pause.

            “Who is this ‘sleeper’? You’ve mentioned him before,” I said.

            “When all else fails, he will wake. Our cries – oh Mother of All, it must have been our cries. Our blood must have reached his depth.” She shook her head slowly side to side and moaned. “It was not our wish to wake him.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “The sleeper wakens,” she said, then moaned again.

            “But what IS the sleeper?”

            “This is bad, very bad,” she said from between fingers pressed to her face. Her color faded in places as she de-materialized before me. I grabbed her arm, knowing it wouldn’t do any good if she dissipated, but that knowing didn’t stop the reflex.

            “Dammit – tell me what’s going on. Tell me now!”

She looked at me with despair, lips a thin line across her face, but her hair still floated in static repel, hovering around her head in an auburn glow.

            “The seed you carry is the last hope for your kind now. Blood from the offspring of the tree of life will cause him to sleep again.”

I clutched my belly. Never. No way I’d let harm come to this child. Whatever kind of child it turned out to be.