主妇丈夫倡导的户外生活

As they returned to Lady Ojistah and her family of coyotes, she was just sitting by a log with her eyes closed, staying still.

Harker wondered if she was meditating and if she could give a few tips on that. He could really use some pointers since he still can\'t get it no matter how many books he read.

But then she spoke and the translation was: "Oh, goodness! You children have returned just as I was taking my quick nap."

Harker was sincerely disappointed. But oh well, that\'s why you don\'t get it twisted.

She stood up and held out her hand towards Professor Seward. Professor Seward gave her the brick without a word, and sat on the log beside her with her arms crossed.

The old lady\'s smile softened a little. "You want some catnip, dear child?"

"Catnip?" She asked.

"Humans can take it too. Here you go, it might help you calm the incessant buzzing of the bees in your ear." The soothsayer took out a leaf from one of her small pouches.

Joan\'s gloomy eyes widened at this, and took the leaf. "I know they are edible, but this is just my first time trying it. I also know that they have a sedating effect from nepetalactone. It\'s just that I….. Nevermind."

"Oh, I understand you, dear. There is just this desire among us to wallow longer. I am not giving it to you to block the flow of water like a dam, but rather to help it flow more naturally and less painfully." Lady Ojistah smiled, and went to Harker\'s side. "Would you like some too?"

"No thank you, Ma\'am." Harker shook his head. "We just really need that divination."

"You know sometimes, it is better to let the river of time run its course even if you get far towards what you seek to reach. Perhaps eventually, the river itself will bring it to you." The shaman told him.

"But I know you are used to being continuously on the chase, always moving from one burden to carry to the next. You run towards different paths at once like it is a race to finish them all." She patted his head. "But life is not a race, my boy. Enjoy the breeze sometimes and take a breath."

This was the second time someone told Harker to just calm the fuck down and not put pressure on himself. Was it really getting so obvious to others how much he constantly stresses himself out?

Lady Ojistah observed the brick. She went over to the fire and let the smoke cover it up.

Joan asked while chewing catnip: "Are you going to throw the brick over the fire and read the smoke again?"

"No." Lady Ojistah went back. \'I am going to read the lines that our spirit of the fire had made in this."

She closed one eye, her good one. She was using her murky white eye filled with cataracts to read the lines.

Then, she spoke in almost a rhythmic way, almost like a poem but not quite. The translator tried his best to translate it down to the nuances of her speech. But her tone was enough to give Harker and Joan the right sense towards the riddle-like divination

"Your sister has tried to reach the peaks that man must not reach

But it will only leave her in the blue ridges of the cold desolation

And the frigid nature of humanity\'s greed

The hunger will never be satisfied only consuming her from the inside

Until the flesh had turned gray from the brackish blood that flows

Darkened and dirtied by the envy she held on for decades."

Harker and Joan tried to decipher the small details of this somewhat prophecy for Victoria. It sounded grim, and her end no doubt would not be a good one.

"Blue ridges.... Is it the literal Blue Ridge Mountains in the Appalachians?"" Harker thought.

"Maybe it\'s a metaphorical one. But all these details are pointing to cold mountains. The peaks, the desolation, the frigidness….." Professor Seward thought.

The old lady just slowly caressed the head of one of the coyotes as they tried to understand her divination.

"As for the hunger, the gray flesh and brackish blood…. That could mean the zombies, right?\' Harker thought silently. \'Could it be that Victoria will get killed by the new zombies she will raise? Or she will become a zombie herself?\'

"Envy…." Professor Seward furrowed her brows. "I see now. In the end, it\'s always my fault."

She closed her eyes slowly, the effect of the catnip seeming to get to her. She then stood up, less gloomy than usual and holding more of a frustration. Joan clenched her fist and wore a pained smile.

"Anyway….. Now that you got your new lead to my sister, I can go back to New York, right? I really have no idea where she is. Maybe it\'s the Blue Ridge like you said. I\'ll go pack my things as soon as we get back—"

"Not yet, Prof." Harker grabbed her wrist. "You said you wanted to talk to Victoria yourself. What happened to that?"

She yanked it away forcefully. "I changed my mind. You heard the lady sage, it\'s the envy she held for decades. If she sees me, I\'ll just make it worse. Like I always do."

"But—"

"You didn\'t want me to be here in the first place anyway, right? You\'re just getting desperate because you want to get back to your lover soon, if I interpreted your reading yesterday correctly."

She walked away from the house after a bow towards Lady Ojistah. "Thank you for the help so far, Ma\'am. But this is pretty effective compared to the pills I had. I need to hit the hay soon."

"I hope you sleep in peace and have some moment of clarity, child. You need it to know which path to take." Lady Ojistah said. "Listen to that beating drum within your chest rather than your fears."

Harker stood and called out. "Wait a minute, Prof! Let\'s talk about this, we have better chances finding Victoria if you\'re in this because you know her more than any of us do— Prof!"

She was already in the vehicle, and fell asleep as soon as she got inside. Harker tried to shake her up, but she was out cold.

He sighed. In the end, he and Alejandro helped to bring her up to her room and decided to give her some space until she wakes up tomorrow.

But Harker could not stop obsessing over the prophecy. He ended up writing down on the desk all night and making theories. Burning the midnight oil while trying to understand what this means and his next plans.

"The GPS is the only thing left, and it\'s still too difficult to track. They said they needed to be nearer the resource. If we got about 1000 miles from where Victoria was, it could be a huge help already." He rubbed his temples. "Unless of course, she got rid of it entirely.  Which will be a huge pain in the ass….. Ugh…."

He\'s been running on no sleep for almost 48 hours now. Even when he\'s a powerful demon lord, it\'s still not going to make him feel refreshed and \'with clarity\'.

He then felt like somebody\'s watching him. It wasn\'t the same feeling as Yan. He turned to the direction of the crack on the wall.

A shadow passed by quickly like the twinkling of a gem.

Harker went over to peer inside. He realized that Professor Seward was also awake, and she was smoking pot.

While naked. Calling out to Edmund again, but in a different kind of desperation this time.