The man started eating again and was joined by the kids. Within a minute of noisy slurping sounds, every morsel had been polished off. Judging by the sorrowful looks on the children’s faces as they stared at their empty bowls, they must have enjoyed it. They then noticed that I hadn’t eaten anything. The man pushed the bowl towards me, and I decided to eat as fast as I could before I felt any more guilty about eating their meal. It tasted fantastic; I never knew a simple broth could taste so nice. The sweetness of the windroot had permeated to all the other vegetables in the pot, leaving a lingering sweet aftertaste. I wondered if the silence after the meal was normal when the man stood up and gave me a stiff grip on the shoulder with his one hand. Each child in turn hugged me. It seemed I would be invited for dinner again.
After dinner, the man gave all the children some time and spoke to all of them in regard to the issues that seemed important to their lives at that time. How he managed all of that I only wished I knew. His calloused hands clearly indicated a career as a manual labourer which would also explain a few things about their situation. I doubted his wife earned any money with all those children to look after. I’m not sure where the children went to during the day, or if they earned money for the family.
All the children who were either waiting for their turn to converse with their father or already had theirs decided I was fair game because mom was busy in the kitchen. I found myself nodding like a psychologist during a therapy session to one child after another’s babbling. Unfazed by the fact that I couldn’t understand a single word they were saying the youngsters endlessly rattled on. One girl proudly showed me her favourite tattered doll, while during the display the youngest boy in the group stood in front of me, mindlessly picking his nose while staring at me. I feigned interest the best that I could, and unfortunately became the next best fairground attraction when I picked up Tomu by his feet then swung him around. After that everyone wanted me to do the same with them while the eldest girl dutifully helped her mother in the kitchen. Eventually, the lady poured water in a large bucket and called the children over one by one to a large bowl of water with warm water. Taking a little fine ash out of the fire and using it as soap, she washed the kids one by one starting with the youngest to the oldest. I turned around on my stool to give them some privacy and found myself corralled in to help the freshly washed youngsters take blankets off the highest shelf of the scullery. A thick leather protector was placed on the boarded floor. The children slept on that, and a single small blanket long past its sell-by-date was draped over each child. Smaller children slept closest to the fire with the eldest further away.
Once all the youngsters went to bed, the woman poured a little fresh warm water from the fire into a wooden bucket and the eldest girl came carrying another freshly drawn bucket of water in from outside, perhaps from a well. She added fresh water to cool the water down. I then discovered that all the water activities were for my benefit, and I was expected to wash myself down. I don’t know about others, but it was already dark outside, the sun seemed to go down quickly. Heck no. There was no way I was planning to go outside with velociraptors running around so it was indoors or nothing for me. The fire created most of the light for the house and the oil lamps had already been snuffed. I felt a little exposed washing in that environment but by then the pair had gone to their bedroom, pulling an animal skin divider across the door for privacy. A few of the children slept in the second bedroom with the eldest girl. The children were already fast asleep. There was little to do but for me to wash the absolute necessaries using the same methods I noticed the children using and found it quite effective. Smelling like a fireplace afterward didn’t enamour me to the cleaning method. I had my back turned to the sleeping children, but my courage ran out and I decided to leave my personals to another more convenient time. I turned out the water outside the door and got my first view of a star-filled night. I had been camping many times with my dad and I could recognise many of the famous constellations and even a few of the minor ones. However not one star in that sky was familiar to me but clearly evident, lay a large galaxy that filled one-third of the sky and I then understood that wherever I was, it wasn’t Earth.
My uncomfortable sleep that night was filled with tossing and turning on the cold floor. My position was furthest from the fire and although I had a small blanket allocated to me, I felt a constant chill until a couple of the closest kids started using me like a warm blanket. I didn’t complain, they were just as warm, and I could appreciate it. I at least fell asleep after that. I awoke the next morning with someone carefully shaking me awake while softly saying,
“Wake up. Wake up.”
It was the man who, now dressed and with an oil lamp in his hand, seemed to be ready to go somewhere. I could tell it was still mostly dark outside, even with the windows closed.
“It’s time to go.”
He motioned for me to go to the table where I found two food items wrapped up in wax-infused cloth. He took the one and handed me the other. He pointed to two old moccasin-like shoes on the ground. They had soft uppers but reasonably tough leather soles. From what I could see in the dark the workmanship of the shoes was reasonably rough.
“Put these on.”
