The Dawn of Skye (The Someday Children Book 1)

by E. B. Heimdal

  “I’m Skye.”

  They bend their heads one after another as they say their own names in turn. Skye can’t hear all of their names but it doesn’t matter. Right now, she’s just happy and relieved that meeting them is over. And that she’s gotten through it without dying of fear. The talk around the fire soon picks up again, and it seems as if she’s always been here, always been sitting around the fire with them. She feels at home. She sits quietly and looks at them as they chatter vividly with each other. They all seem happy and cheerful.

  Her gaze stops at the scarred boy. He doesn’t speak with the others but is looking at her. The flames from the fire throw dancing shadows across his face, and her eyes are once again drawn to his scar. She can’t take her eyes off it. It frames his eye in a strange and sad way and makes him look tough but sad at the same time.

  Suddenly he turns his face away from her, hiding his scar, and she’s embarrassed that she’s been staring at him. A short while later he gets up. He walks behind her, past her back, and she senses that he pauses as he passes her. She feels an almost nonexistent touch on her neck and she’s not sure whether it’s the wind or his hand that touches her. She carefully turns her head to look at him, but he’s gone. And the wind is still again.

  CHAPTER 24

  Skye wakes up before everyone else. She’s still full of all the impressions from yesterday, and even though she observed more than she talked she already feels like they know her. Not like Ecco knew her, but she feels they understand her, understand her grief, understand that she’s not ready to tell them her story yet.

  She looks around the room at the sleeping faces and feels a comfortable safety. They’re all fast asleep. It’s warm in the hut and most of them have climbed on top of their blankets, except the two girls. They’re lying next to each other holding each other under a blanket full of holes. One of them is small and frail, while the other one looks more robust and strong. Her body is more developed and she almost looks like a woman.

  Her gaze wanders on and stops at Dagwood’s bed. He lies closest to the doorway, as if he’s a human watchdog guarding his young. His long blonde curls frame his square face and make him look gentle and dreamy. Skye sees a lot of dark shadows on his upper body and arms that enhance and mark his muscles, but they don’t quite fit his boyish and gentle face. It looks like he’s caught between a boy’s and a grown man’s body.

  She looks curiously into the room, but she can’t see Salomon anywhere, and she feels an increasing unrest. Where is he? Suddenly she hears a low mumbling and her attention is drawn towards the sound. It comes from Puk, who’s lying by the small fireplace together with the dogs and their puppies. They lie curled up in a large bundle, and Skye smiles at the memory of herself sleeping with the watchdogs back then in the village. One of the puppies tries to bite Puk’s shirt sleeve, and he wakes up slowly and tries to pull his arm back but without luck. The puppy thinks Puk wants to play and continues to bite vigorously on the sleeve while it shakes its head back and forth. He laughs tiredly and at the same time spots Skye, who’s looking at them.

  Quietly he crawls out of the bundle of tail and legs and signals that she should follow him, and they both sneak outside. Skye’s muscles are still weak. She almost trips over the other sleeping clan members several times and Puk has to cover his mouth not to laugh out loud. Normally she would’ve gotten nervous or annoyed at herself over her lack of balance, but Puk’s giggling makes her laugh about it too. They’re a good distance from the hut before Puk says anything.

  “I thought you might help me make breakfast now that you’re awake anyway. It’s not that hard. We need to collect some berries and mushrooms. Then we’ll make a porridge together with some water and some of the dried roots from the supply box.”

  Skye’s happy that he’s asked her, and she’s more than willing to help.

  “Tell me what you want me to do,” she asks with a smile.

  “Can you walk to the forest? I mean, are you strong enough to walk all the way over there and back here?”

  Puk is nervous that he’s hurt her feelings by pointing out her lack of strength but sees immediately from the expression on Skye’s face that she’s not offended.

  “I think I can do it if we take it slow.”

