Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy (24 page)

“
But I have been practicing on other things. For instance, I’m pretty sure I can do this. Watch this.” Sarah closed her eyes and was
silent
for a few seconds.

Steve waited. Nothing was happening.

“
What are you doing?”

Sarah opened her eyes, glancing down at her feet. Letting out a small squeal of delight, she picked up a little piece of something at her feet. She presented it to her husband, placing the little bit of metal in his hand. He studied it for a few minutes.

“
And this is what exactly?”

Sarah clapped her hands. “That’s the piece of metal I found in that cellar where we were held prisoner. I thought might help us escape, but didn’t have any sharp edges.”

“
As in when we were prisoners in that smelly cellar?”

Sarah nodded. Steve’s mouth fell open in disbelief. That meant that thing she was holding came all the way from that thief’s shabby little house! How far away was that, anyway? Steve thought for a moment. He really didn’t have any idea how far they had traveled, but still, Sarah’s most recent feat of accomplishment was very impressive.

“
How’d you know you could do it?”

She shrugged. “I’m not too sure. It was something that I felt, something that I knew I could do. I thought about those last moments we were in that cellar, and I knew that little piece of metal was still likely to be there.”

“
But you didn’t know exactly where it was!” Steve pointed out. “How could you transport something if you didn’t know if it was still there?” He paused, still struggling to understand how Sarah was able to pull that piece of metal out of thin air. Clearly her mastery over her
jhorun
was increasing, developing new techniques to bend her jhorun to her will. Wondering what else she might be able to do, he started scouting around their makeshift campsite, looking for small items to experiment on.

Sarah knew that she had to nip this in the bud. She was tired, hungry, and desperate for a back rub. As eager as she was to discover what else her jhorun might be able to do, she wanted to be able to relax more.

“
Come on, let this go for now, okay? We can both practice later. How’s the soup coming?”

“
The what?” He glanced down into the pot he was still holding. “Oh yeah, the soup.” Hastily stirring the contents and reapplying the heat he had let lapse, the soup thickened, releasing the enticing aroma of seasoned meat, veggies, and who knew what else. Either way, it was smelling pretty damn good.

Banking the fire to last well through the night, Steve and Sarah snuggled close together. Looking up at the twinkling stars, Steve counted no fewer than ten shooting stars within just a couple of minutes. Always having an interest in astronomy, he started looking carefully at the clusters of stars, searching for any similarities to the night sky he was accustomed to. Was that Ursus
Major
? Nope, not unless the Big Dipper had expanded its basin from four anchor stars to nine. The shape was close, though.

He looked to the west, watching as the last colors of the sunset drained from the sky. There was a group of stars there that looked vaguely familiar. Must be those three prominent belt stars, reminding him of one of the most recognizable constellations from his world, namely the constellation of Orion. However, try as he may, he couldn’t identify any constellations in the sky.

Sarah was snoring softly into his shoulder. Determined to stay awake long enough to ascertain nothing threatening was in the area, Steve decided to count all the bright stars he could see in the sky. Counting stars being akin to counting sheep, he was out before he reached the count of ten.

****

Morning came much too quickly for Steve’s liking. There were no snooze buttons on any alarm clocks. No curtains to pull closed to block out the light. Nestled together under several large fronds, Steve and Sarah slept like the dead. However, as soon as the sun
awoke, so did Sarah.
Which meant, naturally, so did Steve. He was famous for sleeping through just about anything. If WWIII ever happened, Steve would be able sleep right through it. Not Sarah. If the sun woke her up, then she couldn’t sleep. And if she couldn’t sleep, was it fair that her husband could? So she woke him up with a friendly poke in the ribs, which turned into a friendly jab, which became a hard shake on the shoulder.

“
Wake up! The sun is shining and the birds are singing. Let’s get something to eat and get going. I want to make it to R’Tal today.”

Steve groaned and tried to burrow into the ground. How did she do it? How could she wake up and within ten seconds be fully awake and ready to start the day? Yawning profusely, he sat up and looked around. His back protested loudly, unhappy with the sleeping arrangements. Slowly he got to his feet, stretching the kinks out of his back.

“
How’d you sleep? I slept great! I didn’t toss or turn at all. I did get a little cold, though,”
Sarah
said, busy preparing some breakfast for the two of them, “but all I had to do was scoot a little closer to you, and presto, problem solved.” She looked at Steve and held out the pot. “Can you heat this up for me, please?”

Steve glanced in her direction, looked at the pot, and had it simmering in just under a minute. He reckoned he could have heated it faster, but he didn’t want to burn the- what was she cooking, anyway?

“
Whatcha got in there, babe?”

“
Bundle number two. It appears to be some type of thickened gruel. Before you thumb your nose at me, I just want to say that I think it smells pretty good.”

He wandered over and sniffed the contents.

“
It smells great. Can’t wait to have some.”

Sarah studied her husband. No trace of sarcasm, no hints of disdain. Does he not know what gruel is?

“
It might taste rather plain, but at least its breakfast.”

