Wildspeak

So for the past week I’ve been checking The West for its weather predictions and I see ‘thunderstorms expected,’ over and over again. The last time this happened though, no thunder, no storms, no Hrum.

So today… I think to myself ‘you’d better not be fucking teasing me this time.’

And I have just come in from pouring a libation and making a more formal takcza to Hrum. I can’t even hear him, but I can see the zrzak (dragons which… are basically lightning) dancing with each other on the horizon, and feel the winds of Vavale lifting my hair away from my face, that I usually hide from the world. Forcing the hair back and saying ‘face him with pride.’

And so I did. The libation was a lemon, lime and bitters that I’d been saving for myself for some time. I don’t drink alcohol, and this is the closest I get to a ’special treat.’ Hrum got a great deal of it, and I’m savouring the rest now.

But oh, the love I feel. It’s so different from the more terrifying Vavale. I knew then that he was there, the tecze zrzak were there, the skymaidens having flown up from their resting places in the lakes and rivers were there, Vasilia and L’yuvotn’r were there.

And beneath the land the great writhing of a primordial serpent. The ubidjidup rising from the hot, humid night lands to reach their fingers up to the sky. The panicked fluttering of the giant moth gulunar. The endless spiral upwards and then downwards again. The eucalyptus breathing in and out. The paperbark bending of its own gnarled weight but still sending its feathery soft flowers into the sky.

Today has been a difficult day, for so many reasons, but standing and witnessing a god whom I love pound the skies has made it all worthwhile.

He gifted me with some of his energy. And in exchange he took some of mine. I haven’t been called to work closely with Hrum yet (it’s more like a celebrity crush, sometimes, to the amusement of others), but I feel as time passes I will be called to understand the secrets of Hrum and through him, the secrets of Oooshala, my waterhorse perevrjni.

In other news I have been journeying more intensively lately. It always seems that this path of mine progresses in a series of leaps, rather than on a gentle incline. The latest leap is being called to work actively again in soul extraction, as well as retrieval.

Soul extraction gives me the heebie jeebies. I’ve had a handful of experiences, but some have been horrifying. None of this cute visualisation crap where you ‘imagine removing the bad energy and then sealing up the soul.’ Granted, you do get those sorts of extractions, which are relatively low fuss… but they’re not all like that.

The good news is that Vavale for whatever reason thinks that I’m capable.

Her tests are difficult, I knew that when she claimed me, and I know it still today. But so far… so good. And with Hrum to escort me along this path with his primordial exuberance, and the ubidjidup to turn a blind eye to our petty human lives, I feel both humbled and blessed.