Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2007 08:38:58 +0000
From: Jack Smith <js_mas@hotmail.com>
Subject: New Beginnings 12

      WEEK TWELVE - HOME


     (SECONDAY) THIRDAY


     The ordered fields of NewTown increased my anxiety to
arrive.  I felt an age had passed since they had last graced
my vision.  They would never seem ordinary again.  Though I
could see Do-Si's face sinking I longed to see the bridge
across the river, though fearing what I would see on its far
bank.  It was therefore with a sense of relief that the
normality of my home was unmarred as its walls came into
view.  I spurred Kito, lean and fit from his adventure, to a
gallop, so eager I was to pass through its gates.  Hi-Tui
stepped out to greet me, a smile splitting his face.  I
thought for a moment he was going to forgo formality and
embrace me, but the widespread arms turned into a deep bow
as I approached him.
     "The Hero returns!" he called out for all to hear.
People gathered, something that I had not imagined, and soon
I was being carried on shoulders up the main street to the
Square, my name on everyone's voice.  It seemed my exploits
had been told again and again in my absence, so that I had
become a hero of legend, The "Seer in Darkness".  I
remembered the touching that I had received at the hands of
the people on my birthday feast, but that was nothing to the
adulation I was now receiving.  I was lifted onto a platform
and inveighed to tell of the adventure.  I thought of the
many things that had happened during the long weeks I had
been away, trying to decide what to talk about, but all that
anyone was interested in was the tunnel.  So I told the
story of the tunnel, finding that I grew in stature even
with my own telling, but wanting for it to end as much as I
enjoyed the adulation so I could be Father and Mother.
     Eventually, with the aid of Hi-Tui who saw my distress
and called for the townsfolk to let me go so I could rest, I
was allowed to mount once more on Kito and continue my way
home, though with a chanting crowd following behind me.
Father met me in the street, presumably forewarned by the
commotion, and after a short speech formally welcoming home
the Hero asked everyone to go home and let him by properly
greeted by his family.
     But privacy was not yet to be mine as all the house
servants awaited me inside, cheering and bowing and
clapping, a cacophony that brought tears to my eyes and a
lump in my throat that prevented words.   I waved my
gratitude, managing to choke out a "Thankyou" and escaped
yet again, now to the privacy of sitting room where Mother
stood with her face to the empty fireplace.  On my entry she
turned and for the first time I saw tears pooling in her
eyes.  "My Lord," she called out in a voice half-choked and
fell to the ground, kneeling and bowing.
     "Mother," I cried, as I ran to her.  "Don't do this.  I
do not deserve this!"
     "My Hero," she invoked into the floor.
     By this time I had managed to get my arms under her
arms.  "Whatever I am is courtesy of you," I exclaimed as I
lifted her to her feet, embracing her in a grasp of a force
that must have almost smothered her.  I had not remembered
her so small, so delicate.  It had only been six weeks since
I had bid her farewell, it felt like an age, childhood to
manhood all over again.  She did not complain within my
hold, just stood passively, tears flowing freely.  "Do no
cry Mother," I said more gently.  "In truth I am still your
little man who loves you with all his being."
     She looked up at me, eyes welling pools of tears that
glistened in the lamplight, but only managed an inarticulate
cry.  I kissed her forehead tenderly and stroked her hair.
Eventually she pushed me away, still unable to articulate,
and waved me in the direction of my chambers where I assumed
Father was waiting.  My eyes also raining tears I backed
from the room, bowing as I left.
     I was sniffling heavily when I entered the bedchambers,
trying to persuade my eyes to quieten, but one look at
Father's moist eyes overflowed all the barriers I had placed
and tears flowed freely again.  Father embraced me as I had
embraced Mother, almost taking away my ability to breathe.
But he did not take too long to regain his normal composure,
there seemed to be something restraining his joy.  He
stepped away and looked at me.  "You are filthy!" was the
first thing he said.
     "Not as much as I was!" I rejoined, now laughter
replacing the tears.  It is only two days since I bathed in
the magic pool of the valley of the waterfall."
     "You smell like horse sweat.  Did you look after Kito?"
     "Kito has never been better.  Fitter than he has ever
been, fleeter than the river and stronger than a winter
storm.  He gained so much condition eating the grass of the
valley of the hut that even riding him hard on the return
trip has not harmed him."
     "Trugo also, though he did not have so long with that
magic pasture."  I knew this talk of horses was a fa‡ade,
demonstrated clearly by the gleam of pride in his eyes as he
stood and assessed me.  "Come now, I have drawn a bath for
you."
     "Will you join me sir?" I asked with excessive
politeness.
     "I will not deny the request of a Hero on his return
home!" he replied with equally excessive humility.
     When we had been in the bath for a while he
precipitously introduced the topic that had been the cause
of an unease in his being that I had sensed the moment I had
entered our chambers.  "You will not have much time to rest,
my Son.  We depart for KingsTown on Sixday."
     "That is four days away!"
     "Four?  It is barely three!  Ah, of course.  We lost a
day in the tunnel.  The sleep we had must have been very
long.  Today is Thirday."
     "Thirday?  Well, I am happy that the One will not be
upset that I prayed on the wrong day."
     "Why do you say that?"
     "There is no such being as the One!"  In response to
Father's incredulous look I proceeded to tell him, as
succinctly as possible, all I had learned.
     When I had finished, surprising me by the calmness of
his acceptance of the blasphemy I was spouting, he asked,
"Would that explain the rumours of huge ships that have come
out of the sky?"
     It was my turn for a stunned gaze, though my thoughts
turned rapidly behind it till I came up with, "The
houseputer did ask me if I wanted help.  Could this be the
help it has called?  Will it save us from the wrath of the
Prince?"
     "That I don't know, but that is what we go to find
out," Father replied, now grim.

