An Alex Hawk Time Travel Adventure (Book 2): Lost In Kragdon-Ah

by Inmon, Shawn

  Werda-ak was the first to return, not only with the horses, but also a fat trout that would easily feed all four of them.

  Senta-eh followed closely behind, holding a dead fox—the grita-ta, as it was known in the universal language of Kragdon-ah.

  The old man felt beside him, touched a pot too big for just one person to cook in, and pushed it toward Alex. “I will share my vegetables with you, and gladly accept some of your fish or grita-ta in my stew.”

  Alex shook his head, wondering, but only said, “Clean and cube the fish. We’ll eat that tonight.”

  Werda-ak set about his assigned task.

  Senta-eh said, “I will clean this grita-ta, the hunter of rabbits, and wrap him in some savory leaves. He will be good for lunch tomorrow.” She took two steps, stopped, and finally asked, “How did you know where the grita-ta was?”

  “I listen. The rabbit told me he was there.”

  She looked at Alex. In Kragdon-ah, they don’t make a circle with their finger beside their head to indicate someone is crazy. If they did, she might well have done so at that moment. Instead, she just set to stripping the fur off the grita-ta.

  The old man held a finger up and said, “If you don’t have any use for the pelt and are just going to discard it, I will put it to use.”

  “Of course,” Senta-eh said. “I will do a careful job of it.”

  Alex smiled to himself and gave into his own curiosity. “Are you out here all alone?”

  “Of course. I have lived so long that there was no one to go with me on this journey. I went to visit the village I was born in, probably for the final time. Just to say goodbye and indulge myself in old memories.”

  “Do you have a village now?”

  “Yes,” he said, but didn’t elaborate.

  To Alex’s eye, he didn’t look like an otkan. Alex wanted to ask, ‘How does a blind old man wander the land and not get eaten or robbed?’ but could not think of a polite way to frame the question. His father had taught him that if there was no polite way to say something, it did not need to be said.

  “I am Manta-ak. That is Senta-eh, cleaning the grita-ta, and young Werda-ak is our fisherman.”

  “Pleasure. I am Tokin-ak.”

  Alex was skeptical. Tokin simply meant ancient in the universal language. Werda-ak smiled widely at him, in on the joke.

  Tokin-ak turned his blind eyes on Werda-ak as though he had seen his expression and said, “Oh, yes. I had another name once, but that name has passed into history. Now I am just Tokin-ak.”

  Werda-ak’s smile disappeared and he looked at Alex with sudden superstition. Alex interpreted the look as Is this a devil walking among us?

  The steady rainfall had been pattering on the leaves over their heads, but it let up and the quiet was lovely. The silence was broken almost immediately by bugs chittering and birds warbling in the oak above their heads.

  “I am going to commune with our brother rabbit,” Tokin-ak said. He stood easily, and his back was straight, although he did use a rod as a combination of walking stick and cane. He was uncanny in his ability to see things he should not have been able to see.

  When the old man was out of earshot, Werda-ak leaned toward Alex and said, “I’ve never seen anyone like him before.”

  Tokin-ak, still walking away, said, “There is no one like me,” but it seemed to be more a conversation with himself than an answer to the boy.

  Werda-ak looked surprised, and Alex decided to not talk about the man, no matter how far away he was.

  Tokin-ak located a moss-covered boulder, sat down, and sighed. A moment later, an extraordinary thing happened. A brown rabbit with long ears, hopped in front of the old man and sat in the grass. If there was a conversation between the two, it was silent.

  Alex busied himself with turning Tokin-ak’s carrots and potatoes into a fish stew and Werda-ak ventured into the woods to find some herbs to make it tasty. Before long, the stew bubbled nicely over the fire and Tokin-ak returned from communing with the rabbit.

  “I am fortunate to have been placed in your path today. This will be much more delicious than my simple vegetables alone.” He reached into a small bag beside him and pulled out three wooden spoons. “I only have two extra. I hope you don’t mind sharing.”

  “No,” Werda-ak said, “we share everything.”

