The Chronicles of Protan (Book 1): The Shadowed Man

Chapter 31

Protan moved closer to the woman who had turned to watch her subjects go about humming away from her. “You have a remarkable talent,” Protan said, startling her slightly.

She turned to regard him, her eyes narrowing as she studied him briefly, but before she could ask Protan had already begun to speak, his eyes never leaving the others. “What is it that you do with them? I do not see why young children should be brought to the aftermath of battle.”

She smiled proudly, folded her arms and chose to answer instead of ask the obvious question: “They’re the Misbreds,” she said, her voice slightly withdrawn. “They’re my group that I oversee. Been a struggle but they’re getting there.”

“What is meant by this word Misbreds?” Protan asked as he watched two children, no older than six years crouch over a tree that had been destroyed from the explosion at the cave. It laid uprooted and snapped at the centre.

The woman glanced at him, eyes narrowed at the strange question as she still smiled: “Who are you exactly?”

“My apologies,” he said turning to her almost embarrassed, “I am Protan,” and bowed his head reverently.   

“Ah,” she said, relaxing slightly, “so you’re the one that’s caused all this fuss.” Protan was not sure how to react, the guilt from the weight of the words she spoke settling upon him with a heavy punch to the gut. She continued to eye him, and he found himself surrendering to the fact, his eyes lowering slightly as he turned back to regard the children.

After a pause, the woman added: “I’m Anna-Lee. And this is my repair crew.” Protan glanced to her confused, but said nothing as he turned back to watch. The two girls remained at the fallen tree, yet their hands now waved in a steady slow rhythm, their fingers dancing over the severed area. All the while, they continued to hum the enchanting melody. He found it interesting that they did not miss a note.

As this fascination dawned upon him, he watched closely as the girls stood gradually. Their hands remained low, and his fascination heightened as the tree began to stir.  The girls’ concentration deepened as their humming softened, and the two halves of the tree shifted toward each other. They joined at the severed areas, and soon a soft cracking began to sound. “In an instance of what happened here,” Anna-Lee added as she watched the amazement stretch across his expression, “the Repair Crew fix what we can to bring mother nature back to what she was.” Watching closer, Protan saw the tree mending as the girls’ hands began to lightly shake as they still hummed. As the cracking continued, the girls’ hands formed a cupping gesture, and began to squeeze an imaginary ball between their hands. At that very moment, the cracking ceased, and the girls motioned their hands to suggest a lift. As they did, the tree raised hesitantly, as if mimicking an injured individual rising from treatment, and the relaxation of one’s limbs causing a slight stumble when rising.

“Do you mean to say, that you repair nature itself, upon any of these events?” Protan asked as the tree slowly lifted to standing, and his eyes starting to wander around the rest, finding them doing their tasks willfully and effortlessly.

“In a manner of speaking,” Anna-Lee responded tilting her head. “Not everything can be repaired. We know what we’ve done to disturb and ruin our very home we live in. We have been blessed with these wonderful people who are able to help with fixing what we can to bring that very home back to what it once was. But for those that are beyond repair, we must depend on mother nature’s cycle to decide what she will do.”

As he listened, Protan’s eyes could not leave those who continued to work after the destruction had been ensued. A group of four children stood Repairing the landscape just off the rock pool, floating phantom shrubbery and plants to the area. The rock pool itself was seen to by the only four adults of her Anna-Lee’s group, and their humming was of an ensemble that mesmerized Protan, as their efforts brought the sandy waste and debris from the pool in a swirling vortex from the clearing murkiness at the alcove.