by Duane Alston
“Grab something to eat and let's get cracking, there's a new world out there ready to explore!” Jalaby felt that this bright day was the beginning of their Journey and he said a silent thank you to his Uncle and parents for their help.
Chapter 9
In a short time they had saddled the horses, loaded the kacks and led the animals out into the morning sunshine. Despite the sunshine, the morning air was cold and Jalaby pulled his coat together cinching the straps tighter. They all stood momentarily taking it in. The town around them was small and contained around ten dilapidated buildings with most of the roofs caved in. Jalaby felt lucky that at least one roof had withstood time. The street ran directly perpendicular to the river and turned into a road that could be seen wandering into the distant horizon and disappeared behind some barren hills. An uninviting land, was Jalaby's first thought. The other end of the street headed back towards the bridge but also turned and went parallel up river. Jalaby took a deep breath and thought to himself that it was time. Time to begin the journey and with that, he climbed on the back of Willow and reached down for Sarah.
“I think I should ride with Tom and Connel an equal amount, to save your horse or I should start off by walking.” Sarah said looking up at Jalaby.
“Sarah, Willow is the strongest horse of the three and your weight would add little to his burden and as far as walking, we will all be walking a good part of the journey when we let our horses rest a bit. So come on,” and he again reached down for her and this time, grabbing his hand, she pulled up to land behind him. “We'll try to find you a horse along the way, so you won't be stuck with me.” With that, Sarah pinched him in the back. “Ow! We better find you a horse quickly or I'll be black and blue.”
“That's right, I like to see where I'm going and not be stuck with you blocking my view,” she finished and put her arms around his waist and gave him a hug.
The gesture bewildered him since it was in such contrast to the words she was saying. All he could manage to say was, “Oh, OK.” He looked up to see Tom and Connel leaning on their saddles smiling at them. Without hesitation, Jalaby steered Willow down the street towards the bridge, or as they could now see, what was left of it. They stopped briefly and gazed at the charred remains that ended a short way out just before the fog. They looked but they could not see the other side of the river.
“OK, enough reminiscing,” Tom said laughing. “Where to, refresh my memory.”
“Well, according to what my parents told me, we are to go two days journey upriver, there is a mill there. If we are lucky, there will be someone there with a map, which we can follow for the rest of the trip.” Off they went, riding north on a main path along the Crieton river.
The mid-morning was crystal blue skies and sunshine. The warmth was a welcome replacement for the cold chill of last night and the early morning. Tom stayed in the lead, followed by Connel, then Jalaby with Sarah. Each had a kack that trailed behind, tied to their respective owner's horse. The morning had been tranquil and the surrounding area barren, and as Tom put it, boring. The road had not been used for quite some time and patches of grass and weeds had taken over much of the area they rode in. The only saving grace was the fact that nothing much seemed to grow in the area that they rode through, so the road was passable.
The road never strayed too far from the river, that now was about a mere hundred feet below them, down a sheer cliff face. There were occasional turns away from the river but the road always came back. This was obviously done to go around a natural rock barrier. All in all, Jalaby was quite disappointed by the terrain. No one said much during the morning, but Tom's continuous noisy singing could be heard echoing down the river canyon and left little room for conversation. Finally he must have grown tired and lapsed into silence. That had been earlier and now after walking their horses for about an hour, they mounted again and Tom took the lead.
“How you doing Sarah,” Jalaby asked as they followed the others.
“I don't know about you, but I don't like this land at all. There are hardly any trees, just scrub brush. It reminds me of the land down toward the southern end of Onan,” Sarah finished and leaned back to stretch.
“I didn't know you had ever been away from Bridgetown very much,” Jalaby said.
“I have an Uncle that lives down there and raises sheep. He has a large ranch but I don't like it. Give me the forest anytime,” she said with joy in her voice.