  “Very companionable,” Tokin-ak agreed, then managed to dip his own long-handled ladle into the pot and bring it to his lips where he could blow on it, all while managing to not spill a drop.

  Alex handed the two extra spoons to Werda-ak and Senta-eh. He was beginning to figure out that the miraculous might be commonplace with this man. He contented himself with using his knife to stab bits of the stew.

  “Which direction are you traveling?” Alex asked.

  “East, the same as you.” He sampled the soup and said, “Lovely.” He turned his face to Alex. “You are seeking the Chosen One?”

  Alex was instantly on guard. He had begun to trust the strange old man, but this question raised his hackles. There was no possible way he could know that unless he was working with the invaders from Lusta-ah.

  The old man smiled. “Relax, my friend. I am not one of them. I can just hear the stories written on the wind. We all can, but my ears are more open than most.”

  “How do you know of her?”

  “I knew the day she was born. I felt her birth. Her arrival had been foretold for generations. I knew she was coming, just not where.”

  Alex was a pragmatic man, prone to believing only the things he could see, feel, and touch himself. He did not know what to make of this strange man and his impossible statements.

  “Yes, we seek her. We will find her.”

  The old man was quiet for a time, then said, “I believe you will.” He smiled, and said, “But will you know what to do once you locate her again? Your journey will be long and dangerous, but you will have friends like myself to help you along. She has seen to that. Once you find her, though, it will be just you.”

  “I’ll take my chances,” Alex said, a little defensively.

  “Of course you will,” the Tokin-ak said, laughing. “That is why you were the only person that could have been chosen for this task. You are the very embodiment of the rest of the prophecy.”

  They ate in silence for a time, the only sound the renewed rain above them and the slurping of the fish stew.

  Eventually, Tokin-ak said, “I will help you on your journey, if you want.”

  Alex considered. If he had been asked if an ancient blind man could help him find Lanta-eh earlier in the day, he would have scoffed. Since then, he had realized Tokin-ak knew things he should not know and saw much more than most sharp-eyed people ever did.

  Senta-eh and Werda-ak stared at Alex, waiting to see what his response would be.

  “I stopped today because I thought we might be able to help you. Now I see that it is more likely you who can help us.”

  “It is a rare man who, when presented with new evidence, can change his mind. It’s settled, then. I will not slow you down. I rarely sleep any more. I am too close to that eternal sleep. Whenever you want to be on the road, my alecs-ta and I will be ready.”

  “Can I ask you a question?” Alex asked.

  “Of course.”

  “How do you manage to travel without being bothered by predators, either animal or human?”

  “Beyond my cooking pot, which I will admit I am terribly proud of, I don’t have anything for human predators to take. And who would want to kill or rob an old man just for a cooking pot and a few vegetables? As to the hungry animals out there, I believe I give off an aura that I would not be good eating. I will be tough and stringy and perhaps slightly poisonous. At least enough so that I would give them indigestion.” He smiled impishly, realizing that this was an inadequate explanation. “Tomorrow, as we ride, I will tell you my story, then you will know the truth, such as it is.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  A Whirling Dervis
h

  As was their habit, the small caravan was up and moving before the first muted light of dawn showed in the east. If they were worn down by more than a month of this extreme schedule, they didn’t show it. Alex was trained for the proper mentality of seeking a long-term goal. Senta-eh was a warrior in a tribe that rarely fought battles and so was happy to be out adventuring.

  And Werda-ak? He was a young boy with a thirst to see what lay beyond the horizon, and knew that this was likely his only chance to fulfill that dream.

  So, even in increasingly bad weather and unchanging scenery, they marched on, if not in good humor, at least maintaining their equilibrium.

  As he had promised, Tokin-ak was awake even before Alex, although it wasn’t immediately obvious. The old man’s eyes, as cloudy as the sky during a snowstorm, were open, but they always seemed to be open, unblinking, and searching for information from far away.

  When Alex first stirred, the old man said, “Time to start our day, then?”

