by M J Porter
He wondered if she had other small ones to see to as well, No sooner had he thought it than he saw myriad images of small Others as they grew to full size. He shook the images away in frustration. He needed to guard his thoughts to prevent his infiltration into the minds of Others. He needed his own thoughts and not everyone else’s. Still, he was relieved to find the tiny one well and healthy.
He hoped that being back in the safe refuge of his cave would calm him, but it had the opposite effect. The moment his feet touched the ground of his ledge, he found his thoughts returning to the Other. All day he attempted to distract himself by immersing himself in the deep warm pools of his cave and watching anew the images of his kinds past. Yet, whenever there was a view of the Others, he found himself involuntarily thinking of the Other he felt drawn to. Eventually he jumped from his pool in frustration, and once dry, took to the sky again, even though the night winds were slowly gaining in intensity.
The flight back to the glacier was unpleasant and difficult, draining the last of his strength. He needed to feed. However, when he felt the presence of the Other come into his mind, he relaxed for the first time all day, and he made his decision. He would follow it, and he would try to keep it safe, in the hope that the mystery of his attachment would, sooner or later, make itself known.
Aware that he was exhausted from the events if the last few days, he slept despite his exposure on the ledge and woke early the next morning to hunger pangs not dissimilar to those the wolves had sent to him. He visited the feeding grounds and having eaten his fill he returned to the glacier. He found his Other already up and awake and striding briskly across the shadowy glacier. Its thoughts did not mingle with his own, and he was pleased to feel only himself within his mind.
The Other must have slept well because it seemed calm today. Only as it approached one of its kinds dwellings did any hint of renewed agitation reach him. He could not fathom out what thoughts the Other was thinking, and was further frustrated when it entered the squat steading and disappeared from his view, if not from his mind. He was unsure what to do. The sun would be setting soon and he assumed that the Other would seek shelter within the building. Yet, it did not seem to be its own home, for surely it would not have felt apprehension at return to its own home. Confused once again by the actions of the Other, he once again returned home pleased to fly before the winds sprang up. He would find it again the next day, provided it left the confines of the structure.
He found the Other easily the next day leaving the building and striding purposefully back towards the sea. Where was he going now? The thoughts that reached him were confused and angry. What had happened within the building? Greeneyes could make no sense of it and his frustration warred with him all day long. Why was he following him? It was with a profound relief that he saw him reach another dwelling that night, and enter the heavily shuttered entrance way. Greeneyes flew home glad to have discharged his duties towards the Other. He had now spent three days watching him and had no idea why. Perhaps tomorrow he would not come at all. The Other seemed safe, if agitated. Greeneyes thought that with some time apart from him he would be able to break the link between him.
The belief was futile. That night he even dreamed of the Other and as soon as he woke, hastily retraced his flights back to the dwelling. He arrived in time to watch him disappear back into the long shaped, ground hugging building that his kind lived in, along with the wolf and the other Other who had helped him on the glacier. That piqued his interest. Why were they here? He had not thought they were friends when they had met before although he was aware that his Other kept thinking of the girl with the long blonde hair.
When he saw the small group of men walking towards the steading he realised he had been right to follow, and to maintain the close connection. He doubted these men were here with good intentions. He could tell from their posture and from their conversation, even if he had been inundated with angry images from their minds as they surged up the steep hill.
He was relieved to notice that the boy and the girl had escaped out off the steading long before the men arrived. Greeneyes was interested in what the men planned to do and only realised belatedly, when they kindled a small fire, that they meant to burn the steading down. Greeneyes was only too aware of the destructive capacity of fire following his burning of the wolf infested steading. He felt unsure how to proceed. The boy had walked away and he wasn’t sure if that meant that he had given up on his home. Should he, Greeneyes, try to protect it?
Closing his eyes he focused his mind on the boy and was instantly assailed by emotions of remorse and sadness and a mind-numbing inevitability about the whole thing. Greeneyes felt tears prick his own eyes in collaboration with those that he could feel falling down the boy’s face.
He decided to act. He flew down and over the men’s heads, before positioning himself at the far end of the squat building and when the first man stepped forward with his brand lit and ready to go, Greeneyes gently blew. The brand immediately extinguished. The man looked at it in confusion and returned to where the others were also lighting their brands. When the next man stepped forward with his brand lit, Greeneyes did the same. Again and again the men came forward and again and again, Greeneyes blew. The men all looked confused and shaken and in a moment of decision, Greeneyes shifted position slightly and blew the men’s small camp fire out.
All the men now looked concerned and Greeneyes could see suspicions forming in their minds that this was some sort of divine act. The group of previously jovial men had all slowly fallen silent so that only their minds spoke to Greeneyes. The men were all looking at each other whilst Greeneyes felt his mouth pulling up into a smile. Without a word to each other, the men all dropped their now extinguished brands and began backing away, slowly at first, before breaking into a run when they felt confident enough to turn their backs on the farm they had come to burn down.
