Journey of a Skeptical Sage

I have been beaten and battered, cut and scarred, tortured and humiliated. I have walked the deserts of Africa, swam the cold waters of North America, followed the footsteps of Jesus through the middle east. I have lived amongst the people of all nations. I know a thing or two about this world. And one thing that I know better than anything else is that no one is what they seem to be on the outside. People are always hiding things but the way they hide them is always different. Everyone lies.

But there was something about her that just seemed so genuine. She wasn't going to kill me or torture me right away. She even seemed happy to see me and she didn't seem to be looking for any profit or gain out of me. She gave me food and water when I hadn't eaten in days. She kept me safe at night from whatever it was that was out there that I couldn't see but she could somehow sense. She took care of me when I was injured, she took care of me when I was sick, she even took care of me when I almost died after drinking dirty water from a puddle by a snake den! And she did all this without asking for anything in return except for my company and my stories as we walked through these strange lands together day after day after day...

"We'll make it to Rome soon enough," Sibyl said as she handed me a piece of fruit from her bag. "It's not too much longer."

I looked up at her with weary eyes as she looked back down at me with twinkling blue-green eyes and soft lips turned upward into a big smile. Her long golden hair cascaded down her shoulders and back in waves like a river flowing behind her. Her body was slender and supple like a dancer's - though she never danced in front of me other than skipping around wildly while laughing every once in a while like some kind of child - but her muscles were well defined and strong, capable of carrying whatever burdens she had to carry on our journey together without fail every single day without fail without fail...

"Rome?" I asked as I swallowed a bite of apple whole before taking another bite from the fruit in my hand. "What's in Rome?"

Sibyl laughed softly and shrugged her shoulders at me as she turned away from our campsite and walked off toward the horizon in front of us, giving no response as she made her way up along the top edge of some low hills ahead on our path toward Rome...

I got up from where I sat by our small fire with its blackened rocks still hot beneath my feet and picked up my walking stick before jogging over to where Sibyl stood, eating her own fruit as she stared out into the distance beyond us all alone against the clear blue sky without another creature besides us in sight...

She turned around slowly to face me once I approached beside her, smiling softly again as she slid an arm across my chest against my shoulder before offering me another piece of fruit from within her cloak pocket along with a drink from one of her bottles. She opened the bottle for herself before taking a long drink, then offered it to me for another sip myself before closing it back up again and putting both items away inside her cloak pocket once more...

As we stood there side by side against the red orange light of sunset glowing beyond us, Sibyl leaned into my shoulder lightly against mine until we were shoulder to shoulder together facing out into the distance ahead together, looking out into space as if she was looking at something only visible to her alone somewhere far beyond our sight...

"So why are we headed towards Rome anyway?" I asked finally breaking the silence between us after hours upon hours upon hours standing there next to each other watching the things that happened in front of us unfold across the planet below us across time itself... "Do you know someone there? Family? A lover?"