by Zy Rykoa
‘Mother,’ said Jaden, and around a corner with a pot plant in her hands came a woman of grace, soft features and long, brown hair. ‘Tommy needs you.’
Knowingly, their mother, Sayva, set down the plant she carried on a dark stone bench and took Tommy in her arms. ‘What happened?’ she asked, her voice smooth and soothing.
‘He tripped, grazed his head here,’ said Jaden.
Sayva looked at the graze and kissed it softly.
‘Thank you, Jaden,’ she said.
Jaden bowed a little as Sayva took Tommy away. She would clean him up, just as she had done with Jaden all those years ago, and then she would put her hands over where Tommy had hurt himself, as if magically able to heal him.
It did seem like magic, Jaden thought. Sometimes cuts would disappear by the next day, bruises would be gone within hours, and lumps would never come up. He had asked her how she was able to do it, but the answer was always how strongly she loved her children and nothing more. He couldn’t guess at how it worked, only that somehow they responded to her touch as if she were the most brilliant doctor alive.
Whatever it was, he was thankful to have her taking care of them. There was no kinder person he knew, nor gentler of spirit in the world. When they were in need of help, she would be there for them, without regard for her own well-being. She was their mother, and they would be there for her in the same way.
Outside, Embra was still leaning lazily against the wall.
‘What are you looking at?’ asked Jaden, coming up to stand beside her.
‘Them.’ Embra nodded in the direction of a group of people standing around a woman who had watched decades go by in her life. ‘Another traveller claiming to know everything.’
Jaden smiled. ‘Everything, huh?’
Embra winked at him. ‘She’s yours.’
Jaden seemed concerned. ‘I don’t know. I’m not sure if I have the time to educate today.’
Embra laughed. ‘Liar.’
‘I better go see what she’s talking about.’
‘Don’t be too nice!’ Embra called out behind him.
He replied with a cheeky grin. He often spoke with Embra in jest when it came to people who claimed to know everything. If they ever felt slightly bored, they’d often use them as a means of entertainment, something Jaden needed more than ever right now. He quickly joined the audience standing around the woman and couldn’t help but smile for a moment. The perfect way to pass some time had come. There was little he enjoyed more than debating those that assumed that the village was full of ignorant fools. He almost liked it more than tennagen. But talking would never have the same appeal. Listening to people’s mindless ramblings was something he could handle only for so long. He would become bored and start to think of ways to get away from them, but recently he had been too lazy and had ended up just walking away, hoping they wouldn’t follow.
This woman looked different to the others though. Up close, the wrinkles etched in her features were more apparent, making her appear older than she had at first glance. She was as hardened as any traveller there was; eyes swollen from the dusty winds, blackened by lack of sleep, bushy blonde hair robbed of its once youthful vibrancy, and tanned skin so tough that it resembled the leather of her sandals. Her clothes were tattered and gray, looking more like pieces of cloth thrown over her than actual garments, and there was a smell that suggested she hadn’t bathed in many days. Still, despite her dishevelled appearance, her smile was wide, and there was joy behind her eyes, as if merely being able to talk with people, to tell them her stories after so long, was enough to keep her going just that little bit longer. But most apparent of all was the wisdom she seemed to possess. Unlike the others, she was calculated. Her words were far from the mindless ramblings he had come to expect.
‘And that, my dear friends, is how I found the jewel of Ilah!’ she finished. Her audience was mainly comprised of children around the age of ten, who all gasped in delight, while the older listeners stood idly like Jaden behind them. ‘Now,’ she continued, ‘what shall I speak of next?’
‘The Alliance!’ called out a child.
‘No, the Resistance!’
‘Ukota!’
‘Good choices, all good choices!’ said the woman warmly. ‘But what about something darker, something more secret … something you’d hear of nowhere else?’
Jaden eyed her suspiciously. It was bad enough to talk as if she knew everything, but even worse to tell of something no one else knew about. What could she possibly think she knew exclusively? He would have interrupted a traveller at this point, usually, but he found himself curious rather than objective, and decided to listen intently.
Along with Jaden, the audience was silent in anticipation, waiting for her next words.
‘I come before you today with a story often thought to be of myth and legend, fragments of which have been passed around the entire globe for centuries. Even the strange creatures from the Ukotan jungle have a part in this story, for their rise came when humankind had come closest to its end! Yes, I speak of the Forgotten Years.
‘No one can say for sure why we do not remember them, nor when they occurred, but by our calendar, we assume it was nine hundred and ninety-seven years ago. The Forgotten Years,' she repeated slowly. 'Ah yes, you might question how I can know of them if they are forgotten, but, they are named thus only because all but a select few have indeed forgotten them. There are those still roaming the lands that remember, and they will risk their lives to prevent them from returning. You see … it was in those times that our world lost its way and became victim to something quite mysterious. In the early months of its arrival, life flourished. Everything became healthier, more beautiful … more wonderful. Even humans were able to run further, jump higher and heal faster. It seemed a divine blessing! But this utopia would not last. The very thing that had made life so much easier was the very thing that would cause its ruin!