“Well I hope that it will not all be like this, but only time will tell. We have another day and a half. I just hope we can find some sort of shelter or it's going to be a cold night tonight.” Just then up ahead Jalaby saw Tom come to a complete stop and those following soon rode up beside him. They all peered at the rotting bridge that stood before them. It crossed a small creek that fell in a hundred-foot waterfall to the Crieton river below. What left them speechless at the moment, was the fact that they could see the waterfall. In fact, they were now able to see the land across the Crieton river, a hundred feet below.
“Looks like the far northeast side of Onan down there. I don't see any farms or people, must be the Fellowtown Forest,” Tom said and since no one answered, he turned his eyes back to the bridge before them.
“What do you make of the bridge?” Jalaby asked no one in particular and getting no response continued. “We better dismount and test this before we cross, if we can cross.”
The plank bridge looked as old as the town they had just left and there were no indications that it had been used recently. It was only about seven horse lengths across but the creek below it looked quite deep and fast, based on the waterfall it was making. There had been rails on both sides, but some time ago the rail on the side towards the waterfall had collapsed and now hung from only one end. Everyone dismounted and Jalaby handed his reins to Sarah. Moving tentatively forward, he pushed on the planking with his feet. It held.
“OK, let's get some rope and give this a real test.”
“Wait, why don't Connel and I go up stream of this creek and see if there is a crossing?” Tom asked as he looked up stream. “It doesn't look like much of a creek.”
“It may not look like much, but it's deep and fast here, but I like your idea. Yeah, go ahead, we'll wait here with the kacks.” Jalaby moved back from the edge and took the reins of both their kacks.
Tom and Connel moved upstream, leaving Sarah and Jalaby alone. Jalaby felt uncomfortable and tried to make conversation.
“I sure hope there is a better crossing upstream because this bridge doesn't look that safe,” he ventured not looking at Sarah.
Sarah stared at him and laughed. “Jalaby you are sure funny, we've known each other for all our lives practically and you just seem to have a hard time being around me. Well yes, I hope they find a crossing too. I don't relish pulling you out when you fall off the bridge and the next time you test a bridge you should tie a rope to you or something. You could have fallen.” Sarah said firmly.
“I know what I'm doing, I didn't put much weight on the planks,” Jalaby said hotly.
“It's not the planks I'm worried about! Look at the erosion around the first support, this whole front part is ready to give way.” Sarah said as if lecturing in a class.
Jalaby had to omit she was right and move a bit further away from the edge, but he wasn't going to back down.
“Well, I'll concede that, but as leader I may have to take some risks before this journey is done and I don't need you second guessing me.” Jalaby finished looking directly at Sarah, whose smile now only exasperated him.
“Well that I will concede also, but I would rather you only take calculated risks and leave the foolish ones to others. I don't want to have to ride Willow by myself do I?”
Jalaby relaxed. “No I wouldn't want that. I don't think you can handle him.”
“Yeah, right,” Sarah said sarcastically and they both whipped their heads upstream to see Tom and Connel closing in on them.
“No crossing up that way for many miles.
The width of the creek stays the same so the depth will as well. This was obviously carved out over thousands of years. The bridge is our only crossing,” Connel finished sounding not very pleased.
“OK, looks like we have no choice. I'll get some rope out and tie it around me and the other end around Willow's saddle so I can go over first, that way if I fall I won't go flying down that hundred foot drop. Also, start unloading all the packs. We'll pull the packs across by rope, that should minimize the total load that is on the bridge as each animal crosses.” Everyone began to unload their animals without protest, although from the look Jalaby saw on Tom's face, he expected a complaint or two. Jalaby left the saddle on Willow and connected one end of the rope securely to the saddle horn. The other end he tied around his waist.
“OK, I'm ready. Connel, back Willow up till the rope is tight and as I move across the bridge, move Willow in my direction, but keep the rope somewhat tight. This might keep me from taking a bath today. Everyone else stay well back from the bridge, if it collapses, it could cause part of the area around the bridge to go with it.” As on command, they all move back to what they figured was a safe distance and when Connel was positioned, Jalaby made his way onto the bridge.
