"Yuh, yuh, ah hep du hep Thyda!"
"Would you like to come with me to Tyter's hut, right now?” Wudrick asked. He wasn't sure how she would be able to help him know what he needed to know, but he was sure there was no way he was going to be able to stop her from trying.
"Yuh. Thyda hot gah. Ah gah du."
Wudrick almost felt as if he could actually understand what she was saying - if not the words themselves, at least, their intent.
"Okay, if you’re so set on helping me help Tyter, I can only believe that somehow we'll work this all out. But, we haven't much time. We must hurry, so follow me. We're going the long way around the gathering at the well. Oh, I suppose you'd better put on a pullover first. No one ever notices me, but someone is bound to notice you running about with only a table cover wrapped about you."
Brindle dressed in a flash and together they made their way behind the Easterners gathered at the well, through Center House and behind the Westerners back to Tyter's hut.
***** ***** *****
Keyshi approached Nuttinnew with much trepidation. It had gained some warmth from the rising sun, but not nearly as much as it thought necessary for the task that lay ahead. To conserve energy the little breeze swept over the white, sandy landscape, just barely above the ground, which is why it failed to notice the gathering at the well until it slammed right into the mass of human flesh.
"What the blow?” Keyshi cursed, as it shattered into a hundred separate gusts, hurling down a hundred varied paths. Instinctively, it consciously directed its parts to soar high above the crowd where it was able to reintegrate itself into a unified whole. Again, it affirmed to itself there was no logical sense in trying to help humanity. "Here I am doing everything I can to save one of them and there they are tearing me to shreds."
It was then the summer breeze noticed the warmth rising from the crowd below. It was, also, then that Keyshi began to pay attention to what the humans were doing.
Half of them were lined up on one side of the well - half on the other. Apparently, the sudden disturbance had stirred up some sand granules which had entered several of their eyes on either side of the invisible demarcation dividing them. Accusatory voices rose in anger as the once nearly imperceptible groan of the crowd, turned into barrages irritable rage. The groups on either side faced each other with raised arms and clenched fists. The roar of their voices vibrated every molecule of Keyshi's being, and the energy generated by their anger proved to be a most generous source of otherwise unproductive hot air, of which Keyshi took full advantage.
The combined voices below rose with such a rushing roar, Keyshi couldn’t quite make out the content of their consternation. Intermittently, however, even the most vocal haranguers halted long enough to take a breath. On those rare occasions, when the roar subsided, two dominant voices would ring out with much force and clarity. One voice was that of the wellkeeper who had drawn the female wellwalker from the well earlier that morning. The other belonged to the curiously scrawny female it had discovered lying naked in a hollowed-out stone in the big house to the north.
The two were having a disagreement of some sort, but Keyshi didn't pay close attention to it. Humans were always having arguments, it had concluded early on. Besides, it had been distracted by an even more curious sight. At the periphery of the crowd, two humans had suddenly dashed out of the hut nearest the well to the east, and took off running toward the big white house to the north.
From its height, Keyshi couldn’t make out who they were, but one appeared to be young and lanky, while the other looked short and round. Their activities were so unlike the others, it couldn't help but find them most curious. It was obvious to a natural born prankster they were trying to pass behind the others unnoticed, stimulating the prospect that they, too, might be pranksters.
Delighted, Keyshi watched the pair scramble along behind the crowd and enter the big white house through its northernmost door. Moments later they appeared on the southern porch, where they paused to survey the well gathering. Then, in a flash, they dashed behind those gathered to the west of the well, straight into the hut where the young male lay dying.
"Well, I'll be,” Keyshi gushed. "Now, what is this all about?" Then it gasped. "Holy hurricane! I hope the young male isn't already dead,” Keyshi soared down to the hut and raced toward the door through which the two humans had just gone. Unfortunately, Keyshi arrived a second too late and slammed smack into the door just as it clicked shut. Wham! It rattled on its hinges.
