A Greater Lesson

Chapter 21: The End

We stopped and stared at the door of the cottage.  Kolan looked back at us worried.  I could tell that he was nervous.  I understood too, he was tired of tracking stories down, being sent on chase after chase, getting excited thinking this might just be it, then finding out that it was all for naught.  This was the hardest and most nerve-racking part of every venture.  Rationality says that chances of finding what you’re looking for are low, but you just hope with all your might that rationality is wrong.  This was the seventeenth try so far.  Every other house had failed to turn up a thing and we were beginning to lose hope, but just like always  I crossed my fingers and prayed this would be the last time. 

I smiled at Kolan and he turned to face the home.  He stepped forward and knocked on the door.  It opened slowly to a small old man.  The conversation had become routine by now I was sure, but I was standing too far away to hear them.  I saw the man look up in wonder, then look into his home.  I scrunched my eyebrows together and stepped a bit closer.  I saw a curious young woman creep into the doorway, probably around thirteen years old.  At first Kolan grabbed her hand and looked into her eyes, but after a few moments, when he was certain that this was his daughter, he swooped her up and held her tight, spinning around.  He cried into her shoulder as he lowered her down again. 

“Oh, Clarin!  I thought I had lost you!  I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…”  He sobbed as he brushed her hair out of her face.

“Daddy, how did you find me?  What about Garis?”

He hugged her tight.  “It doesn’t matter anymore, sweetheart.”  He looked up.  “Is your mother…?”

She frowned and tried to keep her jaw from  trembling.  She shook her head.  “Daddy…”

He let his tears fall as he had so many times before, but this time they were laced with happiness.

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While we traveled we all shared stories.  Some were silly things we had done as children, and others were morbid memories that crept up unexpectedly, but as we bonded I realized Clarin’s life had been just as bad as, if not worse than, the rest of ours.  I learned that she had seen her mother die and she had been held by Garis for two years before being sold over and over again to different people for different purposes.  My heart ached for her.  I had been held by that maniac for about a day.  Rivka had been held for a bit longer, but we both agreed that having to live in constant fear of that man and what he would do was worse than both of our lives had been. 

Life gets to everyone at some point.  No matter what has happened, it will come back.  We use each other for support but sometimes you just can’t help but cry through the night.  I’ve awoken several times during the night to find that everyone around me was crying.  On those nights I lay and search the stars for some meaning to all of this.  Often I’d held Rivka during the night.  She wouldn’t awake, but would move closer to me and hold my hand.

Kolan constantly tried so hard to make up for the pain he put his daughter through.  Almost every night Clarin went to sleep curled up in his arms.  Our families may have been very dysfunctional, but the endless love was still there.  I suppose if there is one thing life has taught me it would be that no matter how terrible it sounds, there is no getting over it; you just get used to it.  Getting over it means you forget it happened and never think about it again.  That doesn’t happen.  You learn to accept and live with it.  You let it strengthen you as a person, as a family.

We continued to travel, not to run from anything or to get to any place in particular, but just for the sake of getting lost in the jungle with each other.  We frequently visited the villages we passed by.  It was fun to see how people do things differently in different places, to taste their food and listen to them speak.  I admired what a friend Rivka was to everyone.  Just some months before she had been so hardened and secluded.  She was sickened by the very prospect of being around people, and there she was, just sitting there and listen to random strangers tell their stories and dreams.  How happy they would be after being able to share their lives with her, having someone there to listen to them when they had been alone for so long.  Riv had changed so much.  She was no longer intimidating and untrusting but compassionate and giving.  Seeing her made me wonder if I had changed too, but I knew I must have in order to be with such a wonderful person for the rest of my life.  That is something the Zorxik I used to know never would have accomplished.  That man wasn’t me anymore.  I was stronger now.  She had changed me.

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Zorxik had a surprise for me yesterday.  He asked me to marry him and be with him forever and gave me something I’d thought I’d lost on that first terrible day with Garis: my eagle necklace my mother had given me.  He decoreted it with beautiful bright riverstones.  I cried like a baby.  It feels good when you have a different reason to cry, when you aren’t crying from loss, but because you gain a new loved one.  It was like a fresh start; a second chance at a family.  I can’t say I didn’t see it coming, I knew since we ran away from the auction together, but the necklace was a wonderful gift.

We finally settled down and decided to make ourselves a home in the jungle.  It will take some work and hopefully this time around it won’t be in a tree trunk, but I wouldn’t mind as long as Xik was with me.  I am so proud of him.  He picked this place to settle down in.  The story is actually rather heartbreaking.

A few days ago as we were walking aimlessly through the jungle, we stopped and sat to have lunch.  We were all laughing and joking like usual, until a strange mood came over the entire area.  Everything became silent and calm like the center of a summer storm, and then Roux began to walk away.  We all stood and followed curiosly, creating a trail trough the thick underbrush.  When he stopped walking, Roux revealed a bundle of fur laying in the moss.  As I knelt down to inspect the animal, I found it had been a puma and it was dead, but Xik stepped closer and examined its rump.  Indeed, it had the very same scar he had left on it three years ago.  I looked up anxiously at Xik.  He only continued to stare at the animal.  I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.  Having both heard and clearly understood his life story, I half expected him to yell angrily for not having had the chance to kill it himself, but what he did surprised me.  He fell to his knees right beside the beast and stroked its fur.  Then he began to cry.  I stared at him completely shocked.  He acted as though he knew and loved that animal before it died.  I saw something in him on that day that will change my veiw of him forever.  I saw a completely open and forgiving heart.  It had been the reason he let go of Garis, but I didn’t realize how powerful it was until that moment.  He was an entirely different person than when he found me in the jungle.  We both were.

We burried the puma respectfully under a gap in the canopy so that the sunlight would shine right on it.  It was the most amazing experience I have ever had.  Xik decided that was where we were going to start our new life: where his old one died.