Read Encompassing Love for Free Online

It’s clean air.  Mostly.  It’s dry air.  One day I will show you a forest and a river and a mountain.  One day, even the sea.”  He said thinking of each of those things as he spoke them.”
    “I’ve seen pictures.  A lot of pictures were left behind from the people before they became synths.  I used to find them stuffed in odd places.”  She started wondering what it was like to be near those places.  Then she thought of some of the animals she had seen pictures of and that scared her.  Lastly, she noted he said ‘one day’, meaning he planned on them being up here for a while longer than just today.  She wasn’t sure what she thought about that, but she also didn’t completely reject the idea, yet.  Then she looked around and almost bumped into him as he had stopped.
    He reached behind himself and grabbed her wrist.  Then he whispered, “Do not move.  Breathe normally, but do not move.  Stay quiet.”
    She wondered what new lesson this was, and then she looked down in front of him.  Then she jumped and yelled, “Oh my lords, what is that?”  Instinctively she put a hand to her mouth because he said not to make any sound, he had also told her not to move, but she was twisting her legs looking for a place to jump up on.  She didn’t want that thing to be able to get to her feet.
    “It’s a snake.  Be quiet and quit fiddling.  That kind of snake is poisonous.  It can kill.  The sound you hear is from its tail.  That’s why they call this type of snake a rattlesnake.  It shakes its tail to make an intimidating noise.  Like I said, most things in the desert like to use their tails.”
    “How does it poison us?  And if it can, why are we not running away from it?  Why not use your magic trick to get us out of here?”
    “Because that is dinner if I do this right.”  He handed her the pack and then he gestured with his finger for her to stay there.  Then he eased around it.  It noted his movement and turned toward him and bared its fangs.
    Again, she yelled!  She was doing her best not to run.  She was also considering going back down there and staying there forever.  Then she watched as he moved his hand out to the side and waved it slowly.  The snake began watching his hand as he kept the rest of his body very still.    Then quickly he grabbed it from behind its head and she could see fluid pump out of its teeth.  She could hear it hissing at him.  That was a sound she had never heard before.  She felt light-headed with fear.  He put the other hand on its back and she heard a snap and then then threw it away from them.
    “Don’t go near it.  It can still bite.  It will be dead in few seconds, but even after that it can twitch and hit you with one of those fangs.
    “So we’re going to eat that?”  Her face twisted in disgust.
    “Believe me, it’s much better than that stuff you call food, down there.  Just wait a few minutes.  Then when we find shade we can skin it.  They are harder to skin if you cook them with the skin on, but we don’t want to take it off before we are ready to cook it.  It will rot too quickly in this heat, with no skin.”
    She looked at him as if he was far crazier than she initially thought, then she saw him produce a knife from under his shirt, leap on the thing and chop off its head.  “So you’ve killed things before?”
    “Yes.  It’s called survival.  You’re going to learn a different way to survive other than ripping off travelers.”  He looked at her disapprovingly.
    She grinned and looked at him.  “Well, I was pretty good at it until I met you.”
    “You’ll get good at a lot of things before this is over.  Or not, and I can always take you back down.  However, I suggest you try this”, he held up the snake’s lifeless, headless body, “before you go.”
    She had to admit to some curiosity, but couldn’t’ get out of her mind how disgusting it seemed to her.  Then she asked, “Have you ever killed