Ch. 8
Angeela had been very strange, but then again she might have been normal in this world. I wondered if Miggins was like that, and had to be trained specially to assist me. So far I had nothing to compare Angeela’s home with, but I hoped that smelly and messy was not the norm in Hurdeen.
The night was getting the better of me and I was starting to be very tired. My feet hurt tremendously and I was in serious need of water. I chose a large rock off to the left of the road to rest on. It had vertical lines etched into it which I took to be mile markers. Eight markings, was that for eight miles? Eight kilometers? Or something completely different? There were no lights in any direction and I assumed to be surrounded by endless fields, so each slash must correspond to a larger distance than I am used to.
I looked in the bag I was given, and upon finding a thin piece of lead, or perhaps graphite, and some brown paper I catalogued what was inside. The contents are as followed: One large jar of greenish goo (smells great!), two small loaves of seeded bread (very hard), three sheaf’s of brown paper (now two), one writing instrument, one empty bag (knitted), and various, small, bronze tools, or weapons, or something, and one large jar of water (Yeah!!). I drank half of the water at once; it was very good, and started to work on figuring out what the bronze things were. After messing with them a while to no avail I put them back and started on my way.
There was something oddly calming about walking through an unknown place in the middle of the night by myself. There was also something very scary to it. Every few minutes I would become aware of a noise somewhere in the fields all around and I would stop, listening carefully until the noise died down, and then continued on. Several times I came across deer, they would run when I came close, sending me into a bigger panic. So basically overall it was not the best of nights. But it wouldn’t end there; in fact I began to wonder if it would end at all. An hour after I rested on that big rock another one appeared. Thankfully the moon was full and bright, or I may not have been able to see anything at all. This rock only had seven markings. The next one I came to had six; I was beginning to have a good idea as to how far apart they were. Evidently I was getting closer to something, hopefully the town I was in search of.
I wondered what my dad would have thought of it all. He was a big believer in aliens, and I knew he would be more inquisitive than I have been. He would probably be on the ground sampling the soil, or doing wind sprints to see if this air had the same effect on the lungs. I wished he was there with me, but of course he wasn’t, he was at home, worrying sick about me no doubt. I stopped; the cool breeze rustled my hair as I realized that for the first time in my life I was homesick. It was a sudden feeling almost an urge to get home as fast as possible. I walked on, faster than before. Dimitrius was my target, if I could get to him then things would get better, but . . . I stopped again, why was I going to Dimitrius? There didn’t seem to be any real point, unless he could get me home faster, without even having to deal with the invasion. This new thought brightened my mood just a little as I walked on, now determined that my fate would be determined by Dimitrius and his crazy inventions, one of which would get me home.
"Nice night."
I jumped about a foot, I was so scared for those few seconds that nausea quickly set in and I had to take a few deep breaths in order not to throw up. The voice was easily recognizable, since I had only just heard it the previous day. I looked behind me and sure enough, there stood Poiye. He grinned at me, not because he enjoyed my fright, but because he was truly happy to see me.
"You again." I muttered when my heart slowed enough for me not to think that I was about to have a heart attack. "Why are you here?" I quickly remembered that he didn’t answer questions, so I changed my approach. "You shouldn't be here, it's late."
"You are out late; rest is the best plan for these hours."
"Then you should be asleep."
"My plans have been well thought out . . . and I am right in the middle of them." He added as an afterthought.
"And what would --Uggh!" I forgot again, "Tell me your plans."
"To be with you."
That didn't make me feel any better. I didn't think he was dangerous, but he seemed to be trying to change my mind. I found myself walking faster, trying to put a little distance between us. It didn't work, he was always right there beside me. "I know the reason you are here."
"I doubt it."
"Tell me why you are here, why you are following me."
"You are almost to town, only one hour left." He pointed to the marker rock we were passing; it only had one mark on it.
"Oh I get it, they count hours by walking, not distance."
"The town is Thurm, you will be entering the next province, Thurmine, and the last before your destination."
There is no way he could get so much information about me unless someone briefed him at some point along the way, which would mean that he would have had to been very close by Angeela's and I never saw him, but it would have been easy to hide in the dark.
"You know Dimitrius." I said, carefully using my voice to make it a statement.
"Remember what Angeela said about which way to go."
The way he ignored my poorly disguised questions was really getting old. "Ok look, if you would just answer my questions I would feel a lot better about you following me and I could get over this feeling that you work for the Terror Bringers."
"I do not work for anyone. I am on my own and have been for a long time."
"Tell me why you are here!" I shouted, tired of the dead end the conversation was heading to.
“For you, of course.” He said quietly.
“To help me.”
“To assist you.”
“Well you haven’t really been doing a very good job at that.”
“Yes I have.”
“I’m in the middle of nowhere, walking toward a person I know very little about, and I’m starting to wonder if they can even help me.”
“You have to go through nowhere to get to somewhere.”
“That still doesn’t help me, or assist me as you say.”
We walked on for a long while, mostly in silence, but every now and then I would ask a question, he would ignore me and say a completely random phrase that had no meaning to me at all. Before I knew it I could see the unmistakable glow of fires and knew we were getting close. Dawn was just starting to the east, my right, but I was so tired I couldn’t celebrate the end of the darkness. Poiye must have seen how sleepy I looked; he stopped me just after the light of dawn began illuminating the town’s walls.
“If you need to sleep go to the first house on your left, it is a public bed house, and they will let you in.”
I turned to thank him but he was gone, nowhere to be seen, he didn’t even fade away this time. My eyes wanted badly to close, so instead of looking around some more I headed straight for that house.
A public bed house may seem like a terrible idea to some, and would probably never work back on Earth, but it was wonderful. I don’t remember much about the place that morning, since I walked in half asleep, but they kindly showed me to my room where I promptly fell asleep.
I had a dream that morning, and while I assume it to have been really awesome, I don’t remember much about it except for that Poiye was there, and we were in the convention center where my father took me right before I was taken. He didn’t even look out of place, seeing as how he was wearing Earth clothes.
Poiye Page 8
