A visitor.

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For a moment, it was suggested.  And, welcomed, so long as the mess of self or cave was not offensive, is all I required.  My door, as I have said, is always open.  Enter or leave, do no harm, the sum cost of admission and exit toll.  So it was.  The visitor entered.  A few notions on his mind.  An ear, had I, and words from time to time.  So a song was sung with neither rhythm, music, cant, or beat, merely the wagging of thoughts and beliefs through words of various timbers.  Strike and parry, glancing blow and feign, together and alone, in agreement and not.  On the night went.

It is suggested, through science and mortal knowledge, I am known and as the simple man I seem to be.  Simple may be a bit of a metaphor, but the rest was held as true.  No reason to debate the point, devil and kin prefer to be unknown, the rest of us must become known.  Even the Christ could not say, but when found out, He most certainly acknowledged.  So it is, unlike with those of only shadow.  So for men who try to live in shadow, they will not see until they may.

I know how he sees things.  I used to focus on seeing things as I preferred to see them as well.  Just a normal with minor gifts.  Just an oddity among oddities, living and breathing, thinking and doing, but just the same as all else.  I remember the dance with light and darkness, denying either as true, but neither in full, until the song led to questions that would not go away, and answers that once found could not be denied.  Still, I tried to skip to the beat of the nether, minus music or nether.  Ah, the days.  The tattoos are on my soul, though a few reminders of challenging the truth of even flesh remain in the form of scars, those that my terribly potent form does not, or could not, hide even then.

And so it went.  A night of voices in the lair of a beast.  If not tamed, certainly identified and accepting of the voice, truth, and command of the only Master who is True.  I think things were seen, soon to be denied or set aside.  But not just voice, plans.  This visitor wishes to get out and do, as do I.  A camping trip, to a magical place of nature.  He knows of the world, if not of the things I have learned.  A peacepipe, some travel, and company.  In my same shape, in my same boat, more along Desert Cat's ideas, or even further along in them, yet a friend as well.  He doesn't quite know that a story can only be told with two things, a voice and an ear.  We only have one of these that can be used by our selves at a time, and so, I listened often and spoke in various moments as well.  Eventually, I do believe, he will hear the story as I listen.  I think, as suggested, he is beginning to see.

Without draught or other libation or want of it, he spent a long night exploring thought and memory, listening and speaking.  He has not been awake so very late in as long as memory serves.  His health, though nearly as bad as mine, had become better, but has slipped to almost double my heart function.  His age, and natural nature, are afflicting him greatly even so.  And yet, doubling his day into my night seemed not so difficult as the impossibility he would have thought.  Nearly to dawn, words and notions and plans.

So be it.  A few ideas on where to go, now to nail down when.  I need to get my kit in order for travel.  I will learn from him.  He is a traveler of many sorts.  While I have been as well, my movements were always with... purpose.  No venturer, no wanderer save from home to home, never here or there or moving betwixt for leisure or escape.  Always with a goal, a reason, commanded and sent.  I can, and need to, learn some things about some things.  Traveling light, on my own accord, for leisure or not,  is among them.  It is good to have two lions when in foreign country, on first runs, to learn, as a beginning.  Especially when in a weakened state.  And so it will be, perhaps even a winter camping trip in the mountains.

Not a bad night at all.  While my "day" was consumed by the visit, it was not a lost or vain cause.  Burning money, or time, or energy, are requirements for doing what one wishes.  Keeping those expenses in line is a reasonable ploy.  But when the cost is there, the price must be paid.  And it will be paid in hide, kind, cash, time, energy, or the notion will fail.  Up front or in the endeavor, sacrifice.  Choose wisely and pay, as is want, up front, in honesty, and then begin from there.  And so it was.

Later.