by CC Hogan
impatiently. He so obviously wanted to cross, but he was scared. Yona had hoped that seeing the humans and horses cross first would help, but it seemed to have made no difference.
“Right, dear one, I cannot wait any longer. So, I am sorry about this!” She stroked his cheek, which always made him lower his big head and as soon as he did, she grabbed his ear. Immediately he tried to pull away. “No!” she said firmly. “Come on!” She started pulling him towards the bank and Eldola, grumbling under his breath, followed as slowly as he could. “Come on, right up to the water.”
Daintine and Beak had chosen this place because the banks were beach-like, covered with small stones, and so it was a gentle slope into the water, not a sudden step, at least on this side. The second half was deeper and that is where they had used the rope. They were not sure how deep it was, but deep enough that none could touch the bottom, including the horses, and they had all dragged themselves across using the rope. They had now removed the line so it was not in the way, and Yona had no choice but to cross on the calliston. She was hoping she could get at least halfway across without climbing up on his back, but she knew it was dangerous. If he panicked, he might crush her by accident.
“That’s right, put your toes in the water.” It was ridiculous treating him like a child, but with all his grunts and grumbling, he sounded like one, albeit a very big one. Reluctantly, Eldola walked into the water, his claws curling up and gripping at the stones as if he was scared of being washed away. In truth, if he had fallen, he would have been more likely to dam the river than float off. “Follow me, come on!” The big calliston huffed and puffed and Yona rolled her eyes. “Alright then, baby calliston!” She smiled and started to sing as she guided him deeper into the river.
I went to harbour
To buy some fresh fish
To make a fine supper
For my lover’s dish
I spoke to the men
Who came in from the sea
Who smiled at me gently
And caught some for me
I walked by the shore
Looking for some green weed
To steam the fresh fish
As my mother taught me
I danced in the waves
Let them play with my toes
Clean my fair skin
Wash away my woes
I went to our home
My lover to hold
But the table was empty
And the fire was cold
I ran to the boat yard
And cried on the pier
For my lover was gone
Now I only had tears
I sat at my table
Eating all of the fish
But it tasted of nothing
Without my lover’s dish.
By the last verse, she and the calliston had reached the middle of the river. Now the water was up to her waist and she waded to the side of him and climbed up on his back and then high on his neck. Leaning down on the top of his head she kissed him once and looked up to see Beva standing near the river bank. Yona waved and Beva waved back.
“Come on, Eldola. For me. Run to Beva!”
The calliston took a long, nervous breath, then suddenly he raised up on his hind legs, lifting her high into the air and plunged into the deep water with a roar, powering his way across. Stride after stride he pushed his way into the current while Beva danced and screamed and waved, and Yona hung on to his head. The water was much deeper than she thought, and his head suddenly pushed beneath the surface, nearly washing her away. But he pulled it back up, spluttering, and growling, and heaved his way on towards the cheering girl. And then he made it. He leapt up on to the far bank and the young girl ran up to him, hugging his head and kissing him all over his soft nose.
Yona, soaked through, lay between his ears, gasping for breath as Beak and Phoran ran over.
“I thought I lost you!” Phoran shouted as Beak bounded up onto Eldola’s back and helped the bedraggled young woman down. Yona sat on the ground with a thump and held out her hand to the great animal. With a small whimper, Eldola reached over with his hand and held hers.
“We did it! You did it,” she said, and smiled so widely that Phoran fell to his knees and kissed her.
“Yes, you did it, girl,” Beak said quietly from behind her. “Come on Beva,” he called over. “I know everything is soaking, but we should head away from here quickly, then we can dry off. Go and round them all up.” Beva made a silly little bow in his direction and rushed off to tell the others to get everything together quickly.
Eldola walked rather than trotted for the next couple of hours while Beak and Daintine rode on ahead to find somewhere to camp. Although they were not far from the old calliston village now, Yona thought it better to do the remaining leagues the following day in case they had trouble finding the right valley. Beak had admitted that it was twenty or more years since he had been here, and his memory of the area wasn’t that good. She had expected the calliston to be more frantic as he had been the day before, but she now wondered if he was nervous. She knew there were no calliston here, but they did not know whether he knew this or not. The nomads suspected that he might have been captured while the callistons were moving, perhaps having already abandoned the village, or following an attack when all callistons were killed. If either of these were so, he might remember there would be no one here. She found it difficult to understand. Whatever had happened, it would have been several centuries back, far beyond the memory of any except the dragons or one of the mythical magicians that were meant to be around. Golla had said that she only knew of two other calliston communities in Bind, and they were to the west. It all worried Yona.
They camped in the woods that ran along the western flank of the Kelaine hills, just by a small brook. They had seen some small woodland boar earlier and Phoran sent out the archers hunting while some of the others foraged for roots and berries.
“Yona, can I say something?” Beva asked, as the young woman loosened the straps of the hide covering the calliston. It was still wet and she wanted to dry it properly. He shook once as she undid the last buckle and the hide slid to the ground and two of the other women pulled it out flat to dry.
“Are you alright, Beva?”
“Can I talk about my mum?”
“If you want.”
“I know we had to leave her behind in the room.” The small girl looked down at her feet. “I know she is dead, but what do you think has happened to her … to her body?” Yona sighed. They had left them all in the room, laid out by the cold cliff wall. They had had no choice and it seemed so long ago even though it was only ten days.
“I don’t know, Beva. They will probably bury them, I would think.”
“They won’t mark the graves or anything, will they.”
“No, I don’t think they will.”
The small girl reached under her shirt and pulled out a simple pendant. “This is my mum’s, Yona. She asked me to hold it in case the men took it from her. She would have liked this place, with the little brook and the small trees. Our village was like this. Will you help me bury it here?” Small tears were running down the girl’s face.
“Oh, Beva,” Yona said, kneeling and holding the girl’s hands. “Wouldn’t you prefer to keep it, or bury it where we are going?”
“No. I have my own pendant that she gave me as a present. I want to keep that because she gave it to me when she was happy. She gave me this when she was sad. I want to bury it somewhere peaceful where it will never be dug up or anything.”
Yona nodded. “Alright, come on.”
She took a shovel from their belongings, and the two of them walked through the trees and up the hill a little way until they reached a quiet glade where the brook bubbled and played amongst the mossy stones. Beva found a place by a rock and Yona took the shovel and dug a hole. The girl balled up the simple pendant and chain, put it in the hole and put a small flat stone on
top of it. Yona then filled it in and Beva placed several more stones as a marker. She then kissed her hand and laid it on top of the rocks.
“Goodbye Mummy,” she said, then threw herself into Yona’s arms, and sobbed while the young woman carried her back down the hill to the camp. They all had so much pain, Yona thought. Perhaps it was not so wrong to try and leave a little of it behind in a quiet, beautiful place such as this.
Eldola stood absolutely still. The breeze blew softly through the small, gentle valley, lifting a little dust here and there where it had collected between the ancient, fallen stone walls. Yona stood beside him and held his large, clawed hand by a finger. It was just the two of them, and the others were waiting a quarter of a league back. She had decided it was better this way as none of them had known what would happen. Beak had scouted it out first and had found it quicker than he thought he would. The calliston let go of her hand and walked slowly into the valley, sniffing the air a little. He pushed at one of the small walls and a couple of the large stones slid to the ground, making him flinch backwards a step. Yona let him look around on his own.
The calliston continued to make his way along one side of the valley, pushing his way past the odd small tree that blocked his way. Yona could not even begin to imagine how much it must have changed in three, perhaps four hundred years. None of them really knew how old Eldola was, and he might even be older. Callistons live up to eight hundred years, though dummerholes not so long,
