The Sword Bearer

Chapter 17

That morning we just kept going to same way we had gone that night hoping we hadn’t gone astray because we had nothing to compare our path to. The star wasn’t bright enough to be seen in the morning but we assumed we were going the right way. We went slowly so if we were going in the wrong direction we wouldn’t get lost too far but the only way we would be certain was to wait until the night arrived. As we walked I noticed the flowers were getting less in number everywhere. I saw quite a few that were wilting at a rapid rate. Some flowers had lost their glorious colors and were dull while other that stood straight up strained down a little. I wanted to ask Daren about it but he looked preoccupied at the moment so I kept my observations to myself. I would question him about it later. I noticed an orb tree. It still had its fruit but the leaves were falling off. They hadn’t changed color like they did on Earth when they fell down. Tress on Earth didn’t keep their fruit when they shed their leaves in the fall so I wondered if this was natural. Soon enough Daren’s expression cleared so I asked him about the strange observations I had made about the plants. “Happens a lot. It could occur anytime of the year and any number of times. It like what you call seasons but here they don’t have a fixed time of the year.” He said smiling. I wondered at how wonderful that was. The time when seasons occurred here weren’t fixed. The seasons could skip from spring the winter here. It was unnatural yet I didn’t really find it weird. I actually found it fascinating how this world revolved around its sun.

As the sunset and the star started to appear I realized that we had gone the right way all day. The lightened my mood as well. We decided it was safe to stop for now. We sat down and I felt the cool breeze of autumn touch my skin. I shivered a little as it made contact. “Your cold” Daren stated. I had just noticed he was looking at me. “Ya” I said even though I didn’t need clarifying. There was nothing to cover with so there was no way that I would be able to shield myself from the cold. Daren watched me for a few more seconds then he got up and brushed himself off. “Come on” he said pulling me up from my hands. I followed him slowly asking “Where are we going?”. “Into town. I need to get us something to warm ourselves with” he said ushering me to go faster. I only went faster because it helped with the cold but after about half an hour I saw a village with many lanterns flickering with the wind. As we entered the village we saw that the streets were crowded. This seemed like one of those places where everyone stayed up late then woke up late in the morning. The shops wouldn’t probably open till the afternoon the next day but we would be gone by then, as swift as we had come. Daren walked over to a stall were some animal skins hung. Daren picked out two jackets and pulled out some coins from under his tunic. I wondered where he had got them but this wasn’t a good place to ask him. I groaned when I realized that he had again gotten me another piece of boy’s style clothes but I gingerly put on the jacket because I was cold.

We didn’t wait to long to leave the village. Daren bought us some food that I had never seen before. It was crunchy on the outside but some sweet paste filled the inside of the treat. After finishing the treat, which took a while because I savored the taste, we started walking out of the village. People didn’t take much notice of us. The only ones who paid even a little attention to us were the ones we bumped into in the crowded street but I doubted they would remember us after a few minutes. There were so many faces and ours didn’t seem any more special to the others. Only Daren and I knew that we were in fact different from all the people inside the village. After a lot of bumping and pushing we slipped out of the street and out of civilization. The jacket already had me feeling warmer. We started to follow the star. After being in such a busy place just a few moments ago we had no desire to sleep. I noticed the star twinkled constantly. It looked like the 3-point star was turning around. None of the other stars did this. They occasionally glowed but never as much as this one. It was one of the things that helped me differentiate this star from all the others.