The Native and the White Man (boyxboy)

(7) There Is No Gold

Jack's pov:

As Parijat finished his song, he grabbed me softly by my wrists and pulled me up with him. Once he finished, we were in deep silence. Years I've been doing this, defeating natives to provide homes for my people back in London, but then I fail to realize how much of a home the natives have here. It really is beautiful and much more sad knowing that if I had chosen to kill that bear, those three cubs would have no mother to depend on and would die within weeks. It would happen with all the animals if my men and I kept on doing this. I didn't really want to do this anymore. It was kind of pointless now though. It was fine if we didn't get some land, London would have faired well even without extra land, but then we were all wasting our time here for... nothing. There is now gold.

Pushing those thoughts aside, I focused on Parijat's eyes. Half-lidded and looked up at me with emotion. I looked back with the same emotion. He slowly got on his toes as he leaned forward, I slowly leaned my face downward at how small he was. He placed his tiny hands on my chest as I wrap my arms around his waist, pulling us closer. He didn't resist nor try to run away and get out of my grip, and I didn't try to do something stupid to make him do so. Our foreheads were now connected, noses touching briefly, lips so close yet so far. Our soft breaths mixed in the air as they moved in to close the gap. Then suddenly, something knocked me off and I stumbled a bit away from Parijat who let out a small gasp. I then hear him chuckle a bit. I pull the thing off from my face, feeling fur.

Once I got a good look at it not on my face, I see a grey squirrel, it's tiny limbs thrashing around as it squeaks angrily at me in my hand. I chuckle nervously and say, “Now who is this little fella?”

“That's Sachiv,” Parijat says.

“Well then, hello to you too, Sachiv,” Sachiv pokes his tiny tongue out as I say that, making me chuckle. Parijat and I sat down on the grass under the tree while searched my pockets for something. I knew I had brought some nuts with me this morning. When I finally got a hold of the nuts, I pulled them out of my back pocket and showed them to Sachiv. He looked curiously at my hand and sniffed the nuts before grabbing them and stuffing them in his mouth, his little teeth biting onto it. Parijat and I laughed at Sachiv as he continued eating the nuts out of my hand. Parijat then scoots over to me and lays his head on my shoulder. I found myself smiling and laid my head on top of his head, both of us in silence as we watch Sachiv eat the nuts.

I hear Parijat hum in content, him relaxing against me. He then lifts his head and turns to me, saying, “I need to go,”

“You need to go?”

“Yes. My father will be looking for me soon.”

“Of course. I will see you again tomorrow, will I not?”

Parijat chuckles and says, “We will,” With that we both departed from each other - not after Parijat pecks my cheek and running off with Sachiv - and I head back to my camp. There was nothing for us here to find, and we couldn't even own the land because it was not ours to take. There was nothing more for us here and the king and queen will surely let us not have the land if we aren't given the right. They were too kind. We were just destroying the land by being here. My men had already made the walls made from the trees they cut and Richards had already ordered the men to start digging. I had to tell him that there was nothing here and that we could leave.

I saw the tall walls made from the cut down trees and stuck into the soil to be kept upright, the man above who was guarding the doorway saw me and yelled out to the others to open the doorway for me to enter. The sun was setting and it was already twilight. I see the governor talking to Tommy, a stern glare upon his face. He didn't look happy, but then again, the only time he's ever happy is when he talks about the nonexistent gold he would find. He saw me walked up to him and his stern glare lessened as he turned to me. “Richards, we need to leave,” I told him.

“Is there any reason for you calling this assumption?”, he asked.

“We can't take the land, Richards, and there is no gold,” I said. The men stopped working and began to talk amongst themselves, whispering and with shocked or frustrated faces.

“What do you mean there is no gold? There is gold!”

“I met a native,”

“Why didn't you kill him then?!”

“I had no reason to! Just like we have no reason to stay here any longer because this land isn't ours to take and there is no gold!”

“Governor, maybe Samuels is right–”, Tommy got cut off.

“Preposterous!”, Richards exclaimed angrily. “There is gold here on this land! I bet those savages have kept it in their base!” I glared silently up at Richards. The natives didn't have any gold much less they knew what it was. The men seemed to believe Richards and agreed with him. This wasn't going as well as I thought it would, I thought. Richards then said, grabbing a torch lit with flame to light up the now night sky, “This is a new order, men, anyone who sees one or any of those savages, killed them on sight!”