by Travis Pond
“It’s so dark out here, they could be right under our noses and we wouldn’t see them,” the first guard responded.
“Come on. Let’s go look over here,” said the second guard. More dirt fell onto Seth as the first guard moved off the edge of the hill.
The three of them sat there very still and waited. After several minutes of not hearing any more voices, they decided to make their way out from behind the tree. With his hand in his pocket, Tureis placed a finger to his lips and started walking around the hill. As they moved, voices could be heard in the distance moving away from them. The three of them continued single file through the forest, occasionally weaving between trees or around boulders. The sphere guided them through the maze of guards searching the forest.
Finally, Tureis stopped and rested against a large boulder. With his hand still in his pocket he said, “We are clear now. That’s the worst of it.”
“What was that? Why were there so many guards all of a sudden?” asked Seth.
“That was the fork in the road. You know, where the road splits toward Freb and Kurith,” said Tureis.
“It seems that we should be past it. The number of guards has gone down,” said Ailish.
“I think you’re right,” agreed Tureis. “Passing that area also means we should be about half way to Freb.”
“Let’s keep going. I really want to be done with this forest,” said Seth.
“I agree,” said Ailish.
After several more hours of walking through the forest they came to the edge of a clearing. It was the very early hours of the morning and daylight would be here soon. Tureis walked up behind a large tree near the edge of the clearing and looked for any movement. As he scanned the area he realized they were standing on the edge of a farm.
This farm was in a severe state of disrepair. The fences were broken and had fallen in places. Weeds were heavily overgrown around the edges of the planting fields. The ground was hard, heavily packed and likely had not been tilled in several years.
Sitting in the middle of the two large fields was a very old rundown barn. The roof had several holes and there were missing pieces of siding. The wood was old and rotten in several places, but the double doors were in place and latched closed.
Across the fields from the barn stood an old house. The structure seemed intact but very dilapidated. The long cover over the back porch had fallen down in two places and the back door leading to the house was cracked open and sagging.
It had the appearance that this house and farm were abandoned...except for one thing. “Is that a garden up near the back of the house?” asked Ailish.
“It looks like it,” said Seth.
Ailish was confused, “Why would there be a garden growing near a house that appears to be abandoned?”
“Why wouldn’t you just grow your crops in the fields? Why aren’t the fields even being used?” asked Seth.
“I don’t know, but right now we need to find a place to wait out the day and rest,” said Tureis.
The sun was beginning to rise and the shadows were disappearing. They had nowhere to go, but they wanted to be out of the forest today. It had been a long night of wandering.
“Do you think the house is abandoned?” asked Seth.
“I doubt it,” answered Ailish. “Look at that garden. That says someone is here or at least comes here often.
“I agree,” said Tureis. “What about that old barn? It definitely looks like it’s not in use. The area around it appears abandoned as well.”
“It’s appears to be our only option. Let’s check it out,” said Ailish.
Quickly, in the early morning light, they moved toward the barn. The doors were latched, but there was no lock. They easily opened one of the doors and went inside. Walking inside the barn was like entering a frozen moment in time. It was as if one day people placed their things in the barn after a long days work, closed the doors and never came back.
In the middle of the floor sat an old horse drawn plow. The leather straps were folded neatly and laying on top. The hard packed dirt from the days work still stuck to the blade. Up against the back corner was a small pile of straw; the pitchfork standing next to it leaning against the wall. On the opposite side of the barn were two empty stalls, that likely held the horses used to pull the plow. Various farm tools, shovels, pitchforks and rakes were stacked neatly up against the wall near the doors.
They removed the blankets from their bags and made beds in the straw. It had been a long night and they were very tired. Sleep came quickly.
Chapter 11
- Restitution -
Tureis opened his eyes to the distant sound of scraping. He lay under a blanket in the soft straw for a moment listening to the rhythmic scraping noise before he sat up and stretched. Seth and Ailish were already awake and watching something through a hole in the siding. Tureis made his way over to where they were looking through the wall and asked, “What’s that noise?”
Neither of them spoke as Ailish pointed to the hole in the wall. Tureis positioned himself so he could see through another hole in the siding and discovered the origin of the noise.
Across the field a woman was working a hoe along one of the rows in the garden at the back of the house. She would work the hoe scraping at the hard dirt then bend over and pull out some weeds. The weeds were piled at the end of the row.
Very slowly, she moved along the row scraping, bending and throwing weeds into a pile. When the woman stood it was obvious she was very old, likely a widow. At one time this farm was possibly her livelihood, and had been for many years. Tureis guessed that her husband probably died some time ago and she never farmed again.
Tureis leaned back against the wall and looked out into the barn. It was late in the afternoon and he was hungry. He rummaged through his bag and found some bread and an apple hiding in the bottom. Seth and Ailish removed the food from their bags as well and added it to the pile. They divided what they had and ate what little food was there.
