Gift of Gold (The Year of Churning Bloods) (60 page)

              “Weren't they upset that you burned her without permission?” I asked skeptically.

              “No, actually the opposite. In my clan it’s considered unethical to lament a corpse. We feel like one should be happy with just memories. Seeing a shell of a person will give you nothing more than heartache.” The man sighed slightly and tilted his head. “Does that make sense?”

              “Not really,” I admitted shyly. The man nodded as if he understood my confusion. “We took the ashes and scattered them in the river. And you want to know something? Even though I knew it was a game, I cried as if it was real. To me, Rimu had really died.”

              “You did look for her didn't you?” I asked desperately. “You
couldn’t have given up after all of that surely?
”

              The man wiped his face and sniffed hard. “For a while it felt like I
’
d given up all hope. But one da
y something changed
.
”
He
pointed
to the powder in his right hand like
it large cut gem
.
“
It was a miracle itself that I managed to find
this
. A group of
bards were passing through our woods, wearing... well... It’s hard to describe
.
” The man’s chest bobbed up and down as he chuckled to himself. “Trust me, they looked ridiculous. Anyways, they were walking through our worksite. A few people noticed them and tried to warn them off but
they were singing
too loud to hear
.”

I stifled a laugh
. I
t seemed very
stupid
of them
to be loudly belting tunes in the middle of a forest.

“Well, unfortunately for the bards, my
partner
had sawn too much off of his tree and
it began to fall
right where they were
.” The
man
shook his head
as
i
f he himself couldn't believe what he was saying.
“Realizing that these complete strangers were in danger, I ran up to the falling tree, and caught it.”

“Wait, just wait,” I said while holding both of my arms up. “You stopped a falling tree!?” I exclaimed in awe. The man rubbed his neck modestly and nodded slowly.

              “The impact of the fall dislocated a shoulder, broke my
one
my arms,
a
wrist and
three
fingers. I was only able to hold the tree trunk long enough to cast it off to one side, however it was just enough to save
their lives
. Immedi
ately after,
I was taken to the medical tent to get my arms treated and for the
next month, the bards faithfully stood by my side as I recovered. Lively bunch of people they were,” the captor commented lightly. “They sung far too much though. Picture waking up every morning to a loud quartet of men who would sing about your arms for a good two hours.”

              “Would you have been better off dying?” I asked, causing the both of us to laugh quite powerfully.

              “Had their singing been any worse... Probably,” my captor conceded, raising his hands apologetically. “Regardless, it was nice of them to spare some time.
Anyways, the last night the clowns stayed... Sorry
:
T
he last night the bards stayed--” The captor elaborated, as If I might care about the difference between bards and clowns. “--Was the night that I was
given
a packet of this
,
” he said
, holding the powder up to the light
.
“
One of the bards
came up to me on the last evening they stayed
. He gave me the powder, smiled and left without another word.
”

              “So you ended up us
ing
it? How?”

The man
shifted his jaw to one side and broke eye contact briefly.
“I spread the powder around a stump near the river that night. I wasn't sure what
it
would do to make my miracle but I was confident something would happen. So I waited there on the spot, cold and still slight
ly injured with nothing much to occupy myself. Out of boredom alone, I decided to talk to the stump, telling it my story much like I’m telling you now.”

              “That seems like a rather one sided conversation
,
” I
said,
wondering
why
anyone would do such a thing.

“It passed the time and gave me a sense of what I needed
,
”
t
he captor
admitted,
loo
king
me over with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. “You s
eem to have quite a bit to say. Do you have anything else you want to ask before I carry on?”

              “
What's
your name?” I asked politely. It seemed strange to be asking such a
simple
question so late into
such a story
.

T
he
man didn’t
seem to notice or care.
“My name is Totara.”

              “Isn't that an insect?” I asked uncertain
ly.

              “Its a tree
,
” Totara replied flatly. “
The
members of our clan
are usually
named after trees due to an old legend
about
our ancestors.
Happy
?”
Totara continued speaking without
waiting for a reply
reply. “I talked myself to sleep and was shivering throughout the night, when I felt something rather peculiar scrape against my injured arm. I ye
lped
in pain and woke up to something more fantastic than any dream I had ever had in my life!” Totara had become progressively more intricate with his
gestures
and was now using them so violently that he accidentally knocked a vase over. Despite the room being suddenly filled with dust and pieces of broken pottery, Totara spoke on, completely engorged in every word he was saying.

