Craft

by Lynnie Purcell

  Ellie was amused at the sight. She felt some of her preconceptions of him drop away. Not all Coopers were snobs who ate their meals off silver platters and lived with no lust for life. Some ate like the pigs Cousin kept. It was proof that Thane might have not been as different from her family as she had thought. One eyebrow arched in amusement as she watched him. A smile played on her face. Ellie gestured at him when he looked at her with a frown.

  “I thought the Coopers were supposed to be all fancified,” Ellie said.

  “I thought we were saving the insults for after breakfast,” Thane said. Eggs hung down to his chin, as he replied. He did not seem to care about the mess he was making.

  “The way you’re eating made me forget,” Ellie said.

  Ellie started taking modest bites of her food. She was content to enjoy the taste of her food, unlike Thane who seemed more concerned with filling his belly as quickly as possible. Ellie avoided looking at Thane as he ate, but she was curious about him. She wanted to know his story.

  “So, how’d you get to be at the fight the other night?” she asked him.

  Thane swallowed another mouthful of food and shook his head. He waved his fork at her to reiterate his point. His expression was serious. “Oh, no, we’re not doing the backstory thing…” he said. “You’re a Bumbalow, and I’m a Cooper. That’s all we gotta know.”

  “Why?” Ellie demanded.

  “That’s the way it is,” Thane said. “That’s why.”

  “‘The way it is!’” Ellie mocked. “Everything is always ‘the way it is!’ You’d think people’d come up with a better answer to something they don’t understand! You’d think they’d take the time to figure out why things are the way they are.”

  “You love your family, don’t you?” Thane asked.

  “Yeah, I do,” Ellie said, “though I don’t like them most of the time.”

  “Well, I feel the same way, and two people who love their families, even if they don’t like them, and whose families happen to hate each other, simply should not get to know each other. You catch my drift?” Thane asked.

  Ellie was not convinced by his logic. She thought he might have been afraid of seeing her as a person. It would challenge his worldview. He was not prepared to see her as anything beyond a Bumbalow. Fear had him refusing to talk to her, not logic.

  “Seems like a simple way of complicating things,” Ellie said.

  Thane didn’t seem to know what to say to that. He focused on his food again. His enthusiasm for the food was less at her words. Sensing he did not want to talk anymore, Ellie turned her attention to Caw. She started feeding him bites of her bacon and petting his slick wings. Caw did not speak, but Ellie thought he said more with a look than Thane did. At least Caw was not her sworn enemy; an enemy who kept throwing the feud in her face every chance he got.

  When they were finished with their meal, Ellie made their breakfast table and her fluffy bed disappear with a flick of her wrist. She did a brief craft on herself, to make herself clean and change the color and style of her dress. She crafted a black dress with red around the edges and fabric that swished around her legs as she walked. It was more elegant than the simple dresses she usually wore. She hoped it would look fancy enough for town. She did not want to stick out. She was worried, though. She was afraid her country roots would show, and the people in town would know she did not belong. They would know she had spent her life confined to two miles and would scorn her for it. Worse, they would turn her in to the Coopers. Her worry on her mind, Ellie followed Thane as he left the clearing. Thane did his best to ignore her new dress and her excitement. It was impossible to ignore both.

  Again, Ellie and Thane kept a large gap between them as they started walking. Ellie was content with admiring the scenery and lavishing attention on Caw, but Thane broke the silence between them. Her words had changed his mind. His curiosity went beyond the logic that urged him to keep his mouth shut. He looked down at Ellie’s feet, which were naked to the elements.

  “Why don’t you craft some shoes?” he asked, looking at her bare feet.

  “Because I couldn’t feel the ground under my toes,” Ellie said. “I thought we weren’t asking the personal things?”

  Thane dared to close the gap between them a little. “I was just wondering if your feet ever hurt walking around like that,” he said.

  “No more than the rest of me,” she said.

  “My dad would kill me if he saw me wandering around without shoes,” Thane said.

