The Children of Calm

by Smith, J Michael

  It was not long before he too was sound asleep, dreaming of much happier scenes. The memory of the nightmare that had awoken him would not return for quite some time.

  ***

  The morning dawned clear and brisk. After a short breakfast supplied from their packs, they set off again, ever to the north. Their way was aided by an old map Caenar had loaned them. Apparently there were no towns or villages between Calm and the coast; therefore there were no true roads or paths. Once they had left the northern rim of Calm Valley, they had to rely on place markers that were either etched on the map or told to them by Caenar. So they were constantly on the lookout for certain streams, waterfalls, large boulders, solitary trees, and things of the sort. Thankfully Caenar had been very thorough with his directions. Rylek suspected he was familiar on a personal level with the trip to the sea.

  As they walked along the rolling hillside leading to another pass through the mountains, Rylek found himself thinking back upon the last several days. It had been just over a week since New Year, and ever since that unexpected night with his father and Caenar he felt very shy and ashamed around everybody. It proved difficult for him to look anyone in the eye. He did his best to hide it from the others, but he felt naked to them and was surprised no one mentioned anything. Perhaps he was better at fooling people than he had previously thought.

  He had looked for ways to occupy his remaining time in Calm with busy work to keep his mind from wandering too much. But despite all his efforts, he was unable to shake the memory of the so-called privileged information from overwhelming his thoughts. The world seemed greyer and duller for what he knew - the unnamable luster was tarnished. On one hand The Finding seemed like a great diversion to get him away from Calm in order to sort things through and know how to act upon his new knowledge. But on the other hand, he was not alone and therefore had to spend time feigning interest in what seemed to him trivial things that interested the others. Often the girls would stop to admire a field of wild flowers or butterflies flitting about; likewise Tresten would want Rylek to observe a high-flying hawk or the peculiar shapes of billowy clouds. Rylek wondered how long it would be before these things seemed naturally fulfilling again.

  Dark clouds had moved in by mid-afternoon, bringing a light but steady mist. The four found an outcropping that offered them shelter, and they huddled close to stay dry. Lana and Selenor were so giddy over their journey that nothing seemed to dampen their spirits. They talked and laughed together about the prospects of finding the sea, and what expectations they had of it.

  “I imagine it must be the most romantic place in all the world at night,” Lana said. “So isolated and lonely, with moonlight reflecting off the water - nothing but stars stretching from horizon to horizon - the sound of the waves breaking on the beach - I cannot wait to get there!”

  Tresten scoffed. “Why do girls always have to make things so airy and frilly and…well, so girly? Can’t things be appreciated for the sake of their own merits alone rather than overloading them with whimsical fancy? You need to be like us guys. Rylek and I certainly don’t waste our time dreaming up empty notions…”

  “Don’t get me involved in this,” Rylek interrupted.

  “Lana, you don’t even have a boyfriend,” Tresten continued, “so how in the world do you plan on finding out whether the sea is so romantic or not?”

  “I don’t need one to know whether something is romantic,” she said. “It doesn’t take any kind of intelligence to know when the setting is right.” She then batted her eyelashes at him. “But you know, Tresten, I was thinking that maybe you would like to help me figure it out,” she said in a low husky voice.

  Selenor erupted into a fit of giggles. Rylek cracked a smile and shook his head. Tresten almost rolled his eyes, but then thought better of it and looked at Lana.

  “Well,” he said, “they do call this The Finding. Maybe we should do some of our own finding, just like Caenar said: we can discover each other.” He drew himself closer to her, then put his arms around her.

  Selenor’s jaw dropped as she continued laughing.

  “They do say the rain is awfully romantic,” he continued in a soft deep voice. “We can find out right now. Why don’t we keep each other warm and dry for awhile?”

