Beyond the Valley of Mist

by Dicksion, William Wayne

  The young men completed their dance and beckoned to Ador and Lela to join them. Zen told the audience that Lalock women were forbidden to dance, as their priests said it was wicked.

  The girls who had danced earlier said they would teach Ador and Lela, who agreed reluctantly. But after a while, they were dancing with enough skill to entertain the audience, and they were enjoying it. The Zorians clapped their hands approvingly and asked Zen and Jok to dance.

  Zen shook his head. “I do not want to dance, but with Gar’s approval, I have something to show you.”

  Gar nodded his head.

  Zen stepped to the center and held up his hand, indicating that he wanted absolute silence. He asked the men holding torches to place covers over them to reduce the light—he needed a dark stage for his presentation.

  After the stage had been darkened and everyone was quiet, Zen removed dried moss and sticks from his pouch and laid them on the ground in front of him. And then he produced two rocks from his pouch and held them over his head for everyone to see. He then struck the rocks together, and fire flew from the stones. Everyone gasped.

  After showing the stones to the audience once more, Zen stood poised over the pile of dried moss and sticks, struck the rocks together again, and little pieces of fire jumped onto the dried moss. He blew into the moss, and the fire sprang into a flame!

  Startled expressions of surprise came from the audience. Zen placed larger pieces of wood on the fire, stood back, and then invited all to come and see what he had done.

  Gar, the leader, came over right away and looked at the fire in astonishment, waved his hand over it, and jumped back quickly when he felt the heat.

  “Zen,” he asked, “could I see the stones?”

  “Yes, Gar. One of the stones is firestone. This firestone will create fire when it is struck with another stone.”

  Zen handed the firestone to Gar who examined it closely. “I’ve never seen a stone like this before,” he said.

  Zen showed him how to strike the two rocks together to make fire.

  “Zen, I thank you for showing this to me and my people. We’d be grateful if you could show us where to get these stones.”

  “Gar, Chief of Zoran, I cannot reveal my source,” Zen answered, “but I’ll give this one to you as a token of our friendship, as a way to say thank you for welcoming us to your village, and I’ll help you get more firestones for all of your people.”

  Gar seemed pleased and repeated to his people what Zen had said. After the excitement abated, the leader called an end to the celebration, but no one wanted to leave. They all wanted to talk with the newcomers and examine them more closely--the color of the girls’ hair and eyes fascinated them.

  After everyone had a chance to touch and look at their visitors, the chief clapped his hands, and they all returned to their lodges. It had been a very pleasant evening.

  Lox’s wife invited them to their lodge, saying that she and their sons wanted to thank them personally. Their two fine boys were eager to hear about how they had found their father.

  Zen explained to Lox that they wanted to learn as much as they could from the Zorians. Lox told them they would be welcome to remain in Zoran and become a part of their tribe. Zen thanked him, but explained what their plan was. Lox said he understood and would do everything he could to help them learn. He would assign them to the people who did what they wanted to learn.

  “That would be wonderful,” Zen said. “We’ll return when the sun rises tomorrow, but before we go, there is something I would like to know.”

  “What is it?” Lox asked. “I’ll tell you if I can.”

  “What is the material that the containers are made from?”

  “Do you mean the ones we use to store water?” Lox asked.

  “Yes, we drank from a container made from the same material at the feast tonight.”

  “We call it copper,” Lox replied.

  “Where do you get copper, and how do you make the containers?”

  “We get copper from rocks that we dig from the ground. We heat the rocks until the copper comes out. We sometimes combine two different types of material to make a metal that is much harder and stronger than copper. We call it bronze. We make bronze tools and arrowheads. Making containers and tools is not my trade, but I will introduce you to the men who do that kind of work. They’ll show you how it is done.”

  “Thank you, Lox, we’re eager to learn. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

  ***

  Zen’s group returned to their house and went to the strange new beds that were more comfortable than any they had ever slept in.

  “I’ll learn to make beds like these,” Lela said as she stroked the bed. “We’ll have them in our new homes.”

  “I’ll learn to grow plants, so we’ll always have fruit and vegetables. We’ll never have to depend on finding our food somewhere again,” Ador said as she took a bite of a fruit.

  “I’ll provide animals,” Zen said, “so we’ll not have to go on long hunting trips and depend upon the success of the hunt to provide the meat we need.”

  “I’ll learn to build houses,” Jok remarked as he walked to the wall of the room and examined it. “We won’t have to live in caves or in homes made from the skins of animals ever again. We’ll build our homes from stone and mud. We’ll build them so strong that we’ll never have to live in fear of wild animals. We’ll build them tight, so we won’t have to worry about crawling things getting in at night while we are sleeping.”

  “This is our pledge,” the four said, placing their hands together. “We’ll find a way around the Valley of Mist, rescue our families, and then build our new village.”

  “What rules shall we have?” Ador asked.

  “I suggest that we have only one rule,” Zen replied, “do no harm. Each person can do whatever he or she wants as long as it does not harm anyone else. Everyone must work for the good of all the others.”