  “Neveah, my sister, hates it. She’s called me stupid on account of it a whole heap of times…it’s what she picks on me with when she doesn't have anything else to make fun of me for,” Ellie confessed.

  “She sounds like a ray of sunshine,” Thane said.

  “She’s definitely not any part of sunshine,” she said.

  “Is that why you’re running away?” he asked.

  Ellie was surprised at his guess. She had not thought he would assume she was running away. She had not assumed he would think much about her reasons at all. “I’m not running away. I just want to see town,” Ellie said.

  “But you are sneaking off to do it, aren’t you?” he asked.

  “A little,” she said.

  “You are or you aren’t,” he said.

  “My sisters don’t think enough of me to take me, so I’m taking myself, okay?” she said.

  “Don’t you get along with your sisters?” he asked.

  “It’s complicated,” Ellie said with a sigh.

  “I understand,” Thane replied.

  Thane let the issue of Neveah rest without pressing for details as others might have. Ellie was not certain if it was because of his desire to not hear backstory or because he genuinely understood. They went back to being silent. This time, neither felt compelled to break the silence. They kept walking, their pace steady and unyielding. It was more a march than a walk – a march to take town by storm. Both of them were determined to get out of the woods as soon as possible.

  Caw occasionally flew off Ellie’s shoulder, to chase down a bug or stretch his wings, but other than his flights, the woods remained boring and very much unlike the adventures Ellie had long plotted in her head. There was no rescuing of princes in distress, no brave or noble act on her part. There was simply sweat, heat and the feeling of constant motion as she walked. The woods were very different in the light of day, not nearly as frightening as the darkness had lent them to be. She was just a girl on a long walk and not an adventurer headed toward the unknown.

  It was noon when Ellie heard a long-distance shout she knew too well. It drifted on the wind and whispered in Ellie’s ears. Neveah was calling her name. Thane heard the call as well and turned to look for the source, expecting a Bumbalow to be directly behind them. He was tense at the thought. His expression was full of fear. The woods were empty. The emptiness only added to his fear. He could tell he was not the only one who heard the call.

  Ellie’s heart started to beat faster at the call, and her face filled with pale color. Neveah had discovered her absence. She was calling on Ellie to clean something, or fetch something, and was irritated by the fact that Ellie was not answering. Neveah’s irritation would only increase with the unanswered call. It was any wonder it had taken her until noon to call. Neveah had probably slept in late after a long day of crafting wards. Ellie started walking faster. Her purposeful march turned into something between a slow jog and a fast walk. Thane matched her stride easily.

  “What was that?” Thane asked.

  “My sister’s calling me. She’s not as close as you’re thinking,” Ellie said. “Probably still at the house.”

  Thane was impressed at the idea. “You can do that? Call from such a long distance?” Thane asked.

  “Yes. Neveah’s fond of that kind of crafting…it means she doesn’t have to come looking for me,” Ellie said. “It’s 'cause she’s so lazy.”

  “If she’s still at the house, then why are we walking so fast?�
�� Thane asked.

  “The more distance I put between me and her, the better,” Ellie said. “She’s got wicked craft I don’t want to see the sour end of. You don’t want to see the sour end of it, either.”

  “I’ll take your word for it,” Thane said.

  “You should,” Ellie agreed.

  Thane took her threat seriously. He kept turning back to look at the woods behind him as Neveah’s voice called out with increasing frustration and anger. It was apparent from the call that Ellie was right. Neveah was not the sort to cross.

  They walked at a quick pace until Ellie couldn’t hear her sister anymore. It took a while. Even after Neveah’s voice had faded, Ellie was convinced she heard the sound of it in the wind and rustling through the trees. It haunted her every step. It made her task feel all the more rebellious and dangerous. The fear that Neveah would track her down was a lasting one. Her fear took some of the charm out of the adventure. For the first time, her adventure felt deadly.