  “Yes,” Alex said, moving to some bushes at the edge of their camp to relieve himself. Both Senta-eh and Werda-ak thought this modesty was odd, but Alex did not try to break himself of it.

  As soon as they had filled their packs, not forgetting the fox that would be their dinner that night, they pointed their horses and alecs-ta east, and let them do the navigating. They had long since given up on the idea of picking up any of the invaders’ trail.

  Typically, the three of them rode in single file, but today Alex pulled up beside Tokin-ak. “Have you ever heard of Lusta-ak?”

  The old man, as was his wont, did not answer immediately. “No, at least not by that name. Is that the place you seek?”

  “Yes. We started weeks behind the invaders who kidnapped Lanta-eh and have not made up any ground, at least as far as I can tell. We’ve completely lost their trail, but a group of them stayed behind in Tonton-ah to kill us.”

  “Ah, Tonton-ah.” A wistful smile touched his lips. “They did not know you are hard to kill.”

  Alex glanced at Tokin-ak, wondering how he knew that.

  “No, they didn’t. But, while they were waiting for us, one of them became very friendly with one of the young Tonton-ah girls, and he told her they were from Lusta-ah.”

  “Do you have an idea where Lusta-ah is?”

  “An idea, yes. I think it is far from here.”

  “Do you wonder how they knew to come and take her?”

  “Yes, of course. I have no idea how they knew. Do you?”

  “I don’t know. But, there are possibilities. They might have someone like me. Someone who senses things.”

  The old man held up his hand. “Listen.”

  Aside from the clopping of the animals feet, Alex could hear nothing. He surveyed their surroundings, but could not see anyone or anything out of the ordinary.

  Ahead, two men stepped from behind a tree. They did not go through the pretense of raising a hand in greeting. One of the men was huge, covered in scars and carrying a stone ax so big Alex wasn’t sure he would be able to pick it up. The other was smaller, but only in comparison to the heavily-muscled giant beside him. The smaller man was lean, and held a stabbing sword like Senta-eh carried.

  Alex scanned from side to side.

  Stupid. I let myself get too involved in our conversation and was not careful enough. We could have broken this trap easily, but now we have stepped into it instead.

  Four more men stepped from behind the trees on either side of them.

  As quietly as possible, Senta-eh reached for her bow.

  The lean man with the sword spoke up, pointing at her. “Don’t do that. I have more men in the trees with arrows trained on you right now. If you string that bow, they’ll fire on you.”

  Alex brought his horse to a halt half a dozen strides away from the two men.

  “I guess a small group is much more attractive to robbers than a single old man,” Tokin-ak observed.

  The lean man had an angry, mean expression on his face. “Do you think it’s right that some people have fine horses to ride, while other good people go wanting?”

  Alex knew there was no reason to answer. They could either choose to give up their horses and bags, or they could fight.

  Over his shoulder, the sword-wielder loudly said, “If any of them move for a weapon, take them down.”

  Alex didn’t move his head, but his eyes scanned the trees. If there were warriors with bows amongst the limbs, they were disguised as leaves. He raised his hands and said, “We don’t want any trouble.”

  “That’s good. You climb down, we’ll climb up and that will be the end of it, then.”

  Out of the corner of his mouth, Alex spoke in Winten-ah. “There’s no one in the trees. When I make my move, string your bow, and shoot the giant in the leg. Werda-ak, grab your hammer and we’ll deal with the others.”

  Alex raised his hands in a gesture of surrender and eased down from his horse. “Let me help the old man down. He will be stiff from the day’s ride.”

  When the man with the sword saw Alex’s size, he visibly relaxed. He turned to the giant and said, “A tiny man, an old man, a woman, and a boy. We are lucky today.”

  Alex reached up and helped Tokin-ak down from his alecs-ta. As he got down from the animal, the old man pulled his walking stick from behind him then stood, bent over. Which was strange because he had never been bent over before.

  The six men closed on them, already arguing over who would be riding which animal and who would continue to walk.

  The leader grabbed Alex’s shoulder and pulled him away from Tokin-ak.

