Book of Kings

Chapter 06

"This sucks. I've been walking for half a day! How long has this torture have to go on?"

I expressed my exhaustion while kicking up some dust. The city is much farther away than I thought it would be. I just really hope I don't have to walk for another day.

"At least forests can be interesting in some ways. This is just a dirt road and I think there never will be anything interesting about them in any way," I said aloud to myself.

Walking bored some more I saw a big tree next to the road and decided to rest there. I sat down and leaned next to it, humming. I didn't know where the melody came from, I couldn't remember. The humming turned into whistling and soon after that, it turned into singing. It mostly was just me making incomprehensible noises in the tune of what could be interpreted as a song. If anyone was nearby they'd be thinking a crazy person was yelling around.

Now that I thought about it, some company would be lovely right now.

Relaxing after walking for hours felt really good. I had been stiff since what happened in the forest, my joints felt most affected. I felt like an old man and a bit lonely too. This would be the first time I was on my own and having no one to rely on. Even while running away I had someone but turns out he was kind of a jerk, maybe bit of a maniac too. But I don't begrudge him for what he was feeling. The events he had lived through, even though similar to mine, were harder, I think. He did say something about a burned mother.

I wonder how mine was doing right now?

I slapped my hand to my forehead. I only realized now I never asked for his name, and he never asked for mine too. I don't think I will tell someone about him. I could still refer to him as 'Him' or 'The boy' in my mind. It wouldn't make much of a difference but it would be nice for him to have a name, even if it's just in my head.

"Bah! What does it matter?" I yelled out, ripping out some grass and throwing it in the air. It was his decision to split, and I don't think I could have changed his mind. He seemed dead set to ruin his own life with stupid decisions. Oh well, some people have to learn things the hard way.

I took out a bit of meat I had in my pocket. After I cleaned it a little, I started chewing on it. The small pieces of dirt that were still stuck on it gave it a bit of crunch but I just swallowed them too. It wasn't that bad but maybe I shouldn't have put them into my pocket and the saltiness of the meat made me thirsty, so I stood up and went searching for a water source, straying heavily off the road. I don't know when I will be in the city so looking for something to drink would be better sooner than later.

I found a stream rather early. It looks reasonably clear to me. If it was too dirty the whole purpose of finding it would be in vain. I cleaned my hands first, I didn't want to swallow more dirt after eating some with the meat, then took a handful of water and began drinking. I stripped out of my clothes and jumped into it. It was freezing cold and less than knee-deep but that was more than enough to clean me and my clothes, when evening rolls around they should be dry too so I only freeze now and not in the night.

I was splashing the water around pretending that I could bend it to my will. Imagining myself to be a wizard but froze in the middle of my exaggerated movements. Can they wield water as magic? I'm not too sure. I put my hand to my chin and scratched it. I've heard tales about mages controlling the elements. Moving mountains, creating tornadoes and the such, but could they really? I know not to take things like that at face value. Things such as these are often blow out of proportion in ballads and poems. They most likely can control 'some' elements, at least water and fire, right?

I didn't feel like playing with the water anymore. I just cleaned myself some more, especially my hair, it must have collected a lot of dirt. I scrubbed, counting, one, two, three, then looked at my reflection to check if I missed a spot. I wasn't the most handsome fellow but I liked how I looked but I realized that my hair had changed somehow. It seemed much darker, it already was black but now it lost its shine in the sun. My eyes were different too, they should have been brown, should have.