The Windriders' meditation - 1

"I practiced meditation for years, more than ten years....and still....the windriders don't accept me." 
Orion leaned back listening to Elantha's litany. 

Windriders rode the winds of the desert Umi-jabour, from thermal to thermal, over the great Sea of Sand.  They were the lifeline and communications blood of the Morai. 

A week, even three weeks, they had to stay aloft, fly, and sleep at the same time. 

If forced to land, - only a few would ever get off the ground again. The heat, the cold, the vastness of the desert had swallowed countless windriders over the centuries. Even of the most experienced, sometimes simply vanished.

It was an honour to be accepted into the guild of windriders. 

One that Elantha had sought for more than a decade. 

"I am one of the best windriders," she looked at Orion," and then out to the desert. 

Orion nodded. 

"But...", he smiled. 

"But they won't take me," she looked down, "...I know why. I can't meditate like they do." 

"They have lost many..." Orion whispered. He was thinking of the bright eyed Jason, lost in the great storm of 3649. No one had survived that one, none returned. 

"I know," Elantha sighed and stood up, looked around Orion's spacious cave. She bowed to Orion and went to leave.

"Please wait," Orion, waved for her to resume her seat on the cushion opposite him. 

"I'm still sad about Jason," he looked Elantha in the eye, "but I have no right to decide for you."

"You haven't decided for me... I ...." 

Orion held up a hand, smiled and sighed deeply. 

"In all the years you told me about your practice, you moved from normal consciousness to deeper levels of meditation, right ?"

"Yes."

"And you're very good at meditating."

Elantha nodded. 

"What the windriders want from you is something else," he looked into the eyes of his student. 

The knowledge he would give her now would change her life, perhaps an early death. 

"they need you to meditate and be fully awake at the same time, for every moment, for every breath, for as long as it takes to reach safe haven."

"Simultaneous awareness ?"

Orion nodded, "the names don't matter, dreaming, meditation, awareness, whatever you want to call it." 

Elantha looked disappointed, "I tried that."

Orion shook his head, let's talk tomorrow..."