The Elder's Path (3 page)

As she heard the words, Lyn’s eye’s narrowed and her fingers twitched towards her bow. She began counting the men and their distance to calculate an escape. Feeling her tense, Alir respond
ed by ruffling his feathers and flapping.

Satora rose from his bow and looked about as if surprised. Seeing the girl visibly tense, he amended with, “Oh no, I’m not that kind of bandit.” Amusement colored his voice as he continued, “I’m rather something of
a liberator, actually. I take only from those who will not suffer for what’s gone, my dear. The world is such a dreary place; I try merely to spread what remaining color there is equally amongst the folk.”

While he was clearly being dramatic, the self-pr
oclaimed bandit seemed earnest as he spoke, though Lyn did catch a few small headshakes and shrugs from the other men with him. Confused, Lyn kept her guard.

Seeing her eyeing the men behind him, the bandit turned about to look at his followers. “Oh don’t
mind them,” he said flippantly with a wave of his hand, “some of them are still of the tedious mindset that bandits should keep the riches for themselves. Bah, profit. How dull, yes?” As his men chuckled, he brushed some invisible dust from himself dismissively. “Actually, in that regard, we have a job to do here.” He swept his arm to indicate the city behind them and continued, “And speaking of sharing, please take this.” He reached into a small bag and procured a jingling pouch, which he tossed Lyn’s way. Lyn caught it without thinking, and took a peek to find it full of gold pieces.

She paled at the amount, for she had never seen such. “I cannot take this,” she stammered quickly, “this is too much. Why would you give this to me?”

As she met Satora’s gaze, he winked at her and said quietly, “Because, my lady, unless I miss my mark you've just come from the forest, yes? And some of us still remember to honor the Elder’s Path, and what it is you’re doing. Rain or shine, you can always count on Satora and his merry men to aid a Druid in her journey.” He bowed again quickly and strode back to his horse. “Come on lads, we’ve a jolly good time on our hands with this next one. Let’s get paid!”

The next morning, Lyn made her way to the city. Grateful as she was f
or the monetary assistance, Lyn felt compelled to alert whoever was in charge to the impending bandit raid. In fact, given time to think over the entire situation, she had decided she was mad at Satora; after all, his gracious gesture seemed empty knowing it was not his money he was giving away but rather that he had stolen it and simply passed it on to her. How could he expect her to keep it in good conscience?

“Perhaps he didn’t, though,” Lyn mumbled, “perhaps this is some sort of test! Wait; is that wha
t this really is? Some kind of moral initiation?” As she moved towards the gate with these thoughts, her anger grew. She felt it was unfair that she should be tested thus and not have even the slightest warning of it. “Bandit extraordinaire, indeed,” she hissed under her breath. Alir, sensing her mounting ire, let out a cry and beat his wings. Startled out of her musings, Lyn calmed him and took a moment to study the gate she had arrived at. It was large enough to allow traffic in and out in a steady stream, but rather ordinary besides. The gates themselves lay open, and beyond them she could see the city was full of movement and activity. It was crowded, even, and Lyn drew a sharp intake of breath at the sheer scale of the humanity she witnessed within.

Wi
thin the forest, Lyn was accustomed to a rather small community. This was due to the fact that her people historically had always been a rather small community, but also because in the last few generations, their numbers had been dwindling steadily. It was never much spoken of, but the suspicion was that the lack of an Elder was involved somehow. It was conceivable that her people were tied so deeply to the forest and the great Sage Tree that the apparent decline of its magic affected them as well.

Even mo
re reason to press on, Lyn thought. As she passed through the gates, she calmed herself with a deep breath. Realizing the situation would be equally strange for Alir, if not more so, she thought it best to keep herself as centered as possible so he would not react to her distress. However, as they moved in to the crowd, Lyn found it harder to keep herself composed. She was comfortable being surrounded by trees, not people, and the bustling mass of bodies and loud calls through the market stalls began to make her panic.

To her surprise, the hawk remained stoic. Lent strength by his composure, Lyn took one of her deep calming breaths and moved on. After all, she could not be deterred by a mere market crowd; far more punishing trials awaited her than making he
r way through teeming streets and surviving the calls of vendors and pushers. But such is the way of the world; even mundane concerns like busy marketplaces have a way of making themselves large and overwhelming in one’s mind. Pondering this, Lyn could not help but chuckle at herself. Her people’s future was at stake and she balked at passing through city gates. Shaking off her unease and replacing it with amusement, Lyn strode forward easily and moved through the throngs of people. Watching her silent laughter, she felt a small hint of curiosity coming from her companion. That she could recognize such thoughts from him, even in small amount and intermittently so, meant their bond was deepening.

Lyn smiled openly at this knowledge, and the last vestiges of
her anxiety were burned away. Locating the nearest guard, she requested directions to the leader of the walled city and was instructed that the magistrate’s office was located in a larger structure at the end of a street close by. She thanked the guard and continued on. Looking around her, she noticed the number of guards was markedly few; despite the commotion of the marketplace, Lyn surmised this place must be relatively peaceful. Unfortunately for them, the news she was to deliver was of an uglier nature counter to this evident peace. She frowned at this, and wished she had not been put in such a position. She pulled out the pouch of coins that Satora had given to her and contemplated it. While she understood she would eventually need money on her journey, she was resolved to earn it herself. She would take it to the city magistrate and allow them to do with it what they would.

Turning to make her way to towards the indicated street, a young man bumped in to her soundly. Stumbling and attempting to mainta
in Alir’s balance, she glared up at the man to find that he was already off down the street, moving through the crowd with a grace that belied their supposedly accidental collision. Lyn considered yelling after him but thought better of drawing the attention to herself. She regretted that decision, however, upon finding that the purse of coin was missing.