  Puk smiles at her as he runs towards a small enclosure. He opens the gate and a happy and ecstatic roundsnout comes running out and jumps up and down out of joy.

  “This is my friend Twice. He follows me everywhere, and he’s also really good at finding edible roots.”

  They continue at a slow pace and Twice runs back and forth between them as he sniffs every little flower or plant they pass.

  “I found him in an animal trap a bit away from the camp. He was the only survivor. The Outcasts had killed his mother and the other roundsnouts.”

  “The Outcasts? Are they your enemies?” Skye asks, and looks nervously at Puk.

  “Yes, I guess you can call them that. Or maybe more a kind of rivals. The Outcasts used to belong to another clan that lives some distance from here. We call them The Others. Now some of them have wandered far away, so I guess we’ll never see them again. But The Others still live in the area, and they’re pretty aggressive if you get too close to their camp or their hunting grounds. Dagwood and Salomon have fought with them a couple of times, and once we lost a boy from the clan after a meeting with them …”

  Skye looks at him with big eyes and insists he goes on.

  “Miner was a strong boy who came from one of the large mining villages. He often went hunting with Sal and Dag, and he was really good at carrying and building. He helped to build most parts of the hut. He could carry stone all day long.”

  Puk smiles as he remembers Miner, and he continues: “One day they got a bit too far away from our normal hunting grounds and a little too close to theirs. At least that was what they said when they met a small group of them. Dagwood had just received his markings at that time, and when The Others saw them they got scared of his strength and fetched reinforcements from their camp. Suddenly the numbers weren’t even but many against few. It was an unfair fight, and Dag, Sal and Miner took a lot of punches even though they fought bravely. Unfortunately, one of The Others hit Miner’s chest in a really bad way and something inside him was damaged. When the fight was over and they returned to the camp, Miner’s condition was so bad that he could hardly breathe … and shortly after … we lost him.”

  Skye can tell from Puk’s voice that he’s moved by the memories, and an unrest is growing in her.

  Without concern for Puk’s emotions, she eagerly continues with her questions: “What do you do to protect yourselves against them? Have you made weapons, or trained, or prepared yourselves for battle? They could attack at any moment!”

  Puk stops and looks surprised at her. He sees fear in her eyes.

  “Why would they attack us without a reason? We’ve an unwritten rule not to attack each other’s camps. Of course, we can’t be sure that it doesn’t happen. But in all the time we’ve been living by the river they’ve never attacked us. Our meetings with them have always happened out in the forest or if we’ve strayed too close to their camp. Don’t be nervous. The worst things are already in the past. Not in our future.”

  He starts walking again, and Skye follows him hesitantly.

  “It’s a good clan we’ve got here. We look after each other.”

  Puk doesn’t mention the episode with the stolen honey. He doesn’t want to worry Skye any more than she already is.

  “I met Dagwood, Carrick and Hackett shortly after I fled from my village. Dagwood comes from what was a foresting area and met the two others on his flight from the stench and rot. It’s good we’ve found each other because I don’t think any of us would have survived much longer alone. Well, maybe Dagwood. He was already bigger and stronger than us even then. We had to travel far away from the villages before we could
find green trees, food and fresh water. For a long time we walked through dry wasteland and bare mountains. All the water had drained away, and all trees were cut down. There were no animals or life. Finally we found this place, but we almost gave up on the way. At some stage we even thought about returning to the villages to find food and fresh water, but we also knew what it’d be like there. And we’d rather go hungry and thirsty than go back to what we were trying to escape. Fortunately, we kept going and we came out on The Other Side. Soon after, Fella, Knox and the two girls, Flo and Evi, showed up. They were all small and weak and wouldn’t have had many days of future left in them if they hadn’t found their way to our camp. Later Miner came, and the last one to join us was Salomon. He came alone with the two working dogs who now live with us.”

  Skye listens interested as Puk tells their story. They’ve almost reached the edge of the forest, and she asks curiously: “Isn’t Hackett a Slaveborn?” and Puk nods to show she’s right.

