conversation you sent today (because I thought they went to a move
  list, and I guess they didn't. Bleah. Sorry about that, play it as it
  reads below. :)
]

Riverworld, Day 71 Evening (Day 72 Morning for Benjamin)

			      *  *  *  *

"What the bloody hell are ye doin'?!?!?!?" Robbie screamed at Shaw.
He pulled the man off of Freud.

Snorting and puffing Matoaka mumbled to herself, "Wrong, find what is
wrong, I will tell you what is wrong; nature is unbalanced!  There is
nothing better to do than to kill one another in this wretched world."

Matoaka ran to intercede and gave a stern look at Shaw while helping
Freud up.  Brushing the dust off of Freud's back, she sent him on his
way, "Are you fit to walk on your own?"

Without waiting for Freud to answer, Matoaka turned to Shaw again and,
to her surprise, without hesitation said, "I would like to speak to
you."  Looking around, she added, "In private."

Matoaka invited Shaw for a walk and pointed toward the south of the
village, the direction from which she had emerged a few moments ago.
Shaw followed her, muttering to himself, "Damn, showed my hand too
soon.  Now he knows I know..." He shook his head as his voice trailed
off.

"If you ask me," Robbie said, mostly to Freud, "that eldritch shite
he's been chewin' is makin' him a wee bit daft."

Once out of earshot, Matoaka stopped and invited Shaw to sit on one of
her towels.  Sitting cross-legged, facing him, she patiently filled
her long bamboo pipe with tobacco, lit it up in a few puffs, and
offered it to him.  

Shaw, calmer, sat on the offered towel, but shook his head at the
pipe.  Hesitating, Matoaka finally began, "Shaw, I... I know not where
to start."
 
She looked down and back at him clearly strained, "You are probably
the last person I would have asked to come here, maybe that is why I
asked you here or perhaps because we see things differently; after
all, you are British and I am a Native American, your kind vowed to
exterminate my kind, but that is another story.  Do not try to make
any sense out of my choosing you, I cannot understand it myself."

Shaw looked up at her face. "That happened long after I was born,
although I'm sorry to say the mentality that lead to it hadn't changed
much."
 
She paused, staring at him, fearing to ask a question to this man who
probably thought she was mad by now or who would plainly take this
opportunity to kill her, but maybe that would be for the best, after
all she might just make the right jump this time.  Ultimately, she
took a deep breath, almost pleading,
 
"This may sound like it comes out of nowhere, but I must start
somewhere...  I need to hear what someone else has to say about this
world, what strikes you the most?  Tell me anything that crosses your
mind?"

Shaw laughed out loud "What crosses my mind? Well, it's hardly what I
expected in an afterlife." His smiled faded as he looked out at the
River.  "It's hardly natural, too many things don't make sense or follow
a logical path." Shaw rubbed his face, "No facial hair for example."
 
He looked back toward the village.  "Did you know that Josephine,
Jeanne and Charles claim to have no knowledge of their first month
here? Shaka didn't either for that matter. They are the only ones I
know of who this has happened to. Shaka did have dreams though, much as
I do. You did hear of his Lion god, didn't you? I think that this god
and the people I have dreamed of are somehow behind all this and that
we are all just some sort of game to them."
       
Shaw paused for a moment and looked around before continuing. "And Freud,
he is more than just a part of the game like we are. I'm not yet sure
just what he is up to but I intend to find out. I just hope I haven't
ruined every thing by losing control back there."
       
Shaw sighed and rubbed his hand over his head.

Matoaka frowned. "This is very strange, very strange." 

"You're telling me," Shaw replied, as he returned to the
village. Matoaka sat a moment more in thought and followed him.

Matoaka and Shaw returned to the others, each lost in thought. No one
seemed much in a mood to speak. Here and there glances fell on Shaw,
or toward Freud's hut, where the startled doctor had retired for the
night. Soon everyone followed suit.

In the morning, most of the group's mood had lightened somewhat,
though Freud did not join them at breakfast, and Cixi seemed
distracted.  Even before the fighting had ended, Cixi had been almost
transfixed upon something she saw.  Since then, she had continued to
wear the cloud about her.  She said nothing, staring silently with a
broken expression and clutching several sticks absently.

