“Rael!” Darius yelled, “Rael! Where are you?”
The village market was coming to life a little later than usual. Darius had finished his interview with Pfeiffer late in the night watch. He commissioned the young shepherd to take the day to himself, not to worry about the flock he would find someone to substitute while he caught up on rest.
After making his way back to his long-lost home and bed, he’d fallen fast asleep to the epiphany that this would be the perfect opportunity for Rael to step in. He would fetch him from Ezekiel first thing.
After a few hours of rest, Darius was back on his feet and anxious to see his boy. It was a big day! They had so much to catch up on and business to attend to. Today was the day Rael would take on a new task. Darius wanted him to get all the sleep he would need to finish the duty well and feel joy and accomplishment by the end of it. He decided to wait on waking him since the sun had barely begun to show itself. He went for a swim in the river, changed into a new set of fresh clothes. Rejuvenated and ready to lay out their new ground rules he set off for the wise man’s home to fetch his protege.
Knock, knock, knock.
He waited patiently, long enough to decide the old man was snoring to loud for the polite raps to make an impact.
KNOCK. KNOCK…
Ezekiel swung the door open “Oh, hello hello.” He chimed. “Good morning to you Master Darrius, you’ll have to forgive my hut, it is in a bit of disarray with all the excitement.”
Darius smiled and looked past the wise man. “Not at all Ezekiel, you’ve had quite the task on your hands, keeping everything in order in my absence. I would like to catch up with you and hear all about your experience but first I have some matters to attend to with Rael. Where is my son? If he is still sleeping will you wake him and send him out?”
Darius crossed his hands behind is back, prepared to wait.
“Sir, I apologize but, I dropped the young master at your doorstep before heading to my own.” He frowned.
“What? I asked you to take him home with you!” Darius boomed.
The old man blinked back surprise. Darius had never lifted his voice in his direction, this was new. He looked to the ground before coming back with, “Well, sir, I apologize for not following through completely but the lad made a good argument, he didn’t want any more changes, he was overwhelmed he said. He’s been living in his own hut for the last while, since you left with the hunting party, I didn’t figure another night would hurt anything.”
As he spoke Darius softened. “You are right, I’m sorry Ezekiel, he wasn’t there when I woke up. I will find him, you go about your business. Thank you for walking him home.”
The leader turned swiftly and made his way to the main square.
Maybe Rael had thought to do the same thing as he had, maybe he left quietly after waking so as to let me rest. He thought hopefully.
The villagers were busy about their daily tasks, each one pulling their weight in whatever way their families had established, the heads of the houses taking their baskets and woven packs full of soiled clothes for washing and berry picking. A couple had set up at the main table under the hood of wood they served each meal at. There were steaming pots of Wobomobo tea and plates full of fresh baked goods. The steam swirled together and reached for Darius’ nose drawing him in. He stopped long enough for a deep breath and to receive joyful good mornings from those stopping for morning communal festivities and food.
His heart swelled and thumped at the familiar delicious scents and sounds of excitement over a brand new day. It felt like home. Rael, Darius jolted back into action, his eyes sifting through the shifting crowd. A pit was forming in his stomach, maybe he’d been gone too long… Maybe Rael had learned how to live on his own and no longer had need of a father… He remembered how much he relied on his own father for strength and encouragement over his formative years and dismissed the thought immediately.
He swept through the square and made his way to the edge of the town, asking after his son each time a villager stopped him to wish him good morning and commend his safe return.
He wasn’t used to the crowd yet. After being surrounded by each landscape and only coming over one other established village along the way he’d grown quite used to not interacting with anything but birds, wolves, bears, and other animals of the forests and valleys. He took in the air drifting over the meadow, it smelt of blossoms and fresh grass. His eyes scanned the horizon, coming up short. He walked a short way along the small rock wall that lined the town. It had been re-enforced since he’d been away. There were two lines of rock piled against each other, he’d remembered it being waist height in the past. Now, it was almost to his armpits. He leapt over it and walked along the far side.
