Chapter 13
Rocks - Moshoi
I remained as still as I could and considered curling back into a ball. The creature remained as still as I was. This was going to be a game of chicken, which of course I could have won if I had not already uncurled. If it was a hydois, then it would strike as soon as I moved, and I was not nearly as quick as a hydois.
Suddenly, the animal moved its head toward mine too quickly for me to react, except with an instant, spine-tingling fear.
The next thing I knew, my lips were being licked. I must have had salt on my lips from the jug kabob I had enjoyed earlier. The tickling feeling would have been annoying, but I was so relieved that I began to laugh. Of course, this scared the timid chamois, who turned and leapt away before I even realized what was happening. The whole thing was actually rather comical now that I knew I wasn’t going to die a horrible death.
I wiped off my mouth, picked my sword up off the ground, put it back in its sheath, and once again hoisted my pack onto my back. I began to climb, quickly now, since I had lost so much time, and I did not want to meet any more hydois. I was sweating profusely in the hot sun and was starting to feel weak, having so recently awakened from my rock state. Finally, I saw the large curved mouth of Rhabdom’s rock cave up above me. Perhaps because of the heat, I couldn’t help but imagine a giant tongue coming out of the cave to lick me in the face. Of course, this didn’t happen. Nothing came out of the cave. There was no way I would be able to climb up the sheer rock face below the entrance, unless Rhabdom lowered his ladder for me.
So I cupped my hands around my mouth and bellowed, "Rhabdom! Rhabdom!”
Finally, a small, wrinkly, unscaled face with a mustache and short cropped white beard appeared over the ledge that wrapped around the mouth of the cave. He was wearing a familiar long, yellow robe and a round, flat-topped hat that resembled the flat rocks on top of some of the rock spires in the valley below. When he saw me, he waved and then disappeared into the cave. In a few moments, he was lowering a long rope ladder for me. Once Rhabdom had securely tied the top of the ladder to a large rock, I began to climb. My scales, along with the pack, made my back heavy, and I gripped tightly as I climbed, so as not to fall off backwards to my death.
When I reached the top, Rhabdom grasped my shoulders and pulled me toward him, first to his right side, then to his left side, and then he faced me, clasped both my hands and said, “Welcome Moshoi! So you have seen the star!”
“How did you know?” I asked, incredulously.
“Well, I didn’t think you would come here during hibernation season for some conversation, as stimulating as my conversation might be,” laughed Rhabdom.
“I was bringing you some jug kabob, but I had to toss it to some hungry hydois along the way,” I said, with empty hands.
“Thank you, my friend,” said Rhabdom, “but you should not have risked bringing your family’s precious food to me during this drought when I have set aside plenty of my own.”
I looked around to see if he really had, since he was always so thin. But indeed in addition to his potter’s wheel and some uncovered pots, there were numerous covered jars around the cave, and I assumed they contained food stores. To one side, a small round stone table was set with dried fruit, bread, and…two plates. No matter how many times he did it, it still startled me when Rhabdom knew things before they happened.
“I was just about to eat. Please join me.”
We sat, and Rhabdom offered thanks to Adon. Then we enjoyed the simple meal Rhabdom had prepared.
“I will not detain you with idle talk,” Rhabdom said, as if anything the wise man of the mountain ever said could be considered idle talk. “Let’s get to the heart of the matter. It is time for you to begin your journey to Tzoladia!”
“I am very excited for this great adventure!” I responded with some exuberance. “But I am not sure that I know how to get there.”
“That part is easy,” Rhabdom said. “Just follow your star.”
“Should I bring my brother, Tuka? He wants to come with me,” I found myself saying.
“Do you want to bring him?” Rhabdom asked. He often answered my questions with another question.
“Well, yes, I think I do.”
“Then bring him!” Rhabdom said, as if it was obvious.
“Should I bring a yakama to carry the supplies?”
“Would your father loan you a yakama?” Rhabdom asked.
“Well, no,” I answered, suddenly worried about how I had ever thought to take one of my father’s yakamas in the first place.
“Then take one of mine!” Rhabdom exclaimed. “I won’t need her.”
“To tell you the truth, I didn’t know you had one,” I replied.
“I keep her in a pen through the tunnel,” Rhabdom said. “But I never go anywhere, so I don’t need her. I just have to keep her fed.”
He led me down a rock stairway that went through a tunnel in the ground and came out at a large dry meadow in a gulley surrounded by high rock cliffs. Two yakamas were munching on some stalks of wheat that Rhabdom had apparently thrown to them earlier. Rhabdom walked over to the smaller yakama, stroked her, then put a rope around her neck, and brought her to me with a grin.
“Her name is Star,” Rhabdom said, patting the animal’s neck affectionately. I reached up and patted her neck too. “Tomorrow we will load her with the supplies you will need.”
For a moment, I stood and gawked. I realized that Rhabdom had probably raised and fed this yakama for years so that when the time came, I could have her as a pack animal for my journey.
“No need to bring her back,” Rhabdom said. “But don’t let the hydois get her,” he added with a wink.
“I was attacked by a pack of them on the way up here,” I said.
“I saw,” he replied absentmindedly.
I never knew how to take it when he said things like that. He could not possibly have seen it with his eyes, because he had been too far away.
“What else do you see?” I asked, because, well, I really wanted to know.
“I see that it will soon grow dark, so you will need to spend the night in my cave and set out in the morning,” he replied. “And by the way, you should wash your face after our morning meal,” he said, chuckling to himself.
I looked at him in surprise.
“You really don’t want to be licked by a smelly yakama!” he said and started laughing.
I followed him back up the stairway. Hopefully, before I left in the morning, he would be able to warn me of things before they happened, instead of laughing at me after.