Beltane Night -- Part 3 (con't)

As she walked on, with long stride and fast pace, Lindella's eyes started to play tricks on her. She thought she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She whipped her head toward the movement but there was nothing there. Again the movement, ....but still she saw no reason for it. She soon grew tired of the strain on her neck from turning back and forth trying to catch whatever it was that she thought she saw. So she just quickened her step and kept her eyes on the path toward home.

After what seemed to be a lifetime she finally was close to the bottom of the first knoll. Suddenly she heard a horse whinning off in the distance, which stopped her trek, and she stood there straining to hear it again and get a fix on where the sound actually had come from. She didn't know anyone that had horses here in this area. Then shrugged it off to be a horse that had got loose from the celebration to make it's way back home.
Lindella made her way up the first knoll, with what seemed to be some difficulty. She had walked this path many times in the past but, ...her legs felt so heavy tonight. Again she shrugged this off, attributing it to the whiskey still pulsating through her veins, and pushed on.

As she crested the top of the first knoll, her grandmother's face popped into her head. Nan was smiling, the way Lindella always remembered her, bright eyes twinkling and a deep and ancient wisdom flowing through them.

Lindella started her descent down the other side of the knoll, now eager to reach her home.
She could no longer hear the sounds of the Beltane celebration and a feeling of being totally alone, shot up her spine. She turned and could barely see the bonfire light through the tops of the trees.

' ...at least Nan's here with me', she giggled to herself, .... then there was a sudden flow of fear and a flood of warming in her chest,...'well then, ....I'll just have to hurry along', and she walked a bit faster. Or was it a swift falling forward, .... now with it being downhill, and feeling the alcohol a bit more, from fast clip to the knoll and the hard uphill climb so far.

Trying to distract herself from this feeling of impending doom, she forced her thoughts back to what had taken place earlier. Soon the first knoll and half her journey were behind her. But now the sun was sinking low, and her shadow was long and quickly fading into the darkness of the heather clad path. Then she thought she heard a horse whining in the far distance, again and strained to hear more....
"..it couldna be" she thought and picked her speed up even faster. The break in her cavalier attitude was just enough to make her shudder ever so slightly. All of a sudden she saw her Nan in her head again, from when she was young.

Soon her grandmother voice started to match the beat of her walk, in the words that she didn't need to think of right now. But nevertheless, they sounded off loud and clear. Spinning inside this head of hers, that was already a bit tipsy.
It was like her Granny had decided to hitch a ride under her cranium, and a lesson would come of it, for her, ... like it always had.

'Why now?'...she thought, ...'not here,.... not now!'

But it came on anyway...

(continued with Part 4 very soon)

Cheers,
Linda