The Secrets of Cultridia: Between the Mountain and the Wood: June 2012

Sunday, 24 June 2012

Chapter XI - Alrik and the Village

I’m in a field. Resting in a patch of plush, green grass. I stare off into the pale blue sky and the planets far off from it’s reach. It’s not long before I notice another hand placed calmly next to mine. I look over to find Callum smiling up at the space above.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” He asks. I don’t reply. Instead I just smile. He turns over on his side and stares into my eyes. “It’s so good to be here with you.” He continues. “I was worried I’d never get to see you again. After they took me I-” He stops and sits up. “Agh. Well, that’s just great.” He says as he points out a mud stain on his shirt. He stands and walks over to a nearby pond. I follow him. “I should probably watch what I’m doing when I roll over in the grass.” He continues. I sit down in the grass and watch as he removes his shirt. At first, I only notice his well-toned muscles. But then, as he kneels by the water, I notice two scars on his stomach. Then, when he turns around to rinse his shirt, there are multiple scars on his back, arms, and neck. Then, the dream begins to blur. Callum says something but I can’t understand him. Then, I’m back in the dark forest with Henly by my side. I sit up from my resting place and, for the first time since leaving Callum at the barrier, I begin to cry. What are they doing to him? I wonder. I silence my sobs as best I can, however, Henly obviously hears them because he moves closer and rests his head on my lap. My tears begin to clear up. I glance over at Elias, who is still resting peacefully. We didn’t talk much after he told me about working for my father. I already have a lesser opinion about my father. Hearing about his secret work didn’t change that. In fact, it only made Aralyn’s situation make more sense. Our parents arranged for her to marry a man who controls these people as well. When she found out about his “job” he refused to marry her and she became an outcast. It’s a business, a game.

The next day Elias leads me toward his village.

“What are your people like?” I ask.

“Lively, joyful, accepting. Even though we live in absolute hunger and poverty, we find reason to celebrate even the smallest of things.” He replies. I have never heard that word before. Poverty. I can only assume it has to do with the living situation of his people. “Okay. You’ll stop here. I’m going to continue to my village to tell them about you so they won’t be surprised when you come. When I leave, I want you to sit in the grass, close your eyes, and focus on me. Try to reach into our mental connection. I have a feeling that, if you try, you might be able to see what I see. Take this.” He says as he reaches around his neck, removes a rope necklace and hands it to me. “It might be able to help.” Then he turns and leaves. As soon as Elias is out of sight I sit in the grass just as he instructed. I press the necklace between the palms of hands and close my eyes. First, I try remembering our conversation from the night before. Then, I try to think back to my dreams and how real Elias felt in them. Finally, I try putting my thoughts into the necklace. How it had clung to Elias’ neck, and how he handed it to me. Suddenly, the blackness of my mind faded and I was walking in the forest again. However, this time I was almost invisible and I wasn’t really walking. I’m not even sure I would call it running. I was just moving at an extremely fast pace. Then, I saw Elias, my figure disappeared into his and, suddenly, I saw through his eyes.

He was approaching a clearing of trees. I began to make out small buildings formed from wood. There were people everywhere. They all looked just like Elias but, at the same time, each one was unique and beautiful. As He walked through the village people looked at him curiously.

“Hey, Lias, Where ya been?” One older boy asked.

Elias stops. “Where’s Alrik?”

“Elias.” The voice belongs to a middle-aged man stepping out of a building. “We were starting to worry something had happened to you. Where were you?”

“I found her.”

“Found who?” Asks the man called Alrik.

“You know who.” Says Elias. They exchange stares. Elias Continues. “She’s here in the Lower-Flat-Lands.” Everyone is looking at him perplexedly. Except for Alrik, he knows.

“Can you take me to her?” Asks the man. Elias nods. “Harper, Karriel, you’ll accompany us. Elias lead the way.” Alrik demands. He exchanges looks with the two other boys as if there is some sort of unspoken understanding between them.

“This way.” Says Elias. They begin moving. The closer they come to me the more I can feel it. The next thing I see is myself, sitting on the ground. The four men coming closer. All men but Elias have harsh looks on their faces. Then, one pulls out a knife and the other takes some rope from sack around his waist.

“Olivia!” Shouts Elias as the others begin to move faster. My eyes open. Henly is yelling at them ferociously. I stand in attempt to get away. But it’s too late. They’re already binding my hands and feet. Elias tries to stop them but, Alrik has him pinned to the ground. It’s too late. They’ve captured me.

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Friday, 22 June 2012

Chapter X - The Foreshadowers

I sit, staring at the blazing flames before me. Henly jumps around as ashes fly into the air, trying to catch them as if it were a game.

“How did you learn to make fire?” I ask Elias.

“It is one of the first things our parents teach us before the Cultridian men take us to work.”

“How old were you when they took you?”