  Rylek lost his control and began to laugh. Apparently Lana was through with the charade as she pushed Tresten away. Tresten smiled, knowing he had gotten the better of her little joke. Selenor still seemed to be in shock. As he stopped laughing, Rylek fought down the burning desire to have the courage to do the same to Selenor. He knew Lana and Tresten were just playing, but he did not think he could conceal his true feelings for Selenor if he dared to put his arms around her and talk about “being romantic” with her. He sighed and grew quiet.

  Lana misinterpreted the sigh and turned on him. “What are you so satisfied about?” she asked, obviously annoyed she had been beaten at her own game.

  Rylek smiled and faked an answer. “No, I’m…it was just funny. And I think I like the idea of the two of you being together – kind of like really solidifying the bond between our families.”

  “Oh, for Mira’s sake!” Tresten said. “Don’t talk like that; it’s just disturbing.”

  “Disturbing for my sake, buddy, not yours!” Lana said. “You’d be lucky to get me.”

  “Thanks a lot, Lana,” Tresten said. “But I believe I shall pass on the idea of ‘getting’ you.”

  “I’d like to see you do better.”

  “So would I,” he sneered back. “In fact, I would wager we will see that happen when we are in Maeon.”

  “I said better than me, not more desperate than me.”

  “Is that even possible?”

  “Okay,” Rylek interrupted. “This is turning ugly. You both need to stop.”

  “I will stop when I’m asleep,” Tresten murmured.

  “You’ll keep blabbering even when you’re asleep!” Lana said. “Once you get going you never stop.”

  “At least I don’t snore like Rylek.”

  “Wait, what?” Rylek asked.

  “You snore. Constantly. Loudly. Seemingly tirelessly,” Tresten said, shaking his head.

  “What is going on here?” Rylek asked. “How did this become about me?”

  “Who knew what I’ve been missing while I slept!” Selenor said, laughing.

  “I do not snore!” Rylek insisted.

  “How could you possibly know?” Tresten asked.

  “I just do!”

  “Sorry, brother, but I have to side with him on this one,” Lana said. “Sometimes you do make a horrid racket.”

  He quickly glanced at Selenor, who seemed rather amused. Feeling a bit embarrassed, he looked back at the ground. No more words would come to him.

  “Well, if it makes you feel any better,” Selenor said, “I’ve never noticed. But I happen to be a very sound sleeper, so I probably wouldn’t know the difference anyway. Maybe I snore, too.”

  Rylek quickly looked up at her and smiled. “No, you definitely don’t,” he said as his eyes dropped again. “You breathe very softly and so sweetly, and your lips part ever so slightly…” He stopped, realizing he was speaking aloud.

  Selenor tilted her head. “Rylek, do you watch me sleep?” she asked. A faint glimmer was in her eye.

  Lana’s eyes grew large as she held her tongue.

  “Well, I, um…” Rylek stammered, searching for an answer. “I woke up briefly last night and went for a walk. And I happened to observe everyone as they were sleeping. Trust me - you do not snore.” He glanced at Tresten to see if he could perceive any reaction to what he had said, but Tresten was suddenly absorbed in a book he had quickly pulled from his pack.

  It’s just like him to get bored with a conversation at any given moment and turn his attention to a book, Rylek thought to himself. He looked back at Lana, whose eyes were seemingly bulging out of her face. She slowly shook her head at him in disbelief. He shrugged.

  “And tell me, just
what is that?” Lana quickly asked, imitating and exaggerating the shrug. “You and Tresten do that all the time: is there something wrong with your shoulders? Are you attempting to bulk up your shoulder muscles? Is there some secret joke between you two?”

  Tresten did not look up from his book as he and Rylek both shrugged at the same time.

  Lana continued to shrug. “Hey Selenor, look at me: I can move my shoulders up and down!”

