Sky Child

by Brenner, T. M.

  "People of the Crag, I am not the Sky Child! It is just a story made up by gray ones from long ago," I say.

  "But you have fulfilled the prophecy Sam, you have brought food and peace to the Crag," says Helm, loudly enough for everyone to hear.

  "Stop! Everyone, please, stand up! Do not worship me! I am like you, and I do not wish to be anything more than one of you," I say.

  "You will always be one of us Sky Child. Thank you for delivering us from evil!" yelled out one of the protectors.

  The crowd starts chanting my name, over and over.

  "I am not the Sky Child!" I yell as loud and as angry as I can.

  That's when I walk away from them.

  46

  Flot follows behind me. I hear the chanting slow and eventually stop. I run as fast as I can to the Crag. To my room. Even though the sun is still in the sky, I lie down on my bed and cover myself with my blanket. Flot eventually comes into the room, completely out of breath.

  "Why did you run off like that?" asks Flot.

  "Because I'm not the Sky Child," I say.

  "But, what if you are?"

  "I'm not."

  "Sam, who knows? Helm was right, you did fulfill the prophecy. You have saved us all."

  "I didn't mean to. I didn't want to. I just wanted revenge on Chaff. I wanted him dead," I say.

  "But you didn't kill him. You're better than he is."

  "No, I am not. Without the Crag, Chaff and Sickle and Scythe will surely die."

  "You don't know that, and you've at least given them a chance to live. A chance to prove that they can take care of themselves. That they aren't completely useless. You gave them more of a chance than I would have given them. I would have thrown rocks at them and stuck them with spears."

  "No you wouldn't, Flot, because your heart is better than that," I say.

  "You don't know that either. You don't know how much hate I have in my heart because of them," says Flot.

  "I do know, because I feel it too. But if all you cared about was killing them, there would be no room left in your heart for Till," I say.

  "What do you mean?" asks Flot.

  I wait a moment before I speak again.

  "Just think about what I have said. It is up to you to decide for yourself what you feel. But know that your heart is capable of amazing things, even when it is hurting the most. You think you didn't kill Sickle and Scythe because I asked you to wait. If you truly had murder in your heart, there was nothing I could say or do that would have stopped you. You would have done it, and the Crag would have fallen. But you chose the right way, Flot. You. Inside your heart."

  Flot doesn't say a word.

  "I'm tired. I just want to be left alone," I say, covering my face with my blanket.

  Eventually, I hear Flot walk out of the room. I fall asleep for a while. The many nights of staying up late, sneaking in and out of the Crag, have caught up with me. When I finally do wake up, I hear people passing by our room. It must be time for the feast. I force myself to get out of bed, because my stomach is killing me.

  Instead of going to the feast, I go to the kitchen. Cleave is there.

  "I was wondering when you would show up. People don't know what to make of you. Everyone believes that you're the Sky Child. Before, people had wondered. But now..."

  "What do you think?" I ask.

  "I think you're still the same old Sam you have always been. Maybe a little more angry with people, but still the same Sam."

  "Thank you, Cleave."

  "Don't thank me. It should be me thanking you. I don't know what I was thinking when I picked those wolfsbane stems," says Cleave.

  "I do. You just cared about Jet. He would have appreciated you trying to kill Chaff," I say, smiling.

  Cleave laughs, but part of her laughter is mixed with sadness. I can tell that she feels bad for what she almost did.

  Cleave hands me a plate of food.

  "Oh, is this new? What is it called?" I ask.

  "It's called Steak Chaff," says Cleave.

  "Wait, why?"

  "It's cooked in a tomato sauce. And I added some beer to make it bitter."

  It takes me a while to stop laughing.

  "Thank you. I needed that," I say.

  "Glad I could help. Do you know when you might be hunting again?" asks Cleave.

  "Soon, Cleave. But I want to give things time to go back to normal," I say.

  "They will. You have already done everything in the prophecy, so people will slowly start to forget, or not really care anymore. That is the great thing about people: memories fade over time. That is why we can forgive."