  Alex went with it, then dropped down and did a leg sweep on the man. He was on the ground before he realized he was falling. Alex whistled once, sharply.

  Monda-ak, who they had not seen, came vaulting out of the trees and latched onto the thigh of a man bearing a cudgel. The man tried to beat at the dog with it, but could not get a proper angle and instead, fell to the ground screaming. Monda-ak closed his jaws around the man’s legs and genitals and shook his head. The screaming intensified.

  Senta-eh strung her bow and managed to nock an arrow and fire in the time it took the lumbering giant to take three steps toward Alex. The first arrow hit him just above the left knee and before he could scream, another arrow buried itself in his right thigh. He did not go down, but Senta-eh ran at him, her short stabbing sword in the ready position. While the giant tried to remove the arrows, she ran him through just below his breast bone.

  All of which was to be expected. The three of them had traveled and trained together for many long days.

  What happened next was not to be expected.

  The two men on the left side of the trail ran toward Alex, one with an ax, the other with a hammer. Before they could reach him, Tokin-ak stepped toward them and swung his walking stick, slamming it into the nose of the first man. Blood sprayed from the broken nose and the man was momentarily blinded.

  The old man whirled like a dervish and, while the second man looked on in astonishment, slammed the end of the stick into the man’s forehead, knocking him over.

  That left a single man for Werda-ak to deal with, but when that man saw how the rest of the fight was going, he turned and sprinted into the woods. Before he got fifty feet away, Senta-eh nocked another arrow and shot it into his buttocks. The man went down in a heap.

  It was a rout, as none of the highwaymen had laid so much as a finger on any of them. But, Alex, Senta-eh, and Werda-ak could only stare open-mouthed at Tokin-ak.

  “I am old, not dead,” Tokin-ak said. He walked, back straight, to his alecs-ta, climbed up and said, “What do you want to do with them?”

  Alex surveyed the enemy. Their leader was down and all the fight had gone out of him. The giant was dead or dying. The man Monda-ak had attacked was in agony and missing several of his most precious bits. The two men who had been beaten by Tokin-ak sat in the dirt trying to figure out what had hit them. The man with the arrow through his butt crawle
d away into the woods mewling pitifully.

  “I think we’ve done enough. They can deal with the dead and dying. You three start on ahead. Monda-ak and I will wait behind a while and see if they regroup. If they do, we’ll put them down permanently. If they want to make themselves scarce, we’ll join you shortly.”

  Tokin-ak climbed up on his alecs-ta and started down the road. As Senta-eh passed by Alex, she said quietly, “We might have to make him our new scout.”

  “Good idea,” Tokin-ak echoed from down the path.

  Alex turned to the man who had been so disdainful of him a few minutes before. “Every time you try to rob someone on a trail, you are taking the risk that a man older than your grandfather might kick your ass. If that happened to me, I’d find a new line of work.”

  Alex jumped up on his horse and listened carefully as he moved away. The only sound that came from the men he left behind was groans and dying gurgles. He urged his still-unnamed horse to a gallop, which was essentially top speed for the animals unless they were being chased by a bear. They had stamina enough to last forever, but no top end speed.

  Eventually, he caught up to his crew and pulled alongside Tokin-ak.

  “Are you ever going to tell me how you do those things?”

  “I already have. You just need to listen.”

  “I don’t think I’ll ever learn to listen like you do.”

  “I think you’re right,” Tokin-ak agreed. “I was just about to tell you how I came to be where I am. Do you still want to hear?”

  Alex looked out at the long, curving trail in front of him. “I have promises to keep, and many miles before I sleep,” he said, quoting Robert Frost, dead so many centuries.

  “I was born in a village called Velta-ah, in a lovely little spot where two rivers and a mountain met. I did not lose my vision because of an accident or illness. I have not seen with my eyes from the moment I was born. The people of Velta-ah are not cruel people, but they don’t have time to care for an invalid, either. If I wanted to survive, I had to make sure I was as capable as anyone else.”

  Alex glanced at the old man, unable to picture him ever having been anything other than capable.