“Rael! Rael, where are you? He hollered. His voice ran down the valley, sending a flurry of pigeons and puglios into the air. The fuzzy puglios appeared to bounce off one another in their hurry to escape. The hunter laughed at the scene. what a clever trick. He mused while watching the pigeons pulling away quickly and make their way over the treetops while the pudgy counterparts struggled for distance from the ground, disappearing clumsily into the thick leaves of the low canopy.
“Father!” The distant voice reached him as he turned a corner in the rock wall. Darius stopped and turned an ear to the wind. “Father! Wait, here I am!” It seemed to draw closer as each word reached him.
He turned around and almost ran head long into Rael as he zipped around the corner himself.
“Son! I’ve been looking for you everywhere, did you slip away while I was still sleeping?”
Rael blinked, as if unsure what to say, he drug his foot over a clod of dirt before kicking it down hill.
“Rael, where were you?”
“I stayed with Ezekiel. But I need to tell you something!” Rael didn’t make eye contact until Darius crossed his arms over his chest.
“Oh? Did you?”
“Okay, no, I didn’t, but father you’ve been gone so long and the whole time I took care of everything! I kept the fires going, I tended the horses and chickens, collected their eggs, and gave them to Bolinda and Roley each morning. I did everything you taught me! I don’t know why you think all of a sudden I need to be watched over by someone.” He crossed his arms to mirror his father. “But it’s important, I have to tell you something!”
They stared into each other for a moment before Darius chuckled and shook his head. He rustled Rael’s hair, “You’re right, that was my mistake, I wasn’t thinking, it was a long journey and I wasn’t expecting a rift so soon after my return. I missed ya boy.” He pulled Rael into a bear hug. “Now, what did you want to tell me?”
>>>—->
Rael melted, his anger and disappointment from the night before going with it. He had his fathers full attention and now that they’d come to an understanding about the living arrangements he felt emboldened.
“Father, I saw something last night!” Darius pulled away and sat down on the hillside. He patted the ground next to him, squinting into the sun rising behind Rael’s head.
“Well, out with it,” Darius chuckled. “what did you see?”
Rael settled himself in next to the leader. They both leaned into the wall, Darius looked out over the meadow and the boy started his tale. “Well, I couldn’t sleep so I was looking out at the forest, and suddenly I thought I saw something so I tried to get a closer look and I saw it again! I saw two HUGE glowing things dancing around at the tree line!”
“Two huge glowing things?” Darius tried not to smile at the explanation. “Are you sure they weren’t just glow bugs dancing in the distance, playing with your eyes and making you to think they were further and larger than they were?”
“No! That’s not what it was at all! They were matched perfectly together, and they moved together! They looked like eyes to me. And then they disappeared and showed up a ways down the tree-line!” He sounded almost indignant.
“Okay, okay, so then what happened. And these glowing things. What hue did they give off?”
“They looked like fiery little suns!”
“Well, they must have been huge indeed.”
Rael nodded vigorously, oblivious to his fathers jest.
“They were as big as me a piece. each of them.” He solemnly nodded his head finally feeling as though his father was understand him.
“So I had to get a closer look. I took your hunting knife with me just in case. I have been keeping it next to my bed while you were away. just in case.”
Darius patted his son on the shoulder, nodding his approval. He learned to survive quickly. That would serve him well, the hunter thought.
“So I got down to the tree line and I yelled at the forest for the creature to show itself and come into the light.”
Darius stopped himself, what was done was done, though he wasn’t happy with the idea of his son going to the forest at night by himself. He bit his tongue and allowed the boy to continue.
“Well, nothing happened, I waited and waited, just like I told it I would and then I fell fast asleep on the ground.”
“Rael! You slept alone in the valley?? Have you not heard anything the villagers have been talking about?” Darius protested suddenly serious, unable to keep his side at bay any longer.
