The Space Sailor

Chapter 2

Kyrel awoke early the next morning and left the house as the first rays of the sun were reaching the horizon.

He had a long walk ahead of him. It would take nearly half the day to reach the mountains where the turun lived, and the same back home again. He would be dead tired, but it was the only way.

He hoped the turun would actually be there in the middle of the day when he arrived otherwise his long walk would be for naught.

Most of the houses along the road out of the village had lights in the windows already. The folk here got up early and worked hard for their keep. Very few people in the village were wealthy.

Passing the last house on the outskirts of the village, Kyrel turned turned north and looked into the distance. He could see the mountains in the distance grow bigger and bigger the further away they got, until they eventually turned white with snow covering the peaks.

He was fortunate the turun lived closer to his village, it would take him many days of walking to reach the mountain range if he had to go that far.

He started walking north at a brisk pace. After a while, the pack on his shoulder started to get heavier. He had brought enough food and water to see him through the day, as well as some equipment he though might be needed. In his right hand he carried his spear. He didn't feel safe without it, even though he was no expert in its use.

Although the walk was long, Kyrel didn't mind it too much. It was good to be in the fresh air away from the village and seeing all the animals along the way was enjoyable. Often a hare would dart away into the forest as he passed by and the air was always filled with the callings of birds.

The forest ran along both sides of the road, some parts thick and in other places it disappeared entirely. Occasionally he saw deer grazing in the clearings as he passed.

Around mid morning he found a pleasant clearing in the forest and stopped for a bite to eat. Lying down on the grass, he looked up and saw turun flying high above the forest on their way to find food. He went through in his head what would be needed when he reached the turun.

First of all, no quick movements that would scare the turun away. Don't use threatening body language as you approach and leave the spear behind before getting too close.

Next, don't hold eye contact with any one turun for too long as that would likely make it fly away, which in turn would make the others follow. He had found this out the hard way.

However, a turun wouldn't scare easily and fly away once it was comfortable a person. He was just about at this stage with his chosen turun. He could hold eye contact with it much longer than any of the others before it started to get skittish, but at this point he would look away.

After a short rest Kyrel got up and continued on his way. A few travellers passed by, but no one that he knew.

He was making good progress and an hour later reached the part of the road where he would need to move into the forest. He turned off the road and walked through a clearing in the forest. The mountains had grown bigger the longer he had walked thought the morning and now he could see a sizeable mountain towering above the forest past the clearing.

Leaving the clearing behind, the forest got thicker as he made his way towards the mountain, which he used as a beacon. Turun lived both in the forest and in the mountains. He had originally chosen to search the mountains as the nests were easier to approach compared to those in the forest. These nests were safely tucked into the upper branches of the taller trees.

After a while the forest thinned out again and the ground started rising sharply as he started up mountain.

Kyrel now started to see turun appearing as he climbed the mountainside. They were huge, winged beasts with thick fur covering their bodies. They soared over the treetops in groups or alone. Occasionally they looked at him but were unfazed as they continued on their path in the sky.

The mountainside became more rocky as he ascended and soon he had to climb over big boulders to continue up.

After another half hour of climbing, Kyrel finally arrived at his destination. Most of the turun made their nests in the trees but some made them on the rocky ledges jutting out from the side of the mountain. This was why he had chosen this place to search for his own turun. The nests in the tall trees were too far away and so he would never get close enough to the turun for them to get familiar with him.

However, he could get close enough to the nests on the cliff ledges. This was his was chance.

Kyrel stayed back in the trees to avoid startling the turun. He could see many of them sitting on the ledges jutting out the side of the cliff up ahead. Many would fly off as he emerged from the trees but a few would stay, and he hoped the turun he was trying to take would be there. He knew where the nest was but didn't see his turun yet.

He leaned his spear against a tree and dropped his pack and then took a step out and walked slowly toward the turun.