  “But how did he get his name, then? They don’t have any other name than ‘slave’ until they grow up and are married. Unless they’re sentenced to eternal work and are called ‘slave’ forever.”

  Puk starts smiling, and then answers: “Well, it wasn’t very hard finding a name for him. His nose has this funny little bend because someone had taken a hack at him. So his nose made it easy for us, and he was just happy to have a name.”

  “I’ve never known a Slaveborn before,” Skye says as she slowly walks on.

  “Their living quarters were down by the burial ground, a bit away from the main village, and it was forbidden for us Freeborns to go over there. I only saw them when they worked on the dams, the mines or the fields. And, of course, at the large sacrifices or at market days, when they arranged boxing fights and that sort of thing. I never really understood what they said. They spoke funny. Like Hackett.”

  She clears her throat. It’s the first time she’s spoken so much in a long time and her voice sounds rusty and hoarse. But she likes speaking to Puk. He makes it easy for her to feel safe.

  Puk answers her comments: “No one thinks of him as a Slaveborn anymore. He’s here for the same reasons as the rest of us. Alone, no family or parents. He lost two young sisters on his way. They died of diseases that came from the rot. Not many made it through the first time after the outbreak …”

  Puk’s voice is serious, and his words make her think of the many small dead and lifeless bodies she and Ecco had seen on their journey away from the village. All the little souls that couldn’t make it alone without a mother or a father, who didn’t have older siblings who could save them and take them away from the stench and the rotten bodies.

  They’ve reached the forest and Puk changes the subject, to Skye’s great relief.

  “We finally made it here. You did well.”

  Twice runs into the forest and Puk starts following him but stops for a moment.

  “I’ll go that way to see if Twice has picked up the scent of something exciting.”

  He points in the direction of the roundsnout, who’s already out of sight.

  “Normally there are both sweet and sour berries in this area, and maybe you can also find a few fruit trees with ripe fruits ready to eat. You can collect them in this.”

  Puk throws a small cloth to her and turns around and runs after Twice. A moment later he’s gone.

  She looks around and spots a bush with red berries on a small mound and starts walking towards it. The mound isn’t very steep or tall but she still feels that her breathing is heavy and troubled. She stops several times on the way up in order to gather her strength. The blood in her head is pounding violently against her temples and she feels nauseous. She staggers towards a small tree on the mound and sits down by the foot of it.

  It worries her that she’s so weak, and she thinks it might be her turn now. Her turn to cough and try to scratch out her heart from the chest with her fingers. Maybe she’s infected like Ecco, her mother ,and all the other grown-ups in the village. Why shouldn’t it be her turn? She was just like Ecco. At first they thought they were spared because they were children, but that couldn’t be right because Ecco had fallen ill. He was still a child. Or was he?

  She suddenly remembers that night he’d hit her because she’d let the small long-ear go. What was it he’d said to her afterwards? That he’d grown up. Skye closes her eyes and tries to force those thoughts out of her head. That wasn’t the way he was. It was only when she was acting foolishly and childishly, or when he was trying to protect her from their enemies that his behavior or mind changed. He was almost always happy and fun, wasn’t he? Yes, he was happy!

  She hears a branch snapping a short distance away and is suddenly disturbed in her thoughts. Has Puk returned already? She looks around her, but she can’t see him or Twice. Her heart skips a beat and she tries to make herself small and invisible. It’s Salomon! What’s he doing in the forest this early?

  She looks again and sees him walking straight to a large fallen tree that’s hollow and rotten. He bends down and crawls halfway into the tree. Skye can’t see what he’s doing but she’s afraid to leave her hiding place out of fear of being spotted. A moment later Salomon comes out of the hole again and starts walking back towards the camp.

