There was no sound. The rush of wind whistling through the short grass and stems of lichen and moss held no vibration - lost to time by a wish. She had bade the loss of sound in order to hear for the babe - a whisper, or whine travel over the tundra, small movement within the still. Her own body singed with desire, taught against her own thoughts. Without sound, as though thrust on a foreign world, she felt rather than heard, crush of caribou moss crackle against the leather of her feet. She had traveled long, but had no way to know - there was no moon, and light was present or extinguished with only a thought. Tundra spread, aching for snow - red as blood, dotted delicate flowers, with gold threading by masses of various moss, stark white as bone against the red. The horizon yawned in the vast measure, showing no end to the mats of plants in colors, leading to a beyond not known. A baby waited within the folds of the land, tucked into the small tufts of red, golds and white - to be discovered. She could not will the land to reveal the babe, for the land had given birth. She could only look for them, waiting to be picked and carried, as eggs from a nest. She and her people were all only born this way, sprouted as the bruised flowers beneath her. That was how the first were born, alongside the caribou, wolves, birds, rodents and bears. Born together and raised together without fear of one another. All were equal as all were born as one, with wants and needs satisfied by imagination and thought. Tribes had spread and the people walked with the animals. Some could walk far further than others and animals even more quickly, with great stamina. She turned in silence, holding her breath. The smallest of whimpers, so faint it would have been lost but for the throbbing silence willed into existence. Moving lightly she crouched and crawled across the sinking plants, seeking life. Gently feeling through the thick mats she felt the break and crush of small roots with each step but not finding the soft skin. Tucked within the folds of moss she saw the tiny arm fling and then rest. Moving softly she reached the babe, folded within a womb of earth. She gently reached around his warm skin, breaking away the leaves, stalks, stones and earth to draw him forth. Delivering from his birthplace she brought him next to her skin- he reacted to her windswept cool, giving a small sigh, reaching with his tiny hands in surprise. She eased him closer, under her breast, where the skin was warmer. She waited until tiny blinks, not yet fully open, rewarded her and she released air of tension she had been holding. With the breath, vibration of the earth flooded with sound, crashing with suddenness of a wave. He cried in surprise, at the fullness of the sound, startled. Cooing she held him closer, providing a comfort she remembered. Covering him she sank into the moss and nursed him, knowing milk would flow. He latched and sucked as though he had done it before. With the wind she sang softly, feeling his face and watching his black hair ruffle in the breeze like moss flowers. When he had finished, she stood and started her walk back to the tribe, willing light to stay the darkness. The land cushioned her steps as she cradled her baby, bringing him from his birth to unite with the people, strong with will from the land itself as with all living things- in the beginning.

The old oak door opened easily, unlocked and on greased hinges. She poked her head in. ‘Hello? Ester?’ The house was small and dark with the muted sound of rain hitting the sod roof. She shook as much water as possible from her cloak then stepped inside. ‘Ester? It’s Ashley, your apprentice.’ She glanced about the cold, dark room. No fire in the hearth and a stillness born from a place that had not been lived in for a small time. She hung her cloak by the door, placing her pack on the bench. She looked about the small house, simple furniture and only a few rooms that she could see from the doorway. The kitchen occupied most of the space of the room with rows of jars above and below filled with herbs, stones, different colored liquids. On the counter a mortar and pestle with a crushed brown herb. She took a pinch, rubbing it between her fingers to activate the oils - clove. Beside the mortar was a distilling device with the collection bottle nearly full of liquid. Within the still itself were wet herbs starting to mold. The counters and floor had a discrete layer of dust that Ashley wiped down as she made her way through the house. There was a windowless small bedroom with enough space for a bed and small armoire and adjacent was a slightly larger bedroom with a small window. She retuned to the larger room noting a lack of disarray or mess within. It looked as though her mentor has stepped out while making a tincture and simply not returned. Ashley hoped she had not gone looking for her. The rain had delayed her travels for almost two weeks as the ferries and bridges had been considered too dangerous to cross or washed away. She had sent a letter to Ester telling of her travels before departure but that was over 3 weeks ago. Perhaps her mentor had a patient to attend and had simply gotten stuck in another village due to the floods. Satisfied with the thought, she worked on lighting a fire, feeling the chill of the damp touch her bones. With the fire roaring she looked to the bedrooms again and deciding the larger of the bedrooms would likely be Esters. She unpacked and organized what little she owned into the little sturdy armoire of the small bedroom. She went to work in