  It was afternoon when railroad tracks first appeared out of the forest. Neveah’s voice had long since faded. Ellie stopped walking when she saw the weed-choked rails. Large trees bent toward the tracks, creating a tunnel for the trains that moved along the rails. Ellie had never seen something so lonely and so hopeful. She knew the tracks had to lead to town, but that was not what impressed her the most. It was the stories the tracks told without having to say a word. They told stories of their creation by strong people, goods shipped along the backs of the iron horses, and people traveling from one place to the next on a journey home.

  Thane walked ahead for several feet before he realized Ellie was not with him anymore. He turned back to look at her. He was startled by her thoughtful expression, startled because there was also a weight of sadness.

  “What are you doing?” Thane asked.

  Ellie answered him slowly. “You gotta imagine how many trains have moved along on these rails…how many places they’ve seen. Those trains have seen more than I’ll ever see in my whole life, and they just keep rolling on. They don’t care about the history they’ve seen,” Ellie said. Her eyes turned wistful and infinitely sadder. The reason behind her sadness could not be hidden. She had to speak her thoughts. “My momma first left us on a train,” she added. “She talks about them sometimes…when she comes to visit.”

  Thane suddenly had more backstory than Ellie had intended to give away. Her admission of her mother’s abandonment made him awkward.

  “Oh,” Thane said.

  “You ever been on a train?” Ellie asked.

  “No,” Thane admitted. “I always fly.”

  Ellie refocused on Thane. Her eyes were wide. She immediately assumed he meant fly with craft. “You can do that?” Ellie asked.

  “On an airplane,” Thane corrected.

  “Oh…” Ellie said.

  Ellie had never been interested in planes the way she was trains. Airplanes did not hold the same kind of mystery. They did not tell the same stories. They did not have such a strong connection to her past.

  Ellie refocused on the tracks. She shook her head, to clear her mind of the past, and ran to the rails, to see them up close. They were as simple and wonderful as she had imagined. They had a purpose and they served it beautifully. She jumped up on the rusted rail closest to her with happy abandon. She started balancing on the rail, her bare feet placed carefully as she walked. Thane walked in the middle of the tracks, not so apt at balancing acts.

  “When I was little, I used to dream about jumping on a train and not looking back,” Thane admitted after a time.

  Ellie had the same daydream several times in her life. She wondered what could possibly make Thane have the same dream. “Why?” Ellie asked.

  Thane looked down at the ground. His expression was as weighted down as hers had been when contemplating the rails. “It’s complicated,” he said.

  Ellie understood his answer: family. He was not as close to his family as she had imagined. She did not ask him about it. She left him to his pain.

  “Where would you go if you did jump a train?” Ellie asked.

  “That would be the beauty of it,” Thane said. “No plan, no rules…just the open freedom of wherever the train took you. You wouldn’t have to worry about ‘where.’ You could just go.”

  Ellie jumped off the rail and started walking backwards next to Thane. She looked at the tracks in the distance thoughtfully. She saw the beauty in his plan; it was the same plan her momma had followed through on years ago.

  “You could see the whole country that way,” Ellie said. “No one bossing you around or making you do chores without crafting…” she said.

  Ellie smiled at the idea. Thane also seemed enjoy the concept, though he did not smile. He was too serious about the idea to smile. He was too serious about never having to look a plan in the face again. He tucked his hands in his pockets and stared at the tracks, his face wistful.

  Caw landed on Ellie’s shoulder, a grasshopper in his beak; a gift for Ellie. She touched his wing in greeting, though she ignored the grasshopper. Her mind was still lost in the idea of hopping on a train and never looking back. It was something she did not feel brave enough to do, but it was something she wanted almost as much as seeing town. It would provide her with an even grander adventure than the one she was on. There would be nothing to stop her adventures, no feud, no Neveah, no risk of punishment. Nothing.

