Chapter 6: An Intruder in the Camp

Astiah

I wake suddenly. I thought I heard my son say, ‘Mama!’

“Mama!” I hear it again. I sit up and look out into the darkness. Are my ears playing tricks on me? All I hear now is the river rushing past and the wind stirring the upper limbs of the trees. 

I peer into the darkness and the grey mist hovering by the river. 

There’s a dark shape moving through the mist towards us. I shake Granye awake. 

Sarvastiah bursts into the ring of light around the fire, carrying Sharna in his arms. 

“Mama,” he says, “She was attacked by a jaguar.” In the darkness, I see her leg is covered with blood. Granye jumps up and spreads her blanket flat for Sarvastiah to put Sharna down. 

The rest of the camp stirs. The young man who was standing guard comes running over. 

“What?” I’m nearly speechless. What is my 15-year-old son doing here? I left him at home, safe.

Granye goes to the river and dips out a cup of water. She returns and kneels down next to 

Sharna and begins cleaning out the wound. “We’ll need some strips of cloth to bind the wound.” She pulls a packet from her bag and sorts through a few bundles of medicinal leaves.

The rest of camp is gradually waking to the commotion. Solis appears and quickly unwraps a sash from around her waist and hands it to Granye. 

“Are you okay?” Granye puts a hand on Sharna’s wrist and then her neck. 

Sharna nods and half-mumbles, “It hurts.” 

Sarvastiah says, “I saw the jaguar, and I hit it with my walking stick.”

I say, “What are you doing here? You could’ve been killed.” 

It’s a familiar look I’ve seen many times in the past year. It says he is ready to live life as a man without maternal intervention. “Or Sharna could’ve been killed Mama.” He chides.

Solis says, “I don’t think the jaguar will come back tonight. Stoke the fire and set a few more people on watch.” 

She crouches down next to Sharna and gives her a long, searching look. Sharna says nothing, but something passes between them. 

Granye says, “I need help moving her closer to the fire. I don’t want her to get cold. Her wound is bad, but I’ve done all I can before the sun rises.”

A few people help lift Sharna and move her. Two of the men heap wood on the fire. The commotion begins to settle. 

Sarvastiah and I finally sit together on top of my blanket. I hug him hard against me. I also want to punish him for defying me. “What are you doing here?”

He leans away, glancing at the men in the camp. I know he wants to be seen as their equal.

“I told you I wanted to come.”

“And I told you that you weren’t ready.” I try not to sound as angry as I am. Sarvastiah and I argued about this from the moment he knew I was leaving until I left our home hearth.

He glances away, angry. “And you were? You don’t have any experience either.”

“We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you. Next year you join the Others…”

He’s staring at me with a look of annoyance that pains me. How is it possible to make a son understand a mother’s fears?

“Well, I’m here now, aren’t I?” He yanks his bed roll from his pack and flicks it on the ground. 

I admit I’m impressed that he has tracked us for almost five days without being caught and then he rescued Sharna from a jaguar. He’s more ready for the road than I thought. I’m still angry that he defied me. 

I lay down on my bed roll. After a few minutes, I say quietly, “Did you tell someone in the hearth you were leaving?” 

“Yes, of course I did.” He says and puffs out a little breath in disgust and turns his back to me.

Granye comes over and lays down next to me on the ground. 

She says, “I gave Sharna my blanket.” 

“Is she going to be okay?”

I roll closer to look at her in the dim firelight. 

“I don’t know. The wound is deep, but I don’t think any bones are broken. Tomorrow we’ll see if she can walk.”

“I guess maybe Solis is right about getting horses.” 

Granye seems to think for a long moment. “We’re trusting her to be right about many things. I wish I knew if she’s right about Fengranye and Hanasorsha being alive.” 

When began the day I worried about one of my children, now I’m worried about two. It’s hard to imagine accommodating any more loss. 

I pull the edge of my blanket over Granye and she is already snoring lightly.

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 It’s well after sunrise before we are underway. The sunlit filters through the high canopy of trees, but it’s still hard to believe it’s morning. The men set out just after sunrise. They return to camp having found a place in the river where we can cross. 

After we eat cold breakfast rations, Svar brings two of the younger men over. They introduce themselves to Sarvastiah and he follows them as they do the work of breaking down the camp. The men are very particular about leaving everything as pristine as possible. The kick apart the smoldering fire and brush the dirt over where we slept. 

            Granye and Solis create a splint for Sharna’s leg. We all feel the urgency of our mission and now Sharna has slowed our progress. It takes the better part of the morning to reach the river crossing. The river is still swift, but much shallower. There are a few rocks to step across on, but we will all have to wade part way to reach the far side. Sharna looks tentatively at the rocks. It will take some agility to step from one rock to the next. She sets her pack down on the bank, looking tired and pained. 

