"Hey,Jim! wake up!"

"Hmmm...?"

"Jimmm..."

"Uhhh...mmmhph..."

"Jim. Listen, it's me, Blair."

"BLAIR?"

"Yep."

"Blair? Why can I hear you? Where are you?"

"Because you're not blocking me anymore, Jim. I'm right here, beside you."

"Oh."

"What's that mean?"

"I thought, I thought maybe..."

"You thought it was time to join me?"

"Ah,...yeah."

"It's not your time yet, Jim."

"Oh."

"Hey, cheer up. At least you've got me with you, and you can hear me. I can be
with you when you dream."

"I haven't been having very many dreams, especially good ones. How will this
be any different?"

"Because you've been dreaming  *about*  me, not  *with*  me."

"What..."

"You're not controlling this dream are you?"

"No,...it's more...like my visions..."

"Exactly. Feel that?"

"Ouch!...uh, not to disagree with you or anything, but how is this possible?"

"Remember when I died?"

“Blair! How could I forget! I'm here  *alone* !”

"Whoa,Jim! it's O.K, I'm here with you, now. I don't mean this time. At the fountain."

"Of course I remember! I called you back, and you came! And this time I tried
and tried and the wolf just kept going! You wouldn't come back!"

"I couldn't come, Jim. At the fountain, well, it wasn't my time. You could
call me back that time, but you gave me a part of your soul to do it. You
couldn't do that again. No matter how much I didn't want to leave you, I
couldn't come back like that again."

"Why not!"

"Jim, this isn't what I want to talk about.”

"I have to know. I  can't just blindly..."

(Sigh)  "No, I guess not."

"So?"

"O.K. When I died at the fountain, I... lost my soul. My spirit turned back,
but my soul went ahead. It's waiting for me. I lived the rest of my life in
part of yours. I still live in part of yours. It's just my body that's gone.
My spirit shares your soul. You couldn't call back what wasn't gone"

"Oookay..."

"You wanted to know."

"So, you've been here all along."

"Yeah."

"So why couldn't I hear you, feel you, before?"

"You were blocking me."

"How?"

"The thesis thing."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

"So, what did you think?"

"About this afternoon?"

"Yeah."

"I think it was the bravest thing you've ever done. Not just this afternoon,
but everything you did to make this afternoon possible."

"It was something I had to do, Chief."

"I know, Jim. I know. It was important."

"It was always important. I just didn't understand."

"No, Jim. I'm not talking about me, although I love you for what you did.That
degree mattered more to you and the guys, our family, than it did to me. I'm
talking about the chair of Sentinel Studies. The corroboration you gave my
work. That's going to be really important in the future."

"I know I've said this before, Chief, but..."

"...but what do I mean?"

"Well, yes."

"I can't tell you that, Jim. Not now. I can tell you this. The world is
changing. Very soon it's going to be important that senses like yours are understood."

"Why?"

"I can't..."

"...tell me."

"Right."

"That's frustrating, Chief."

"I know. Listen. The world is going to need a lot of guides fairly soon, and
Ranier is going to provide them. Amy will be right in the thick of it."

"Amy?"

"Amy. She's not a sentinel, but she carries sentinel genes, remember? She's
going to marry a guide, Jim, and they're going to have children - all of them
sentinels. And they won't be the only ones. The world is going to have a great
need  for tribal protectors, and so sentinels will be born. That's *genetic*,
There's no way around it. Guides  *aren't*  genetic. Oh, they're a distinct
*type*, yes, but they can  *taught*. That's why the school at Ranier will be
important." (Don't go any further with this, Jim. I don't want to lie to you.)

"Oh. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Chief?"

"Mmmmm?"

"You can't teach about visions and shamanism in school...not the way you need
to to be a shaman to a sentinel."

"They won't have to, Jim." (Don't go there,Jim. You aren't ready to hear this.)

"Why won't they have to?"

"Have to what, Jim?"

"Teach the mystical side of being a sentinel or guide?"

"Not every sentinel has visions. Not every guide needs to be a shaman."

"What about us? What about Alex?"

(Sigh)  "You were different, Jim. So was Alex. She was just ...bent."

"God, Chief, she was more than just bent!"

"Bent. Broken."

"But she still had visions."

"Uh, think of it this way, Jim. A tapestry has a design, but individual
threads can be broken. The design still comes out, right?"

"Mmm, if you say so."

"You haven't changed much, have you?"

"No.  But you have."

"Uh, uh. I haven't changed. I just have...access to more knowledge." (Not that
I'll get to keep it.)

"How..."

"Can't..."

"...tell me. I know. Go on."

"With?"

"Me. And Alex. Being special."

"You and Alex were meant to be two of the first. You and I, Alex and her
guide.  Yes, I know what I said. Guides  *aren't*  genetic."   (We
were...meant. Fated. Destined.)  (Don’t go there, Jim. Not yet.)   "Her guide
died early, as a result of something she did. She went...mad. Made a lot of
wrong decisions. Those decisions had severe repercussions for us. And I don't
mean my death, either."  (We should have been the beginning of a small
community, a safe place for the next generation. There was a good reason we
were all drawn to Cascade.)
 

"So, how did our being the  *first*  make us  *different* ."

"You aren't going to let this go, are you?" (Stubborn sentinel.)

"Nooo..."
 

(You really are tenacious, Jim.)   "There has to a 'head' to every community.
Stop that. You know what I meant. That would have been you."  (Will be you.)
" Hence your visions. There has to be a 'spiritual' head as well. Hence me, as
your guide and shaman. Others would have been drawn here eventually."   (Will
be drawn here. And our friends. I’m glad. I would have missed them. They're
just as important to this, in their own way, as we are.)

"But what happened? Why didn't it work out?"

"Jim!"  (Sigh)  "Some of the threads broke."

"Oh."

"But the design still worked out."

"Oh."

"You fixed it this afternoon."

"How?"

"By what you did with my thesis. By setting up a place for sentinels and
guides to learn. By giving credibility, in front of the world, to my work.
Some day soon the world is going to have to trust its' sentinels and guides.
My work will be the basis for their training."

"Oh."

"Understand now, Jim?"  (Please don’t ask any more. I can't tell tell you
anything else.)

"Yeah."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Blair...'

"Mmm?"

"When can I join you?"

"We are joined."

"You know what I mean."

"Not for a while, Jim. Not for a long while."

"Why not?"

"Those broken threads."

"What broken threads? I thought you said I fixed them?"

"Jim..."

"What broken threads?"

"You aren't going to leave this alone are you?"

"No."

"We were supposed to do this together. Earlier. Stuff happened. We couldn't."

"I screwed up."

"NO!"  (I knew you would do this.)   "No, Jim. Threads got broken. They've been mended. We're together."  (We'll be together again.)   "We'll always be together."

"Chief?"

"Yes, Jim?."

"Welcome home."

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