"What was that?” CB exclaimed, then raced into the eating room where he found Wudrick and Brindle holding their sides as they gasped to regain their breaths. "You two have made enough noise to raise the dead,” the caretender uncharacteristically barked. It was, perhaps, a poor choice of words. “Dehdt? Thyda, dehdt?” Brindle’s face went as white as a puff.
Slamming into the door had given Keyshi a severe jolt to its consciousness. It felt like it was in a dream world as its being flowed over and around the small hut like lava down a mountainside. Since the incident had not shattered it to bits as the previous one had, it wasn’t long before it recovered, and immediately sought out the window to the young male’s sleeping room. But it, too, was shut tight.
Looking through the window, Keyshi saw the young male tossing restlessly on the cot. For a moment an older male Keyshi didn’t know peeked into the room through the sleeping room door, then immediately retreated. Keyshi rattled the window in desperation. Finding an entrance there futile, it made a quick inspection of the entire exterior of the hut. The only possible entrance it found was through a slim gap between the front door and its threshold.
“Good enough!” Keyshi exclaimed, thinning itself to little more than a veget thread in diameter and cautiously, began a slow and uncomfortable process of squeezing its way through the small opening: it wasn’t until Keyshi's body was half in and half out that it had enough consciousness within the hut to concentrate on what the humans inside were saying.
The one called Wudrick was sitting on the edge of a chair talking excitedly, and wildly waving his hands about, stirring the stale air which filled the room. The young female, Brindle, was standing on another chair in front of him, making similar gestures.
"Okay, okay!” Wudrick blurted with excitement. "Let me see if I understand you correctly. Far down inside the well, just before the water level, there is this - this - object sticking out from the north side of the well and you crushed it. No, you stood on it?"
Brindle jumped up and down with excitement. Through her movements and gestures she had been able to communicate with the short, fat, funny, red-faced male that everyone in Nuttinnew, including her own parents, had always made so much fun of, calling him an idiot puff. They had also called the wellkeeper of the west an idiot puff. Maybe the people who called her an idiot puff were right after all. It seemed only idiot puffs could understand her.
Brindle paused a moment to give Wudrick an opportunity to catch up on his translation to CB. As she looked at him through grateful eyes, a portion of her mind looked into a recent past memory, reminding her of how she had always felt sorry for him as he bumbled about in the Mayor’s wake. There were times she had even identified with him in a pitiful sort of way. Now, together, in this remarkable moment of triumph, she felt more akin to him than ever. Wrapping her arms about her chest, she pretended to shiver.
"And you - you felt cold?"
"I don't understand. Where is the cold air coming from?” CB interrupted, still not convinced the charade he was witnessing had any connection to reality.
Brindle grabbed her throat and began to make gurgling, choking sounds. Instinctively, the caretender lunged toward her. This startled Brindle who let out a scream, and jumped off the chair to get away from him.
"What - what is it? What's wrong?" the caretender inquired, quite confused, but nonetheless, professionally concerned. He looked back and forth from Wudrick to Brindle and back again to Wudrick.
"I don't believe anyt
hing is wrong with her. I think she was just trying to give us an example of the obnoxious sound she heard in the well.” Brindle shook her head in affirmation. "Well, go on child. Do it again,” Wudrick ordered.
Brindle nervously looked toward CB, who was still staring at her intently. She looked back at Wudrick with pleading in her eyes. "Oh, it’s alright, Brindle. This fine fellow means you no harm. He merely thought you were in need of his services. Surely, you’ve been tended to by a caretender before,” Wudrick attempted to console her.
No, Brindle hadn’t had any experience with caretenders. Not since early childhood anyway, when the last one informed her parents their only child was - well, not normal. In response, her parents realized they loved her just enough to wish she would die young of natural causes, thus saving her from a long, and lonely life.
Brindle looked deeply into CB’s eyes and studied his soul. He was a good male with good intentions. Why then, she wondered, didn’t she trust him? Through his eyes she could see that his heart was corrupted with a small, dark blotch of confusion, seeded there by a deep, powerful secret, or so it seemed. She couldn’t even ponder what it might be, and was fairly sure she would never want to know.
