All Adventure Begins with Tragedy

Chapter II: alone

Occasionally they struck out against Kry. But the invading army looked organized. They had uniform. Squads. Platoons. Order. They weren't just a barbarian horde. In fact, they looked the complete opposite. Even the monsters- Minitors, Riglish, and such- and dragons- moontribe, changling, water drakes- had uniforms, or at least had the colors painted on them. I had been too distracted at the time to make the connection, but now that I was relaxing, I realized. All of the men did have the same uniform. The all wore yellow and black, with a hammer over a mountain blazed on every chest, and shield. I noticed that depending on the weapons carried, they had different armor, but the armor was universal between, say, archers, or spear men, pike-men, long sword men, short sword men- they all carried bucklers- they were all the same. So not only was this a organized army, it was a powerful one, backed by very rich people. I made a mental note to look out for such types.

Then I thought of Clare. She didn't know about them. What if they found her. She was still wearing her tribal cloths. They would think she was a barbarian and-  No, I needed to look on the hopeful side of things. I saw my fishing rod curve, and I saw that I had caught something. After reeling it in I saw it was a bass. I steered my raft to the shore using a rudder I had put one a week earlier. I cooked it and ate it, then, unusually, I put back in. I decided that I needed to catch up to Clare as fast as I could. I slept that night on the raft.

Upon awakening I realized how badly I had slept. "I'm just lucky I didn't role off into the water," I said out loud laughing to myself. Then I started since when had I talked to myself? I had never done it before. Then I shrugged. "Oh well, I guess this comes with being alone for nearly a month now," laughing again, this time at the irony of talking to myself about talking to myself. "Wow, I've been on this river for a month. Even though this river runs nearly parallel to the boarder, it still angles towards it slightly." "I must be awfully close to the boarder." I was on a role, not talking in a month takes its tolls on your mental state. Finally being able to talk, I couldn't stop.

Then the river noise changed. At first I could barely hear it. The roar of the river was getting rapidly, but steadily, louder. Soon it was deafening. Then I saw the mist. A water fall! I hadn't thought of that. I quickly navigated to the shore so as to avoid plunging to my death. I reached the shore, sprung off my craft, grabbed all my gear, and started sprinting along the bank. I had saw some thin that had made my heart stop. There, just up ahead was Clare's boat. I rushed up to it, it was beached and rolled on its side. It was a larger craft, with a small shelter erected over it. It was shorter and wider then a long boat, but carried the same design.

In side was- nothing? There was not a sign that Clare, or any human for that matter, had been there in a long time. It was possible, she had a days head start, then I walked on foot for a few days, before getting a boat. But even then, I put to shore every night. It was highly likely she was a week or so a head of me. Now the problem was finding were in Gia's domain she had gotten to. I was not terrible at tracking, but I wasn't an expert either. I desperately cast around for a sign of her. After a good thirty minuets of searching, I found a thread from he tunic caught on a branch. I walked towards it and then face palmed. There was a arrow made of rocks, clear as a fresh water spring, pointing the direction she was going.

At least now I had a chance of finding her. As I started walking in the direction the arrow was indicating, I saw a slash mark on a tree up ahead. I knew she kept a small knife tucked under her sleeve. So this was how she was doing it. I began to fallow the slash marks. Every hundred yards or so, I would see another slash mark to reassure me I was going the right way. As I continued walking, I saw she had gotten a new idea. Now on every tree instead of a slash mark, she carved a arrow indicating the way she was going. The going was easy, with little under brush to slow me. Every now and then I would make a course correction according to the way she was going. I stopped for a bite to eat about an hour after sundown, then continued walking after the moon set, I finally slept, then at sunrise, only a few hours later, I woke and continued walking. I wanted to catch up as fast as possible. After going for five days like this I collapsed. I had been expecting it to happen, but was trying to last as long as possible.

 I crawled feebly into a cave made from some tree roots growing strange. I slept until I was no longer tired. It was night time when I came back into consciousness. I ate some and then continued. This time I rested when I judged it was about five hours before dawn. I was still making good time, and I was likely to last longer like this. Days turned into weeks, weeks to months, months to years, years ti decades. Then finally- Okay fine, it was only another five days. The trees started to thin, and the going was angling up now. On the sixth day since I had recovered, eleven days since I started on foot, thirty two days after I separated from Clare, the trees disappeared completely. Now I was going completely  by memories. I cursed myself again for not paying attention is class. I knew that I was on the border mountain range between Kry and Hurrit. I looked up. It was far above that earth and sky met.

 It took a full two days to reach the summit. There was an almost visible line of the boarder, across the narrow, snow capped, summit. I reached one leg out, and then, I was in Kry, I has crossed the border. I camped the night on the summit, then prepared to descend. I woke up and started day thirty six. Now was the time for me to start a new life. I was ready to face the day, and world.