“Well, I didn’t mean to but yes!” He looked away, his shoulders tightened at the questions. “I’ve heard, I wanted to keep the town safe.” He mumbled. “I was trying to be brave, to make you proud.” He slumped with the last statement.
Darius watched his son intently as he picked up a stick and started poking it into the ground. He needs me more than ever, Darius thought. A prick of concern deflated his intention to rally a hunting party to go after the monster. Maybe it could wait for a week or two.
Even as the thought finished a sense of urgency surged through his heart, tugging him toward accomplishing the mission at hand. It would be selfish for him to stay when the fate of the village depended on rooting out the new threat before it moved from consuming the sheep to eating the townsfolk.
“Rael, I need you to listen to me.” The boy looked at his father with watery eyes. “I’m proud of you. I will always be proud of you. The way you stepped up and cared for the hut, the animals and tended to the chores that help the entire village gives me so much joy. You are a good son.”
He rustled Rael’s curls. “But son, we never stop growing up. That never goes away.” He paused and pointed to the tree line. “Like those trees, they grow together and reach for the sky until the day they fall into the underbrush and feed the forest floor.”
“Father! I saw something out there, I really did. Even if what I did wasn’t right, I saw something out there and it left a pile of leaves on top of me after I fell asleep, you have to believe me.” This caught Darius’ attention. Rael leapt to his feet. “Come with me! I will show you were the leaves are, there was a mountain of them! I had to wiggle my way out from under them and the moss layered in!”
“A pile of leaves? And moss?” Now curious, Darius got to his feet. This was strange. “Let’s see it boy, I believe you saw what you say you did, but this might give us something to track from.”
Rael lit up and waved his father along as he rushed around the side of the barrier they’d been leaned against.
Darius rounded the corner after his son, he squinted into the sunlight letting his eyes wonder along the wood line. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary but continued following Rael. His gaze wandered as he walked along after. The meadow was full of life, butterflies and bubble bees flittered, buzzed and floated from blossom to blossom adding to the general hum. The vibrant lush green of the grass rippled in waves as far as his eyes could reach.
When his eyes returned to Rael, the boy was stopped in his tracks, staring at a spot near the forest line.
“What is it boy?” Darius called as he drew closer.
“It was right here…” He didn’t move, his shoulders fell slack. “Father, I don’t understand, it was right here before I came to answer your call.”
His eyes welled with tears and shone in the building morning. “Father, you have to believe me it was right here, I felt it, I saw it with my own eyes. It was ON TOP of me… Now, it’s gone… there are no leaves at all. Nothing. No moss… I am so confused.”
“Are you sure this is the spot?” Darius crossed his arms and let his eyes linger on the spot.
Rael looked toward a part in the bushes. “Yes. I am sure.”
Darius watched his son closely for a moment. The birds chirped and sang around them in a melodic chorus. “Rael, I need you to listen to me. I know this has been a difficult time son.” The hunter crouched to eye-level. “I understand it’s been difficult without me here but you’ve handled yourself so well I found myself questioning if you needed me this morning. You’ve grown up so fast, and from what Ezekiel has shared, you have built some wisdom.” He tapped Rael’s chest just over his heart.
“I know you aren’t going to like what I have to say but, based on what I’ve gathered since I came home the town is suffering from something we have never faced. I know you can feel it in the air. There is a heaviness.”
“It’s because you were gone!” Rael interrupted. “there was no leader, father that’s why! Everyone was arguing more and too many people were trying to take up the position only to fail. Until Ezekiel stepped up it was worse, you missed the worst part of it. Now that you’re home, everything can go back to the way it was!”
“Rael, everything changes, it’s our duty to adapt and learn to overcome the changes as they arise. You might have your father back, but think of the women and children, villagers you know well, who no longer have that.” Darius squeezed his sons shoulder. “If you are going to grow up and become a good leader, someone people are eager to follow, you will have to learn to stand in for them and protect them as well.”