  Rylek grimaced at Lana as she made ridiculous faces while shrugging. She gave him a quick wink as he replied with yet another shrug. He knew his sister was doing all she could to change the subject and get him out of a precarious predicament. This was most certainly neither the time nor the place to make Selenor suspicious of how he felt about her. Hopefully Lana had distracted her from dwelling too long on what he had said. However, he was not sure if Tresten had picked up on that part of the conversation or not, and was left wondering what he was thinking. He seemed to have all his energy poured into reading his book that Rylek could see was titled Persevering Past One’s Particular Pestilence. Rylek ventured a guess as to how boring the reading must have been.

  He tapped on the book. “Hey, what’s your particular pestilence?” he asked.

  “Pointless stupid questions,” Tresten said without looking up from his book.

  ***

  As the mist showed no sign of letting up after an hour’s waiting, they decided to journey on anyway. They were very thankful for the hooded tunics Penephoni and Kelni had made for them, for they kept them warm and dry, and the four were eager to press ahead. Caenar wanted them to be back in Calm two weeks after they had left, and as they were told it was a four to five day journey to the sea, they did not care to waste much time.

  The rest of the day proved to be mostly uneventful. The light but steady mist lingered all night, but they happened upon a small and dry cave not long after sunset. There they camped, and Tresten was even able to get a fire going. The crackling flames seemed homey and cheery and helped to encourage them all - for even Selenor was beginning to feel a little less enthusiastic. Lana prepared a meal as best she could with the provisions they had, and not long afterwards they were all fast asleep. Rylek slept on his side to deter himself from snoring.

  Day three began overcast but dry, and as the morning progressed the sky cleared and the sun came out warm and energizing. Tresten was whistling again and the girls were excited from finding a small, light blue, bulbous flower they had never before seen. They each plucked a stem and wove it into their hair, so that its blossom sat above their ears. Not long past noon, after steadily climbing the entire morning, they passed across a gap in a mountainous area and stopped in awe: all of the land was stretched out in front of them as their way would now take them downhill to the coast. There were fewer trees here and more open fields, ever rolling softly. The mountain line stretched to their left and right, drawing their eyes to the horizon in front of them as it curved to meet the sky far ahead. There on the horizon was a dark gray line that they took to be the sea. It looked to still be at least a day away; but they believed they could smell salt in the air, and this invigorated them like nothing else. Rylek felt genuinely excited for the first time since they had left, and they found themselves instinctively running down the mountainside from the gap, so eager were they to get to the sea.

  They were not able to keep that pace for long. Soon they lost sight of the sea, so their level of exhilaration gradually lessened a bit. Long after the sun had finally set, they decided they had better make camp for the night. One large peppernut tree stood alone in a large grassy field, so there they slept beneath its branches. No one bothered with a campfire. The sky was still clear, allowing Nevarra to shine brightly as Pelanna was just rising over the eastern rim, washing the field in soft grays. The large overarching branches of the peppernut tree nearly enclosed its trunk, blocking the moons from shining directly in the campers’ faces. One by one they drifted off to sleep, submitting to their weary bodies’ demands. Rylek snored loudly but no one seemed to notice.

  ***

  The sun rose red and warm, though there were gathering clouds on the western horizon. There was now no denying the tang of salt in the breeze. Overhead they could hear the cries of gulls, which seemed wildly exotic to them. Rylek felt as though the gulls were pleading with them to hurry on to the coast - precious time was slipping away. After a quick meal they picked up their camp and started on the final leg.

  After only about four hours of a very slow, gradual downhill slope of mostly wild grass, they suddenly came upon the edge of a cliff. There, far below, lay a small stony beach. The sea was spread out for them as far as they could see: gray, wild, and vaster than anything they could have imagined. The cries of the gulls seemed to boil their blood, and without a word they desperately looked for a way to climb down the cliff.

  Tresten pulled out Caenar’s map again. “There is nothing on here describing how to get down a cliff,” he said. “We will need to find a way ourselves.”

  “It seems odd to me that neither the map nor Elder Caenar would mention it,” Lana said.

