He did as he was told and Brenna moved around to his head kneeling with her knees either side and started to massage his temples, he began to relax almost straight away.
“Listen to the sounds around you, the mild breeze, the birds singing in the trees and the water of the stream nearby.” Her voice softened as she spoke. They were far enough away from the Legion not to hear anything from that direction and so he let his senses become absorbed by his surroundings. Varro felt his troubles ease as Brenna’s hands moved to his neck and shoulders.
“Just relax, lay back and allow all your worries to float away. I’m going push all the stress in your body out through your hands and feet.” He lay still not moving enjoying the feeling of his muscles being manipulated. Brenna started to use her nails gently, lines following the curves of his flesh covering the muscle, as she brushed a nipple he smiled lightly.
“Relax.” She ordered mildly, “There will be time enough for that later.” He took a deep breath and exhaled leaving himself fully under her control, as her hands moved across his skin her voice lowered more.
“Feel yourself relaxing deeper as your muscles and bones relax. I’m going to push outward from your middle moving the strains and stresses to you limbs. See it in your mind like a small cloud as it moves from around your heart as I cleanse your organs and body.”
Fully relaxed now, he did as she said barely clinging to consciousness seeing in his mind’s eye a small cavity where the cloud was being pushed, dragged and persuaded to the sides clearing it of harmful elements. Satisfied that she had completed his trunk she moved to his limbs starting with his arms that tingled when she got to the hands. As he lay there his inner vision saw his body and now arms starting to clear as she worked her ‘magic.’ He didn’t know what she hoped to achieve by this but no longer cared as he moved deeper into a relaxed state that he hadn’t experienced before. He could see things clearly mentally but his eyes were closed and now he was aware his hearing was beginning to reduce, bird noise was no longer audible and the sound of the breeze in the trees started to disappear.
“In your mind’s eye you can see a wall in front of you. In the wall is a door, a large wooden door, I want you to approach the door and stop beside it.” As he ‘moved’ without walking he saw the door, previously unseen getting closer. It had a large round black handle.
“Reach out and take the handle and open the door.” Brenna instructed and he did, seeing his arm reach out and his hand take the handle. She saw his expression change slightly as he mentally saw what she was saying.
“Turn the handle and push the door open slowly and see the steps going down beyond.”
He could see numerous large sandstone steps through the door, light and sandy in colour, he moved towards them stopping at the top.
“As you take each step you will go deeper into your relaxed state. Each step will be taken very slowly, there’s no rush. You can’t see what’s below but at the bottom you will find another door set into another wall. This wall surrounds a beautiful garden like the one you told me about from your childhood. Statues of beautiful men and women naked line the path beyond.”
She was now massaging his lower ribs but he was barely aware of her touch anymore. As she asked him to move, he took a step down and could actually feel the coolness of the stone on his feet, it almost made him shiver briefly. Slowly guiding him down with her voice, he moved lower until eventually he stood below the bottom step. The ground was cooler to the touch of his feet, a worn path maybe. He stood almost floating at the door in the second wall, the air was now colder here and a little shaded. At her prompt he opened the door.
“The garden is warm and bathed in sunshine, you can feel it warming your skin.” She said as if somehow making it happen. He walked forward, the grass was short and he could see various flowers of many different colours and varieties, reds, yellows, greens, purples and more than he could separate in his mind and be aware of as he tried to take everything in. As he moved forward he saw the statues lining the path in front of him, worn from feet treading the way before.
The marble slabs shone and reflected the sun brightly back into his eyes, the fact that his physical eyes weren’t able to actually see what his other senses were aware of seemed irrelevant now.
“Move along the path.” She instructed from somewhere distant. He barely heard the voice now and was totally unaware of the contact of her hands on his body. He was elsewhere submerged in another plain, another place. He took in the intricate details of the statues, the stone masons that worked them must have been masters of their craft. As he got to somewhere near the middle of the path he saw water beyond, a lake maybe. Tied up on the shore were small boats dug out from tree trunks, they were long and thin.
“Continue slowly forward and choose a boat to get to the other side.” He heard her whisper.
Unquestioning, without thought or reason why, he reached the boats and chose which one would take him across the water.
“On the far shore amongst the trees you will see various paths, choose a path and make your way towards it and go into the woods beyond.”
As he walked he reached out with his arm feeling a female statue. His hand caressed her smooth cool flat stomach, he resisted the temptation to cup her pert beautiful breast. Walking slowly past he looked down at the boats, choosing the one he had seen near the middle, he untied the rope securing it to a stump. He looked around taking in the serenity of the moment. Without further thought he pushed the boat further out into the crystal clear lake feeling the cold water surround his legs and then climbed aboard, it wobbled but didn’t threaten to tip over. Taking a small oar he found in the base he rowed away from the shore slowly.
On the other side trees of different types studded the shore in dense formations, the only breaks he could see were paths leading into the woods to places unknown. He didn’t feel any trepidation or fear because for some reason everything felt calm, warm and as it should be, almost as if he had come home or if as if he had been here before.
Ten paces from the bank he heard a whispered voice, “Choose a path, think carefully and take it. At the other side of the trees you will find a previous life, one you have lived before.”
Had he been awake and conscious he would have dismissed the idea and laughed it off as complete bunkum but here in this place it felt normal, he didn’t know why, in fact he didn’t even wonder, he just did as the voice told him and rowed slowly for the shore on the other side of the water. Soon he felt the bottom of the boat crunch gently against stones as he reached the small pebbled beach.
Climbing out he headed for the path he had already decided he would take and walked into the shade of the tall trees. It only seemed like he had been on the small narrow path for seconds before he was somehow suddenly elsewhere. No longer in the place he had seen from the water.
“Go to three moments in your former life, three important times that helped mould that life and the way you are in the present.” A voice instructed and instantly he was looking down on himself or someone similar, who looked different but somehow was him, a former life? Maybe, but was that possible?
He watched as the young legionnaire finished his training, dressed in the armour of Caesars Legions nearly a century before, the celebrations and wine, he and his friends enjoyed. The voice asked questions, where, when, why and then asked him to move forward. The image moved onto the next point, it showed him again but older maybe by a few years possibly as many as ten, wearing the uniform of an Optio. He was on a green hillside standing next to a Centurion whose face was familiar.
A gentle breeze brushed his face, arms and legs and he saw the horse hair of the Centurions helmet plume move slightly with the air. Behind them stood rows of Roman soldiers, quietly waiting, somewhere behind horns and trumpets blared as orders were given, it resembled the scene before a battle.