“I was eight. Girls are taken earlier than boys, though. They learn how to sew and stuff as early as five.” He looks at me questioningly. “You don’t know what sewing is, do you?” I shake my head. “It’s how clothes are made. I don’t really know how it works. Boys aren’t taught how.”

“How come I’ve never seen any of your people?”

He stares at the fire, trying to work up an answer. “They keep us underground.” He says finally. “All of the buildings in the Upper-Flat-Lands are just for show. All of the work is done underground.”

“Do you ever get to go outside?” I ask.

“No.” He replies. “There are tunnels under the buildings. Whenever they need to move us to another building, or even another city, we’re led through them.” I can’t seem to wrap my mind around this new information about my birthplace. After my second dream about Elias, I had a feeling that Cultridia wasn’t really the incredible home I thought it was. Hearing Elias’ words have only confirmed those thoughts and feelings.

“Elias. I need to tell you something” I pause. He looks at me with listening eyes. “You said you were looking for me but, really, I came to the Lower-Flat-Lands to find you.” I continue, Elias’ face forms an unreadable expression. “About a month ago, I started having these oddly vivid dreams. In the last dream I had, for example, I was running down the path from Cultridia. I heard voices yelling my name from behind. Then, I ran into something and my friend, Callum, helped me up. Then-” I stop. I realize why running down the hill with Callum was so familiar. I had already been there before. In my dream. My heart beats fast and, when I think my realization can’t get any more confusing, Elias speaks.

“It worked.” He says, smiling.

“What worked?”

“Your dreams.” Elias states. I stare at him as if he is a crazy person. “Let me explain.” He continues “Out of every generation of people there are two, one male and one female, called the foreshadowers. Being a foreshadower means you have incredible mental capabilities. The most valid being the strong connection between the two minds and the ability to see reflections of the future. This can be discovered early on in the person’s life, or they can grow old and die without noticing their capabilities. Most of the time, the pair of foreshadowers are either from Cultridia or the Lower-Flat-Lands. If they are both Cultridian, their gift hardly ever becomes noticed. Few people up on the mountain actually recognize the term foreshadowing.” He pauses, obviously in deep thought.

“What does that have to do with me or you?” I ask.

Elias smiles again. “Olivia, you and I are the foreshadowers of our generation. You’re dreams were reflections of events to come.”

“But, the way my dream happened isn’t the way it happened in real life. Everything was distorted and I couldn’t quite make it out.” I explain.

“How long ago did you have that dream in particular?”

“I don’t know. Three weeks ago, maybe.” I reply.

“Then it must have come from your own mental capacity. Were your other two dreams more vivid?”

“Yes, and you were in them.” I say, wishing he would get to the point.

“Okay, so your first two dreams were reflected from my mind. Since your mind hadn’t yet gathered the capacity for foreshadowing, I had to force the connection between our minds so you could see those futures. Your third dream, however, was your own ability being activated. Your brain had never performed such an exquisite task before thus causing your dream to still feel incredibly real but, also quite unsure.”

This is all so much to take in. The fact that my mind has the ability to do these things almost doesn’t seem real.

“You said that each pair of foreshadowers are either from Cultridia or the Lower-Flat-Lands but, you and I are from both. How did you know I’d be Cultridian?”

“When it became manifest that I was the new male foreshadower, my people started to search the village for the female. They ran all sorts of tests in hopes that they would find her. They used my mind to try and search the Upper-Flat-Lands for another girl of my race. One day, I had the thought that she might not be of our race but of yours. However, when I brought this idea forward to the leaders of my village, they denied it. But, I knew you had to be Cultridian. So, at night, when everyone was asleep, I ran some tests of my own. After all, it’s not impossible for the foreshadowers to be of two different races. It’s just rare.” He stops and stares back into the fire. At this point Henly has given up on his attempts to catch the burning embers in the air, and is resting peacefully by my side.

“Elias-” I start.

“-Wait. How do you know my name? The only way you could have known it is if I showed it to you through our connection. Which I didn’t do.” Elias stares at me awaiting an answer.

“Recently, I was on a tour in the Upper-Flat-Lands. My parents sent my sister and me there to find husbands. We were in Effgere when I found a picture of you on a desk in the house we were staying at. I recognized you from my dreams. Below the picture it said ‘Elias. Fifteen years old. Escapee.’”

“They make those papers so they can remember who has escaped. That was almost three years ago. I’m eighteen now.” Elias smiles again. I smile back this time.

“Wait a minute.” I start again. “If I would have had to place my name in your mind then, how did you know it and how did you know who I was?”

Elias looks panicked at my question. “I shouldn’t tell you now.”

“Why not?”

“Because you won’t like it.”

“Elias. Please tell me. If don’t I’ll probably just be able to reach it out of your mind somehow anyways.” I say but, I don’t really know how or if I would actually be able to do that.