  "Some things still can't be forgiven."

  "No, no they can't," says Cleave.

  I turn and take my plate back to our room.

  47

  Ebb shows up at our room and waits as I finish my meal.

  "So I guess I'm not the Sky Child," says Ebb.

  "I don't know, you still could be. If it weren't for you, I might be dead. You also helped me get the information I needed to get rid of Chaff forever. Beat some sense into me. How about we say we are both the Sky Child?"

  "I guess that would be okay," says Ebb. "So what will you do now that everyone thinks of you as a sky god?"

  "Well, I think the harvesters will probably need some help figuring out how to make things grow. We still need to find out where Chaff kept his seeds. Once those are taken care of, I guess I will keep hunting," I say.

  "So you aren't going to lead the Crag?"

  "No, the Crag doesn't need another Chaff."

  "You aren't Chaff," says Ebb.

  "Maybe not, but I don't like the idea of one person being more powerful than everyone else."

  "That is because you are a good person, Sam."

  "I don't know that I am, Ebb. I still feel like I've killed Chaff and his sons. Maybe I didn't use a knife, or a spear, or a sling to do it, but I sent them off to their death. Maybe that makes me a murderer and a coward, because I didn't even bother to kill them myself, with my own hands," I say.

  "You know that what you did was best for everyone in the Crag," says Ebb. "No one sees you as a killer but yourself."

  "In the end, whose opinion matters most?" I ask.

  "The people that love you."

  "If only that were true. Thank you for trying to make me feel better, but I don't think I will ever forgive myself for this."

  "Then learn to deal with the guilt. Flot still needs you," says Ebb.

  "No, he doesn't. He is ready. Flot is stronger now, and he has Till," I say.

  "The hunters need you."

  "No, they don't. Mast and Helm can lead them. I will lead the hunters, but they would survive without me."

  We sit in silence for a while.

  "I..." Ebb starts to say.

  "You what?" I ask.

  Ebb stares at me for a moment, like she has something to say, but can't say it. The look on her face changes though. I can tell she has given up on whatever it was she wanted to say to me.

  "I guess I don't need to protect you anymore," says Ebb.

  I hadn't even thought about that.

  "I guess you don't," I say.

  Ebb turns to leave.

  "Wait, Ebb," I say.

  "Yes?" she says, still turned away from me.

  "Thank you for being there for me. For being the one person I could trust. I... have a hard time with trust. I just want you to know I really couldn't have done any of it without you."

  "Is that all?" she asks.

  "I don't understand what you mean."

  "Is that all you had to say?"

  I think for a moment. Was there anything I forgot to say? I can't think of anything. Was there something she wanted me to say?

  "That is all I can think of."

  "Then I will see you tomorrow at training," she says, and walks off.

  I feel like I said something, or didn't say something, and it bothered Ebb. My mind goes back over what we'd just talked about
, and I can't understand what I said wrong. Sometimes I have a hard time understanding people, and I think that maybe I hurt her somehow. I just wish that she would talk to me, and tell me what is bothering her.

  I try my best not to worry about it as I take off my clothes and lie down. I pull the blanket up to my face and roll onto my side. It doesn't take me very long to fall asleep, because the food has made me tired. I start to dream, and finally my dreams aren't of Jet dying.

  48

  Even though I'm awake, it takes me a while to force myself out of bed. Flot has already left our room. I put on my armor and stretch my neck, because it's stiff from sleeping so long. The cracking sound comes, and I feel much better.

  I put my knives in their sheaths. I no longer carry sky spears. Anchor made me a holder for my arrows, which I strap on my back. The other hunters that used sky spears have switched to using a bow and arrows. Now that I am used to how it works, and Stanchion and Jib have improved it, it is more accurate than the sky spears. I can even hit birds now, although there isn't a lot of meat on a bird.