“A cutpurse!”
she exclaimed, “How could I fall for that? Hey, someone stop that man! He has taken my coin!” To her great disappointment and surprise, not one person stopped to heed her words. In fact, no one even turned to look at her in spite of her outburst. So caught up were they in their business that they seemed not to hear her at all.

By the time she had pressed her way to her destination, she was t
horoughly over her earlier amusement. In fact, she was tired of civilization in so far as she had seen it at all, and was ready to move back outside the city to familiar wilderness. As far as Lyn was concerned, she would complete her obligatory duty to warn the city magistrate and take her leave; she could see no lesson to learn from this place or any of its like.

But as Lyn came to the doors of the magistrate’s office, she was stopped very suddenly by two guards.

“You are here to see the magistrate?” One addressed her brusquely.

“Yes,” she began, “I am here…”

“The magistrate is available by appointment only,” the guard interjected rudely, and pointed away.

“But, I have...” Lyn stammered, flustered at the behavior.

Again, the guard interrupted with, “By appointment only, girl, and even if he were to see you, you couldn’t be dressed like that.” With an air of superiority, the two guards looked her over and scoffed.

Angered now by their disrespect in the face of her attempts at assistance, Lyn straighten
ed her back, clenched her fists, and said sternly, “Now listen here, I am Lyn from…”

Before she could finish, the second guard yelled over her, “We don’t care who you are, girl. But we do care that you aren’t leaving by your own accord.” He stepped toward
s her menacingly, and Lyn retreated. “Now,” he continued, his voice low, “are you going to be a good girl and leave, or do we need to show you the way?” 

Chapter 3

6
th
day, 8
th
lunar cycle, 700
th
age of Arc

“So soon into the journey, and already it becomes interesting. Last night Alir and I had an encounter with some self-proclaimed bandits. While they did not seem overly hostile, I was obliged to inform the local magistrate of their presence. Despite my intentions, Alir and I were quickly disappointed with the city dwellers we came across; everyone was in such a hurry! Not one gave a passing glance for anything outside their concerns, even when a cry for help was let. And such density of humanity I have never seen, packed in so tightly I don’t know how they breathe. Yet we pressed on, determined to begin on the right foot morally. To no avail, however, as we were very severely denied any audience with the local official and very rudely cast aside. Ironically I am finding the company of the bandits preferable to that of the ‘civilized’ folk, and cannot help but be somewhat pleased that ‘Satora, bandit extraordinaire’ shall be paying them a visit. But I cannot stay on the outskirts forever, and I suspect this city is rather insignificant compared to the others I shall visit. In that regard, I am making my way to the north, and the cold. What shall await me there?”

With
no coin to speak of, and no desire to stay long enough to obtain any, Lyn set out from the city with gusto. The Eastern province was a quaint place, characterized largely by the forest and small rolling hills. This landscape provided ample opportunity for growing and cultivating of life, and as such Lyn had little trouble finding small game for sustenance. Aided by Alir, she was easily able to track rabbits and the like for their food, and with the addition of wild berries and nuts they could survive comfortably enough on the simple fare.

They spent a few days in this manner, making their way slowly to the Northern Province and the mountains th
erein. The northern territory was vastly unfamiliar to her, accustomed as she was to the dense forest, but this only increased her eagerness to explore it. However, the further north they proceeded, the cooler it became; nights lost their warmth to a chill edge, and Lyn began to regret not having any coin to procure heavier blankets. The mountains, usually obscured by a thick fog from afar, began to take shape before her. The giant black shadows of them loomed constantly on the horizon like an ominous wall, and the cold lonely nights began to take their toll on Lyn.

Bundled up one such night against an unwelcome breeze, Lyn began to feel the old familiar sense of despondency that had plagued her before her journey had begun.

“Oh Alir,” she said, shivering, “How unprepared I am still for this. I don’t even know where I’m going, and if people there are anything like those we just met…” she trailed off, staring into the small fire she had crafted, now flickering in the face of the cool wind. Alir blinked at her, but she could feel his concern pressing into her. Their bond had continued to develop, and now his feelings were becoming nearly second-nature to Lyn. Yet his support did not ease her distress this time. “Is this how it was for all who came before me?” She continued, “I feel like the world is a different place than it was…I feel as though our people have been all but forgotten and the Path doesn’t matter any longer.” But even as Lyn uttered the words, she knew them to be false in her heart.

Prompted by
Alir’s expectant gaze, she amended, “Perhaps the world isn’t the same. But that doesn’t make the Path any less important, right?” Alir let loose a small squawk in response. “Yes, perhaps now it is more important than ever, to remind the world and provide balance. Though, conflicted as I am, I do not know what balance I can possibly provide.”

She sat quietly for a few moments, deep in thought. “I think that is the biggest challenge I have faced; the idea that I am supposed to be some sort of important figur
e, and I feel so…immature and young and not ready. I can’t imagine people seeking me for guidance on anything.” Looking to her companion, she saw that the bird was giving her a cool look. Lyn sighed, and resigned herself to her thoughts.

The following day
found Lyn in low spirits, making her way sluggishly towards the foot of the mountains and dreading every second. The mountains, which had seemed so exciting before, were now a very constant reminder of her lack of preparation and familiarity. She trudged along, generally dragging her feet and prolonging her trip. While the gravity of her responsibility was not lost on her, Lyn was still young and allowed herself occasions of such petulance.  She scuffed the ground with her feet and idled about, unwilling to face the next leg of her journey. She could sense Alir’s frustration, and this alone kept her moving more or less forward.

In many ways Alir provided her with karmic justice, not the least of which being his insatiable drive to explore and adventure. Hi
s impatience for action ground on her in her state of uncertainty, and in no small part she now sympathized with how the people of her village must have felt around her as she grew up with a similar mentality.