As Jalaby walked he began to purposely jump up a down, which brought a shout from Sarah.
“What are you doing, trying to kill yourself,” she said sounding alarmed.
“Well, I certainly don't want to lose any of our horses and they weigh quite a bit more that I do, so I need to test this the best way I can.” Jalaby bounced some more while the others looked on anxiously. Finally he arrived at the other side. “OK, appears to be better than it looks. Let's get Willow over here to help pull the packs over. Connel, take the rope that I tied to the saddle horn and tie it to his reins. Take a second rope, that you will hold, and tie one end to the reins also. If he gets to be moving too fast, you pull back from your direction. I'll pull the reins from this direction to get him going.” Connel did as he was asked and slowly Jalaby led Willow across the creek as the bridge creaked and groaned under Willows great weight.
“Well, Willow was the one I was worried about the most. He's the heaviest, so I think we should be in good shape. Let's get one of you over and then the kacks next.”
“I'll go next,” said Sarah and after tying the rope securely around her, she made it easily to the other side.
“Send over a kack,” Jalaby shouted.
“OK, I'm going to send Connel's Sammy over.”
Connel then tied the rope to Sammy's reins and gave a signal for Jalaby to start pulling Sammy across with Willow. Sammy was having none of it and began to pull back stubbornly but finally slid onto the bridge. No one had a clue as to what set him off, but the kack started bucking up and down and jumping around the narrow bridge while Jalaby continued backing up Willow and the others stood looking on. It was about the half way point of the bridge when the kack stepped off the side with no railing and plummeted down into the creek and over the waterfall. To Jalaby everything was a blur, Sarah screamed, while Connel and Tom went towards the edge to see what became of Sammy. At the same time, Willow was losing his footing in the gravel by the bridge and was being pulled towards the edge. Without thinking and without hesitation, Jalaby whipped out his sword and brought it down quickly on the rope that was pulling hard on Willow's saddle. With the sudden release, Willow shot back and Jalaby was hard pressed to calm him down. He had missed what the others had seen, Sammy the kack finally reaching the bottom of the falls and landing in a great splash. Then there was silence, except for the agitated Willow, whose hoofs pounded back and forth on the gravel.
“Sorry Connel, I didn't realize these kacks were so skittish. I, or rather we, need to try something different for the others.” With those words the gaiety that had accompanied the start of what Jalaby felt was a great adventure, was broken. This would not be an easy journey, there were and would be dangers. He would need to do better, it could have easily been one of his companions, rather than the kack, that might have perished. Suddenly Tom shouted.
“Look, there's Sammy swimming towards the other side!” Tom was jumping up and down while Sarah shouted that she could not see him.
“You are right,” shouted Connel as well. “There he is.”
Jalaby stood looking worried, thinking the poor beast must have broken its back or leg and would soon limp out onto the far bank. Sarah nodded and laughed, as they all watched the animal make it to the shore, climbed out on the bank with what seemed like no ill effects from its great fall and began to munch at the green grass in the field next to the Crieton river.
“I told you these kacks are tough beasts.” Tom's laugh was infectious and even Jalaby's troubled mood had lightened.
“OK, everyone, we can't afford another missing kack or to lose one of you over the side. I had to cut the rope, do we have plenty left?” Jalaby stood holding Willow's reins and Connel answered.
“Yes, there is plenty of rope. We'd better put a blindfold over the remaining horses and kacks just in case, that way they won't see the danger and may be easier to handle.” Connel, not waiting for a reply, began taking more rope from one of the packs and continued by ordering Tom. “Tom, get an old flour bag from the food pack and put it over your kack's eyes.”
“Her name is Chocolate and she'll do fine. She's calm as can be. Jalaby, what about Sammy's pack. We've got an extra since Sammy took a swim? It's mostly water and food.” Tom finished by bending over and starting to untie Sammy's bundle.
