Visions Read Free

come, and they did not see The Visions.
    The big head turned slowly towards the hole going deep into the rock. A shadow within a shadow was there at the entrance, then moving cautiously across the narrow ledge. He had felt her presence long before she reached the top of the tunnel, and now, sensing her fatigue and fear of losing balance in such a high place, he projected to her a feeling of confidence, exhilaration and awaiting love at the end of the short journey. She was smaller than he, with tiny feet making the traverse easier, and in a moment she was with him. They embraced when she had seated herself, and he touched her again with a love feeling, marveling as usual how she retained so delicate a beauty at such an advanced age. She smiled at The Vision, noting the way he always enhanced her good features and eliminated the poor ones. His mind was the perfect mirror, reflecting only the best.
    “Anka, I hesitated to disturb you, but the children were restless before sleep and wanted to have a story about the days in the valley. You hide yourself well; this was the last place I thought of.” Her tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth in precise articulation of the old language, for she was also an Elder, and Keeper of The Memories.
    “You worry too much as usual, Tel. I come here only to watch the night and smell the trees, and obtain relief from the noise below. I’m getting too old for it.”
    “The children?”
    “Not so. I enjoy watching their faces when I take them to the places of our youth, but it is impossible for them to sit still, and they insist on chattering away in the new tongue, asking questions, wanting to put a name on everything, making jokes. Can’t they take anything seriously? I show them the way things used to be, the way things can be again for them. How will it be if they walk about marveling at common trees and animals? They’ll be discovered, and then what? Weapons and torches? A trek across the mountains to avoid those with fears so easily aroused? The Hinchai spread everywhere, infecting the world, living apart from it. They do not have The Memories.”
    “They are our cousins, dear heart.”
    “Yes, but it is difficult to accept. They have come another way.”
    “Yet you have made the decision to be one with them. Oh Anka, how can you be so grumpy on such a night? And don’t you think that down there, near the lights, right now, there are others watching the sky and feeling the cool breeze? Perhaps cuddling?” She snuggled up to him, draping an arm across his broad chest.
    “No use trying to arouse me. I’m getting too old for that, too,” he said, giving her a toothy grin.
    “Teasing again!” She slapped his shoulder hard, then snuggled close again. “All I want is to keep you warm out here. You’ve been sick.”
    “I’m fine, now; you don’t have to be my mother.” He didn’t tell her about the horrible, bloody mass he’d spat up earlier in the evening, and how when he breathed it felt like something was loose inside of him.
    “What else can I do? Our children are grown, and you’re the only baby I have left.”
    Anka glared at her in mock anger, but before he could touch her she reached out with her own love feeling that made his heart quiver and loins stir, and then her hands touched him there as well. “Ah, the wind and the sky lights make you young again tonight,” she said, eyes bright with anticipation.
    He seized her, but gently, pulling her around so she was straddling him, and he was instantly inside of her, thrusting hard as she wrapped strong arms around his neck, pulling his face to her withered breasts. He wanted her so much, feeling her passion and her need and wishing to satisfy her, but again he could not. As quickly as it had become hard and proudly erect, his organ was limp and he could do nothing more to revive it. He ceased his thrusting, feeling old and ashamed, burying his face against her shoulder as she caressed his neck and back. His