  “What if we don’t agree about something?” asked Lela.

  “I suggest that at least a majority must agree,” Jok said, “or we do nothing. We can try to convince the others, but if we cannot, we make no changes until we have an agreement of the majority.”

  “That is a good suggestion. Does everyone agree?” asked Zen.

  “Yes!” they chimed in.

  “Then I suggest we go to bed, or we won’t be able to stay awake tomorrow to do what we have agreed to do,” Ador remarked with a sly wink at Jok.

  ***

  For the next three cycles of the moon, they spent their evenings in the homes of their teachers, learning the Zorian language, and then talking to them in their language, discussed what they do and learning how to do it. Sometimes what the Zorians were doing seemed strange, but there was usually a good reason.

  “Why do you plant your fields only when the sun is moving north?” Zen asked.

  Mar, one of the men who tended the plants, said, “The Wise One told us that the sun lives in the North, but it takes a trip to the South each winter, and that is why it gets cold. We wait until the sun is on its way home before we plant, because the plants need the sun to grow.”

  “How do you know when the sun is coming home?”

  “The Wise One showed us how to know. Come, I will show you.”

  Zen, Jok, and the girls walked with Mar to the top of a hill. There they saw a circle of rocks. In the center of the circle was a rock where a man could sit. To the east of the rock were six sharp-pointed rocks arranged in a semicircle.

  “You can sit on this rock and watch where the sun comes up,” Mar said. “When the sun has completed its journey to the South, it will come up from behind the farthest rock to the South. At that time, we know the sun will begin its journey home.

  “In the summer, it will come up behind the farthest rock to the north. Twice each year, it will come up exactly behind the one in the center. When the sun moves south of that rock, it marks the beginning of the cold weather, and when the sun moves north of that roc
k, it marks the beginning of the hot weather. Zor told us we should only plant when the sun is moving north. It has always been so. Zor has always been right.”

  “Where does Sun go when it goes into Earth each evening?” Zen shook his head, trying to understand all that Mar was telling him. “And how does it get to the other side of Earth when it comes out each morning?”

  “Some think Sun goes into Mother Earth each night and she gives birth to a new Sun each morning,” Mar said. “Only a young, strong Sun would be able to climb into the sky. Sun returns to Mother Earth at night. They mate and create new life. Sun dies each night and is reborn each morning to begin a new cycle of life. Everything is like that. Mother Earth gives Sun life. Sun lives the life Mother Earth has given it and, when it dies, it returns to Mother Earth and is reborn to live again. The cycle continues forever. Each time we live, we learn a little more, until someday we will know everything.”

  They walked to the edge of the cliff and looked around them.

  “Those who worship Mother Earth say that people are just like the sun,” Mars continued. “When they die, they go back to Mother Earth and she gives birth to them again through their regular mother. People live on and on, one life following another without end.”

  “Do you believe that?” Jok asked.

  “I don’t know about man, but I know about plants, and it is so with plants. Each plant is born from a seed, which I put into Mother Earth. Mother Earth gives life to that seed, and a new plant springs forth from her bosom. A new plant is born, which is just like the plant that the seed came from. Then that plant grows and produces another seed, which will, if placed in the belly of Mother Earth, be reborn next spring, and it will be a new plant all over again. So when you ask me if I believe Mother Earth is the giver of all life, I have to tell you, yes, I believe it is so.

  “Zor, the Wise One, said, ‘Mother Earth needs Sun to help her bring forth life.’ He said that Sun is the Father God and Earth is the Mother God.”

  Mar’s wife entered into the conversation, shook her head and said, “I don’t believe Sun is the Father God. It is too small, and it is not dependable. It is not always in the sky; it has to sleep each night, and Mother Earth has to give it life each morning. No, I do not believe Sun is God. Zor was very wise, but I think he made a mistake about that.”

  Tag, the maker of buildings, said, “I, too, think Zor was wrong. Long ago, our people asked Zor where Sun went at night, and Zor said Sun goes all the way around Earth and is hidden by Earth at night. He also said Earth is round like the sun. However, we can see that Earth is not round; it is flat. Once I climbed to the top of the mountain to see if the world was round. It was not. I could see that it is flat and extended on and on forever. Therefore, Sun could not go around Earth. Besides, if the Earth were round, the water would spill off, and we would have no seas. I, too, think Zor was wrong.”

  Lela listened quietly. “Where we came from,” she said, “we would all be killed for talking about God and questioning His existence. Only the priests are allowed to talk about God; they say no one else knows enough to talk about God.”

  “Doesn’t anyone ever wonder about what they are being told by the priests?” Mar asked.

  “Of course we do,” replied Ador, “but if there are things we do not understand, the priests tell us that we don’t need to know and not to ask such stupid questions. The priests say that men are not capable of understanding God. They say, 'All you have to do is have faith, because the Fire God knows our every need, and He will take care of us just as our mother and father know our needs, and they take care of us.' They say that just as our mothers and fathers punish us if we misbehave, our godly Father will punish us if we misbehave. When I consider what the priest said, I say to myself, yes, but our real mother and father spank us if we misbehave. The Fire God burns us to death if we misbehave. That does not sound like fatherly love to me.”