  After I pick up my bow, I make my way to the mouth of the Crag. A few people have already started gathering, waiting for training. When I make it outside, and people see me, they cheer. I shake my head back and forth, and put up a hand, which tells them to stop. The cheering dies down. We wait together, until all of the hunters have arrived.

  It surprises me that Flot is almost the last to arrive. It makes me sad when Ebb actually is the last to arrive. She does not look happy, and the closer she gets to me as she walks to the front, the more unhappy she seems to be. Unfortunately, I cannot worry about that now, because people are counting on me to lead.

  Part of me wants to give up. To let someone else lead. To let someone else hunt. But I don't know what I would do with my life if I wasn't hunting. Maybe, like Jet, I would be happier with the harvest. Bringing things to life, instead of killing them. No more blood on my hands. My floor would finally be gray again.

  I think these thoughts, but I know that the Crag needs me and my skills at the hunt. People rely on me for food, and now they also rely on me for safety. The rules that protect the lives of the hunters are my rules. People listen to me because they believe I'm the Sky Child.

  Everyone believes it now, except for me. If I leave, there is no way of knowing if the hunters will go back to their murdering ways. Only a few of the hunters would kill a person, but it is a big enough problem that I am not willing to take the chance.

  So for now I will continue doing what I have always done: survive. It is not what I want to be doing, but I see no other way. Maybe, eventually, all of the hunters will become good people. People I can trust not to kill. But right now I don't trust them. They are dangerous.

  The training goes well. I spend most of my time calling out different group names, and having them attack imaginary animals, so that the hunters get used to working as families. I also have everyone practice with their weapons. I am not the best with a bow, a girl a few snows younger than me is. Her name is Riley. She almost never misses, just like me with my sling.

  I am better now with the bow and arrow, but it doesn't feel like a part of me yet. Maybe with experience I will improve. But now I am just okay with it. I also realize that some of the bows are better than others. I don't think Anchor, Jib and Stanchion have figured out the best way to make them yet. Since my bow is one of the oldest, it doesn't seem to shoot as far as the newer ones.

  Once training is over, I watch as Ebb quickly leaves to avoid me. Flot cuts through the crowd and walks up to me.

  "Sam, is everything okay with Ebb?"

  "It doesn't seem like it, but I am not sure why. I don't think I did anything wrong," I say.

  "Well, you are kind of dumb. Maybe you just aren't smart enough to realize what you did wrong," says Flot.

  I resist the urge to hit Flot. He hits back harder now than he used to.

  "Yeah, well you aren't the brightest either, Flot. You still haven't realized you're in love with Till," I say.

  "Yes I have," says Flot.

  "Finally!" I say.

  "Yeah, well, what about you and Ebb?" asks Flot.

  "What do you mean? She's just my friend."

  "Yeah, you are dumb."

  Now I really want to hit Flot.

  "Anyway, I'm heading in," says Flot.

  He turns and walks away. Now I'm standing outside the Crag, all by myself. It still feels that way sometimes, like I'm all alone. Even when I had both Jet and Flot in my life, it always felt like something was missing. I have heard people say that when you join with someone, it feels like you are one person. I don't know if I will every really feel whole.

  I go back to the Crag and take off my armor, and then decide to wash off in the loud waters. I stare at the Great Fire as I dry off. After a while, it feels like the Great Fire is looking back at me. Gravel is there, and his stare also makes me feel uncomfortable. So I look him in the eyes, and eventually he looks back down at the fire.

  There is nothing for me to do but wait. Flot doesn't want to talk to me, and neither does Ebb. Most everyone else wants to ask me about what it's like to be the Sky Child, something I really don't want to talk about now.

  So I go back to our room and rest. I lie down on my mat, but I can't sleep. I look up at the ceiling and wonder what it would be like to live outside of the Crag. It doesn't seem like there is much keeping me here in the Crag anymore, now that Flot is strong, and trying so hard to become a man.

