After the morning meal Katelynn and Bryon walked to the stream. They lay there and listened to the water flow over the rocks in the stream. As they looked into the sky they spoke of their past what each wanted for their people and what they wanted for their own futures. He told her when he returned to his homeland with the root of the thistle mint. And he was sure the unrest there was over and Lord Drasken had been defeated he would return for her. She was not quite sure how to respond to this she had never thought about leaving Glen Roy. As he embraced her and their lips met she forgot all but what was then and now.
He told her they would be leaving the next morning. That Eric had said he needed a couple of days to finish getting things in order so he would be able to be away for a while. But Eric had things in order he was meeting with some Highlanders that were rouges and would do anything for the right price. He had hired them to go to Galloway in the Lowlands of the south.
To find Lord Drasken and to tell him of Bryon‟s journey and what he was doing. Eric knew if all that Bryon had told them to be true that Lord Drasken would want him stopped. And then Bryon would be out of the way and Eric would have Katelynn as his wife.
Christine watched as her daughter and Bryon came out of the forest from the direction of the stream. She was afraid for her daughter. She knew that only heart ache lay ahead for her.
That this stranger was filling her head with foolish notions. And that Katelynn had to stay here in Glen Roy.
This was her destiny Christine had been told this the day Katelynn was born. She was to rule over these lands and bring back peace after a time of unrest in these lands. Christine had never told anyone what the Druid High Priest from her village of Glen More had told her that day. Because he had fore told of a time when brother would rise against brother and how from the south would come a man that was not a man but a demon. She knew this man could not be Bryon for she was a woman of seeing also and knew he was not the man she needed to fear.
Katelynn was not aware of the powers she had for they had not yet awaken but Christine knew it would not be this way for long. For she had seen the man Bryon called Lord Drasken in her dreams. And she knew it was time for her to start preparing Katelynn for things to come. She would have to help awaken the power that lay within her. She thought Katelynn was already starting to feel this power. Katelynn had told her some of the things she had seen in her mind, her dreams and her feelings.
She would have to take Katelynn to her people‟s village in the highlands. So she could learn their ways and customs. Christine had not been there since her father William Chief of the Highlands had banished her from her village for leaving with Richard. He was a Celt and she a Druid. But Christine‟s mother Margaret had been there when Katelynn was born and had brought the High Priest.
For the blood of the Druids ran strong in Christine‟s people. And Katelynn was born with the gift of far seeing. Katelynn also had the gift of knowing what plants, flowers, roots and bark to use and to mix to heal. She had not been taught this she just knew. And she had been chosen to lead the people of this land through the times ahead. And she would triumph, the High Priest had never said this but Christine knew her daughter.
Her will was so strong she would fight to the death rather than give up. The highlanders would gather their forces to rally for her as well. And with all that Christine knew, it would darken her moods for a long time to come. It would be some time before Katelynn would be ready to face such an enemy. She need not worry about this now, but she must prepare for what ultimately what would have to be done.
Richard noticed the change in his wife‟s mood and wondered what could have turned her mood so sour. He then looked out the door and saw Katelynn and Bryon walking to the hut.
Could this have been the reason? Did Christine disapprove of this young man? He recalled a time when he was the stranger in a strange land and how he had fallen so deeply in love with Christine and she with him. How she had to leave her village to be with him. And of her father‟s anger at her for this, because he was an outlander not of their tribe. Could it be after all these years she was realizing what she had given up and did not want her daughter to have to leave her people to go to a land that was strange and far away. Or had Christine kept hidden all these years the sadness of leaving her village and as the years had passed regretted it more. He would have to wait and see but could only hope he had not disappointed Christine. And that she still loved him as she had all those years ago.
Richard remembered well the first time he had seen Christine it was as he lay on the floor of her father‟s hut. He could only remember what had happened moments before the rush of water came down the mountain and knocked him down hitting his head on a large rock. Christine and some of the women from her village were out gathering roots. They had heard him yell as he fell.
They had all ran to see what had happened. Christine had told him the flash flood had already slowed to a trickle when they had found him. There must have been something up stream that had caught and caused a dam. And when it released this had caused the flash flood. It was late spring and the snow was melting fast further up in the mountains.
He had a bad cut on his head and had been unconscious for quite some time. Christine had taken care of him and as the days passed he began to fall in love with her. He was up and moving around after almost a week, but was still not well enough to travel. And when he was well enough to travel he had asked her to go with him. Christine had left her village and family to be with him. And now he was afraid their daughter was thinking of doing the same.