Surprisingly, the leather moccasin shoes just managed to fit me, although thankfully there was enough room for my toes. I wondered if those shoes were originally his. The awful idea of putting on someone else’s mangy shoes was at once offset by the thought of trudging around the stony outside barefoot. In a visit to Africa, I once had the unfortunate experience of unknowingly walking barefoot into a nest of devil thorns. The painful recollection sent cold chills down my spine as I recalled the nightmare of the hour I spent pulling burning thorns out of my feet, legs, and backside. I put on the shoes without complaint. He quietly pointed to the door and I followed him out. Since I was already dressed it felt a bit like I was going out in my pyjamas.
As I followed him down the road it suddenly dawned on me that I clearly understood everything he just said to me. I was a bit between a rock and a hard place because if I said anything at that point, my previous ignorance last night looked like a sham. I decided it was better just to feign ignorance until I could find out what was going on.
A morning fog hung in the air when we arrived at the other end of town just as the morning light started turning the mist to lighter shades of grey. A large double-story building with a front porch stood on its own with a number of men milling around in front. Like the other buildings in town, that building was also raised which again confirmed my feeling that the place could perhaps see more water than the desert around it let on. There was a sign, but I couldn’t understand the language. The building seemed to have some sort of functional value in that it looked more like a double-story hall. Later I would come to understand I was looking at the adventurer guild.
Some men in a group greeted the man,
“Hi Orilay, how’s it going?”
“Hi Orilay, did you say hi to Alma for me?”
“Yes, before she spat into the ground.”
“Ah, she misses me…”
That got everyone laughing. From that conversation I understood Orilay, and Alma were the names of my benefactors.
“So, who’s the young man with you?”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Ah, this is a guy calling himself Shane, although Tomu calls him hairless.”
“Hi Shane…is he shy or something?”
They realised I wasn’t responding.
“Um, he seems to have a problem understanding our language. I have no idea where he comes from, but I’ll ask the boss if he can work with us.”
“Doesn’t he look a bit weak?”
I wondered what constituted as weak in that world. I still looked and felt the same me, and I was reasonably fit, but even by my standards, those men looked rough as chopped wood.
“We’ll find out soon enough then, won’t we?”
Orilay made his way around the small crowd to where a couple of men sat on the porch of the building.
“Hey boss, would you be interested in another hand to join the team?”
The man Orilay called boss, looked at me, doubtlessly sizing me up.
“Mmm, what can he do?”
Orilay whispered something into the man’s ear then spoke for everyone’s benefit.
“I’ve only known him for a short while but he’s looking for some work while he sorts out some things in his life. He’s a little quiet so go easy on him.”
I didn’t know that at the time, but Orilay was well respected by the people in that town for looking after the orphans there. Not many people could afford to give him money, but they could help with small graces like the one he asked for now.
The boss looked at Shane. Orilay was in the habit of picking up the town’s strays. Whoever he was, it had to be the oldest orphan ever. Whatever the situation, the young man simply wasn’t woodcutter material. Anyone that held an axe for a lifetime could see that by looking at his lean physique. Despite his misgivings he owed Orilay more than one favour, and he was a man who didn’t like personal debts hanging over his head. If Orilay vouched for the man, who was he to say otherwise.
“Yeah, no problem if he’s quiet, as long as he listens to me, he should be okay. He’ll be your responsibility.”
“Thanks boss. Really appreciate it.”
“Yeah, yeah. By the way, since Jomu won’t be coming in anymore, your cadet can use his axe.”
All conversation in earshot of the foreman suddenly ceased, as if pausing for an honorary break. I suspected that Jomu was a work acquaintance that for whatever reason wouldn’t be coming to work any longer.
“Thanks boss.”
When I heard the word axe, I realised I was in for some serious physical work. Finally paying attention I now picked up on the obvious signs, calloused hands from handling axes and lumber, well-tanned faces from hours in the sun and the smell of resin wood wafting from their clothes. Obviously, woodcutting was no joke, the only problem was that I didn’t notice any trees near the vicinity. How we were going to get to a forest was answered with the arrival of three open carts pulled by teams of horses. Ten of us climbed into the cart closest to me, the foreman they called boss sat shotgun with our driver and Orilay sat next to me. We trundled back through town on our way to wherever they planned to do the work. At that stage, I didn’t have any idea where I would go or what I would do, so it was best just for me to go with the flow. My dad always said the important things in life were, having a roof over my head, food to eat, and clothing to wear. Up to that point I ticked all the boxes, so I couldn’t complain. Now I just needed a jacuzzi.
As we made our way through the town’s main street, the same one Tomu and I crossed yesterday, there were shops I could recognise regardless of the world. A hardware supply shop, local inn, both clothing and other retail shops were noticeable. None of them had any glass windows so I couldn’t see their wares and their wooden shutters were closed still. Some of them I could guess the wares when a pleasant freshly baked bread smell wafted over from the bakery. Nameboard pictures outside the shop fronts also gave them away. Luckily, the noise of the cart hid the embarrassing sound of my stomach growling after the smell from that bakery hit me hard. The morning air was still and with the movement of the cart, there was a small breeze which with the little clothing I had on didn’t stop the morning chill penetrating through to my skin. I may have sat a bit closer to my neighbours on the cart, using them like a windbreak. If they noticed, none of them said anything, they probably felt sorry for me since I was the only one without a jacket amongst those men.