  But where would I go? I don't even know if there is anyone else out there. People in another cave, like us, or in homes like before the End War. There has to be someone out there, someone else. I guess it doesn't really matter, because if I left the Crag, I don't know how I would find them.

  When I am sure that I finally need to leave for the hunt, I put on my armor. I don't hurry to put it on, because I want to be the last person that shows up for the hunt. Once I am finally ready, I find that I got my wish. I am the last to arrive.

  I look over at Flot and smile at him. He returns the smile, but it seems like his heart isn't really in it. When I look at Ebb, I can tell that she's still upset with me, but has calmed down some. Hopefully, that means she has started forgiving me for whatever it is I have done. I just want things to be like they were. I miss having her as a friend.

  Instead of giving commands, I start walking toward a place I know where the hunting is good. I can tell that the hunters don't know what to make of things right now, but they decide to follow me anyway. I just keep walking, and they keep following, until we reach the place where I know we will fill our kill bags. Only there are no animals there.

  In the distance, I hear a sound. My mind flashes back to Lagan's death. All I can think to myself is 'please, not this, not now.' It is the sound of a dragon. It is strange, because we are in a place I know to be safe from dragons, otherwise I wouldn't have brought us here.

  I realize that I have made a mistake. I look down at the bow I carry. An arrow will never take down a dragon. It was a miracle that I was able to take one down with a sky spear. I must have found a weak spot on the one that I killed. I think the size of the spear I used may have helped take down the dragon. But even if I hit the same place again with an arrow, I do not think it will be big enough to kill it.

  I look over at the other hunters. Everyone that was using a sky spear now carries a bow. We have nothing that we can use to protect ourselves. We are doomed, and it is my fault. I hadn't even thought about needing to protect the hunters from another dragon. Part of me hoped that the one I killed was the last of its kind. I was wrong.

  "Everyone, stay in your families, but hide! Try to find a large rock to hide behind, or a tree. Spread out as far as you can, so that the dragon cannot hurt all of us with one breath. And remember, aim for the back of the dragon as it passes over us. That is where it is weakest," I yell.

  The hunters do a very good job of staying together in their groups, and the groups spread out f
ar enough that it will take the dragon quite a while to kill us all. But that is what the dragon will eventually do. It will kill every single one of us unless I come up with a plan.

  I turn to look at Ebb. She stayed with me. So have Mast and Helm. We are hiding behind a small rock. There is not enough protection for us if the dragon comes straight at us. I have an idea, and I have to hope that the other hunters can distract the dragon long enough so that I can make it work.

  "Ebb, Mast, use these," I say, handing each of them a knife. "I need you to turn your big spears into sky spears."

  I can only watch as they both start to scrape the bark from the spears. They work as fast as they can, and I have to hope that it is fast enough. I yell to the rest of the hunters.

  "If any of you carries a knife, use it to turn a big spear into a sky spear. If you finish, go on to the next big spear. Do not stop making sky spears. We need them if we are going to survive the dragon."

  The dragon is still far off, but I can hear its roar very clearly now. I can just make out its pair of evil glowing eyes in the distance, searching for us. It knows we are here. How, I do not know. But it doesn't seem like it's seen us yet.

  I watch Ebb scraping as fast as she can. She now has a sharp tip at the end, but there is still too much bark on the spear. It will make it too heavy to throw well.

  She looks up at me, looks toward the dragon, and starts scraping even faster. I worry that she will slip with the knife and cut herself, but she is doing a very good job. I just hope she is able to finish before the dragon reaches us.

  It grows closer. I can now see the shiny, hardened scales of its skin. Its wings look different than the other dragon's, as does its color. This dragon is black like a moonless night, but the dragon I killed was red like the color of blood. Maybe there are many kinds of dragons.

  There is something else that is different about this dragon. It's not moving as fast toward us as the other one. It also isn't breathing fire. The other times I have seen a dragon, they already would have been breathing fire at us. That's when the dragon does the strangest thing: it lands. It is far enough away from us that we cannot hit it with our arrows or stones.