Matoaka fetched her breakfast grail from the grailstone. Frowning
briefly at the strange and unappetizing meal of beans on toast, she
approached Cixi quietly and sat next to her. Matoaka, around bites she
forced herself to eat, addressed the other woman.  "Cixi, your mind
has taken you far away from us, it appears.  I would envy you if it
were not for that fact that you look troubled.  What is it?"

After a short pause, Matoaka added, whispering, "I was told that
something was wrong; are you aware of it?"

Cixi moved her mouth to speak.  Her voice was small and distant,
carrying a tinge of dryness that made it rasp.  "All is wrong.  A
middle without its ends."
 
Puzzled, Matoaka looked at Cixi.  "What do you mean by 'a middle
without its ends?'"

At this, Cixi rose from her seat. She walked back into her hut, and
closed the door.

Matoaka frowned again. Taking her spear, she set off into the forest.
Josephine watched her leave, and then, with a calm expression,
whispered to Shaw, "Can we talk?  I'd like to speak with you about
something that's been bothering me..."

"What? Oh, yes. Of course, what's on your mind?" he replied.

			      *  *  *  *

Benjamin muttered grouchily in the near-dawn. "I wonder what Freud
would say.  Probably nothing that shed any Light on the matter.  I
wonder why Luria has also removed himself from the Pageant of Human
Destiny snort of the River."

Looking to the sky, he called out, with a great sense of futility, "If
you're going to give me Dreams, why not Dreams of something Pleasant?"

"Well," he continued, "if I have that Dream again, at least I will
know to linger at a few selected Pages.  If only Deborah were in the
Book..."

Trailing off, Benjamin drifted into sleep again. When he awoke, he he
frowned at the grailstone as it fired to herald breakfast, and
pointedly searched the forest for an alternative source of
sustenance.  He found some tough-looking tree roots that he thought
might be edible, and a tall tree with some shriveled-looking orbs that
might be fruit dangling from it. Settling on the former, he found
eating the roots much like savoring a plum -- if plums were made of
boiled rugs, he decided.  His mind was already working on his new
long-term goal: finding Deborah.  He would have to visit the many
villages up and down the River asking if any had seen her, and it
would take years and years, but what of it?

"Or alternately," he mused, "I might just snuff my own Life out.  As
Fate unfolds Events here, I would probably awaken right next to her."

			      *  *  *  *

Benjamin would be more receptive, thought Matoaka, but he is a coward.
How can a coward be of any help?  How could she think about him?  Not
to mention that after shooting an arrow between his legs, he was
certainly not going to want to speak to her.  She shrugged.  What else
was there?
 
She summoned all her tracking skills, starting by retracing his steps
from where she saw him last when the battle fizzled.  She listened for
strange sounds and looked for obvious paths he might have taken after
deserting them and for disturbed flora and fauna.  Her expression went
from vigilant to hateful, she mumbled to herself.
 
"He cannot have gone far, the white man cannot survive away from his
nest very long; I remember those pale faces in my time, we had to help
feed them.  Helpless, they were, and I took pity on them.  They would
have died without us and look where it got us.", she snorted.
Softening once more, she added, "He will probably avoid people; he
said he wanted to live like a hermit, but he will have to feed
himself."
 
After a long hike, Matoaka arrived at a clearing and saw Benjamin next
to a grailstone.  She smiled at herself thinking that she was right --
he was looking for easy food; so predictable these pale faces.
However, her smile was quickly wiped by uncertainty.  She stopped
walking toward him and looked around.  Her gaze ended again on his
figure.  She stood in plain sight and opened her mouth as if she were
ready to call his name, but decided to remain silent and kept staring.

Unaccustomed to the quiet of solitude after so long being among people
all the time, Benjamin hardly even noticed the sound of footsteps at
first, especially as light and fleeting as these footsteps were.
Finally he looked up from his grail, noticing the sound's absence more
than the sound itself.  The look on his face cycled through several
very different emotions, and he opened his mouth as if to speak but
said nothing several times.  Finally he spoke: 

"Matoaka... why have you come after me?"