The Windriders' meditation - 2

"I tried it!" 
Orion nodded, pushed a cup of hot cinnamon tea and cloves across the table towards Elantha and looked at her without seeing her. If she was accepted by the guild, life as windrider was perilous, lonely and set apart from others. 
"a beginning..." Orion said and smiled, the corners of his mouth going down.
The cave in which they sat was carved into the face of the great Oriander cliff,  running for thousands of miles east to west. Windriders practiced in the breeze coming in from the desert, circling and driving like giant birds. 

She had asked for his help, 'but does she know what she is asking?' he asked himself. 
Yet, she had asked him.
"Yes, I know what I'm asking." 
Orion looked at her, surprised.
"Is it that obvious?"
She nodded, "master, you are like an open book."
Orion sighed, "I know, I know" 
"Windriders vanish, the desert takes them, it is lonely --- they are different."
"I know," she looked at him intensely, "I KNOW. I am different already."
Orion sighed, looked out at the great desert Umi-Jabour, the Sea of Sand, "let's get started. What do you do in your meditation?"
"Breathing in, breathing out, - awareness." 
"And ?"
"That's it."
"Does it bore you ?"
"Yes."
"Add to it then. Go deeper, play." 
"Is that ok ?"
"Is that ok ?" Orion let out a long breath of frustration, "of course! Who teaches you this fear ? ....your heart... let her speak..." he shook his head. 
"...a necklace of beads ?"
"Yes, that will do. Keep it dynamic, movement, and add to it the things you want it in your life..."
Elantha nodded, she was familiar with those ideas.
Orion looked at her for a little while, "you are practicing now?!"
"Yes," she smiled.
"You can keep it going while we talk ?"
She nodded.
"Good." 
"What's next ?"
"breath, intent, awareness, .... breath, intent, awareness...."
"breath, intent, awareness...." they repeated the last incantation together. 
"Flow with it, don't fix it." 
He smiled, and added, "that's all, that's it." 
"In that case, I'm sure there is more to it," she smiled a challenge at Orion.
She was determined, she was older than any who had joined the windriders, and she was of the Aesinth, a people with all black eyes, no whites. They had unpredictable abilities. 
Orion, poured himself another brew of tea, from a pot he made for himself, the scent of cinnamon and cloves was very strong.
"Please let me try that?"
He poured a little in a cup for her. 
She wouldn't like it.
Elantha took it, drank, said nothing as she watched the circling windriders. 
Her face broke out into bright smile, she nodded, pushed her cup back to Orion. 
He filled it. 
"What is the next step?"
Orion remained silent. 
There was only the sound of the wind soughing up the cliff, three hundred yards up, over countless cave openings like Orions. 
They sat in silence for an hour. 
Meditating. 
In a voice barely audible above the wind, Orion spoke, "follow the heart lines of intent," he looked at her, "always".
Elantha closed her eyes. 
An hour passed.