  Still lost in the excitement of the idea, a sound exploded through the forest. It echoed to her three times, each time a little quieter than the one preceding it. It startled the animals around them into silence. Ellie jumped at the unexpected sound, but did not know what it truly meant. It was just another unfamiliar sound in a world of unfamiliar things. Thane was well aware of the implications of the sound. He knew a gunshot when he heard it.

  He grabbed Ellie’s hand without thinking and pulled her away from the openness of the tracks. His face was instantly full of tension and fear. Ellie trusted the fear she saw on his face. She let him pull her after him without resisting the touch.

  They ran to the edge of the forest and crawled under a huge bush to hide. Another shot rang out with a sharp ‘crack!’. Caw took flight out of fearful instinct. Ellie tried to catch him, fearing he would be the shooter’s next target, but she was not quick enough. She moved to follow him, but Thane forced her to stay hidden in the bush with the hand he had gripping her arm. Thane’s eyes remained focused forward, even as she struggled to free herself from his grip. Caw flew out of sight.

  Aware there was no catching a bird in the sky Ellie focused her attention in the same direction Thane was looking. She tried to understand the source of the noise. Was it dark craft she had never encountered before? Was it a monster? She did not have to wait long for an answer.

  Two men stepped into view. They were both carrying rifles and wearing forest camouflage from head to toe. One of the men had a massive beard touched with grey, while the other had a dark brown goatee groomed to perfection. The goatee did not hide the man’s weak chin and thin lips. Both men had long scraggly hair and narrow, brown eyes. They looked so similar that Ellie did not doubt they were father and son.

  “Did you get 'em?” the older man asked the younger.

  “Yeah, they won’t be trespassing again anytime soon. Not with dirt nap they’s taking,” the younger said with a hearty laugh.

  He hefted his rifle suggestively with his laugh. The older man laughed as well. He lit a cigarette in celebration of stopping the trespassers.

  “That’ll teach those lot to bring their feuding on my property,” the older man said. “Damn witchcraft nonsense. Should burn 'em like they did in the old days.”

  Ellie was startled by his words. She had read stories about people burning people who could do craft, but the stories of craft, and the people who had burned them, had sounded so ridiculous she had taken it for fiction. She had not imagined a world where people would actually burn a person for craft, not unless they were involved in the f
euding somehow. She could not imagine a world where men would hunt crafters down with rifles simply for trespassing.

  Ellie was not left to her fear and disbelief for long. With a squawk of agitated anger and fear, Caw landed between Ellie and Thane. The bird looked harassed and eager for the affection of Ellie. He wanted proof that everything was okay. Thane and Ellie looked at Caw, then at each other. Ellie tried to shush Caw as he called out again but his fear was too great. The angry caw rippled across the space. Thane’s eyes widened at the bird’s call. They both turned in unison to look at the pair of men in front of them.

  The younger man’s eyes had narrowed dangerously. He held his rifle in a firmer grip as he looked in the direction of where Ellie and Thane were hiding. It was obvious he had heard Caw, though it was not as obvious if he knew they were there as well. The older man was also looking in their direction, but he was too busy with his cigarette to pay the sound as much attention. His glance was one of mere curiosity, unlike his son’s, which was determined and suspicious. His son wanted someone else to ‘take a dirt nap.’

  “Did you hear something?” the younger man asked.

  “Just a bird looking for a meal,” the older man said, dismissing the sound.

  “There was something else,” the younger man said, adamant at what he had heard. “Sounded like a person breathing.”

  “You think the Coopers brought more with them than just the pair?” the older man asked.

  “Could be,” the younger man said.

  The younger man took a step closer, pointing his rifle at the air above Ellie and Thane. His eyes swept the trees for movement and color among the brown trunks of the trees.

  The older man, trusting his son, gripped his rifle tighter. He made a hand gesture at the younger man. The younger man nodded in understanding. They separated and started walking toward Ellie and Thane in a long arc. Their fingers were on the triggers of their guns. They were prepared to use their guns. Their eyes scoured the landscape in a familiar, capable way. They would not miss much, especially two teenagers and a raven crouched in the bushes.