Eden, Dawn

by Archer Swift

  ***

  I still had so many questions that I knew had no answers. Scott was right, the only thing we had was hope. Perhaps if he and the Mzees, on our side, and Miltredic and his allies, on their side, could formulate a plan swiftly, we might have the element of surprise, too.

  Miltredic carried me back, and again stopped some distance from my camp to say a proper farewell. This guy’s all heart! I asked him if he could drop me off at my newly-discovered favourite spot to watch the sunrise; dawn was about an hour away. Before he left, I threw my arms around him. I couldn’t help myself. It was an odd moment: I was taller than him, but I felt tiny in his imposing hold. He hugged me warmly and then he thanked me again. It sounded so strange; my debt of gratitude far outweighed his.

  “Never underestimate the influence of one heroic action,” were his parting words to me.

  Now, under a sky shifting colours with the onset of dawn, I sat beside the river unafraid of the darkness for the first time in ten years. I rewound the events of the past three days starting with the last few hours. Miltredic and Scott in an embrace of friendship. Then, how good it felt to be hugged. First by Scott, and then by Miltredic. I wondered about Shumbalic, how she was faring. In an uncanny way, I longed to see her again. We shared a memory, a few hours that might just contribute to a new future for her people and mine.

  A new future? Am I allowed to get my hopes up?

  Thoughts bombed me. Their faces. Monix. And Scott’s daughters, who I didn’t know well at all. And all the women who were taken captive by the Zikalic. There could be hundreds of them kept as domestic pets in the homes of our enemies. Literally. Were they okay? Miltredic assured us they were unharmed and well looked after, but what does that mean? And did I hear him correctly? That “many are now well looked after?” Is that a translation faux pas, or was he admitting to a time when they were ill-treated? That must be the implication behind his explanation that his family had campaigned for their well-being.

  Geez! A new future? Is that even possible?

  How did I feel about Monix now? I hadn’t grieved over her as much as usual during the last month or so. Was that because I was slowly recognising my suppressed feelings for Gellica or because working out how to deal with Ruzzell’s unsettling antics crammed into all the thought-space left in my cluttered brain? If Monix was alive, what now changes? Besides the vexing concern I felt for her, I tried to muster up some deep affection for Monix, but I couldn’t. Instead, my heart ached in Gellica’s direction. How did she feel about me now? Were her doubts about me growing?

  Meh! A new future? Get real.

  Before long, the dark sky began to give way to dawn’s first light and the stunning array of bold colours that announced the beginning of a new day. As beautiful and mesmerising as the glow of Miltredic’s purple crystal had been, it couldn’t come close to the wonder and splendour of this daybreak moment. Perhaps this explains the Zikalic’s lack of spirituality; avoiding the light, they hid from just this very sight, this panorama of glory—which awakened every faith-sense in me. I couldn’t help but pray and offer up thanksgiving to the God of my mother and father.