Ham and Hal began another day of their journey.
Ham leaned over the cooled fire that he’d made the night before. He hovered his hand over the fire pit, and found just a hint of warmth. With the greatest of care, he sprinkled dry wood shavings into the remains of the fire, and tickled them with a few breaths. The shavings caught, and Ham quickly added enough sticks to make a small fire, just as he’d learned from the fire tender in Drear.
Hal put some water in their pot, and put it over the fire to heat up.
“So?” asked Hal.
“Hmm?”
“Why?”
Ham had to think, for a minute, what Hal was talking about. His head had been filled with stars and fires and walking sticks and wonder. Then he remembered Hal’s question of the night before.
“Why? Why am I doing this and learning these things?”
“Yup.”
“You know about my dream – my vision – of the Lightbringer. And you know why I’m out searching.”
Hal cocked his head left, looked closely at Ham, then cocked his head right.
“Yup.”
“Well, I guess I feel like I had to learn these things. I mean, I couldn’t take a whole village with me. But I could take some of what they know how to do with me. So each time I find something I need, instead of asking the person who knows how to do it to go with me, I ask them to teach me. Sometimes I figure things out by myself, like the water bag.”
“Hunh. A village in your head. Hunh.”
Ham waited, but it seemed that Hal had used up his conversation for that morning.
Together they made some strong, aromatic tea, had a few bites of bread and cheese, and cleaned up their camp. They poured some water over the fire, rolled up their blankets, put their utensils and fire making tools into their carry packs, and turned their faces to the east again.
Facing the sun as it climbed the sky, hidden behind the usual veil of cloud, Ham asked Hal “Do you remember my question from last night about the stars?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Well, here’s another wonder for you. Have you ever wondered about the sun? How it goes up the sky and down the sky and then goes away at night?”
Ham knew what to expect, at this point, and he wasn’t disappointed. Hal cocked his head to the left, looked at Ham, looked at the sun, looked back at Ham, cocked his head to the right and said “Nope.”
At that moment, the sun shone through the clouds for the briefest of instants, lighting the land and the trees and Ham and Hal. For that moment, it seemed to Ham that he saw everything around him with startling clarity, each tree and rock and blade of grass standing out in detail against the background of earth and sky – green of plants against brown of earth, and the blue-gray of the sky against the brown-green of the horizon.
Looking toward the horizon, Ham saw a short, bent, dusty brown figure walking towards them from the east, its pale shadow extended as if to reach out and touch them. The figure carried a walking stick, although the stick, like the figure, seemed short and bent. Ham and Hal, never having seen another soul outside of their villages, stopped in stunned silence and waited.
The figure slowly shuffled toward them, its head bent, its eyes on the ground, its walking stick making a scrape-thud sound with each step. As the figure came closer, Ham could see that it was an old, old man. In fact, Ham had never seen anyone that old. The man’s hair was all white, wispy, and thin on top. His shoulders were hunched and his back bent. He had a pack of sorts on his back, and was wearing some kind of cloak that hid his clothing. Ham could hear a clinking sound, but could not see what might be making the sound because of the cloak.
Finally the man reached them, and stopped. He looked up from beneath bushy white eyebrows, and his eyes flashed and took in Ham and Hal in a quick glance. Ham felt, in that instant, that the old man had learned everything about him in that one glance, and it felt strange.
“Hello, Ham. Hello, Hal. I’m Martin.”
Ham was stunned. How could this man – this Martin – possibly know their names? Hal, well, Hal cocked his head to the left, then cocked it back to the right, and said “Yup” as if it was the most natural thing in the world to meet a total stranger who knew their names.
Ham managed to stammer out “You know who we are. How did you know that?”
Martin said “I’ve been looking for you. Well, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time, and just started looking for you a few weeks ago. I started out from my village, many miles from here, and just now found you. I hope you’re worth it!”
