And he sat there.
What he said…it resonated.
There were no lies detected, that was for damn sure. Ethan was a nightmare when it came to anger on a good day. On a bad day, he was a bag of dicks.
It wasn’t easy to heal from that childhood trauma when you were faced with the person who propagated most of it—or who you believe did.
As he was about to clean up, and put the peyote away, something made him light the bowl of herbs, and let the smoke fill the tipi.
As he took deep breaths, he closed his eyes.
Maybe he’d find peace in the smoke.
Maybe he’d find the answer as to why he was so angry all of the time.
Because he knew something had to give.
Wyler hadn’t been wrong. He was angry at him, and he did hate him for the past. Coming here and staying here, had opened up all of those wounds all over again.
Still.
As the tipi filled with smoke, consciousness waned. The room began getting grayer and wavier.
And he began slipping beneath the smoke.
Ethan began a walk, and he kept his mind blank so he could let whatever needed to come through come through. He stayed silent, so he could hear anything that spoke to him.
He never knew what would happen in the smoke, but that was part of the fun.
It was anyone’s game.
When he finally opened his mind all of the way, he opened his eyes. How he dream walked in the smoke, he wasn’t sure. All he knew was he’d always been able to do it.
He’d yet to determine if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
That’s when he heard the very familiar voice.
“Hello, my boy.”
Ethan turned, and sitting not far away on a rock was a big, black raven. It morphed and shifted, becoming a human form, but the very dark eyes stayed.
They were Timothy’s eyes.
“Granddad?” he asked.
The man moved his arms, making his ceremonial robes flap in the air around him. It was very bird-like, and very much Timothy-like.
The Shaman was here.
Oh, well, this should be interesting.
“Yes, my boy. It’s nice to see you. I’m going to guess that this isn’t just a social call. I saw what just went down in the tipi. When are you going to cut him a break? It’s like you’re trying to break him.”
Ethan sighed.
That was exactly like what it was like. An eye for an eye was a shitty way to live, and he knew it.
“I’m angry.”