Taking his bowl of steaming porridge, he sat down near their former campfire and waited for Sarah to join him. Once she sat down, they both ate in silence, with Sarah waiting for Steve’s disparaging remarks about the quality of food. When none were forthcoming, Sarah watched him for a few moments more. He was truly enjoying it, continuing to eat spoonful after spoonful of the thick glop.

“
You actually like it?”

Steve paused with his spoon halfway to his mouth. He glanced at her. “You don’t? It tastes just like oatmeal. Reminds me of my grandmother. Just wish I had a little brown sugar to put on it.”

“
Okay, what’s with you? You don’t put up a fuss with the stew last night, and you’re not having any problems with this stuff. I’ll admit it, it’s bland. I don’t really care for it too much. Since when did you stop being so picky?”

“
Since it’s clear that the food we’re used to eating can’t be acquired here,” Steve explained. “I keep hoping we’ll cross the next bend and I’ll see a burger joint, but I know we won’t. I know I’m a pain when it comes to eating new stuff, and I’m determined not to do it here. We have food, it might not be the best, but I’m damn grateful it’s there.”

Sarah closed her mouth with an audible snap. This wasn’t the husband she was used to dealing with. Pleased beyond words, Sarah finished her morning meal and set about helping her husband dismantle their campsite.

Steve hoisted the pack (how, exactly, was it getting heavier?) onto his shoulder and took
Sarah’s
hand. “What do you say we go find this king and queen and find a way home?”

“
Now you’re talking.”

****

As the day progressed, the landscape gradually changed from flat, empty plains to grassy knolls covered with yellow and white flowers. The road they were following sometimes went directly over the mounds, but mostly it snaked amongst them, weaving about, sometimes appearing to reverse course and head the other way.

Chatting amicably about how quickly they would be able to return home, they rounded the last knoll and approached the seemingly endless coastline of the Great Sea of Koralis.

Sarah whistled. “Kornal mentioned we’d hit the sea sooner or later.”

Hooking a thumb in the direction of the water, Steve looked at his wife. “That’s a sea? Damn! Look at the size of that sucker! Looks more like an ocean to me.”

Sarah inhaled, testing the air. “Freshwater. That’s got to be the largest freshwater sea I’ve ever seen. Glad we don’t have to cross it.”

The road they had been travelling on dead-ended abruptly. Sarah and Steve eyed their choices: left, heading north to the mountains, or south, towards an open prairie devoid of any trees or hills.

Steve looked towards the empty prairie and grunted. Sucker was flat as a pancake. “That way, right?”

Sarah shook her head. “Nope. We head north, towards the mountains.”

“
You sure?”

“
Positive. Not only that, it’s the way Kornal told us to go. Besides,” she continued, “don’t you remember the carving on the doors?”

Steve nodded.

“
The castle in that carving was in the northeast.”

“
You think that carving depicted Lentari?”

“
You don’t? It had the mountains, forest, valley, sea, and castle. So far, we’re four out of five here.”

Steve had to admit it made sense. He hadn’t really given much thought to those mammoth doors from his grandparent’s master suite lately. Was that really only three days ago?

Walking together, they watched the rhythmic undulation of the waves cresting on the beach. Steve would have preferred to walk along the coast seeing how the road they were traveling on had started to veer away from the enormous body of water.

The terrain became rocky, and eventually started to ascend. Thousands of years earlier, the small tectonic plate that ran under the kingdom of Lentari was pushed upwards by the much larger plate running adjacent to it, creating the extensive Bohani Mountains to the north, and the Selekai Mountains to the south. With relentless erosion from the Sea of Koralis, a gradually sloping plateau had formed that had created Lentari’s curved eastern coast. The northern road followed the rising highland, at times coming right up against the vertical dropoff.

Proceeding north, they started encountering other travelers. A squad of soldiers came up on horseback from behind. Paying no attention to the two strangely dressed peasants standing well out of the way, they continued to head towards R’Tal, laughing and joking amongst themselves all the way.

They passed an old peasant walking slowly alongside his donkey powered cart, laden with firewood. He smiled at Steve and tipped his hat to Sarah. It was the smile that prompted Sarah to ask the friendly villager for directions.

“
Excuse me, sir, is this the way to R’Tal?”

The wizened man nodded his head. “Aye, that it is. Just around that bend up there ye will find an outcropping of rock where ye will be able to see for leagues in every direction. Ye will be able to see the castle from there.”

Smiling again, Sarah patted the donkey and thanked the villager. Hand in hand, they walked around the bend and stopped dead in their tracks. The old man was right. The ledge of rock extended some twenty feet out over empty space and gave an excellent view of the lay of the land, with the shores of Lake Koralis forming a gentle crescent curve off in the distance. And there, some five or so leagues distant, Steve could see the capital city of R’Tal, with the castle situated up against the base of the heavily forested Bohani Mountains and also jutting up against the far edge of the great sea. Steve even saw the turret that in their carved representation had the key-shaped window.

“
Is that cool or what?”

Sarah was ecstatic. There was the castle! An actual kings-and-queens-live-there castle! What history must exist within those walls? Who was the architect? When was it built? A thousand questions sprang to her mind as she gazed upon the castle and the surrounding countryside. From her vantage point she could make out hundreds of thatched cottages within the perimeter walls, with hundreds more dotting the green valley south of the capital.