‘As everything became stronger, very few things made the crossover into death. Loss of limbs seemed to matter not, the blood would somehow stop running and the creature would not care for what had happened. Soon even the loss of brain function and vital organs would not hinder the life forms. Their flesh would remain animated, but they would change. In both animals and humans, personalities would become more aggressive, hateful, and yet strangely happy. They would kill others, or try to fight them, for reasons we cannot even guess. Humans would wear smiles as they inflicted their sick and deadly wounds upon their victims, and so it soon became known as the beautiful death.
‘The beautiful death, yes … for one was seen as dead if cursed by this strange disease. Those that were still healthy were forced to retreat from lands that were contaminated, taking refuge where they could. Armies were sent to combat the hordes forming around them, some even hoping to put an end to this evil, but the creatures were evolving, they were becoming harder and harder to fight back. You see … they were eating one another, unknowingly combining their strengths. Beasts and humans alike, some with very little flesh on their bones, were soon standing at over fifteen feet high, deformed and unrecognisable from what they once were. They were the spawn from hell if ever there were to be any. And this is how the creatures in Ukota first rose as one of the most vicious predators on the planet.
‘What happened next … no one is sure. Even those that have remembered so much know nothing. And so it is with great pride I show you this next piece of the puzzle, for it is one of the only pieces left in existence! I call it one of my greatest finds on my most rewarding treasure hunt, and you’ll see why now!’
The old woman paused to reach into her backpack and bring out two scrolls, one coated in plastic, covered in dirt with holes and crinkles throughout it, and the other seemed new, as it was made of paper with only travel dust over it. She unravelled the paper first and placed it on the ground, keeping it open with some stones she found nearby. She unravelled the second delicately, taking the greatest care not to damage it any further, a
nd then held it up for all to see.
‘Can anyone tell me what this is?’ she asked.
All stared as hard as they could, trying to discern the pictures and lines they could see under the muck and liquid stains.
‘A map!’ called out a child.
‘That’s right,’ said the woman, ‘but can you tell me of what this map is?’
Again her audience stared but remained silent. Some looked almost as if they wanted to shout something out, but thought better of it after more thorough consideration.
‘An expected response,’ chuckled the woman. ‘You are right not to recognise what you see here, for this is the world as it looked before the Forgotten Years.’
Her audience was stunned as they all leaned closer to carefully examine each and every detail they could.
‘You might notice your continent is nowhere on here. Where you might have found Aurialis …’ She pointed to the new map and then back to the other, ‘there is water. And where the great continent of Equadon rests now, there existed a land called “Aus-lia”. We do not know their real names … only what letters are left on this map. If you look here, Cejian is in place of “Mer-ca”, and the others … I cannot read well enough.’
‘You think the entire face of the world was changed?’ asked Jaden, suddenly switching from curious to objective.
The woman looked up and scanned the audience, searching for the one that had spoken, but was evidently unsuccessful as she looked to several different people as she spoke next.
‘Think? No, no, I do not merely think it. I know it as fact. This map is proof!’
‘Proof that in a matter of years all the continents were changed to look entirely different?’ asked Jaden.
The woman spotted him. ‘Ah, I see you,’ she said, ‘come forward. That’s better, I do not like to converse with those who stand behind others. It is not polite, you know. Now, as for your question … maybe not years, the Forgotten Years is merely a name, but the continents could have been changed over centuries, thousands of years perhaps.’
‘It would take millions just to move them. For what you suggest, all life as we know it would have been made extinct.’
The woman smiled as if she had expected every word he had said. ‘You are right. But they were strange times, where the impossible was made possible—where the weak became strong and the strong became invincible. Do not underestimate the Forgotten Years; it was both an amazing and tragic time—horrors and miracles went hand in hand.’
‘I understand,’ said Jaden, ‘but how could it be possible?’
The woman’s smile faded to a charmingly bemused grin as her eyes wandered upward to the right, then crossed over to the left. She then leaned backward on the log she was sitting on and took a deep breath, as if contemplating how best to deal with a troublesome child. As she released her breath, she rolled forward again, lowered her brows as she leaned closer and asked him, ‘Do you know what is possible?’
‘I know that the continents changing that quickly is impossible.’
‘That is not what I asked. I asked do you know what is possible?’
‘Possible is what can happen,’ said Jaden unsurely.
‘Simply put, that is correct. Now let me ask you this; do you know of all that can happen?’
‘No…’
‘Then how is it that can you claim now that something cannot happen?’
‘I know I cannot touch the stars, but I can touch a lamp. It is a matter of scale. There are things that are just impossible.’
‘Or are they?’ asked the woman. ‘You know, it was once thought impossible for humans to make shields of energy that would defend the innocent. Imagine that, a power from your own hands able to challenge and defeat missiles from the Alliance. “There is no way it could be done!” they said when the stories were first reported, and yet now here we are today, accepting that the Daijuar do have such abilities, and we know it as fact. So, my young friend, I ask you again; what is possible?’