For two hours we trundled along a dirt road leading through boring brush covered terrain, similar to my au natural arrival the day before. I heard gravel crunching under iron rimmed wheels as we trundled along, sounds coinciding with uncomfortable tilts and rises of the carts which felt more like a stormy sea voyage. The few iron products told me these people were already in an iron age but not an industrial one yet. Their clothing I had seen up to then, practical and work based.
Eventually the first scattered trees replaced the brown, woody, brush shrubs with splashes of green. Perhaps it was to beat the boredom of the travelling, but for some reason Orilay decided to tell me something about the surrounds.
“Did you know that this whole area was once a forest?”
I just looked at him and shook my head. He continued,
“Legends say that a long time ago, rulers pillaged the land at the expense of their people to further their wealth. They greedily grabbed the natural wealth of the land by endlessly cutting down forests, replacing it with deserts and scrubland.”
By then, most of the men on the cart were looking at Orilay and none of them uttered a sound. I sensed they were suckers for a good story.
“With the green forests the treasures of nature disappeared. What the kingdom gained in selfish want, it lost in many more ways. Eventually the land was abandoned and left to rot. It would be a tale best left for children’s bedtime stories but unfortunately, greed resurfaced and those that were trusted are once again focusing on their own profit.”
“Ah, come on Orilay. Tell us something a bit livelier, otherwise we’ll be so demotivated that even the fiery inspirational words of boss here wouldn’t be able to rouse us from it.”
The foreman who had been listening with one ear to the conversation didn’t miss a beat. Without turning around, he chided the men.
“Nothing the handle of my axe couldn’t resolve…”
Cheerful laughter broke out between the men and the sombre attitude that had pervaded the atmosphere disappeared like the mist before the rising sun.
After the laughter died down, I decided the atmosphere was just right for gently introducing Orilay to the fact that I could miraculously talk. I wasn’t someone for keeping secrets, I just didn’t have the ability to keep them hidden in me, so I had to say something. Not being able to ask questions when I needed a wealth of information to survive just didn’t make sense.
“Orilay.”
He looked at me, there was a hint of a smile as if he expected me to say something soon.
“I apologise for not saying something earlier. I didn’t do that on purpose.”
He just nodded. I didn’t want to say something more given that eight other pairs of ears could hear me quite clearly despite the awful racket from the cart. Orilay seemed to have gathered as much although he looked a lot more at ease then. He must have known I understood him, after all I responded to their prompting, so I had to understand the language.
We entered a lightly forested expanse made up of broadleaf trees, the air cooled, and I heard birdsong for the first time. I couldn’t help but recall the lessons from my father’s survivalist outings. During those outings, his obsession with things fantasy knew no bounds. He never spoke about his fantasy in my mother’s presence, but always monologing during the outings into the isolated wilderness. I felt my father remained a child and although I dearly loved him, his fantasy world dominated our relationship to the point of embarrassment. I never invited my friends on those outings because I feared that through my friend’s eyes, I would become alienated from them because of my father’s constant stories. Yet in a strange way, it was something unique that we shared which brought us together, in a way that only family could.
As we travelled through the forest, I recognised some of the trees, not because I had seen them before but from my father’s descriptions. Tangle Ash, with its twisted branches and bushy undersides. Eacorn, the taller and thinner hardwood, commonly used for masts in ship building, also known for its long, thin leaves. Blister Oak with its pale rumpled bark, the useful hardwood with the unfortunate habit of giving the woodcutters blisters if the sap contacted any bare skin. Thadlar a good allrounder wood for burning and making charcoal. Its highly flammable gum content gave it a high burning temperature, but which also had therapeutic qualities when used with other medical ingredients. It was no doubt summer in that part of the world since the broadleaf trees still had their leaves, assuming that there were four seasons.
All that knowledge, I learned from my father’s discourses. When he disappeared, it devastated me. He knew that world, how I couldn’t say because he never told me. Could it be that just perhaps, he knew I would go there one day, and he could be waiting for me somewhere in that world? I decided then that I would find him, somewhere there. My mother didn’t know where I disappeared to, recreating the pain of my father’s disappearance for her all over again. At that moment in time all I could do was to survive in the short term and make finding my father my long-term goal. He had to be there; perhaps he knew how to reach my mother so I could put her mind and heart at ease.