  Skye doesn’t come out of her hiding place until she’s certain that Salomon can’t see or hear her. She hurries down the mound and sneaks over to the hollow tree. Her head’s pounding and she almost trips several times, but she goes on without stopping. It’s dark inside the hollow tree and Skye can’t see anything but moss and cobwebs. She gets down on her knees and starts crawling forwards in the dark while she feels her way with her hands. Soon her hand hits a large flat stone and she slowly picks it up. Underneath is a linen sack. She takes it and crawls back into the light.

  Carefully she unties the knot and looks startled at its content. It’s a semi-dried bird, a long-ear and a jar filled with a yellow sticky mass. She smells the long- ear; it’s fresh. She feels like putting her finger into the jar to taste the sticky content. Why’s food hidden out here in the forest?

  She suddenly gets an idea: Maybe the scarred boy is collecting food because he wants to run off? She can’t think of any other options and something tells her the bundle of food is someone’s secret. Salomon’s secret. Why else would he hide food in a hollow tree in the forest and check on it early in the morning when everyone else is asleep?

  The birds start singing and she can hear Puk and Twice getting closer. She quickly crawls back into the tree and puts the food back again. Suddenly she remembers that she hasn’t collected any food and is trying to figure out an excuse.

  “Look what we’ve found,” Puk shouts at her and lifts a filled cloth in the air.

  “Lots of mushrooms and berries!”

  He looks down at her empty hands and says laughingly at her: “I see that you’ve filled your bag too.”

  Skye smiles back embarrassed and doesn’t know what to say to him.

  Puk continues: “Come on, let’s walk back to the camp. We’ve enough food here for everybody.”

  The sun’s almost risen while they’ve been in the forest and they can see activity in the camp. The others must be up now. Puk does various tricks with Twice on the way back, to the great enjoyment of both Puk and the little roundsnout.

  Skye clears her throat a little and asks: “Is the boy with the scar, Salomon, happy about living in the camp?”

  Puk turns his head quickly and looks at her.

  “Why do you ask?”

  He looks serious and goes on: “Salomon is the bravest boy in the clan and he protects us against dangerous animals. Yes, even bears, if you know what kind of beast that is. He fought one recently with his life at risk to protect Dagwood.”

  Puk knows that he’s not answering Skye’s question, but he doesn’t want to tell her that Salomon’s already left the camp several times b
efore, because he always comes back again.

  Skye feels happy when she sees Dagwood walking towards them with a smile. She looks around but can’t see Salomon anywhere, and it worries her. Maybe she should tell Dagwood about her discovery in the forest? If Salomon wants to leave the camp without telling the others about it, surely he must have his reasons? She

  can’t think of any good reasons for him to want to leave, but she also knows that if you’re determined to do something, no one can stop you anyway. She knows that from Ecco, and also from herself. No, she’s not going to tell Dagwood or any of the others. If Salomon wants to leave, he is free to do it. He scares her anyway, so maybe it’s for the best if he disappears.

  CHAPTER 25

  Puk shows her how to make a porridge from berries, mushrooms, water and grinded roots, and she’s looking forward to serving it to the others. She wants to show them that she can contribute something other than lying down and being weak. Especially after Dagwood has let her sleep in the best bed since she arrived.

  Salomon arrives just as they finish preparing breakfast. He takes a seat far away from Skye, and she can only see some of him through the flames of the fire. It seems as if he’s lost in his own thoughts. His look is serious, and he stares into the air. Skye turns her head subtly to see what he’s looking at, but there’s nothing to see. A voice pulls her away from her thoughts.

  “Skye? Did you hear what I just said?”

  She turns her head and sees that Knox is looking at her, waiting for a reply. She shakes her head slightly and he repeats his question: “Do you want to come with me to the river later to see if we can catch some swimmers?”

  Knox is a freckled boy with odd bulging eyes and a large, tangled red hair. He resembles a funny little animal more than a boy, and Skye instinctively likes him.

  “I don’t know how … Maybe you can teach me?”