The Peacock 598

 I am shocked, overwhelmed and amazed by this beautiful and more than beautiful spectacle.  Never have I seen anything or anyone so beautiful, and I have fallen on my face at his feet, filled with fear and terror. 

"Get up.  You are in the presence of a friend.  Are you afraid of your friends? "

 I am standing up now, though still trembling, and I reply, "Who are you?"

"Who are you?  You already know me.  You have always known me."

Suddenly, I have forgotten my name.  I stare at him, stupefied.

"Soon you will know your name.  meanwhile, you are not alone.  I am with you.  Do not worry about your companions.  Look ." And he gestures towards my friends lying on the ground.  For the first time in many weeks, I see something green, very close to the bodies.  A small bit of grass is already sprouting around them.  The shining being gives me a bag made of maroon velvet.  "Inside", he tells me, smiling sweetly, "You will find the bread of life, the living water, and the fruit from the trees of healing.  They will never run out, but will continue to replenish as they are used up.  Now, you must follow the serpent, but first you need to rest." 

Suddenly, the living being disappears, and I am overcome by tiredness, so that I fall to the ground.  I don't know how long I slept.  The dreams, very vivid dreams.  But I only recall one image from my dreams: a fruit tree.  Perhaps oranges.  Very beautiful oranges, shining like gold.  And only this orange tree, if it is indeed an orange tree.  And nothing else.  The same desert conditions, desolate, destroyed...My three friends still asleep, and also the horses.  Now it is dawn.  The sun, so hot and powerful, doesn't harm me, and now shoots forth the first ray over the horizon.  There is more grass where my companions are lying, also a vine with delicate leaves, running over the grass.  

There is a sound in the sky like a whistle or a scream, and now I see the eagle circling in the sky.  The huge bird lowers a little more and in little while, circles around us, so that...is it seeking food.  I cannot abandon my friends to serve as dinner for such a ferocious bird!  The eagle lnds on a rock nearby.  I try to frighten off the eagle, but it doesn't move.  In its right talons there is something white, shaped like a cylinder.  It lifts its talon, to offer it to me.  Is this a roll  of white paper, and what is written inside? Looking at the enormous bird, I balance the roll between the fingers of both hands.  I want to protect my friends, they are so vulnerable.  The eagle looks at me, staring at me, and I feel energy flowing into my body, like electricity.  Sudenly the eagle flies, and then disappears over the horizon.