"Perhaps, if you sit over there,” Wudrick suggested to CB, "she will feel more at ease to continue." He motioned to the chair on which Brindle had been standing. CB shrugged his shoulders, walked over to the chair which had toppled over when Brindle jumped from it. Setting it upright, he sat down, and clasped his hands between his knees, as if restraining them. He was too perplexed to do otherwise.
Brindle, who had been watching the caretender's every move, turned her gaze back to Wudrick. Physically, he reminded her of a children's nursery rhyme come to life. However, when she looked deep into his eyes and studied his soul, she saw a door that had never been opened, rattling and twisting on its hinges, as though something within was trying to burst it open, releasing an unimaginable illumination. She didn’t understand this, either. Still, she knew she trusted him - trusted him with Tyter's life - and her own.
Standing on a stool at the far side of the eating room, Brindle again made a gesture of perching on the edge of a ledge, while gently wiggling her fingers near her feet, simulating the water below her. Then, keeping an eye on the caretender’s response, she again made the gurgling noise while her gently rippling finger movements became more aggressively animated.
"Okay, okay, stop a moment. Let’s see, you’re on a ledge - in the well - just above the water level. And - and you hear a strange noise coming up from beneath the ledge. The water is making the noise, and the noise is getting louder?"
Brindle made another excited gesture of affirmation. Then, she suddenly stopped and before their eyes, her countenance took on a light-hearted air as if a clouded memory had suddenly become crystal clear. She wrapped her arms tightly about her chest and pretended to shiver, all the while continuing to making the gurgling sound. She repeated this maneuver several times.
"We've been through all this before,” CB blurted out in frustration, throwing his hands into the air and rising abruptly from the chair. "We’re wasting precious time. We can't learn anything from this feeble-minded, young female. This is just a child's game to her,” he protested. "It doesn't make any sense. She doesn’t make any sense!"
"Well, it makes perfect sense to me,” Keyshi gushed, as it squeezed the last bit of itself through the thin crack under the door.
"What if,” Wudrick began to hypothesize, "the well doesn’t get its water from the autumn rains as we have always assumed. I mean, when you really think about it, isn’t it a bit hard to believe that an entire year’s worth of water rations could fall into the small opening of the well, even in the heaviest of rainy seasons?"
"Well, well, aren't you the wise one?” Keyshi puffed sarcastically. The little summer breeze was becoming less and less impressed with humans. One look at CB’s confused expression affirmed its conviction.
"Yes, yes, surely that’s it!” Wudrick continued. “There must be water, lots and lots of it in Underearth. The well is merely a door that opens into it."
An expression of enlightenment shone on Brindle's face, signifying she understood exactly what Wudrick was suggesting. The look of amazement on CB’s face signified he was more confused and doubtful than ever.
Wudrick walked to Brindle and looked deep into her eyes as he continued. "The water drawn from the well is always cold. So, its source must be very cold, or the hot Nuttinnewian sun would surely warm it like the ground that covers it.”
"Yes, yes. That must be right!” Brindle's mind screamed. She was too excited to even attempt speech.
"Hey, not bad thinking for a human!” Keyshi puffed with tempered admiration.
"Now, all we have to do is figure out how to get Tyter to that cold,” Wudrick reflected softly.
"Or the cold to Tyter,” Keyshi whispered in Brindle's ear.
"O da col t' Thyda,” Brindle echoed, loudly.
"Yes, or the cold to Tyter,” Wudrick heard himself say.
"Bring the cold to the youth? Now I've heard everything. Just how would you propose to do that?” CB burst forth with more disdain than humor.
"I - I....” Wudrick shook his head, as he stared at Brindle. The truth was he didn't know. He didn't even know why he had made such an outlandish statement.