Rael lowered his head and stared into the grass. “I am going to take a hunting party into the forest within a few days. We need to make some preparations but I know you will do what is needed to support the effort.”
Rael jerked to attention. “Father! You just got back!” He protested.
“I know son, and there will be plenty of time for us to catch up.”
“Is this because of what Pfeiff told you? He is a liar father! What he said isn’t true! He lost sheep from the flock and made up a story to cover for himself! That’s all!”
“Rael, be careful what you say. That isn’t true and I would hate for you to be one of the villagers that’s been making life difficult for him. Pfeiffer is a good boy, what he does is crucial to the village way of life.”
“He’s a stupid sheepherder! He doesn’t know anything!”
“Pfeiffer belongs to the village Rael, since his father and mother passed on it is our duty to accept him into each of our families. From the sounds of it, that hasn’t happened in my absence and that disappoints me.”
A shiver ran through Rael at the rebuke. “But father!”
“No buts, now you listen well boy, until you learn to see people equally and appreciate them for their contents and what they offer to the village, I think it would be good for you to take over some responsibilities. Pfeiffer will be coming with us, and while we are gone, you will tend to the flock.”
“Father! No! I can go with you too!”
“No. You will stay.”
“Why?” Rael bit back tears. His heart sank into the cool grass around his toes.
“Because I said so, and because I don’t think you are ready.”
“Pfeiffer isn’t that much older than me!”
“Pfeiff is a tough kid with a lot of experience Rael. You saw how he handled himself at the town meeting. He stood up for what he knew to be right even when everyone mocked. He has carried on his family’s duty without so much as a peep of complaint. That is a sign to me that he is ready for a new responsibility. I hope the same for you one day.” There was a warning carried in Darius’s tone. The matter wasn’t up for debate.
Rael’s shoulders fell, defeated. “What are you going to be doing? What are you going after so soon?” He asked, offering Darius a chance to tell him the secrets he’d heard the night before.
Darius pause, as if contemplating before he answered. “I have been gone a long while and supplies are needed, we are going on a hunt to replenish the storage for winter.”
Rael clenched his fist around the lie. “But that’s what the sheep are for!”
“The sheep are for more than that boy, they supply wool for our clothes, their hooves act as adhesive for our structures, their bones are medicine for the elderly and feeble. You have much to learn. We do not want to eat them until it is necessary or they are past the age of bearing lambs.”
Rael’s upper lip snarled, it wouldn’t have bitten him so hard if he hadn’t felt his father was hiding the true reason for the mission from him. He knew it was all because of what the shepherd had told his father the previous night. Stupid Pfeiffer ruined everything. and now he was stuck watching his stupid sheep. It was like Darius had swapped sons!
“Did you even miss me while you were away? Did you even think of me?” He cried as the bitterness touched his bones.
The accusations struck Darius in the heart. He watched his son struggling to keep the tears at bay. He stood and grabbed Rael by the shoulders, “the thought of you on your own is what brought me home. I wouldn’t have made it back without you Rael. You are my son, and I know you have the spirit of a strong leader.” Darius squeezed his shoulder.
“The training starts now” Darius squeezed his shoulder and turned resolutely back toward the town.
>>>—>
Rael watched his father walk up the hillside toward the town. His bottom lip began to tremble and the tears finally spilled over the brim of his eyelashes. Rael dropped his eyes to the ground as his Darius disappeared through the main gate.
This is all your fault… He glared up at the bushes and bent and picked up the stick at his feet. If you wouldn’t have come along I wouldn’t have fallen asleep outside!
He rushed at the tree line and underbrush with the weapon raised above his head. “Rah!!!” Thwap, thwap, Thwap.
He struck the bushes until they bled leaves all around him. “You made me looked like a fool in front of my dad!” He roared and grunted as the blows landed hard against the tender branches.
Each strike echoed around him until he fell to the ground exhausted and empty of the rage that had swelled up in him. How bad could herding be, really… If Pfeiffer could do it, he would do it better.