              “The tree stump was growing again! Only, it wasn't growing into a tree. I couldn't tell what it doing at first but I knew this had something to do with my miracle. I rushed into my hut and gathered all my things as quickly as possible. Dawn was approaching and whatever the tree was doing I wanted to make sure it was finished before anyone could wake up and see
for themselves
. I watched in awe for the next hour or two as the stump grew and grew.”
As Totara continued his tale,
I had to bite my tongue to stop the barricade of questions that wanted to shoot out of my head.
”

              “The stump was now far too wide to be just a regular old tree
. The leaves that were growing were all arranging themselves in a very precise manner to form something that resembled a thick pine needle blanket. In that moment, I realized what the tree was growing into.” Totara paused for added suspense although he couldn’t contain his childlike excitement for more than a few seconds. “It was growing into a
n actual
boat
!
It had sails made from nothing but pine needles
and
a hull made of
tough buoyant tree bark
.
It was even
large enough to sleep five! T
his simple little stump I had barely
noticed
was now
giving me
everything I needed to
find Rimu
.”

              Totara stood rather unexpectedly and began to mime everything as if it was impossible for me to understand with words alone.
“I
got
an axe as quickly as I could and cut down the stump holding the
sailboat in place
. After that I left a note to my people explaining I was going to be back soon.” Totara’s giddiness suddenly faltered as he blinked and looked around his hut as if seeing it for the first time.

I felt a strange sinking sensation as I began to realize this story was not going to end well. Despite myself I continued to listen.

“I set sail immediately
and travelled for three days before finally making it out to the ocean.
” Totara shook his head
wistfully
.
“From there, I sailed for a whole month,
not really sure myself about where I was going
. Every day my hope faltered, as the endless gray waters suggested I would never again find Rimu.
”

              “How did you eat and drink?” I blurted rather unexpectedly. Suddenly remembering I wasn’t supposed to ask any more questions, I covered my mouth with my hands and motioned for him to continue.

              “That’s actually a good question,” he admitted. “Just before I went to sea, I found empty pockets of space along the sides of the boat. I simply filled them up with river water and never ran out after that. To get food, I fished for just about all hours of the day, and cooked them aboard the ship. I was never in short supply of firewood, as every part of the boat I ripped off would grow back within hours. Unfortunately, on the day of the last month I was ambushed by the Storm Striders.”

              “The who?” I said, interrupting for a second time.

Totara started at me in amazement. “You’ve never heard of the Storm Striders?”

I shook my head sadly.

“The Storm Striders are the largest criminal organization in the world. They’re a group of pirates  responsable for establishing a black market in just about every city to date.” Totara sighed and brought a hand to his forehead. “By some cruel twist of fate, I was ambushed by their main fleet and taken prisoner.”

              “How did you escape?” I asked in breathless awe. Totara smirked and folded his arms triumphantly.

              “The way they acted, they’d have you believe that escape was just about impossible. In truth, all I had to do was pick a lock and sneak down to where my boat was being stowed. So I ended up sailing off again, however this time I was without any supplies. I was forced to stop when I landed in the port city Euphradis. Totara shook his head limply and tried to grasp his head, however it was like his limbs were slowly being filled with sand. “I ended up selling my miracle ship to a collector of oddities. I took the funds from that and built this hut, hoping to work as a lumberjack until I could but another boat and sail back home.
Totara glared at the half buried stumps outside his window with a spite so heavy it was as if he was blaming them for
everything
. “Seven years passed without me even saying her name
and now,
I
’m
telling my story to a
n intruder.
” Totara slumped against a wall and
sighed
.

“So where does that leave us?” I asked
with
a brooding feeling of uncertaint
y
.

              “I'm not a thief for taking this
,
” Totara clarified
,
sliding the miracle powder into his coat pocket. You
’
re obviously seeking refuge
but
you
’
ve heard too much about me to be a mere stranger anymore.”
The man
cleared his throat and stood up, suddenly looking highly official. “I offer you the miracle powder as well as my hospitality and knowledge. All I ask is that you stay a month with me to apprentice in lumber-jacking. I could always use a spare hand or two
around these woods
.”

              “What makes that yours to bargain for if it was mine in the first place?” I
asked in outrage
.