‘You still speak on small scales in an attempt to prove the large,’ said Jaden, now losing hope that this woman was any different from the others.
The woman looked at him sternly then began putting the maps away, glancing up at him occasionally.
‘Very well,’ she said finally as she had seen her audience had grown restless. ‘You want something more to scale … I shall give it to you. Look to the sky. Don’t be shy. Right now. Look up.’
Jaden reluctantly glanced upward. How would this prove anything?
‘What do you see?’ asked the woman.
‘Clouds,’ he said.
‘And?’
‘Rings…’
‘That’s it! Rings.’ The woman sounded triumphant.
Jaden looked down again. ‘What do they prove?’
‘They prove the Forgotten Years were real.’
Jaden paused, thought about it for a moment, and then said bluntly, ‘No they don’t.’
‘Be quiet, rodent!’ came a harsh, deep voice.
The woman turned to her left, stunned at the sudden intrusion.
‘Let her tell her stories, go bother someone else!’
Ardim had joined the audience and was now looking threateningly at Jaden.
‘Shouldn’t you be scaring children to sleep or something?’ asked Jaden, bending down then to those sitting in the front row and whispering, ‘Run, children, the Ardim is coming!’
‘It seems I shall have to continue this another time,’ said the woman, getting up. ‘A pleasant day to all of you.’
She bade them goodbye as Ardim continued to stare at Jaden.
‘Shouldn’t you be bleeding?’ he yelled.
‘Doubt it,’ Jaden said to him, and then turned to the children again. ‘Quick,’ he whispered loudly, ‘now’s your chance! I have it distracted!’
Ardim stuttered, once, then twice and almost a third time before he yelled, ‘You want to get hurt, runt?’
Instantly he was dashing around the crowd to reach Jaden. Jaden laughed and hopped back a few steps before sprinting a few yards away from him. He stopped as he heard Ardim fall heavily to the ground, a young man bigger than even Ardim standing over him.
‘Don’t get up!’ said the young man holding Ardim down.
Jaden laughed even more, ‘Look, your brother has come to save you … isn’t that nice?’
‘You! Get out of here,’ said Ardim’s brother strongly.
Jaden nodded and turned to leave, but not without giving one last laugh to Ardim before he did. Ardim responded with an aggressive, hate-filled look, mouthing the words, ‘You’re dead.’
Jaden couldn’t stop laughing as he wandered away casually, a victorious smile on his lips. He then strolled contentedly through the village, now feeling satisfied. He had always enjoyed querying travellers on the truth of their stories, but seeing Ardim become furious to the point of choking was a pleasure that would not soon be bettered. It was as close as he could get to revenge for all the trouble Ardim had caused. He didn’t like to fight with people, he often wished he could relax the tensions between the social clans, but knew from the wisdom of the elders it was best to keep it. It forced them to remain strong in the face of danger, to challenge their wits and their ability to keep their minds on track no matter how many emotional distractions there were. It was as it had been for centuries, and there was nothing to suggest it might change anytime soon.
As he neared the waterfall’s edge, the adrenaline in his veins subsided and his pleasant mood faded almost immediately. Memories of what had occurred on his last visit were coming back to him, all that he had felt, all that he had seen … and the dream; the harshness of the fields of grass, the burning in the sky, the military movement far below, and the boy.
That boy.
So innocent and so evil—what was his purpose? Why did he seem so real? Jaden didn’t understand how a dream could have had such an effect on him, or why he asked questions about it at all. He felt strangely drawn to it as if it
were something more than it was … something he had to keep, to remember above all else. It was as if it had actual importance. He then recalled the feelings again, those he had felt while he was in the dream and while here at the waterfall. It had felt the same. How? What was happening to him? Was he going crazy?
As if in response to his questions, the feelings began to build again, swirling and darting around as they had before. He almost lost consciousness as the air was seemingly sucked from his lungs and claw-like grips wrapped around his ankles, increasing their pressure until the point of agonising pain. And then he heard a voice, far away at first, then right next to him.
‘Water is interesting. I too could stand here and watch it all day, though I think I’d rather watch this green stuff behind me grow. Most amazing! Look at that…’
Jaden withdrew out of his thoughts.
‘Grandfather,’ he said, turning to where he had heard the voice.
‘Hush, hush! I’m busy,’ said Vennoss, waving Jaden away as his gaze was set firmly over his shoulder at the ground behind him, where it seemed he really was looking at the grass.
Jaden shook his head, finally grasping where he was. Gone were the feelings of foreign movements. Only the light of day was presently in his mind, and the vision of his grandfather standing next to him—the old yet somehow youthful appearance of the man who had helped him so much in life. His shoulder-length white hair and short beard matched his robe, except that the robe was lined with purple that glittered in the sun. All of these things had become a welcomed sight to Jaden. No matter what had happened throughout the day, it would put him in a state of calm, the mere notion of Vennoss being near able to remind him of the greater purposes in life.