ANTICIPATION

The calm before the storm is when most things get done for preparation of a pivotal event. In my case, the most I could do was push down some gruel that I promptly regurgitated in a foul stream of nerve induced nausea.

Not sure if I felt better or worse after leaving my lunch in the latrine bucket, I decided to try meditation. But try as I might, sitting still, while BURT instructed me on Chakras and third eyes, didn’t help at all and I eventually gave up and began doing Katas.

The activity calmed me, and helped me channel my fear and angst to aggression. This was the way forward. I hummed my mantra Hit Hard & Fast…HHF… in time with my punches, kicks and thrusts. Short arm jabs, elbows and knees all getting involved as I swivelled, dodged and swerved through the complex chain of movements. My dance this day was vicious and exerted full-on violence to all my imaginary foes. There was very little subtlety to my kata and it made me feel good. I grabbed onto that good feeling with both hands and kneaded it into my psyche.

As bad as things would be in the arena, I had a job to do. I had goals beyond this enslavement. It was no use focusing on what I couldn’t change though. Just do your job, I thought to myself and come what may, you do it to the best of your ability.

I thought of those dreams I had, the ones that brought my emotions back into alignment. The words I had fastened onto at the end of each dream. Simple words to be sure, but powerful words.

RESPONSIBILITY,

COMPASSION,

INTEGRITY.

Good words no doubt, and hard words to live by. I had to wonder again how this would help me, but intuitively I knew that they were building a power within me. A sense of fulfilment and completeness exuded from the concepts. Were they a new skill pathway? I would have to wait and see how they developed, and more importantly, how they could help me in my quests.

A few minutes later the door to my cell opened and I quickly moved to join my team. Rashid had a relieved look on his face to see me. The others were more pensive. I gave them my best smile.

“Don’t be so happy Petros, if anyone dies today, it will be you because of your inept …ooofff!” Anil mocked me until Selvin gave him a stiff jab to shut him up.

“Well met Petros, we will do well today. I have a good feeling. As long as Anil keeps his mouth shut and his mind on what we will be doing, we should all survive this. Level 10 creatures should be no challenge to any of us.” Selvin was in good humour himself so I clapped him on the back.

“Well said brother,” I said, then turned to Anil, “and, if anything happens to me today, not only will I make sure something worse happens to you, I will then use your corpse as bait so that the rest of us get away clean. Understand?”

I had gotten used to staring Scalar in the eyes. It was initially unnerving when someone had three eyes to your two. It felt like they could read your thoughts. After the time I spent with the two Scalar from the wagon trip, I barely noticed it anymore. Instead, I saw how unnerving it was for them to stare at me in the eyes. Perhaps the middle eye was always wondering which of my two eyes it should look at. Whatever the case, Anil tried to stare back, he tried to glare, but he looked away quickly as I showed just a brief glimmer of the fire behind my eyes. It unnerved him. As well it should. I was pumped and ready to get the show on the road.

As soon as I got into line we marched forth to meet our fate.