As they descended the hill in front of the steading, Greeneyes let out a huge laugh. He didn’t think he had ever enjoyed himself so much. Yet he realised that the men would be back and that he couldn’t protect the steading again. Only for now was it safe. Flapping his wings to gain some height, he spied his Other and the girl nearly at the bottom of the opposite valley. He decided to wing past them, just so he could actually see how the boy looked right now.
It was hard to gain much altitude on the still day and by the time he reached their position he was not as high as he would have hoped. He banked on his mighty golden left wing to hover above his Other. As he did he felt rather than heard a boom in the air. Looking at the boy in surprise, he was amazed to see him actually looking straight at him.
* * *
He landed with a soft thud on the snow-cleared ledge of his home. Night had fallen as he had journeyed home and a few torches blazed on the entryway. Torches were there for the benefit of the Others who served him and to ensure that they did not accidentally fall from the open ledge. They would have tumbled for what would have felt like forever before coming to a sudden and abrupt stop at the base of the huge mountain. He had much to think about and he needed the solitude his new position gave him.
He did not understand the bond he felt to the boy. Since he had met the boy on the glacier, saved his life and seen into his mind he had been distracted and more than anything, burdened with questions he could get no answers to for there was no one to ask. There was now him and no other who held the key to his peoples past, present and future. The history of his people as it had come down to him through the images was disjointed and brief, almost as if certain events were not to be recorded. He wondered how his predecessors had coped with the lack of knowledge until he realised that they had probably never had the freedoms he now had. Previous Speakers would have been trained by their predecessor and they would probably not have thought to question the role they were to play. Greeneyes wondered why he had felt the desire and why he had felt the need to interfere in the lives of the Others.
A shuffling noise distrac
ted him and he glanced to the left to see one of the Others shuffling back into the darkness. He heaved a heavy sigh. Perhaps he should start paying more attention to those who lived in close proximity to him. Thinking softly, he thought,
“Please come out. I would like to talk with you”.
He heard the sharp intake of breath from the Other and smiled grimly to himself. He had never thought to ‘speak’ to the Others; there had never been any need to in the past. He had not been sure that it would work, but was relieved that it had.
For now he concentrated on the woman in front of him. She was the same one who had pulled the Other from the water on the day of the rock fall and who had taken responsibility for the baby he had rescued. Greeneyes looked at her more closely. He could not tell her age as she had been when she had lived amongst her own kind. She was of a slim build, very much like the girl with the boy, only her hair was a blonde colour and her eyes were a striking aquamarine. Greeneyes idly wondered if eye colour meant as much amongst her kind as it did amongst his own. He had already noticed that the boy shared his eye colour.
She stepped forward boldly and Greeneyes began by ‘asking’ something he had never thought to ‘ask’ before.
“What’s your name?”
He could ‘see’ that her thoughts were a massive swirl of indecision and conflict. Somehow amongst all her amazement that he had ‘spoken’ to her she found her voice,
”Should I think my answers, or speak them?” Her voice was light and carried with it a slight accent that the boy’s did not have. Still Greeneyes was amused. This woman had amazing fortitude given the circumstances. He felt somehow that he had been right to ‘speak’ to her.
“You can do whatever you feel most comfortable doing”, he thought back. She smiled briefly and stated matter of factly, as if she spoke to him every day,
“Then I will speak if that’s acceptable. And my name is Emma. Is there a problem, Speaker?”
He thought back,
“No problems, just questions which I can not answer about your kind. Would you be prepared to help me?”
Her thoughts again swirled in confusion and bewilderment. At the same time a sense of calm emanated from her. A sense of rightness.
“I will answer any and all your questions that you have. Please ask away”. Greeneyes had not meant to look into her mind as she spoke to him but the wave of images rolling off her was so intense that he could not help himself. He saw images of ice grey seas, and a small child looking upwards. He also saw a man who turned and smiled. He saw a home and a blazing fire and he saw crops growing and animals grazing, and he felt a deep satisfaction. The images amazed him and silenced him. Here was a woman who had experienced much of life amongst her own people. He wondered briefly why she had been forced to live amongst him own kind.
As he cleared his head from the unbidden images he realised that he did not know where to start. The silence between them stretched yet the smile of serenity remained on Emma’s face. Greeneyes wished he could feel so at peace. Suddenly he just thought at her the first thing that came to mind,
“My name is Greeneyes. Please don’t call me Speaker.”
She spoke back quickly, “Of course Greeneyes. I am happy to call you by your name. I know that you are new to your position and so may not realise. You do not have to ask permission to ‘speak’ to me and you do not even have to ‘ask’ me questions. You may use your skills to see anything in my mind. You may find it quicker. I know your ancestors made use of their skills.”
He was again, bemused by her forthrightness. However after his time with the boy and his own frustrations at having unbidden images within his own mind he wanted to respect her kinds privacy a little more. If he had just entered her mind it would have felt like an intrusion and he had a terrible feeling that his people had already intruded enough on her kind. Again he thought,
“How long have you been here? How much do you know about our peoples past?”
