It was the beginning of the Season of Falling and when they had left it was early in the morning. They could see their breath in the cold crisp air, and coming out of a warm shelter had sent both of them to shivering as they adjusted to the cold air. With the feel in the air they didn’t need to look at anything written to know the season. This got Kal to wondering, since they had just gotten back the family history, and had brought it along for protection, if that clan home could be somewhere close to where they were. After all they were in the foothills away from the Sacred Mountains, and if he remembered right, this clan home wasn’t that close to those mountains, and as far as the village of High Trail, and the family farm they were not very close either. But as soon as that had entered his mind he shrugged it off, since there were many areas that existed in the many foothills that were around, and much of them were a very long way away from the Sacred Mountains. What this began to do for him is to raise his curiosity and desire to delve back into that history and try and solve what was presented in those many words from the past.
Eventually as the suns climbed in the sky it warmed, and between their exercise and the warming of the air the chill left, and it became a comfortable day to be out and about. Breathing in and out deeply Kal said, “This is becoming a really beautiful day, and a good one to be doing exactly what we are. But it also brought to my mind my ancestors. They’d lived in an area something like this. I wonder what they were thinking when this weather hit. They had to be more knowledgeable than I, after all their very lives depended on knowing the seasons. They’d known that it would only be a short time until they would be locked up inside because of the winds, snows, and such. And at that point they would need to have enough of everything to get through that time, and if not, death would come knocking – not that death wasn’t a constant companion. Between the fighting, diseases, poor health, and who knows what it’s surprising that any of them survived. And the line I come from was a clan, and when you compare the clans to the tribes, well the clans, because of their settlements, were so much better off.”
As they continued down the road, Jura listening to the clopping sound of the pack beast’s steps, and the gentle creaking of the leather bindings used to tie the packs to the frames that the beasts carried, was quiet. She was enjoying the walk very much, and like him thought the day was a great one. Not only that, but the feel of the air, the smells of the land, the odors of the grasses as they had cured giving off a sweet smell, made her appreciate and remind her of the home where she had grown. The mornings were a little cold when they started, but from the feel of it now, the rest of the day, up until they reached the village at about dusk, should remain very nice. “As, I said in the past, I’m glad I’m living now and not then. And yes, at times one could easily wonder how anybody survived that time in our past. But it is obvious somebody did since we are here.” Smiling and with a faraway look in her eyes she said, “I wonder how future generations will look back on ours. I mean that while we find what we have, and what we can do is good, and proper, and we live comfortably, even though we work hard to achieve it, but it really isn’t an issue or a problem for us. Still they may look back at us and wonder how anybody would survive in this time just like we’re doing when we’re looking back.”
Laughing Kal said, “You know I’ve never looked at it that way, and you’re probably quite right. So I guess when we are directly in our time that it seems okay. I mean there a good times and bad times, and with the day-to-day stuff happening we rarely have a chance to look at the big picture, just trying to keep everything going. So I guess that it probably was the same for them. Still I suspect that with that lifestyle they really never looked back at earlier generations except as spirits. So I guess we should be happy with where we are and know that most likely our future generations are going to see us as primitive in comparison to where they are at that time.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Now that’s funny, I mean really funny. We don’t consider ourselves anything close to that way. We see new things coming along all the time to make things better and easier, and while we can’t necessarily afford this stuff right now, there’s a great possibility that sometime in the future that we can. And when we have it we’ll appreciate it so much more because we’ve done without all this time. Then to think that someone in the future will look back and feel pity for us because we didn’t have something that they do. And they would wonder how those, you know ones like you and me, primitives could ever survive?” Again she laughed as the images flashed once again through her mind. “I guess it’s all perspective. When one is in the midst of life it is what it is, and when one looks at another’s life whether it is in the near past, or distant past we compare where we are to them, and probably while it’s something that would be natural to do, is really unfair.”
“You know taking these trips with you is really a wonderful experience. You bring up thoughts and ideas that I have myself, and it helps me make sense of what I’m trying to understand. I guess in many ways it is always great to have someone to discuss things. And I have to agree with everything you’ve just said. It makes perfect sense, but sometimes things that appear to make sense at the moment fall apart later when other facts are presented. But somehow I don’t feel that’s going to happen this time. Being a village kid I’ve never had the opportunity to experience this life style much. And I’m finding that I really love it. I guess with what we’re planning on doing very shortly I’d better. Since I know that we will be out here much of the time, and again I know how we are, and I’m not just referring to the two of us here, never satisfied. If we are cooped up in the village we long to get away, once we are away, we cannot wait until we are back home, and when we are working we cannot wait until the day is finished so we can relax, and so on.”