“Leave the water, we can make the old mill in a day and a half and they should have water there since it's a mill. Take the food and spread it among the other kacks and put some on the horses as well. We'll have to walk more since the horses will be heavily loaded, but that's the best we can do. In addition to the blindfolds, I want to take no chances. Let's tie the rope between Willow and your horse Jeremiah, Tom. Then put a short rope around the kack's body, just in front of the pack. Be sure to loop it around the rope that runs between Willow and Jeremiah, this will keep her from moving around. Then with another rope, Sarah will pull her across from this side.”
The complicated process worked and when finished with the animals, they also brought over each pack bundle. The last horse to cross was Connel's horse Mildred and finally Connel himself, who came across with a rope around his waist as Jalaby had done at the beginning.
“Well, that took a while. It's going to be a long day today if we are going to make it to the old mill by tomorrow. Let's get these packs back on.” They did so and took a long last look at Sammy, whose journey with them was now over. He was contentedly eating far below.
“A farmer will pick him up, don't worry, let's get moving, we have a long way to go.” The group, now minus one kack, began once again to plod up the gravel road.
Chapter 10
They were all tired and Jalaby knew the horses were just as tired from the way Willow occasionally dipped his head down as if to stretch. He wasn't sure where they would sleep tonight and he felt that since the loss of the kack Sammy, that maybe the others didn't quite trust his decisions. Jalaby had noticed the way Connel had taken charge in organizing how they got the other animals across, ordering Tom to get blindfolds for the remaining animals and setting up the final crossing. But yet, maybe it is part of good leadership to let others have a part, especially if the idea is good. No, Jalaby did not feel threatened by Connel and he would continue to do his best to make the right choices.
It was getting quite dark now and earlier Jalaby had sent Connel to the front of their group with a lantern lashed to a pole that was tied to Connel's saddle. This gave Connel just enough light to stay on the trail and not stumble into anything. They walked in silence, too tired to talk and thankfully too tired for Tom to sing. He had given up singing miles ago when his voice started to become hoarse. Jalaby knew they couldn't go much further but he felt that based on the distance they had traveled, there must be a place where travelers could put up for the nig
ht that would be about half way to the old mill. He just hoped they didn't walk right past it.
“Whoa,” shouted Connel. “Looks like a wide spot ahead Jalaby, maybe this is where we should put up for the night.” Connel's voice held the weariness they all felt.
“Good enough. We have to stop even if it's just a small area or just the road itself. Unpack up ahead everyone.”
They moved into a large area on the opposite side of the road from the river. The area had a few scrub bushes and butted up against a canyon wall which rose above them about a hundred feet or more. During the day's journey they had traveled on a road that started on the top of the canyon and now ran along the side of the canyon about half way down to the river.
They all began to unpack. Jalaby set up a picket rope tied between two of the larger scrub bushes so that they could secure their animals. As each animal was unburdened, they were tied to the rope, brushed down, and given something to eat. By the time they had done this, no one wanted to bother cooking and ate bread and dried meat, washed down with water.
“I'll take the first watch,” said Jalaby sensing that the others were too tired to do it. “Connel next, then Tom, then Sarah.” No one raised their heads, they just grunted acknowledgment and without putting up their small tents, laid down their blankets and went to sleep.
The night was cool and a gentle breeze blew across Jalaby's face, as he stood looking up at the stars so as not to fall asleep. He reflected on the day. He was disappointed that the bridge episode had occurred but if that was the worst problem they ever had to face, then they were well off. They had all done very well, for being on their own and not knowing exactly where they were going and what lie ahead. He smiled as he thought of seeing Sarah push the guard Jack into Crieton River. She was quite wonderful in that moment and he would have hated to cause injury to someone from Bridgetown. That would surely have been the case, if he crossed swords in earnest with Jack. Jalaby pulled his coat around him to keep out the cold and in what seemed like minutes, he jerked his head back from lulling forward. He looked at his watch to see that two hours had gone by. He woke Connel and finally got some much-needed rest.