A short time later the woman finished her work in the garden and went back into the house. Together they sat on the straw quietly talking.
“We need to get some food,” said Seth.
“Yeah. I have nothing left in my bag,” said Ailish.
“I am empty as well,” said Tureis. “We also need to get into town and take care of paying for that book so we can get on our way to Kurith.”
“How are we going to do all of that?” asked Ailish.
Tureis thought about this for a minute. He really wanted to take care of the book when the shop owner was still in the store. “How about we leave well before dark, so the shops will still be open at the end of day?” asked Tureis.
“Sure,” said Seth. “My guess is we can leave in about an hour. That should give us enough time to do both before everyone is gone,” said Seth.
They fell silent and lay back, waiting for the sun to get lower in the sky. Tureis opened his bag and pulled out the book he had accidentally stolen from the shop in Freb and began reading.
Ailish slid over to look over his shoulder. “Anything interesting?” she asked.
“It’s all very interesting,” said Tureis. “I was looking through here again to see if I could find anything about my sphere. I really want to know more about it.”
Tureis continued turning the pages with Ailish reading along. He finally closed the book, unable to find anything about the sphere and placed the book back in his bag. “I think it’s about time to get going. What do you think?” he asked.
Seth sat up and looked out through a hole in the wall. “Yeah. It’s starting to get late,” he said. “Good time to get going. The store is on the other side of town if you remember.”
“How can I forget?” Tureis said more to himself than to everyone else. They gathered up thei
r few supplies, cloaks and bags and prepared to leave.
As they exited the barn Tureis placed his hand in his pocket and paused for a moment. Without any warning, he turned and began walking directly towards the house. “Where are you going?” Seth asked in a hushed voice. Tureis didn’t respond, he just walked straight through the fields toward the house. Ailish and Seth stared in disbelief.
Tureis walked across the fields and for a brief moment stopped and looked at the garden. Then he walked up onto the back porch and bent over a chair. After a moment he stood back up and walked straight back to the barn.
“What were you doing?” asked Ailish
“I felt we should do right by that old woman,” said Tureis.
“What do you mean--do right?” asked Ailish.
“After watching her work so hard today in such a small garden, I had a thought. We were sleeping in her barn. I understand it was without her knowledge, but we were still using her barn to hide out for the day.” said Tureis.
As he looked at Seth and Ailish, Tureis could tell they were not understanding where he was going with this conversation. Tureis continued, “I felt it would be the right thing to do to show her our appreciation for her hospitality. I left a gold coin on the chair by her door.”
Ailish and Seth fell silent as they walked toward town. Looking at them, Tureis could tell it hadn’t occurred to either of them to do something like that. He didn’t know where that feeling had come from either. It wasn’t normally like him to spontaneously help someone, but it felt good and he smiled at the thought.
When they arrived in the center of town there were still a lot of people out and around. At first they tried hiding from everyone, but later they found it was easier to just blend in; basically hiding in plain sight.
“I think we should split up,” said Tureis.
“What do you suggest?” asked Ailish.
“ I was thinking you could go for food and supplies while Seth and I take care of the book and the shop owner,” Tureis explained. Seth nodded his agreement.
“Ok. Where do you want to meet?” asked Ailish.
“How about right here? It’s enough out of the way that after all the shops close it won’t be very crowded,” said Tureis.
Ailish agreed and they separated. She went directly toward the shops in town to purchase food and supplies, while Tureis and Seth went to take care of their unfinished business with the shop owner. As they approached the shop, Seth turned to Tureis and asked, “How are you planning to do this. Just walk up and say, ‘Sorry I stole this from you. Here’s the money,’ turn and leave?”
Tureis chuckled at the idea, “No, I had another thought.”
They ducked into a side alley across from the shop and sat down on some crates. Tureis opened his bag and pulled out the carved wooden frog. Attached to the leg of the frog was a small bag. “We’re going to place this somewhere he will find it,” said Tureis.
“What’s in the bag?” asked Seth.
“Some money--enough to cover the cost of the book, and a note,” explained Tureis.
“A note?” asked Seth with some hesitation.
“A note explaining what happened and how sorry we are,” said Tureis. “That kind of stuff.”
Seth just looked at Tureis. “You’ve really thought about this haven’t you?”
“I have. It’s bothered me since that day,” said Tureis, his voice somber. “I know no one will ever know what we did, but I will know. That will always weigh on me. My father told me that personal honor is worth more than anything. I need to be able to look at myself and know I’ve been honest with everyone I’ve met. I don’t want a book to prevent me from that.”
As they approached the shop, they noticed the owner tidying up for the evening, preparing to close for the night. As he moved around the shop he kept going in and out of a back room, bringing out things and placing them on shelves. Sitting on a table near the door, he had stacked several packages. As he swept and tidied up for the evening, he would occasionally add to the pile. He continued sweeping with his back turned to the door.
