“I know you can help me.” the woman’s voice was close to breaking but the old man ignored her.
“Please.” she reached forward and tugged at the old man’s tattered robe.
He stopped, turning around to look at her. She stared into deep eyes set in a weathered face. He seemed to be studying her, searching for something. Though she didn’t know what.
“Please.” she begged, falling to one knee still holding the stare.
“I cannot help you.” he said.
But he didn’t turn away, he just continued looking down into her eyes.
“You can.” she said, her voice feeling like it would fail her at any second “You know…you know…”
Something was flickering in the old man’s eyes. He looked away then back at her.
“You mistake me for someone else.”
She shook her head once “No. No I do not.” she had never spoken a clearer sentence in her life.
The old man continued to stare down at her studying her eyes “People are starting to look.”
“I don’t care.”
The old man nodded “What is it that you think I can do for you?”
“Me and my family, we are sick. So very very sick.”
A gnarled hand shot out from the folds of the old man’s robes and touched her head and neck.
“You don’t look sick. You don’t feel sick.”
“That is not what I mean and you know it.”
“Maybe, but what can I do?”
“Tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“How to be well.”
“I am no doctor, woman.”
“I know.”
The man looked to the left and right then sighed “You want to be well?”
“More than anything.”
“Come with me.”
The old man helped the woman up and brought her off the street to an alleyway. He looked up and down the ally, she figured he was making sure they were alone and out of ear shot of those that passed by. He looked at her, his eyes searching her harder than ever.
“You shouldn’t be sick you know. Those on high have declared this to be the healthiest place on earth.” said the man.
“I have eyes that see.”
The man shifted in his heavy cloak, tilting his face back and forth, struggling with something inside.
“I want to be well.” said the woman.
“Then you will have to leave here. You will have to go on a journey. How many are in your family?”
“There’s me, my husband, my daughter, and two sons. One the eldest and the other just born.”
The old man nodded “You will be lucky to make it with one.”
“They are in better physical health than I. Is the road that perilous?”
“It is not their physical health that worries me…now listen and listen well for I will only say this once.”
She felt her heart quicken as she bore into the old man’s eyes, determined to etch every word into her mind.
“Leave through the Northern gate and don’t look back. Once you get a way from the city you will come to a desert that you must cross. There are many watering holes in the desert but beware the people there. Then after the desert you will come to a grasslands and a great woods.
Go into the woods though you will be told not to, the people outside the woods are not to be trusted. Those woods butt up to a mountain, it is on the mountain that you will find the river and you will be well so long as you do not depart from it.
But have no fear you will have all that you need and more there. Now I must be going for my time here is short.”
The old man turn and padded down the alleyway into the bustling crowd, disappearing from view.
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The man sat up in the bed and coughed. His whole body would convulse each time he did.
“You are not well.” said the woman.
The man shook his head “I am not.”
“We cannot go then.”
“No!” the man’s eyes grew wide and his hand shot out grabbing the woman’s arm “No, you must go. You cannot stay here.”
“But you will die if we go.”
The man shook his head “I am already dead. This place has already taken too much from me I can no longer bear up under it. But there is still a chance for you and for the children.”
“I cannot leave you. I will not leave you.”
“Don’t be foolish. It is the only choice and you know it.”
Tears began to stream down the woman’s face. She sat on the bed by her husband and looked him in the eyes “I cannot leave you.”
“But you must. You are strong, you have bore through much in life. Now you must go and take the children with you.”
“We cannot survive this journey on our own.”
“You can and you will.”
“But it is you that has gotten us through all of this. We would not survive in this place if not for you.”
“And this place has gotten the best of me. And now I must go. Get as far away from this place as you can. The further you get, the better you’ll be. I will see you again one day.”
She shook her head then curled up next to him, placing her head on his chest, as he placed his arm around her shoulder.
“My love with always be with you.” he said.
That night he died.
______________________________________________________________________________
She had never been beyond the Northern gate before, yet now she stood on ground unlike any she had ever seen. She wasn’t used to the tiny green things that poked up from where there was supposed to be cobbles and concrete. She held her youngest son in her arms as her eldest walked ahead of her, his sister right behind.
His sister went to say something but the eldest silenced her.
“Let her speak.” said the mother.
“I do not wish to speak.” said the daughter.
“Speak freely girl. You will not be punished for it.”
She glanced over at her mother, her eyes untrusting “Why are we doing this? We were fine back there, why did we have to leave?”
