by Kate Seidel
Chapter Four: The Road You Shouldn’t Take
Emrys gazed at the road.
“Coju, you are really missing a splendid sunset. Maybe it would help your looks if you stopped scowling for a moment and enjoyed it,” Emrys commented. Coju didn’t look. “Your loss,” Emrys sighed.
The road was bathed in red light, giving it a carrot like color. The part of the stream that he was allowed to look at was purple-red and glistening. The hills on the road ahead looked like mounds of gold. Coju didn’t look. He was too busy writing words in the small patch of dirt in front of him.
Moon. Emrys. Coju. Questions. Dragon. Death. Fight. Blood.
Emrys glanced at the writing and frowned. Maybe Coju was more worried than he let on. He left a few minutes later to go find food. Coju didn’t notice. He was too busy trying to arrange his facial features into something that wasn’t half grimace and half grin. Was Emrys his friend, or his enemy? Coju still hated Emrys, but he didn’t think Emrys loathed him.
You sure about that, Coju?
!@#!@#!@#!@#!@#!@#!@#!@#!@#
Moon, who had washed both herself and her dress and donned it, looked up from helping an ant across the stream. “Coju, why are you twitching fastly?” Coju was thrashing on the ground, beating at his head as if there was an unwelcome intruder inside. “Are you feeling ill to the mind?” Moon asked him. Coju just kept thrashing. “Emrys!” Moon shrieked. “Emrys! Coju is twitching! I know not what to be doing! Help!” This worked remarkably fast. Emrys was running faster than it seemed possible up the road, heading towards Coju and Moon. By the time he got there, Moon was bawling like a child.
Emrys looked at her worriedly. “Why are you crying?” he inquired.
Moon sniffled, “I know not what to do.” Emrys patted her on the shoulder.
“Hey, this is all new for you. You don’t have to know yet,” Emrys assured. Moon just kept sniffling and swiping at erratically falling tears. Emrys sighed. “Moon, hold down his legs so he doesn’t keep twitching.” Moon did so, her clean dress and hair trailing in the dirt. Emrys held Coju’s arms down and stared him right in the eye, indigo versus blue. Since Emrys was a trained witch and Coju was not in a great state of mind, indigo won, and Coju stopped thrashing. Instead, he curled up into a ball and rocked back and forth. Emrys groaned and backed away. Moon followed suit.
She sniffled and whimpered, “Be okay?”
“He’s not in a good state of mind. He needs a healer or something. I can’t do anything for it,” Emrys pronounced. Then he looked at Moon with a new interest. “He needs…a healer! You’re a healer, right?” Moon started to cry again. Emrys sighed exasperatedly. “Come on; don’t tell me you can’t heal.”
Moon looked up at him. “No, I be an injury fixer. I heal. But I know not what ails the mind,” Moon explained. Emrys looked annoyed. Then, when he saw Moon’s scared, sad expression, his face softened.
“Sorry I’m being a jerk; I’m just nervous. I dislike when the supposed leader gets sick on the job. It happens a lot back in Witchmount,” Emrys admitted.
Moon looked slightly less uneasy. She absentmindedly started braiding a strand of her hair. “Oh. That tells all. But there is the informative thing that I cannot fix his head,” she restated.
To emphasize her point, Coju started thrashing again.
“It’s my fault!” Emrys burst out. Moon looked surprised.
“How is that able to be?” she asked him.
Emrys flushed. “He was thinking about how much he hated me before, and he wasn’t sure if we were suddenly friends. I was listening-don’t ask-and I said something, and he started twitching. That’s when you called.”
Moon looked at him, then away, then at Coju, and finally back to Emrys, who looked nervous and anxious for her judgment to pass.
“You did not cause him to twitch, Coju’s mind caused him to twitch. Let us find help on this Golden Path!” Moon answered amiably. Then she started screaming. “HELP! HURT PERSON! HELP US!”