  ***

  Zen and his friends spent many evenings talking to their new friends about God and about how things work that make the earth give life the way it does. They talked about where humans come from and where they go when they die. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to discuss such things. The priests in the village of Lalock would have put them to death for that.

  “How did the Wise One know so much so long ago?” Zen asked.

  Tag answered, “The stories handed down from generation to generation tell of how he would sit for days and think about a problem. Then he would be gone for days while he searched for answers. They said he didn’t always find the answers, but he never stopped looking. Zor said that the biggest sorrow in his life was that he had no one to talk to about the problems to which he was seeking answers. He said most men never bother to think about the answers to problems, and most of those who do, are afraid to look for the answers. Those who knew Zor said he was a lonely man. He loved his new family, but he missed the family he had left behind in the village beyond the Valley of Mist.”

  “I wish I could have talked to him,” Zen said. “I have many questions I would like answers to. My father and I wanted to know if there is another side to the Valley of Mist. The four of us escaped through the valley, and now I know that there is another side. Now I want to know if there is a way around the valley and get our families. My friends and I are going to look for a way, and I think we’ll find it. I don’t believe the Lalocks are worshiping the true God. I’d like to help them to see that there is a better way.”

  “I’m afraid that some of them will hate you for making them doubt their God, and some will want to destroy you,” Tag said.

  “Yes, I think you’re right,” Zen nodded. “It seems that is what happened to Zor. Why did the people in your village listen to him and not hate him?”

  “We didn’t have a God when he came to us,” Tag answered, “so he didn’t take a God from us. He gave us something to believe in, so we loved him. If you’re going to take the God they have from them, then you must give them a better God to worship.”

  “That is what Arber told Zor,” Zen said. “But how can I do that?”

  “No man can know God,” Tag said. “So you must make up another God. Earth makes a good God. Sun would make a good God.”

  “Are you telling me that you do not believe that Earth and Sun are Gods?” Zen said.

  “Of course they are not Gods. The fact that we can see them proves that they are not Gods. If they exist, they were made by something. Whatever that something was, was more powerful than what it made.”

  “Then what made the something that made Sun and Earth?”

  “That is why I tell you that no man can know God. God is too big for the mind of man to understand. Therefore, if man can understand the God he worships, then the God he worships is not God.”

  “Don’t you think that men should be looking for the real God?” Jok asked.

  “Yes, and that’s what we’re doing by discussing the reality of God,” Tag replied.

  ***

  Chapter 14

  The Rescue

  After learning what they each agreed to learn, Zen’s group decided it was time to go. They had learned enough, and now they could each teach the others. Together they would build their new village back up the river where they wanted to build it.

  As they prepared to leave, they heard people screaming. They ran out of their house and saw strangers riding horses through the village, striking people with clubs, taking whatever they wanted, and killing anyone who stood in their way.

  The frightened Zorians hid in their homes.

  “Grab your weapons!” Zen yelled. “We will fight them!”

  Zen, Jok, and the girls stood in the shelter of their doorway and began picking the invaders off their horses with their bows and arrows. The girls were proving to be very effective in the use of their weapons! When the invaders realized they were being attacked, they grabbed two Zorian women and rode away into the hills, leaving the invaders who had been shot lying in the path, with their horse
s wandering loose.

  Jok yelled, “Men, come out of your hiding places and come with us. We must rescue the women!”

  “There aren’t many of them,” Zen yelled. “They’ll stop for the night and when they do, we’ll surprise them in their sleep. We can overcome them and return the women to their husbands.”

  “If you’ll show us how to fight them,” Gar yelled back, “we’ll follow you!”

  “Then grab your weapons and let’s go!” Zen called out.

  “Ador and I will come too,” Lela said. “The women will need us when you rescue them.”

  “All right, bring blankets and weapons!” Zen exclaimed.

  A few Zorians picked up their weapons reluctantly; some tried to catch the horses the invaders left.

  Lox, who had recovered completely, shouted, “Come on, men, we must help our friends rescue our women! We’re not warriors, but we can learn from our friends.” He turned to Zen and Jok. “Show us how to fight, and we’ll help you.”

  Zen said, “They’re riding horses and can travel faster, but we can catch them while they sleep. We’ll destroy them, take their horses, and rescue the women. If this group of killers fails to return to their village, it will make the rest of them less likely to raid your village in the future. Now is a good time to stop them once and for all. Come, we’ll proceed at a jog. We must pace ourselves, but we must hurry.”

  Zen, Lela, Jok, and Ador led the way, with Gar, Lox, and a few Zorians following. They paced themselves by jogging for a time, and then walked until they had rested enough to jog again.

  The raiders were careless and left tracks that were easy to follow.

  At last, the sun touched the tops of the mountains. Zen knew the raiders would not expect to be followed and would pitch their camp for the night.