“Silence sister, it is because father said it. Do you know better than him?” asked the eldest.
“She is free to speak. We were not well there girl and if you did not see that then I fear for you.”
The girl turned back to her brother not saying anything else.
They walked on until they came to place with sand and dry rocks. This must be the desert thought the woman. She had heard of them before but never seen one. They were at least headed in the right direction.
______________________________________________________________________________
She had thought the desert would be a horrid place, but it was not. There were many others that journeyed here. Many from the place they had come from. Some had been here their entire lives and wished to stay. The daughter had found friends and the eldest a girl he wished to wed. It had been a few moons since they had left the place they lived but still the desert stretched out before them.
They were going with a convoy of other travelers. They had been had picked them up on their third day in the desert, saying they too were headed to the grasslands in the North. Though she missed her husband so, she had learned to get on. The baby was healthy and the children seemed happy. Getting away from the place they had been had even relieved some of her stress.
But she still needed to continue on, that much she knew. Though they were better off they were still not where they needed to be. One day they approached the grasslands and she went to go on.
“Mother!” she turned to see her daughter staring at her.
“What is is daughter?”
“I do not wish to leave this place.”
“But child the desert is not where we are meant to stay, we must continue on to the river.”
“Forget the river, this is where I want to be.”
“Don’t be foolish child, we must continue on.”
The daughter shook her head “I am staying mother. I want to dance under the setting sun, I want to be with my friends, I want to stay here.”
The mother begged and pleaded but the daughter would not change her mind and the mother knew she had to continue on. So with a heavy heart she did. The last she saw of her daughter was going back into the desert with the caravan. She continued on with her two sons.
“The desert is not where we are meant to be.” she said to herself.
“There are many good things about the desert mother, are you sure?” asked the eldest.
The woman nodded “I am sure. Surer than I have been of anything. The desert is not where we were told to go.”
“Maybe the person who told you was wrong.”
The woman shook her head “No…there are many things I have had doubts on, many things I have been wrong about in this life. But this is not one of them.”
So they continued on through the grasslands.
______________________________________________________________________________
Their entrance into the grasslands had been easy. There they had joined up with a hardier lot. One’s that had traversed the desert on their way to the mountain. Even more she enjoyed their company and their spirits, but still she knew that they must make it to the mountain and to the river there.
The eldest was happy. He had a wife and many a friend with the grassland dwellers. They would hunt during the day and bring back food that would feed all. He would sit around the campfire a great smile across his face. His mother worried, what if he decided to stay here in the grasslands and never made it the mountain.
The pain of her daughter leaving stuck with her, as was that of her husband passing long ago. The place they were from was a faint memory but one that still clung to her, like a stain that wouldn’t come out. Their days in the grasslands passed quicker then they had in the desert. The company was better and the land more suited to them. But then came the day when they reached the start of the forest.
They were told that great evils lied in the forest in wait. That the mountain was the home of an evil people. That at night the trees came alive and would rend and tear the flesh of man.
The woman still clinging to her baby started into the forest when she heard the fateful words, she turned.
“Mother.”
“What is it?”
“Mother, I do not wish to go to the mountain. I want to make my life here in the grasslands with my wife and my friends.”
“But child, the wise man, and you know who he serves, said that we must go to the mountain. Not the grasslands and not the forest.”
“But I wish to stay in the grasslands mother, I am happy here. And those that travel with us say it is an evil place.”
“Do you not think you’d be happier on the mountain? Do you not think the wise man’s master knew such things?”
The eldest shook his head “I am to stay her mother, won’t you stay with me.”
With tears in her eyes the woman shook her head “I cannot child, I must go to the mountain.”
She parted and left, her soul crushed, still clinging the child to her breast. She looked up at the mountain in the distance, not daring to look back.
______________________________________________________________________________
The forest was dark and desolate. She had not seen another soul and there had been scarce food. She had found but a single place to drink and some berries was all they had to eat. The baby was growing weak and the woman feared she had made a foolish choice. Maybe she would have been better off stopping. Maybe she would have been better off living with her son in the grasslands, with the hardy hunters or maybe in the desert with the carefree dances and easy living. Or maybe even back in the place they had come from with her old life.
She shook her head and continued on, she knew better. The mountain was where health would be found, where the peace that she sought would be. Each step pained her, as it took her further away from all that she knew. Ahead she saw the base of the mountain and breathed a sigh of relief. For the first time since she left the grasslands she felt a burst of energy and ran towards it. When she neared the base she heard something crash through the woods behind her. For a second she had hope in her heart, she had heard nothing in the forest the entire time they had traveled. Maybe it was a friendly face or maybe it was her son come to stay with her.