“Olivia. I knew who you were before I knew you were the other foreshadower. I knew who you when we were only little kids.”

“What do you mean?” This is a question of which I already know the answer as I can see the words come out of Elias’ mouth before they actually do.

“Olivia. I used to work for your father.”

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Sunday, 3 June 2012

Chapter IX - The Lower-Flat-Lands

My heart pounds at the sight. Everything that I saw and heard on the other side of the barrier is gone. I want to stay and wait for Callum. I want to stand here and yell out his name. But, I can’t. Aralyn’s words echo in my mind. “You can do this. You have to find Elias.”

It takes a great amount of my emotional energy to stand up and continue running down the path. As I run, the trees grow thicker and the path begins to flatten out. I stop myself. I’m in the Lower-Flat-Lands. The place I’ve looked at through my window for years as if it were only a picture. I continue on running through the forest until I see the sun descending in the sky. I remove the tied up shawl from my shoulder and place it on the ground. I open it up and begin dressing myself in the clothes inside so that I can stay warm as the night becomes cool. I then begin to pile up fallen leaves and place the shawl over them so I have some sort of bed. I lay down, but, I don’t sleep at first. I just think. What happened to Callum? Did he escape some other way? What will those men who were after us do to him? Elias’ sister didn’t tell Aralyn much of anything in order to protect her. What if they hurt Callum because of what he knows? Why didn’t I feel like I should stay and wait for him? My questions stop as my stomach begins to complain to my brain. I haven’t eaten since my party. I wonder how I’ll ever find food in this forest. I can’t survive without food. Other than the fruit that grows on trees, I’ve never been taught how to make food or even where it comes from. My thoughts fade into blackness as my eyes flutter asleep.

I wake up to the blindingly bright sun. It takes me a few moments to remember where I am and what’s going on. I collect my things and keep going. As I walk I examine the flat ground. Everything is different about the Lower-Flat-Lands. The trees have a different alignment, and the sky seems so much bigger. This land has some sort of magical feeling about it. Like a peaceful enchantment is laid upon all who enter.

I continue walking, hoping that I’m going in the right direction, when I hear a rustle in a bush near by. I move towards it slowly and cautiously, when a four-legged creature jumps out at me making a strange yelping noise. I fall to the ground and the animal continues to yell at me. It stops and sniffs my face as I lay completely still with fear. I am surprised, however, when it begins licking my face excitedly. Feeling much less alarmed, I shove the creature off of me and sit up. It has large, brown eyes, floppy ears, a round, wet nose and is completely covered in hair. It sits with it’s mouth open, tongue hanging out, breathing heavily, and we stare at each other for a while. Then, it resumes licking my face. I don’t know what kind of creature this is. No one keeps animals in Cultridia. The only time they’re even really talked about is in our first and second years of school. However, that was a long time ago and I don’t remember many of the animals I learned about. This one has a large build, and a bulky head indicating that he might be male.

Finally, I stand up and continue walking. The animal follows me. Every once and a while I’ll look back to find him still trotting along behind me.

“Well, I guess there’s no getting rid of you.” He yelps again, then runs up to me and rubs his head against my leg. “I think I’ll call you Henly.” He speaks again in agreement. I find another tree to rest on for the night when, unfortunately, it starts raining. I pull my jacket over mine and Henly’s heads.

The next morning we continue on our journey as the earth begins to dry itself. The feeling in my stomach has gone from one of complaints to a sickly feeling causing weakness to veer throughout my body. Even though I dread it, I urge myself on as Henly encourages me to keep moving. Suddenly, Henly yelps at patch of trees and begins to move towards them while sniffing the air. I follow after him as he begins running. He stops and begins clawing and shouting at one tree. I pull him back and look up. I can hardly believe it. It’s an apple tree! I begin to climb the glorious food source and one, by one pull the apples off of the branches and stuff them in my shawl. One of the apples fall off the tree and onto the ground. This excites Henly as he appears to be just as overjoyed as I am by the sight of food. Once my feet are on the ground again, Henly and I enjoy a feast of apples, and, after a quick nap, we are on our way again.

As the sun begins to set and I start to lay out my things while Henly lays down and rests, his head bolts up and he makes an awful growling sound.

“What is it, boy?” I ask. He stands up and angrily moves towards a nearby tree. A pit molds in my stomach when I begin to wonder what might be up there. I stand in my place, shivering with fright, when the figure of a boy drops from the tree. He lets out a groan and Henly jumps on top of him growling fiercely.

“Henly!” I shout and he runs towards me wagging his tail. I slowly walk over to him.

“Who are you, and what were you doing in the tree?” I ask.

He slowly rises from the ground. “My name is Elias. I was scoping out the forest for-” He stops when his large brown eyes reach mine. “-For you.” I am shocked. The young man in front of me is the dark-haired boy, and it’s not a dream.