He detected a calm acceptance in her mind. Instead of making sense of the myriad of imaged his questions formed in her mind, he waited for her to answer. He felt it would be easier if she explained everything to him.
The answers she gave him perplexed and stunned him. She talked to him for many hours as the night sky turned and the sun began to rise. He was vaguely aware of the Others extinguishing the torches and of their astonishment that he was talking to Emma. Overall though, his attention was entirely focused on Emma and the wonderful and terrifying knowledge that she knew. When she finally finished speaking and he had thanked her for her answers and honesty he was left with an intense feeling of awe. There was so much he did not know. How could he be the Speaker when he knew so little?
His thoughts became a blur. He had so much to think about that bidding Emma good day he decided to sleep in his home before journeying back to find the boy. She had not explained the link between them both but neither had he asked or even alluded to his contact with the boy. She thought his questions were the result of his actions in rescuing the baby. His dreams were cloudy and obscure, filled with the images Emma had now embedded in his mind and with the knowledge of what his kind had done to the boy. The actions of his predecessors were both understandable to him, and deplorable. They had acted rashly and made no effort to understand the Others, simply brandishing them as dangerous and undesirable. Their actions were in contradiction to everything that he had come to understand. He wondered where the truth really lay between his version of events from his own people, and those of Emma’s.
He was jolted awake from his disturbed sleep by an anguished cry. Initially he thought it came from somewhere in the cave and feared that there had been another earth tremor whilst he slept. But the quiet of the cavern rang out with a deafening silence. As he came fully awake he realised the cry had come in his mind. It could only be from one of the two people he had freely shared his mind with and he could ‘feel’ that Emma slept soundly in her bed. He shouldn’t have left.
He was angry with himself. He had known that something was going to happen to the boy and should have realised that the men and their ineffectual weapons were not enough to make a something.
He flew now, powered by his mighty wings with his anger as his only companion. When he looked at the boy’s mind he could see confusing images of panic and terror. How was he to find him? The avalanche caused by the earth tremor was likely huge. How was he to know how far he had travelled since he had left him? The glacier was huge and whilst he knew where they were headed from the boy’s mind he had not thought to ‘see’ where they were. Now he needed to know and he did not have the time to hunt indiscriminately. He would only have so much air. His only consolation was that he could ‘feel’ that the boy was still alive. He knew the effort he was currently expending was worthwhile.
He wished he hadn’t left him for the hundredth time. All that he had learnt from Emma was worthwhile and needed. Still he could have learnt it another day. Yesterday the need had been urgent. Only now did he realise that it had not been all that urgent, not when faced with the boy’s burial under the avalanche. What he had learnt did not have an immediate impact on his current actions. He should have stayed to ensure his safety, and maybe together they could have discovered their peoples shared past. Now he needed to get to the boy to ensure his survival. The boy was vital to the future of his own kind, and Greeneyes people as well. Perhaps that was the most important aspect of talking to Emma. The importance of them both. Perhaps if he had not known that he would have felt less panicky and less frustrated by the slowness of his progress as he battled the night winds. He did not want to lose hope. He had to ensure his Other’s survival.
On the horizon he could see where he had left the boy and the girl. Not much further now and he would be able to begin his search.
He had tried to ‘see’ the girl with no success. Whilst he did not think that she was trapped under the avalanche, wherever she was, it was too dark and there were no distinguishing features for him to re
cognise. In desperation he had even tried to ‘see’ the wolf that travelled with her. In that instance he had been able to see some feint smudges and outlines of ‘something’s’ but again, nothing had been clear enough for him to locate the wolf.
As he soared over the mountains illuminated by the midday sun he caught sight of a scene of utter devastation below him. The mountain had shed its entire load of snow from the east face and now stood starkly bold and grey amongst its white neighbours. Greeneyes was astounded. How could the boy have survived something like that? And how was he to find him? There were literally tonnes and tonnes of snow, ice and rock littered at the bottom of the mountain. His relief at finally reaching the site of the accident evaporated. There was no chance that he would find him. He didn’t even know where to start.
Back winging, he landed with a soft thud some way from the devastated mountain base. He tried to reach the boy’s mind. Nothing. He was clearly unconscious again. Panic gripped him. The air must be becoming stale which would make it extremely difficult for him to regain consciousness. He was more likely to slowly slip away in his sleep than to wake up now.
Greeneyes began to pace backwards and forwards, his tail leaving a trail in the snow. Then, a cry rent the air. It sounded like the girl and he could pin point where the noise was coming from. Taking to his wings he flew a short distance to the base of the next mountain. There was debris from the avalanche piled up as far as the eye could see. It was a tangled mixture of snow, ice, rocks and mud. However, his sensitive eyes also detected a slight lightening to the back of the confusion of snow and rock as if there was a space behind it Unable to see anything in the girl’s mind he could at least hear her shouting over and over again and it was coming from that spot. It sounded like she was shouting Erann, but he wasn’t sure. Was that the boy’s name? He had never thought to find out before.