She turned and to her horror saw a wolf stalking out of the woods. The woman gave a shriek and turned to the mountain, running for it. She didn’t bother to glance behind her but fought her way up the steep slope. Three times she fell, each time expecting to feel the wolf’s teeth sink into her. But each time she would right herself and rush back up the slope, clinging tighter to her child.
When she’d fall she twist so she’d take the brunt of the force and the baby was spared. She didn’t know how long she could continue on like this. Ascending higher she looked behind her and saw that the wolf was gone. She breathed heavily and looked around at the forest trying to see if she could make it out, but she saw nothing.
Shaking her head she turned around and headed up the mountain. Though it was hard she could always find a trail leading up. Sometimes she would feel like she was about to fall over, back down the mountain, other times it felt like the ground would give out under her feet at any moment, and yet other times she thought the wind would blow her away. But still she climbed. Back and forth, up and down, but always ending up closer to the summit.
She had not seen any sign of water and this worried her for two reasons. First she and the baby were growing thirsty and if they did not get something soon, may die of dehydration. Two she was looking for signs of the river that the wise man had talked about. Doubts began to creep into her mind.
Maybe he was not a wise man but a fraud. Maybe this had all been for naught. She was assaulted the higher she climbed, forcing her limbs to move. She thought of her daughter dancing with the sunset. Maybe that would have been a better life. Carefree days in the sun, but then she remembered the people that were there. Not bad people but lacking much. Not the hunters though they were hardy, maybe that’s where she should have gone.
Living her days among the grasslands letting her son hunt for her and win acclaim with the people. But still she knew that that was not where she was destined to be. Maybe the place that she was destined to be didn’t exist any more. Maybe it never did. Maybe she should have stayed in the city with the family.
The woman continued on like this for an entire night, always going a little higher on the mountain, her hope fading more and more until it was little but embers. She was tired and thirsty and she knew the baby crying in her arms even more so.
“Hush child, we will be there soon. We will get to the river that heals, we will get to the river where we will never thirst again. Hush child, our journey is almost at its end.” she’d sing to the child.
Higher she went. A haze hung over the land around her. She had to focus on each step to prevent from falling. She knew if she hit the ground that she’d never get up and it would be the end of her, the child, and her journey. The baby had quieted. She check him and he was still breathing but she knew he was growing faint. She continued on in the haze, the last of her hope abandoning her.
She continued on because she knew nothing else to do. She went on by instinct, by a desire to survive, even though she didn’t know why or how. For the child’s sake she told herself, for his sake she would keep walking, keep climbing. Though she didn’t expect to find anything, higher and higher into the haze she went.
She had lost track of time and wasn’t sure how long she had been travelling. It felt like a week but she had not collapsed yet, though that time was nearing. The land darkened around her and she felt her limbs begin to fail. She a missed step that sent her to to the ground. She turned to cradle the baby and her body took the hit. She got back to her feet exhausted.
Her muscles almost gave out so she switched the child in her arms. Twice more she fell. The land lightened around her and she found herself still going higher. Something had to be wrong, maybe she had passed out at the start of the mountain and was now hallucinating. Maybe she had died and this was a purgatory of sorts.
Surely those had not been days, she would have collapsed by now. At first these thoughts bothered her but then they disappeared from weariness. Ahead of her a great tree came into view, unlike any she had seen on the journey up. She walked over by the tree and collapsed, this time knowing she wouldn’t rise again.
She held the baby in her arms as she watched the haze swirl around her. Her eyes began to close when she heard a sound in the distance. The sound of running water. She fought to her feet and went towards it as fast as she could. The haze began to lift as she stumbled to the banks of a small stream.
Surely this couldn’t be the river she thought. She fell to her knees and felt everything grow dim. She blinked and looked up to see the wise man from the place she had come from, across the stream holding her child. She went to stand up but couldn’t find the strength.
“You have done well woman. Now rest, you will go to be with your husband and other children now. Your boy will grow strong and happy.”
Behind the wise man the woman saw glowing humanoid shapes coming forward and felt at ease. She looked up into the man’s eyes and saw something she hadn’t before. A deep peace filled her as her vision began to waver before her.
“You have done well.” said the man.
Then she passed.