     SIXDAY

     Spring was more advanced and our departure for the
house of Ti-Lung was in conditions much more pleasant than
those in which I had seen Father off a seventy day
previously.  There was no rain, and the air was almost
balmily despite the early hour.  We had a guard of 20, with
a congregation of some 10 souls taking advantage of the
protection offered and joining us for our journey, so even
if we had wished it to be this was not going to be a quick
trip.  Many of the guards were survivors of The Expedition,
to my pleasure including Do-Si.  Father felt that they had
proved both their loyalty and their ability and would be
able to protect us well.  The reverence with which they
treated me humbled me.  Father was the Lord, but I felt that
they held me above him.  This was not correct, and made me
feel uncomfortable, yet Father tolerated it as if it was my
due.  However it made me avoid their company - except for
that of Do-Si, who, when out of earshot of others, was as
irreverent as ever - which somehow elevated me further in
the general esteem.
     The preceding days had been spent being congratulated
by all and sundry, culminating in a celebration feast
honouring my return on Forday.  After the tranquillity of
travelling the constant activity and talking wearied me, and
I was now pleased to be again away from the noise and
activity of NewTown, though with the size of this group it
was not as peaceful as my return trip from the hut had been.
     The land downstream of NewTown, after we had climbed
the small saddle and returned to water level, was not too
different from upstream except the flood plains gradually
broadened.  Forrest grew densely on both banks above flood
level, dominated by the deep red, strappy leaves of the
taller whintox and miscal, now bereft of flowers but adorned
instead with early red fruit that blended in with its red
leaves, forming a dense underbrush, as it was around home,
with the road cutting a clean path through it.  It was a
path I had never trod, but after the adventures I had
already experienced my excitement was held at a remarkably
low level, more stimulated by the wonder of the rumours of
which Father had spoken than by the road on which we
journey.  What was new though was the inn where we spent our
first night.  In the middle of nowhere, but at the 1/3 mark
of our journey stood a rambling wooden building protected by
a paling fence the height of a man.  The growth of trade
between NewTown and the rest of the kingdom had given rise
to so much use of the road that now two inns had grown along
its path, providing rest and comfort for weary travellers.
The fence also protected a cleared area for the parking of
carts and a stables stocked with fodder for horses.  Horses
were available for hire also, for those in too much of a
hurry to allow their own to recuperate.  It was at this inn
that Father had left Trugo after pushing him to cover 2
stages in one day.  For a steed with the power of Trugo this
was in truth not that much, but Father had a reputation for
caring for his mounts.
     He had sent message ahead that we were coming, and the
best room of the inn was set-aside for us.  It seemed
primitive compared to home - the mattress hard and lumpy, no
running water, no bathroom.  But as Father commented, it was
fairly clean.  We ate alone, but there was no privacy, with
seemingly every noise from every part of the inn audible.
So we went to bed separately, early and, despite the clamour
of men carousing and singing, I at least slept soundly.