As quietly as a cat hunting his evening meal, Tureis crept over to the door and placed the frog statue with the bag attached to its leg on top of a package sitting on the table. Then, just as quietly, he slipped away back into the shadows of the alley with Seth.
They watched from a distance for a minute when they saw the shop owner go over to the table. Noticing the statue sitting there, he laid his broom against the table. He picked up the statue, removed the bag and set the statue back down. Finally, he opened the bag and removed the coins followed by the note.
After reading the note he placed it back in the bag with the coins and placed the bag in his pocket. He then walked out the door and looked around. After a minute the shop owner raised his hands and waved, then placed his hands together and bowed. He then turned and went back to his work.
“Ok,” Tureis said with a smile. “Let’s go.” Slowly, Seth and Tureis backed away and walked back down the alley.
After walking to the other end of the alley, Seth asked, “What was that whole wave and bow thing he did?”
“He accepted our money and our apology,” answered Tureis.
Seth didn’t respond as they walked back to the meeting place. Without thinking about it, a smile crossed his face for a brief minute. What they did was a good thing to do, whether anyone would ever know or not, it was still a good thing to do. Seth was convinced of that.
Tureis and Seth arrived at the meeting place just moments before Ailish came walking back to meet them. She had her bag over her shoulder and her arms were full. “I put as much as I could into my bag and this is the rest,” she said as she set down the things in her arms. “I didn’t get too much. I figured we could get more supplies in Kurith. We shouldn’t be recognized there since we’ve never been there, so we can be out during the day and get what we need. This should get us there.”
They quickly divided up the food and stowed it in their bags. “Apparently, there are guards still searching at this end of the road leading back toward the road to Kurith,” said Ailish.
“How are we going to get around that?” asked Seth.
“I was talking to the guy that sold us the food,” answered Ailish. “He said there’s another road leading from somewhere on the other side of town that goes straight to Kurith. It’s a small, rarely used road. Mainly people walking or on horseback or pulling very small carts will use this road, but not large wagons.”
“Did he say where it was?” asked Tureis.
Ailish nodded and smiled. “He said it was near a run down farm where an old widow lives. About a quarter mile before the farm the road takes off to the north. There’s a small wooden sign in the ground that says Kurith and has an arrow pointing to the road.”
Tureis thought about that and asked, “Did he say anything about guards on that road?”
Ailish thought for a minute and shook her head, “No he didn’t, but he seemed to think it should be easier than going through the guards on the main road. It’s also shorter since it leads straight to Kurith.”
“We probably walked past it today while coming into town. We didn’t see any guards...but we didn’t see any road either,” Seth observed.
“Well let’s see if it exists and get going,” said Tureis.
They started back toward the farm out of town. As they were walking they were grateful for the food, since they hadn’t had anything of real substance in almost two days.
They continued up the road back toward the old farm. Off in the distance they could see the farm house and further in the distance, the old barn. Judging to be about a quarter mile from the farm, they stopped and looked around for any evidence of the road or the sign pointing to the road. Splitting up, they left the road and walked through t
he tall grass bordering the forest.
After several minutes Ailish shouted, “Over here! I think this is it!” Tureis and Seth joined her staring at two parallel tracks in the ground leading into the forest. The tracks were wide enough for a horse drawn cart and the dirt was hard packed.
“Hey look at this,” said Seth. He had walked toward the main road and was holding up an old wooden sign that said “Kurith” and had an arrow pointing to the road. “I guess this is it,” he said and put the sign down.
“Let’s see where it goes,” said Ailish as she walked into the forest. “The man said it went through the forest so this must be it.”
They walked into the opening between the trees leading into the forest. As they entered the forest, the grass became shorter and the way became clear. The road was hard packed and only wide enough for a small cart being pulled by one horse. Two horses wide on this road would be very crowded.
As they traveled along the road the trees became increasingly dense along the edges, but the road was in good condition which made walking easy. They traveled for about an hour when it became dark and hard to see where they were going. They continued to follow the road as best they could, walking slower so as not to trip or hit a tree along the edges.
“Ailish, did you get anything to start fires?” Seth asked.
“I didn’t,” she responded, disappointed with herself for forgetting such a basic thing.
“It’s to getting really dark. I don’t know how we are going to continue without some light,” Seth said.
“I agree with Seth,” said Ailish. “Maybe we should stop for the night and continue in the morning.”
Tureis placed his hand in his pocket and felt the warmth and energy of the sphere. The Matya felt much stronger than he was used to. Puzzled, he removed the sphere from his pocket.
“Whoa!” exclaimed Seth. “What is that?”
“It’s glowing!” Tureis responded, just as surprised as Seth.