  “Look over there!” Selenor suddenly said. The others followed her pointing finger, and saw to their right a small piece of land jutting out towards the sea. At the end of this peninsula was a tree, leaning out as though ready to dive into the water. They hurried over and saw the peninsula was narrow – only a few yards wide. The wind was blowing strongly from the west, whipping the girls’ hair around their faces. They decided then to pull their hair back.

  “I’m going out there to see what I can find,” Tresten said. “From the tree I should be able to look up and down the coast. Perhaps there’s a path down to the beach.”

  “Please be careful!” Selenor called out to him as he had already started along.

  The peninsula climbed uphill rather severely, and was mostly rocky terrain. Tresten’s agility allowed him to make it quickly to the short peak. He turned around and called down to the others, “Easy,” then disappeared from their view.

  Only a couple of minutes had gone by when he reappeared. “Very peculiar,” he said, “but there is a rope ladder tied around the trunk of the tree that appears to go all the way down to the beach. It is the only way down I can see from here. Do we want to attempt it?”

  Lana looked at Rylek and Selenor. “I’m game if you are,” she said.

  Selenor smiled. “I didn’t come all the way out here to turn right back around,” she said.

  Rylek gestured towards the slope. “Ladies first,” he said.

  The girls climbed up the slope, slipping only a couple of times. Rylek followed them, scampering up rather easily.

  “Show off,” Lana called down to him.

  “I had an easier time since I watched the three of you do it before me,” he said when he had reached the top. “It was just a matter of remembering where the trickier parts were and avoiding them.”

  “Blah, blah,” Lana said as she walked towards the tree. “Quit being Mr. Humble Pants. Hurry up and let’s go!”

  Tresten was waiting for them underneath the tree. It was larger than Rylek had guessed from afar – actually far more massive than he would have thought possible. The trunk was as wide as the peninsula, its roots delving deep into the rock. The bark was dark brown and very rough, with streaks of pale gray through it. Its branches were bare, save for a few dead leaves clinging on near the top. Apparently it was either too early to bloom or dead.

  Tresten motioned towards the rope. “Behold the ladder,” he said.

  Rylek looked at the rope tied several times around the trunk and knotted at its base. He gave it a tug and found it was tight, both from the tree’s side and the beach’s side. “It must be tied down at the bottom of the cliff, too,” he said. “It looks pretty safe. No signs of wear.”

  “Who put it here?” Lana asked. “If no one lives around here, why would someone bother attaching a ladder down the cliff – especially so recently, as I would guess is the case
if the ladder’s in that good of condition?”

  Tresten shrugged. “No idea,” he said. “But we won’t find out any answers waiting here. Let’s climb down.”

  “You’re right,” Rylek said. “There’s no point in standing here wondering. The only thing to do it seems is to go down the ladder.”

  “Alright,” Lana said, “but everyone please be careful!”

  “We’ll do it like this,” Tresten said. “I don’t trust the rope to hold all four of us at once, so we will need to go individually. I will go first, then Lana and Selenor – it really doesn’t matter who goes first between you two – then Rylek will be last. That way the girls can be somewhat safer between the two men. Okay?”

  “Spoken just like a boy!” Lana said as she rolled her eyes. “I feel so much safer knowing the big strong men will protect us tiny helpless girls. Don’t you, Selenor?”

  Selenor shrugged.

  “Now don’t you start doing that, too,” Lana said.

  “Cut it out, Lana,” Rylek said. “Tresten’s right. That’s the way we should do it.”

  “And I find nothing wrong with the boys wanting to protect us,” Selenor said. “It makes me feel special.”

  “You’re hopeless,” Lana said.

  ***

  The trip down was uneventful but nearly terrifying all the same. It took several minutes for each to climb down, as the ladder would twist a little in the wind that blew hard directly into them and the cliff. But they managed to keep their wits, and as Rylek’s foot touched the beach he ended his counting of the rungs: one hundred and sixty-nine. He looked back up towards the tree leaning out over the cliff. It seemed far away now, and his head spun a little at the height from which he knew he had climbed.