Kevin Wade Johnson
And then I topped the rise, and what lay before me was made clear to my wide-open eyes. A medicine wheel. A circle of stacked stones in the center, like a well or circular wall, with spokes of stones lined up stretching out to the south, the east, and three more stretching along between north-northwest and south. One spoke stretching toward Medicine River. The other four toward the other spirit places I'd seen in the night. That's what my eyes saw. What my spirit saw was something else. Something more. I saw an endless series of slopes, with me toiling up all of them. Sometimes kicking my way up as I had today, sometimes sidestepping, sometimes angling my 'shoes herringbone-style. Sometimes I used cross-country skis. Sometimes I wore only boots. Sometimes only furs wrapped around my feet. Sometimes I crawled, near to death. Sometimes I wore something blue or green or red instead of white outerwear; sometimes instead of ordinary leathers I wore sewed-together white hare furs. Sometimes I walked with Sigyn. Sometimes Cnut or Knut. Sometimes Sahkyo. Sometimes Chief Kangi. Sometimes one of the other senior warriors. Sometimes no one I recognized. Sometimes alone except for the wendigo that ate me. Sometimes heavy snow fell. Sometimes straight down, sometimes as the wind moved it, sometimes whipped up into a blizzard. Sometimes the clear sky loomed over a bitter cold day. Sometimes I lay dead with or without companions, overtaken by exposure, frozen till spring. I stood still, trying to take it all in. Sigyn was standing right beside me. I said softly, "Two places in two different worlds so similar you can step out of one and into the other. A Gate, you said." "I did." "A place where the similarity…makes reality weak enough to let you through." "Yes." "What is this?" My eyes still saw rocks in patterns, and snow below sky. My spirit saw something like infinity. She said, "A place where reality is weak enough that those sensitive enough to do so can pick up so much more."
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