            One of the younger men drives a stake into the bank and unfurls a rope. He ties a knot deftly around the end. Sarvastiah watches intently. All these skills are part of what it means to be a Wanderer. I’m angry that Sarvastiah for joining our party without my permission. At the same time I’m thrilled that we are experiencing this adventure together. With no hesitation, the young man wades across the river and fixes the rope on the other side. Mixa and Taiye leap lightly across the rocks, holding the rope as they go. 

 Svar shouts, “Use the rope and keep moving. It is shallow here, but the river is still swift.”

            Suddenly, Sarvastiah sweeps Sharna up into his arms and splashes hip deep into the river. She lets out a little yelp of surprise. 

 Svar, standing on the upper edge of the bank, shouts, “Sarvastiah! Get out of there! It’s too deep! Move upstream!”

            Everyone stops to watch. Svar isn’t the leader of this expedition, but he is respected for his experience. 

            Sarvastiah, paying no attention, stumbles forward. Sharna grips his neck. 

 “SARVASTIAH!” I shout. But he isn’t listening. He just presses forward across the river. He stumbles but doesn’t fall. 

He reaches the far side and sets Sharna on her feet. Once again, I feel a mixture of pride and irritation. 

Mixa and Taiye continue crossing the river, looking down at their feet and holding the rope. 

Sarvastiah splashes back across the river to retrieve Sharna’s pack. I’m not sure what I imagined finally being free of the hearth would be like. Whatever I imagined, it never included this gnawing dread about my children’s wellbeing. I join Granye and Solis and we make our way across the river. 

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We spend the day twisting and turning, sometimes on game trails, sometimes forging our own way. We move slowly and Sharna requires rest. Periodically Solis consults her leather book and then sets out with a confident stride. We finally make camp late in the day. Everyone seems uneasy about spending another night in the woods. I can’t help wondering if the jaguar continues to stalk us. 

 As soon as we set up camp, Granye unwraps Sharna’s wound, inspects it and cleans it. We all lay down for a restless night of sleep. I’m awakened once by what may be the howl of a jaguar. Solis is sitting next to the fire, wrapped in a blanket, making notes in her book. Sarvastiah sleeps soundly with his mouth open. I know he only wants what I have always wanted, the freedom of wandering. 

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We reach the edge of the Darkken Woods without any further events. Already, the hearth seems distant and unreachable. A vast, golden plain stretches out ahead. The wind pushes waves into the limber stalks. We walk until the sun drops down to touch the distant horizon. All of us talking and laughing easily with the woods now behind us. Granye walks alone most of the day. She has always been solitary. I imagine this journey is wearing on her in many ways. Sarvastiah follows the men, like a bee buzzing around a flower. Something inside of me lurches when I realize that he is leaving the hearth permanently. I’m almost ashamed to admit I’m envious. 

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I’m the first to wake in the camp in the morning. Two boys finish the night watch. I wave to them and they both nod, looking solemn and tired. We have slept in a hollow at the base of a hillside, to protect us from the wind. I climb the crest of the hill and look out over the plains. In the distance, the morning sun kisses the top of the next hill. The sky is pale pink beneath a bank of clouds overhead. I pull my cloak around me as the wind blows hard and cold. 

I see what looks like a line of smoke rising up against the sky. The earth rumbles. Then the horses burst over the top of the distant hill. They are mostly brown, but some have patches of white. The herd moves as if it is a single body with a single brain. They run toward me, though there is still a valley between us. I hold my breath, frozen in wonder. I should warn the others, but I can’t look away from the spectacle. The horses continue to close the distance between us. 

Finally, I shake myself awake and turn and run towards our camp. 

“Horses!” I shout. In the distance, the thundering of their hooves grows closer. 

Two of the men load wood on the fire. A few people sit up on their bed rolls, rubbing their eyes and trying to make sense of the commotion. I turn and run back to the crest of the hill and others follow me. The horses are close now. I can hear some of them whiny and snort. A dust cloud reaches us and the horses’ bodies are like shadows passing through a fog. They turn suddenly, cutting away down the valley. Almost as quickly as they appeared, they vanish. 

I’ve always longed to see something I’ve never seen before. It is the most amazing and terrifying thing I’ve ever seen.

Sharna is standing next to me, leaning on a branch that she’s fashioned into a support. She turns to me. “You’ll have many stories to tell if you return to Hearth.”

I nod. 

It’s only later that I think about the grim expression on her face and wonder what she meant by “if” I return to the Hearth. 

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