Before she could say any more, three circular things on stubby legs sped towards them, over the hills. They were right in front of the sun, so they appeared the precise shade of dirt. Emrys and Moon squinted into the distance, but before long the spheres with legs turned out to be plump, childlike dwarves. Their faces appeared smoother than baby’s skin. Their eyes twinkled with mirth and bluer than the sky. They were clean and trustworthy looking.
“Can you help us? Our friend is a little disturbed and we don’t know what to do,” Emrys boldly asked. Moon nodded. Coju did not contribute anything good or bad to the statement, just had spasms on the ground. The little dwarves nodded. One bent down and started shoving things into Coju’s mouth. Coju didn’t like this, and tried to spit the objects out. The agitated looking dwarf stuck a tiny sliver of a needle into his forehead. Moon cried out, but Emrys just looked on with a grim expression. Moon turned to him.
“Emrys! Make them stop!” she cried. Emrys put his arm around her shoulders. This was a bold move, but she did not push him off. Emrys considered this a victory.
“Um…dwarves?” he started. But the two standing dwarves glared at him.
“We are not dwarves. We are known as Ozians. Dwarves are fat, dirty, drunken fools,” one said in a voice suited for a T-Rex. Emrys thought it was a little odd, a plump fellow like the Ozians calling dwarves, who were more muscle than fat, fat. But he continued to talk.
“I apologize. But can you so kindly remove that needle from the young man’s head? It’s making the lady here squeamish,” Emrys attempted.
To contradict him, as he said the word squeamish, Moon giggled. Emrys shot her a glare, which she didn’t see. But she caught sight of ruby beads oozing out of Coju’s head and her face turned green. Emrys looked at the Ozians pleadingly.
“I implore you, please remove the needle,” Emrys pleaded. It was starting to make him squeamish now as well. The Ozian working with the needle promptly yanked it out of Coju’s head. Moon shrieked and fainted. Emrys caught her, luckily, and Coju sat up, breathing heavily.
“Whaaa? What’d I miss? Emrys, you…you were in my head. Don’t ever do that again. Moon…what happened to her?” Coju babbled.
“These Ozians, not dwarves,” Emrys emphasized, “stuck a needle into your head and she didn’t like it. She asked me to make them pull it out, so I asked. They pulled it out, she fainted, and you woke up.”
Coju looked a bit queasy himself, but just then Moon came to, jolting up as if she’d had a nightmare and stumbling out of Emrys’ grasp. “Is Coju alive?” she asked breathlessly. Emrys pointed to Coju, who waved at her cheerily.
“Hi, Moon.”
Moon’s eyes rolled back into her head and she landed on one of the Ozians, who yelled and pushed her unceremoniously onto the Road.
“Here are some blankets, it gets chilly out here at night. Do not leave the Road. The Road is sacred,” the partially squashed Ozian said. His companions tossed some bundles at Coju and Emrys and they scurried away. Emrys looked down at the two soft cinnamon colored blankets.
“Sleeping is good,” Emrys commented. Coju nodded in agreement. Coju and Emrys then spread out the blankets and settled down on the side of the Road for sleep. While Coju dropped right off, Emrys found slumber more difficult to come by. He figured out why after about five minutes.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch…
Emrys peeked over at Coju. He slept silently, drooling a little on the blanket. Emrys shrugged and settled back into his soft blanket. He jammed his eyes closed, trying to relax.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch…
Emrys sighed in exasperation and looked around for the source of the noise.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch…
Emrys glanced at Moon. She was curled up in the fetal position, hugging herself as another shiver racked her body.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch…
Emrys felt bad for her. While he and Coju had pants and a shirt to
ensure cover against some weather, she only had a dress. Dresses aren’t good against weather. After a few moments, he sighed in exasperation and stood. Grabbing his warm, soft, blanket, he strode the five footsteps over to the freezing girl and draped the blanket over her small frame. The chattering ceased as Moon snuggled into the blanket. Emrys relaxed back into the grass and found sleep at last.