Brindle noticed that the same strange presence she had felt in the belly of the well was again engulfing her, caressing her, filling her with every breath she breathed. Wide-eyed, she looked at the males in the room with her. They seemed oblivious to the molestation. Across the room, CB rose from his chair, shook his head in disgust, then marched into Tyter's room. Wudrick was still standing in front of her, but was no longer staring deep into her eyes. Instead, he was staring into his own mind, searching his imagination for a solution to the problem at hand. Brindle took a deep breath and slowly walked to the privy room.
The hut was silent except for Tyter's moans. As she passed his door, she didn’t look in. She wanted to, but she preferred to see him in her mind as the brave, strong, young male she had so often seen being lowered into the well. She was afraid to see him on the brink of death - afraid it would crush the life out of her, as well.
Keyshi followed her, but was distracted in the hallway long enough to peek in on the young, dying human. When it heard the privy door squeak, it refocused its attention just in time to see Brindle disappear into the small room halfway down the hall. In a flash it dashed ahead of her. Brindle felt the rush of warm air engulf her. Quickly, she closed the door and stood with her back against it.
"You're in here aren't you - or am I just crazy like that caretender says?” There was no immediate answer. “By Veget, spirit, leave me to my insanity or make yourself known and save me from it!" she demanded in a desperate, whispered voice only Keyshi could understand.
Keyshi looked about the room and breezed past some drying towels hanging from a cord strung up between opposing walls. Brindle's eyes grew as big as veget flatcakes as she watched them begin to sway. Then Keyshi gave out a good puff, sending the window curtains flapping to the ceiling like new veget cloths on a drying line.
Brindle gasped and had every intention to run from the room, but her legs were frozen to the floor beneath her - or they might as well have been for all the good they were to her at that moment. The look of terror on her face made Keyshi give out a chuckle. It was the only natural response for a born prankster.
"Now are you convinced I’m really here with you?” Keyshi asked gleefully.
"Yes, yes, I am quite satisfied. But I'm still not sure whether the caretender is right or not. Who are you - or, rather, what are you?"
"I am Keyshi, the Magnificent, the summer breeze of all summer breezes, the prankster of all pranksters, the trickster of all tricksters,” Keyshi boasted, sounding more like the braggart, Old Tonc, than a mere wisp of a wind with scant experiences to draw upon.
"Just an annoying, little summer breeze?” Brindle dro
ned.
Her lackluster response to his grandiose introduction knocked some of the bluster out if Keyshi’s wind. So much so, it considered rushing out of Nuttinnew to never again visit the habitats of humans. It might have done just that, if it hadn't been trapped inside the small privy room with the beautiful, young female with which it was so intrigued. And had it not remembered it’s promise to Old Tonc.
"A little summer breeze who is about to risk its very existence to save the life of that young male in the other room,” Keyshi fired back. If it had been a human, one might have detected hurt in its voice.
"Tyter? You? But how? What can you do?"
"Don't you worry yourself about the details. You just get him to the well by midday today, when the sun is at its highest point."
"But how can I do that?"
"Well now, how would I know? I'm just an insignificant little annoyance.” Keyshi couldn't help exposing it bruised pride.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to....” Brindle had been hurt by the thoughtless, cruel words of others too often not to recognize the voice of pain, even in Keyshi's whispered, imitation of a voice.
"Just have him there! I can't do everything myself, you know. By the way....”
"Yes?"
"How come you don't speak the same language as the other humans here?"
"I - I don't know. I try, but it just doesn't come out the same. Still - you can understand me."
"Of course, I may be annoying, but I've got my own special talents,” Keyshi puffed with renewed pride.
"Well, it certainly is a wonderful talent,” Brindle offered to make up for her earlier rudeness.
"Ah, yes, thank you, but right now I've got to get myself ready for the grandest prank of my life, if you'll be kind enough to let me out."
"Oh, of course, but I can't get Tyter to the well without the help of those males in the other room. I need to tell them something so they'll help me. What are you planning to do?"
Pieces: Book One, The Rending Page 30