Courage Plumb

The tide retreated toward the horizon, and the JRB left Sporadic Island and returned to the mainland. They quietly trudged along the seashore for the day’s few remaining hours. As the sunset neared, they unpacked their gear and set camp for the night. The youths collected a few handfuls of driftwood and built a small, quick-burning fire.

  Sitting by the fire, Rose interrupted the silence. She asked a question to no person in particular. “Do you really think that Nameless is the Creator?”

  “You mean ‘was’ the Creator?” corrected Daks. “The bird died. I think it proper to speak of the dead in the past tense, don’t you?”

  Rose glanced sideways at her companion and repeated her question, “Do you really think that Nameless is the Creator?”

  “Was,” demanded Daks, who seemed to have forgotten the red kite’ restoration of his mortally wounded body.

  Talon answered diplomatically, “As long as the creation remains, then the Creator remains a present entity.” Daks looked indifferently toward the horizon.

  After a long pause that indicated no person planned to answer the question, Willow posited another query, “Do you think that Nameless knew the branch was going to kill him? And if so, why did he not move? He just stood there like a gigantic target.”

  After a long pause that indicated no person planned to answer the question, Talon asked, “Do you think that Nameless must remain dead? If he is the Creator, then how can the Creator die? I mean, is there any hope for something after it dies?”

  Willow answered quickly, “Death is inevitable. As a flesh-weaver, I know the limitations of healing. Death takes us all, and nothing every escapes its grasp.”

  After another long pause that indicated no person planned to offer more insight, Rose presented yet another question, “So, Willow, do you think Nameless’ death speaks to the way or to the marring?”

  Willow responded, “I am not sure what to think of the marring and the way. I know that is how my mother interprets everything, the way is good and the, and the marring is bad. I have learned a lot on our journey, and I understand many things that I did not previously understand. I am not sure the marring and the way are the most helpful ways to understand the world.”

  “Yea,” agreed Rose. “Even when Nameless died, which is a terrible, awful thing, good comes from it: we can destroy the glowing weapons, and, hopefully, save many lives.”

  “What does it matter?” objected Daks. “Nameless is dead, and I am very sorry it happened. We can’t change that, can we? Let’s put our focus on what we can change, and that is our location. The next stop on this trek is our village, and I am ready to put our full effort toward reaching it.” Daks shrugged as he walked away.

  Talon watched his friend saunter from the group as they rest huddled around the evening campfire. “The answer to question, that being whether Nameless’ death speaks to the marring on the way, reveals more of what you think of death than anything else.”

  Daks bellowed from the distance, proving he was still engaging in the conversation, “That’s morbid. Quit scaring the girls.”

  “I don’t understand what you mean,” said Rose.

  Daks answered from the distance, “Morbid is when …”

  “I wasn’t talking to you.”

  Willow yawned deeply and then began to breathe heavily. She had drifted to sleep in the midst of their conversation. Rose looked to the sleeping younger girl and pulled a blanket around her. She tucked the blanket under Willow’s chin and gently whispered, “Good night my friend.”

  Talon whispered to the other, “I think we all need some rest. Let’s finish this conversation another time.” Rose nodded. Daks returned and said nothing. He pulled out his pallet and collapse on the ground. Within seconds, all four youths slept soundly.

 

  The next morning, the JRB packed their few possessions and readied for departure. Rose announced to the others, “Now, we go home. We have everything we need.”

  “I am not going home,” said Willow. “I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

  “Of course not,” responded Rose. “You are coming with us. We can search for our parents together. I imagine that your mother and our father are in the same place. If we find one of them, then hopefully, we will find both.”

  “That sounds good,” said Willow in a relieved voice. “I miss my sister.”

  “Your sister?” asked Daks. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”

  “I do. She is seven year old and her name is ‘Daffodil’ but we just call her ‘Daphne.’”

  “How come you never talk about her?” said Talon.

  Willow responded, “Some pains, I guess, are personal. I miss her very much, and until now, to even mention her name would cause too much grief.”

  “I remember,” said Rose, “that you did mention her when we first met. I wondered why you never said about her. You talk of your mother from time to time, but never anything about Daphne.”

  “It just hurts.”

  Willow smiled. She enjoyed hearing the name of her younger sister. She longed to see her again and play silly games and braid her hair and laugh at her bad jokes. She remembered their disagreements, which at the time infuriated her but now seemed petty. Tears began to gently streak down her cheek. Willow cried because she missed her sister.

  Talon politely shifted the conversation. “We need to make a decision. What route should we take to our village?”

  “Thankfully,” said Daks, “this journey should be quicker. We veered back and forth across Centage to visit Five-Point Peak, Dry River, and Sporadic Island. Now, we can just move in one direction – our village.”

  Rose opened her pack and removed the map given to them by Gryph Cartog – the village mapmaker. She unfolded the large map and laid it upon the ground. The others hovered around the archaic diagram of Centage. The descending sun and the flickering fire provided just enough light to read the tiny script. Rose used a twig and pointed to a spot along the Glass Sea. “That where we are,” she said. “And that’s where we need to go.” She now pointed to tiny dot identified as “94.” Rose continued, “When we came, we passed along this way. As we can see, we should find a route to our village that takes much less time. Additionally, the shorelines and riverbeds are incredibly slow. I think we should avoid those, if possible.”

