CHAPTER 5. MIA
Dawn caressed Toby’s face with gentle beams of light. He ran his fingers through his hair, damp from dewfall. A quick hike around the tent turned up no sign of intruders. The swamp people truly believed nothing would disturb Natura’s sacrifice.
If I hadn’t caught sight of those torches, Mia would be dead. This horrible thought was replaced by a beautiful idea. Was I somehow sent to save her? Were all of last night’s events more than coincidences? He remembered the Voice’s words of the evening before. “You have purpose.”
This concept flooded through him like Gramble Shana’s special veggie juice and made him feel stronger, taller somehow. What adventures waited for him today?
“Mia, are you awake?” He tapped on the side of the tent.
Mia crawled out of the tent and blinked in the bright light of morning. Her hair straggled down her shoulders in two messy braids.
“Let me wash the sleep off my face.” She yawned and stretched. “Then I’ll be ready.”
Toby packed up the tent and tidied the camp while Mia combed out her hair and slipped into the white gown.
“Your dress really is pretty.” Toby tried to be helpful. “Do the swamp people use the white material for sacrifices only?”
“My parents brought this dress from the city for my wedding someday.” Mia smoothed the wrinkled fabric. “My mother didn’t know the swamp people didn’t allow manufactured cloth. When we arrived in the village, everything we owned was burned. My mother managed to hide the dress. I was only five. She wanted to keep it so I would remember where I came from.
“When I was chosen for sacrifice, they found the dress and decided to destroy it along with me. Natura devours anything man-made.”
“How did your parents die?” asked Toby.
“Both had the fever last winter,” Mia’s eyes filled with tears. “They didn’t last long.” She brushed them away with the back of her hand.
Toby had never lost anyone close to him. What could he even say? How could he comfort this girl?
“So the village treated you badly?” Toby pulled the tent down and folded the stiff material.
“When my parents died, the swamp people made me sleep in an outdoor shelter without even a blanket to keep me warm. I was so alone, Toby.” She choked on her sobs and could say no more.
Toby reached for her hand. “I will love you, and you shall be my sister.”
Mia’s face lit up. “Really? What a wonderful idea, Toby.”
After Toby brushed dirt over the fire, he checked his food supply. Enough food to last one person a few days. He glanced over at Mia. Her hands were thin and frail. Her pretty dress could not hide the sharpness of her shoulder blades jutting through the cloth. Would she have the strength to continue without extra food? He pulled a compass from his pack. According to his map, if they journeyed west they would continue into new territory. Or, they could go back the way he had come the day before and, if they could avoid meeting the alligator again, go back to the grambles.
He hesitated.
“I know how to find things in the swamp, if you are worried about food,” Mia said, as though reading his thoughts. “I really want to meet your grambles.”
Toby looked down at his feet.
Mia hastily added, “Of course I want you to finish your adventure first. I’d like to see new places. The only time I’ve traveled was when my parents came to live with the swamp people.”
Toby’ heart swelled with relief. “Then we’ll go a little farther.”
While they walked, Toby described the caverns and told Mia about his grambles.
Her eyes filled with wonder while he described the machines and replicators they depended on for survival.
“My parents came from a big town,” she said. “We had many of these machines you describe. Some were placed on display in buildings for people to look at. No one could even remember what most of them were used for.”
“Why did your parents leave the city?” Toby asked.
“The swamp people often sent out small groups to invite city folk to join their village. The city was a dirty, scary place, where people fought over everything left from the Great Calamity.” She bent down to examine a mushroom and shook her head. “My parents were happy to leave. They didn’t realize the swamp people only wanted slaves.”
“What was the Great Calamity?”
“No one speaks of it,” Mia stopped at a berry bush, heavy with fruit. “It all happened before my parents were even born.”
Toby helped her place berries in one of his handkerchiefs. “My grambles lost contact with the outside world long ago. They never tried to find out what happened, or if anyone survived.” He put the last berry in the cloth and they continued down the path.
“I don’t understand.” Mia gestured to the trees around them. “How could you hide away from all of this?”
Branches crackled in front of them and Toby pulled Mia off the trail. He held his breath as they crouched under a bush. Could the swamp people be after us?
A tawny form on spindly legs stepped in front of them. Graceful ears swiveled beneath pronged horns. The deer was gone in an instant.
“Beautiful,” Toby whispered.
“Yes.” Mia stood to look after it.
How could the grambles have left this world behind?
“Maybe my grambles decided they would rather not know if everything they loved had been destroyed.”
“I might have made the same choice,” said Mia.
The ground became less marshy and soon they pushed through patches of long, thick grass. Green hills rolled before them like some great, prehistoric creature had settled down into the meadow to take a nap.
“Shall we cross them?” Mia asked.
“I think we should.” Toby led the way forward. They started over the first hill, leaving footprints in the grass.
Toby munched on a handful of berries, enjoying the wild, rich flavor. “I had a second purpose for coming on this quest.”
“Another reason?”
“I was created in a test tube by humans, and then formed in a machine.” He peeked over at Mia to see her reaction.
Confusion flickered over her face.
“I have a brain and a heart, but there is one thing I don’t know if I possess.”
“In your world of long-forgotten wonders, what could that be?”
“A soul.” Toby sighed.
“The swamp people say Natura binds our souls to the forest. If we do not heed her voice, she will crush them in her wooden hands.”
“If Natura does exist, which I doubt, it seems like she only cares about plants and animals living in the woods. If she treasured human souls, she would shelter them and keep them safe. A loving being would not demand people’s death for her pleasure. This goddess destroys souls. Therefore, she could not have given me one.”
Mia shrugged. “If anything, she only wished to devour mine.”
“I am seeking the true Soul Creator,” said Toby. “A Being who cares for me and loves me.”
Mia clasped her hands in front of her. “Toby, do you think He is real? Maybe He would care for me too!”
Toby looked up at her shining face, then down at her clenched hands, dripping with juice from forgotten berries. “I know He would. Mia, I think He sent me on this quest.”
Mia gasped. “He spoke to you?”
“I’m almost certain.” Toby lifted his chin. “Do you understand why I must find Him?”
“Yes,” said Mia. “Oh, yes.”
The sun shone down on them as they climbed, but was tempered with a cool breeze. Birds sang songs of spring and the joy of flight. Toby realized he could never live in a cave again.
He stopped short. “We should build a house.”
“A house?”
“Yes, close to where my grambles live. The forest above the cavern would be a perfect place to live.” A smile spread across his face. “The storage units have all the supplies we need, and the libraries hold hundr
eds of books to teach us.”
“Could we have windows and a kitchen?” Mia asked.
“Yes! A garden, too, with vegetables and flowers.”
These thoughts warmed their hearts and they began to build their little house together until it was a very real place in their minds.