Forgotten Dreams of Eternity: Lost Odyssey: Thousand Years of Dreams

(Short Story -XVIII.) *So Long, Friend*

Forgotten Dreams of Eternity: Lost Odyssey: Thousand Years of Dreams

Copyright © 2011 Sky_Knight

(Short Story -XVIII.)

*So Long, Friend*

Even when he is trying to look detached, his true feelings show through.

He is timid, cowardly and gentle.

He might try his best to put on a threatening expression, but the smile that comes afterward is indescribably sweet and almost worshipful.

This is why Kaim is always telling him to "Forget it!"

This happens when they are perched on bar stools or earning a day's pay in the quarry, or walking through the marketplace, or standing on the stone-paved roadway.

"But why, Big Brother?"

Tobal says with a pout. He always calls Kaim "Big Brother." and though Kaim has never asked for his companionship, he takes every opportunity to follow him around. He is "Worshipful" in this sense.

"Please take me with you, Big Brother Kaim, when you leave this town!" he begs like a child even though he is old enough to have a regular job.

"Sailing over the ocean, crossing continents, traveling anywhere you like... my heart starts pounding when I imagine that kind of freedom," he says, his eyes shining like a child's.

"I've always wanted to meet a traveler like you, Big Brother. Take me with you, please! I can't stand this hick town anymore."

He would grab Kaim's hand and cling to it like a little boy, and often he would look around at the people on the street or at the crowds in the tavern, openly making boyish faces at them to show Kaim his disgust.

"You come from another town so you know what I'm talking about. The only thing this place has is its history. Sure, it's old, but it's half dead. Look at these people's faces. Not one of them has any spark. All they want is to get through one ordinary day after another without any problems. It's the worst place in the world. If I have to stay cooped up here much longer, I'm going to have moss growing on me."

No spark? Kaim doesn't see it that way. People here behave with the refinement and mild manner appropriate to a historic city know as "The Ancient Capital." They simply have no taste for the kind of ambitions that go with high hopes or danger.

Having never set foot outside this place is where he was born and raised. Tobal knows nothing about other towns.

Kaim knows all too much about them; there are those that used to be the left and right banks of a single town separated only by a river but which now clash in hatred in intense and ongoing war; towns in the grip of famine where the residents snatch food from one another; economically flourishing towns rampant with crime driven by greed; towns of rotting houses abandoned by their people in search of wealth and prosperity while, just over the hill, there sparkle boom towns where the people celebrate their riches all night long.

On his endless journey, Kaim has seen towns without number. And he not only thinks to himself but says to Tobal, "This is a good town." But praise is the last thing Tobal wants to hear about his home town. "You must be joking." he says.

"Not at all," says Kaim. "This really is a good town."

"I'm telling you, that can't be true."

"No place is perfect, of course."

"I'm not talking about perfection. You've only been here six months or so. You don't know. I've been stuck here my whole life. You can't know how I feel. I'm bored out of my mind. I'm sick of this place. I can't stand it anymore."