Jura cocked her head to the side, and smiled, “Very true. I can see much of that when I visit with my female friends. Some have children and some, like me don’t. Now I’m not pushing for a child at this time in our life, especially with all that we’re about to do, but I see that very thing in our conversations. Some of them are saying how wonderful it must be to have a child, and they have that romantic faraway look as they imagine how it will be. Then the ones with children comment something to the effect, be careful what you wish for, and so on. And I can see much of what you’ve just said in how I view things. And here I thought I was the only one.”
“I guess it’s more common than I thought. But it only makes sense when you think about it. If we were really satisfied with where we are, then there would be nothing happening to change anything, and there’s a good possibility that we’d still be like our primitive ancestors and still have that dreaded lifestyle that led to short hard lives. This brings me back to this; what are we going to do with that history? I know that I’ve been given custody of it, and must somehow protect it. I know that we’ve continued to work on making legible copies of this thing, and we’ve almost completed that part of it. But we, I need someplace that is safe to store that thing. Since that attempt, at what we figured, to steal this document, I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with a safe haven for it, and really haven’t. I feel that someone wants this desperately, and we both know who that someone is. I know that we just got it back, but when I looked it over, I never realized that we were that close to finishing it.
“I thought about my side of the family, and all of them are quite busy with their lives, and while yes, this is about my side of the family, can I put them at risk? And at the same time, your side lives in the outback on a farm, making them an easy target if someone wanted to steal something from them.” He paused a moment and actually laughed, “Now that would be funny really.”
With a questioning look she asked, “What would be funny?”
“I was just imagining what a surprise a bunch of thieves would get if they tried to steal or break into your family’s farm. Here these thieves would feel that they’d have it all under control and to meet your family with th
e matriarch and patriarch of the family staff champions and all of the children trained by them. I think the bad guys in this case would be in for a real surprise, let alone a good beating. I could see the surprise on their faces when they realized that they didn’t have the upper hand, and that they had better leave or get beat up.”
She was silent for the longest time, which made him wonder if he’d said something wrong. She stopped and faced him, “Well, it’s not as funny as you make it sound. You see, that very thing did happen. Remember we are somewhat isolated, and as you can see, at this leisurely pace that we are taking, it will be dusk before we enter High Trail.” She did smile as she recalled the incident in her mind, “And I think that you probably had it about right. We did beat them up pretty badly, in fact after that we were never bothered again. I guess the word got around that we weren’t worth the trouble.”
“Really? I was only thinking about something like that happening. And it actually did, wow, why’d you never mention it? After all it had to be a pretty traumatic time.”
Again she paused before answering, “Actually the being scared part didn’t happen until it was over and the thieves ran away. When they approached appearing to be innocent, we knew something was wrong, and when one of them reached out to grab both my mother, and one of us girls to get their way, we knew what was happening, and once we did it was just sort of reaction. It was touch and go there for a little while since they were spread out trying to cover all of us. And that probably was their undoing also. They expected just a normal farm family not us. They figured they could intimidate us into submission, and instead it was they who were put down. It was very intense and there seemed to be nothing but chaos for a few moments, but suddenly it was over, and the bad guys were running for their lives. It was then once we were all back together and found that other than scrapes and bruises, which we got when we practiced with the staffs anyway, we were okay. At that point we realized what could have happened and that’s when we all felt it emotionally.”
He realized that both of them had been standing there along the roadway with the pack beast patiently standing there waiting for them to continue, swishing its tail at some irritating bug. They both began walking again. “I never realized that something like that happened. And you say you or the family was never bothered again? How long ago was this?”
Shaking her head she said, “I really don’t know, quite a while ago. I was still a kid. After all I’m one of the middle children, and I think Fara the youngest was just walking, so a very long time ago.”
“And you and your family have never been bothered since. That must have been quite an impression you left on those thieves.” Taking a deep breath Kal looked around, “I have to admit that I’m quite happy that it went the way that it did. I know that many times in those situations that the ones who try this have their way with the families and in the end just kill them to keep any from identifying them, allowing them to go do it again to some other unsuspecting isolated family. And if it had been that way, you and I would have never met, and fall in love and become a couple.” This brought a smile to his face, “So I’m very glad for the way things turned out, and if you don’t want it mentioned, I’ll let it lie and just keep it between us.”
Looking at Kal, Jura replied, “Oh we never tried to keep it a secret, but we also felt it wasn’t important to announce it to the world. Doing such a thing might be considered bragging, and if someone thought it was such they might decide that we were a challenge and they would come by and try and see if they could succeed where that other gang of thugs failed. So we never made anything of it. Yes we passed it on to the other farms so that they would be alert to the fact that we had some bad ones working our area, but other than that we kept it low and quiet.”