  “We don’t have many options,” observed Talon. “Either we travel the way we came or we cut through the forest. On our way here, we journeyed by landmarks: the Double Falls Tributary, Dry River, and Glass Seas, to name a few. If we try travel through the forest, I see no landmarks. How can we know our location? The moment we step into the thick woods, we are certain to be lost, and to make matters worse, the underbrush will slow us much more than the sand. I, too, want to take the shortest route home, but I find no benefit in wandering through the forest.”

  “He’s right,” observed Willow. “The woods are no place to travel.”

  “There’s got to be better way,” muttered Rose.

  “What’s that?” asked Daks as he pointed to small line that ran through the forest.

  The others leaned toward the archaic drawing and gazed at a small line that zigzagged through the forest. Everyone stared blankly at the line, hoping to make sense of its purpose.

  Rose observed, “Look, it runs close to your village.”

  “And close to where we are now,” noted Willow.

  “But what is it?” asked Talon. “Is it a stream or something like that?”

  “No,” said Rose, “Look here, these slash marks indicate streams, but this line lacks those slash marks. The line is solid.”

  The JRB stared at the map, hoping for insight to come. The group tossed a few possibilities, but these discussions netted little more than pleasant conversation.

  After a brief silent spell, Daks meekly offered, “Maybe the line is a path, like we have paths and trails in the village.”

  “Yea,” agreed Talon, “like we travel along the path to our aunt
’s house.”

  “That might be it,” agreed Rose. “Imagine, a path long enough to connect us to our village.”

  The Village #94 residents marveled at the concept of “roads.” Their village contains pathways and trails, and because of its density, a person easily traveled to any destination within their community. While they understood the concept of a “path,” they held no notion for the term “roads.” “Paths” were common walkways that were beat down by constant foot traffic. Outside the village, a person might follow a “trail,” which like “paths’ resulted from frequent foot travel, but these trails were short. They, at most, connected farmers and ranchers to the village. For the #94ers, the idea of using “paths” or a road to connect village to village never occurred to them. While people occasionally did travel inter-village (for example, Lupier) such sojourners followed landmarks rather than roads. The infrequent nature of travel left the pathways from village to village without demarcation.

  Willow, however, experienced a different reality in Village #97. She offered her observations, “I think you’re right; that line looks like a road.”

  “Road? What’s that?” asked Daks.

  “The Protectorate, when they arrive, built a road into our village. They said it connected us to other villages, and that our traders, crafters, ranchers, farmers, and, well, pretty much everyone would make more money. It sounded great, at first. The whole village celebrated when the crew from the Protectorate completed it, but nothing changed for the village’s business, except for the few tradesmen who received requests from the Protectorate. Those people got rich very fast, but then they became aloof. Some of our friends benefited from these requests, but they mostly ignored us after collecting so many coins. As for the roads, their sole use was marching guards into our city and then marching villagers out of the city.”

  “Oh, great,” muttered the fourteen-year old girl sarcastically. “Who wants to travel via a rode if their sole use is moving guards to and fro?”

  “I do,” responded Daks. “If it means that we return to our village sooner, then I want to use it. I don’t care who travels on them or why they do, but if the road gets us home faster than our other choices, we travel by road.”

  “I agree,” said Talon. “Time works against us. The Protectorate and their presence in our village may have changed many things in our village. We need to arrive as soon as possible. While I remain committed to destroying the glowing arsenal, I hope we can arrive soon enough to protect our village as well.”

  “We all do,” agreed Rose.

  “Even me,” said Willow. “The Protectorate pretends to be nice, but they are monsters. I know. I saw them overrun our village. I witnesses their glowing blades slay the innocent. We must do all we can to prevent the same thing from happening in your village.”

  “Let me take a closer look at the map,” said Rose. She pointed once again with the stick, “Aha, if we travel just a bit further along the seashore, we will come to the outfall of this small stream, and then, we can walk alongside the stream for a day or so until it intersects with the line.”

  “You mean a road,” said Daks.

  “Yes, of course,” agreed Rose, who blushed after referring to the “road” as a “line.”

  “Now is the time for rest,” said Talon. “We have much traveling ahead of us, and we will need our energy.”

  The others agreed. The members of the JRB quietly spread their respective sleeping gear upon the sandy beach. Everyone but Rose quickly fell into a deep sleep. The curly-haired girl, however, gazed at the gigantic purple moon on the horizon. Its vibrant color radiated beauty across the dark night sky. The white moon’s current phase meant it arrival later into the nighttime. Until its illumination overshadowed its darker companion, a brilliant violet color illuminated the expanse over Centage. “Amazing,” thought Rose. “I need to learn more about the Creator.” After an hour of quiet reflection, the gifted sun-sculptor apprentice drifted into the same slumber as her companions.

 

  The JRB traveled for many days along the road. Despite being overgrown from neglect, the road still offered a more direct, speedier route for travel. Many shrubs, plants, and tall grass grew on the abandoned gravel path, but the road remained in contrast to the dense forest that grew on both sides. The tightly clustered, towering trees stretched high into air; a thick canopy blocked most of the sunlight. Dark shadows spread across the way, even during midday. Thick undergrowth enveloped the forest floor; the road offered the only means to travel through the forest.

  21 return to village #94