the kitchen cleaning the still. With the used herb in a bundle she shivered under her wet cloak sloshing into the rain around the back of the house where she had seen a small garden through the larger bedroom window. Digging a hole with a trowel she found, she buried the used herb from the still. She would find the appropriate compost pile later, but for now this would be respectful and quick. With her cloak soaked again she hung it by the fire, and stood letting the warmth tempt her soaked skin back to the living. She moved to the kitchen taking note of the herbs and preparations Ester had made when a loud knock came from the door. She turned - the door thrust open before she could utter a word. She stood cleaning her hands as a man stepped through, removing his large periwinkle cloak and shaking it. Her opinion of him mired as she watched the floor sprinkle with a decent amount of water. He locked eyes with her and visibly stiffened. ‘You are not Ester’ ‘No I’m not.’ She quickly added ‘she most likely left for the next village. I’m not sure when she will return.’ Wiping her hands she stepped towards him ‘ I’m Ashley her apprentice.’ She went to shake his hand but he made no move to accept the gesture. He looked at her warily. ‘ I didn’t realize she was taking on an apprentice.’ Ashley lowered her hand, feeling her socks becoming damp from the wet he brought in- searching his face if he had any intention of warming to her. The man stood staring her down with a faint look of disgust. She took a breath. ‘She is. I’ve studied at the herbal college in Bethel and have completed my training as one of the top in my class. I’ve come for my apprenticeship for the next year and will be completing my clinical training under her excellent expertise. I’ve been lucky to have her accept me as a mentor as she rarely takes students.’ She took a small step towards a dry spot to prevent any further damp from soaking what warmth she had gained. ‘I detest students, although with your training in Bethel you seem somewhat competent.’ He continued to study her, looking over the small room to the hanging herbs and clean still. Although still a jibe, she would take the compliment as a small opening of opportunity. Seeing if she could open it further she asked, ‘ if you will permit me to help, perhaps I can start the process of what you are here for, while waiting for Ester to return. I’m sure she won’t be long.’ He seemed to relax slightly, she continued ‘ I’m sure she will want you helped as quickly as possible. You do seem to be a person of fine standing with such a lovely cloak.’ He paused looking at her with surprise ‘ Yes I am. As deputy assistant to the council member, I am of dignified standing within the region.’ She made a small bow and motioned to two simple chairs close to the fire. ‘I would be honored to assist you on Esters behalf until her speedy return.’ She mentally hoped Ester would not be cross about her words, nor taking on a client unsupervised. He straightened, pleased with the flattery, and made his way to the chair. She took in a breath, steadying herself, turning and taking the opposite chair. ‘What can I help you with?’ He mentioned to his nose. ‘Do you see this here?’ Ashley had to bend closer in order to see what he was pointing to. There was a small bump that had been covered by flesh colored cream. ‘That small bump?’ She asked. ‘Small bump!’ He cried. ‘Small bump! This here has risen to an enormous size! I had to conceal it with use of an expensive concoction from a colleague. As a dignitary in my position such masses are most unbecoming and undignified. I have a reputation to uphold.’ She mustered as much sincerity as possible between her surprise and pure amusement ‘of course, that makes sense with a person of your standing. It would of course be extremely distracting.’ ‘Most definitely.’ He concurred. ‘Yes’ she continued ‘however in order to diagnosis the condition I am obligated to see the lesion without the concelor cream.’ He paused and she added ‘I promise that all diagnosis and treatment here will be confidential.’ ‘ I hope that will always be the case.’ ‘Absolutely sir.’ She stood straight in her chair giving no sign of doubt in her expression. With great care he removed the concealer and she could see a hard fleshy colored lump. She gently touched it after obtaining permission and felt it to be hard and shallow. Swallowing her laughter she sat and made eye contact, saying as seriously as possible ‘it is a wart, sir. A small one and not yet deep.’ He groaned loudly, touching the mass again. ‘ It has been growing so quickly, I need this to be taken care of swiftly. When can you make the remedy?’ ‘I can make preparations straight away, although I must warn you, the treatment may take some time to have the full effect.’ Impatiently he waved his hand at her ‘Yes, yes, I understand. Do you need to look at it further?’ ‘No sir, I have a diagnosis.’ He nodded and produced a small tin in which was a flesh colored cream and applied it to the wart. Satisfied he stood, collecting his cloak. ‘I must take my leave, they will be wondering of my absence. Please deliver as soon as possible.’ Clasping his cloak around his neck he stroad off in the rain shutting the door decidedly which made Ashley blink at the sound. Chuckling she started looking through the jars of herbs, seeing if the ingredients were available to make a remedy. Her laughter stopped when she realized she had forgotten to ask the gentleman his name and where to drop off the remedy. She groaned, rubbing her eyes. Oh, what had happened to Ester?