“Just had a thought, and then I’ll just drop it. When these thieves first attacked, none of you had your staffs, right?” She shook her head, “Okay that means all of you were unarmed at that moment, so how’d that work out? I mean obviously well since you are here and your family is all okay.”
She smiled as once again she remembered back to that moment in time. “If you think about it, one has to learn moves that allow one to defend themselves if they’ve become disassociated with their staff. So there are unarmed methods of attacks that allow one to recover their staff and resume the match. We’ve not practiced any of them, and back there at the family farm we all held on to the staffs during those few free-for-all sessions that you were invited to join. Obviously, well maybe not to you, but to the rest of us, we kept it toned down a bit for the rookie that joined us. And it was a couple of those unarmed moves we used that allowed a couple of us to get free, get the staffs, and toss them to the others. After that it was a rout pure and simple.”
He smiled at her, “You’re right, I couldn’t tell that all of you went easy on me. From my point of view I was barely holding may own, and it was fast and frenzied. And suspect that with this revelation that since all of you went easy on me, that the few times that I thought I had the upper hand, so to speak, truly wasn’t the way of it at all.”
“Before I answer that, let’s just say that you’ve improved tremendously from where you started back a couple of cycles of the seasons ago. But honestly you’re not in the same class as even my youngest sister, so yeah we went easy on you. But you have to admit that you learned some new things.”
“Well that means I took a hit to that old male ego thing. Especially if the youngest female took pity on this male, but you’re right I did learn a few things going against the rest of you.”
“If it’s any consolation to your male ego, as you know, we were trained by the best, and I think honestly that right now there’d be few out there that you couldn’t defend yourself against if it came down to it. But I wouldn’t go out and start challenging anybody as of yet. As time and practice continues and we have a few more visits to my home it will change. And to give you another hit to that male ego of yours, remember that I’m with you and if need be I can defend you.”
“Gee thanks.” And this brought laughter from both of them. “Hey where’d the time go? Look we’re almost back and the suns are beginning to set. Oh well, back to reality on the morrow.”
CHAPTER FOUR
A HUNT FOR THE PAST
It had taken longer than he had expected to finish the rewriting of the family history. Once complete, they used only the copies, spreading the original among the family members, so that if any single part was either stolen or lost, it overall would be just a small portion, and with copies available they would be able to fill in the missing parts to present a complete history. With the help of her siblings there was now available more than one copy which, once again, was spread among her family. With the suspected attempt to steal it in the past it was the only way they could come up with to protect this precious history.
Sabohl continued to have them watched, albeit discreetly. He still felt that they, Kal and Jura, were a threat. And even though he had no proof that a document existed, he felt strongly that it did. Still two cycles of the seasons had come and gone and presently there had been nothing to show for all of this work. Yet he could not relax until this was confirmed one way or the other. He had thought that a second attempt to break into their shelter would be a good idea, but the only opportunity had been when a family member had passed away. It really hadn’t been that long since they had moved from the premises of the bakery to the shelter they were living in presently. And while they lived at the bakery there was absolutely no chance to sneak into their quarters and do a thorough search. There was always one or the other going in and out of their place any time throughout the day, and with no specific schedule, there was no opportunity. When they had finally moved into the shelter, she had remained there and put it together like she wanted it to look. Again with no schedule to allow a quick and thorough search it had to wait.
It wasn’t long after that that they had left to attend the funeral, but while they were gone the workers
watched the shelter continuously not allowing any stranger access. It, in his mind, was the proof that he needed that said they were protecting something. After all why go to all the trouble if there wasn’t anything of real value? So with impatience he watched from a distance waiting for the opportunity to present itself.
“To the members of the Historical Learned, and Historical Society: I pass on my humble offerings as a fellow learned. As you are well aware, we of like thought have continued our monitoring of Sabohl. If nothing else, his resolve has strengthened, as has his contacts with his people, and you know of whom I speak, continue. He is more determined to find this mythological document, since at this moment he has no proof that such exists. But it is obvious to any who know him that he is consumed with this. In truth we are in no way positive that such exists. Yet if it does, it would be an important find and possibly shed light on our past. All of us who study the past know that we are making conclusions from very incomplete records and discoveries. And since no one is around from that time we have no way of confirming any of what we’ve either found or conjectured. As you are aware, Sabohl has reached his high position through intimidation, politics, and pure guile. While much of what he presents could be a true history of our past, it isn’t the only theory that is out there.
A Taste of History Past Page 8
