An image is worth a thousand words, or something like it. Weather-wise, draw you conclusion from the picture on your left.

It’s August. Sneaky month. I didn’t see it coming.

Still working on three different projects at once, and I have a short to write within a week. I’m halfway through rewriting Elios, and almost done editing Gaia. Chapter #1 and #2 of Marie’s Journey are back in my editor’s hands.

Still painting. More on that later.

From Elios:

(Elios has just rescued two aliens.)

The male stared at me in surprise, and then looked for the woman. As their eyes met, a smile appeared on his mouth, and he chirped a long sequence of notes. At her short answer, he pushed himself up, trying to reach her, but fell on the ground.

“Easy, big fellow.” I hooked my right arm under his and helped him on his feet.

Given his size, he was surprisingly light. He gave me a thankful smile, then kneeled by the woman and rested his head on her belly, and while gently caressing it, he sung to the baby.

Feeling I was intruding in their private moment, I looked away and made to leave.

The man grabbed my hand and stopped me. “Tankiu.” He looked at the woman and then back at me. “Tankiuforsevingrea.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”

“Tankiuforsevingas.” He smiled. “Tankiu.”

I repeated what he had just said in my mind and I finally understood. His accent had tricked me, but he had spoken in Standard, a common travelers’ language.

“Thank you,” he said one more time when I smiled. “Your soul healed us back to conscious life.”

He touched me again and showed me what had happened by triggering a Share. When I had reached for the woman, for a brief moment I had imagined their story could be mine. I had felt their love and their pain in losing each other. With my empathic touch I had jumpstarted their consciousness back to life, like he had just said.

I shivered. “You looked dead.”

“We were in non-life.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Our bodies shut down. We waited for help. Your love saved us.”