He looked at the door to his apartment - paint peeling, scuff marks at the base and doorframe. Repainting the door would accomplish little but his moral. There was no time, there would never be time. He couldn’t sleep. He never felt he could sleep. The soulful rest would not come. Oh, he would sleep, but in his dreams no rest would come. Entering the apartment he dropped the bags covering him and stumbled into the kitchen. Cracker crumbs on a dirty plate with hastily sliced cheddar cheese. Munching mindlessly he felt the heaviness of the past 28 hours settling like wet snow. Sleep was inevitable, the alternate was a slow demise. Facing the nameless hauntings was better than feeling in real time his brain clogging with rot. Unceremoniously dumping the plate back in the sink he stumbled to the bedroom, removing clothing as he went, dropping them in heaps. The bed squealed in protest as he flopped onto it, with stark silence when his movement ceased. His breathing slowed, deepening within minutes and the grasp of nothingness overwhelmed everything. For ages his body did not dream, the weight of too many hours awake. But like they always did, they came at the end. And like always they started as actual dreams, but then the images came fresh and clean. The city was on fire, buildings shattered as far as he could see. Vaporized shadows eteched onto walls, the smell of death lingering. Smoke clogged his vision as he searched for the school. The street was hot, glistening with debris lining the road seared from the explosion. The chances of the children living through this - he pushed the thought away. He had to know if there were survivors. Burnt meat clung to smoldering grass. The school yard was nothing. Those that died did before knowing what happened. Scrambling through the debris, skirting fires he approached the school. The windows were blown out, glass glinting, doors askew. The smell of charred skin, hair was becoming more potent. He stepped into the entrance, hallway empty. The smoke was manageable but there was a fire smoldering inside. Moving through the hallway he turned a corner toward a classroom. The bodies were black, small. Thrashed about in tiny groups. Huddled, the faces that were visible were twisted in pain, agony. The group didn’t appear to die instantly but were shielded enough to die from the pressure wave and subsequent fires. They had no chance. He looked away quickly. These images were too familiar. He continued to wander the halls, looking, hoping. A cry of a kitten startled him. Shining his light suddenly in his hand he saw two tangled bodies. The cry came again. With horror he went to look at the bodies and the eyes of the child opened, peering at him in pain. ‘Help’. He sat on the bed holding his hands to his face, pressing hard until he saw stars - if he held back the tears - sobs cracking through every chink. These images and this reoccurring dream had now plagued him for months. This one was the worst one of any of them, the one he detested the most. It ripped at his soul, tearing at his humanity one small pieace at a time. What killed him every night wasn’t the horror of the images themselves but the knowledge that these clear dreams, when it felt as though he hadn’t slept at all, these were the dreams that would come true. He had them all of his life. Knowing his marriage would fail after marrying his wife, knowing which house to buy, job to take, path to avoid. As the years went on, he grew to detest the night, sleep. He was cursed to know the future, however terrible it would be. War was coming. His slow grasp on sanity was the proof that no one else would ever believe. And why would they. The idea was nonsense to any reasonable person, he alone would carry it. He stood at the window. Time to move on.

I sat with the group of elders, musing amongst themselves about the timeframe of our stay. The solar flare had been far larger than anticipated and many had grabbed little before coming to the evacuation caves. Supplies were sufficient but it was a point of anxiety. I listened, watching the faces with the low light available. ‘Should be no more than a week.’ Notes of concern etched in his face. ‘Oh Ned, that’s a stretch. Even with a large flare a day or two should be sufficient. This isn’t any larger than the one 7 years ago.’ She placed a reassuring hand on his thigh then turned back to the group. ‘These things happen, overestimating only sets all to worry.’ Nona looked over and stole a wink at me. I gave a small smile back, swallowing back some of my worry. ‘It is true, but this one was different. The grid was struggling even before the warning. I’m sure it’s been tripped now and hopefully not on fire.’ Miriam pipped in, looking over. ‘I do think we may be in here some days yet.’ She dropped her gaze from Nona and nodded at a few of the others who were offering their agreements. ‘Nonsence! I plan on going out tomorrow. By then everything should be calm and our sun should be without issue.’ Nona scoffed, looking about the group. ‘The grid is designed for this ionization. Batteries will be charged and nothing’ she looked directly at Miriam ‘will be on fire.’ Miriam frowned then glanced over at Gene. He spotted her gaze and shook his head with his hands up. She was on her own if she tried to argue the point. Nona had been wrong with past flares but that was before the changes to the grid. There had not been a flare of this size since the village had added the new sheathing to the batteries and charge wires. I had apprenticed with the engineering group for the installation not more than a month ago. Although there had been issues with some imperfections in the material the engineering team had been able to fix the issues before today. The elders did not offer an argument to Nona’s statement. Peggy stood. ‘We should know by tomorrow. I will personally check the grid myself with Nona. In the meantime speak with those around us. They seem worried and reassurances would be of great help.’ She opened her palms. ‘May we flourish.’ I stood with the rest of the elders and repeated with them ‘and do so in harmony.’ She looked to the others who nodded and slowly dispersed into the dim cave. Nona walked over to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me in close. ‘You have no reason to worry, I can see it all over your face. I assume that is why you came over.’ She kissed my cheek and I hugged her back. ‘With the fixes to the sheathing material what if we missed one? And of course the extra heat will hurt the crops closest to the day side.’ Nona gave me a squeeze. ‘Oh goodness, you have nothing to fear. Your mother lead the engineering team and you know everything was fine. Ignore what they said, just a bunch of worry warts with nothing else to do. The underground dark makes everyone crazy. The heat will dissipate, some crops may be damaged but we plan for this.’ She turned to me ‘Our village has survived much worse.’ She stood in front of me and smiled. ‘You need something to take your mind off of this. Go to the livestock, see if Greg or Neal need any help. I will speak with your mother and see if there is anything we missed to put you at ease.’ ‘Grandma, I’m part of the team. I’m not a scared little kid. I don’t need chores, I just want to be sure.’ ‘Then be sure.’ She gave me a look. Argument over. Point taken, if I’m going to be a part of the team then I need to support the team. I had graduated not long ago, this was a big responsibility and I was one of the youngest to be allowed on the team. All of the teams had a parts to play in any village but engineering was one of the most prestigious. I had the mind for it and the aptitude from a young age. I nodded my head and she gave a warm smile, giving one last squeeze around my shoulders. She turned and walked towards the group near the supplies, no doubt to tell them tomorrows plan. I did have the advantage of having both my mother and grandmother on leadership of the engineering team. Admittedly I was scrutinized far closer by my family then other members of the team. This was a fact that was made apparent often. I was determined to prove that I was where I belonged. I went over to where the cots were, laid down on mine. Most of the small children were sleeping and families were settling into their areas. Evening was upon us. The emotions of the day crushed into me, making the fatigue I had been fighting back seem overwhelming. I looked around at the people in the village settling in for the night and saw my sister. I waved over at her. She slowly jutted through the maze of people and plopped next to me. ‘So, how long are we waiting?’ I relayed the elders meeting to her with Peggy and Nona checking the grid tomorrow. She seemed satisfied with the plan although slightly surprised that the check would happen so quickly. ‘Nona must be pretty confident in the new sheathing material.’ ‘She is, besides the imperfections it did perform well. She has every reason to think it won’t fail. The team did well with the repairs.’ I attempted to swell with confidence. My sister saw through it immediately. She was always better at reading others than I was. ‘Okay there engineer. I get it, the team is on track. Let’s hope you all don’t have to mine more of that stuff. The dark side was rough, don’t know if all the frostbite was worth it.’ She still had yet to graduate but we all knew she would be accepted as a healer. She was starting to do rotations at the clinic as an aid. She was playing with her hands, eyebrows furrowed. Without looking up she asked ‘Do you think we may have to move to the dark side after this? If the flares are this strong, twilight may not be safe.’ She looked as tired as I felt, both of us were feeling the crash after the rush. ‘Nona thinks all is well, I don’t think we have to shelter on the dark side. We will see what she says tomorrow. You’ll see, everything will be fine.’ I sat up and rubbed her shoulders, she turned to hug me with tears in her eyes. I held her close feeling her silent sobs. I couldn’t help but let my sadness rise to the surface. Our village had been forced to take shelter on the dark side of our world when we were small for a year. Our small red sun had spit solar flares aggressively, pelting the face of our close world the ionization and heat for months. Our tidally locked world orbits the sun as the moon did for our ancestors Earth. Only one face shows itself to our sun, a red dwarf by official terminology, while the other is frozen in perpetual night. We live at the boundary of these two, the twilight. I felt my sisters sobs and felt the tears run down my face. Our brother and grandfather had succumbed to the cold after an accident had left them stranded while traveling, a large flare cutting off communication. Many others in our village were lost during the extended dark and cold. It was a grueling loss for our small village, the only colony on this world. For those old enough to remember it is the fear that freezes us when the flares start again. I held her allowing the relief of emotion we have been holding onto for so long to spill. I wiped away my tears as she did the same. ‘How about you get some sleep? You can have this bed if you want something away from the middle.’ I offered. She gave a half laugh, wiping her face and nose. ‘Like I can sleep now, plus you look terrible.’ I laughed, trying to contain the mucus from my nose. Hopefully all would be fine. Nona thought so, and the elders were not so worried. There was every case that the flares would calm and we would be able to return to the village. All of this worry would be for nothing. It had to be. She moved her cot close to mine and we spent the night side by side. The morning would bring us the answers. Everything would be fine. I fell asleep holding on to hope. If I knew how wrong I was, I don’t think I would have ever slept at all.