Excursion

Chapter Five - The Child

  A strange event happened during the time Esis was at the Vannakai camp. Something that was so peculiar it even affected the Empikah messenger himself.

  Esis and I were alone. We were standing in one of the cucumber gardens on the outskirts of camp, pouring buckets of water upon the tiny seedlings when I heard this... sound. At first I thought one of my buckets was leaking, but a quick glance revealed that wasn't the case. I looked over at Esis to see if he was making some odd squeaking noise, but his mouth was closed.

  Esis then spoke. "Do you hear that?"

  Oh, good. So I wasn't crazy,

  "Yeah," I replied. "What do you suppose it is?"

  "I dunno," he answered, just as the sound began to die away. "But, whatever it is, I don't think it's good."

  We went back to work, pouring water upon the cucumbers. It was a tedious, obnoxious job. Water was scarce and fertile soil scarcer, so we had to do everything we could to make the supplies last. Esis informed us on several occasions that farming with the Empikah took a fraction of the time due to their abundant supplies. You might think that we wouldn't have to be as concerned about wasting the precious water, considering that it had rained so heavily when Salandil and I first met Esis, but it wasn't expected to rain for another five years. We had to save what we had collected until then.

  Esis and I had just gathered our water buckets for the final time. We set them atop our celestial yaks – blue, horned, bovine creatures covered in silver freckles that shimmered different colors in the light - and were just about to head back to camp when we heard it again. The same shrill, whining noise from earlier that morning. It sounded positively eerie, coming to us like an echo from another world. Esis and I were intrigued.

  "Let's go follow it," the messenger breathed, a smile creeping up onto his pale face. "See if we can figure out what it is."

  I nodded, mounted my yak, and followed behind Esis in the direction of the sound. It was hard to tell exactly where it was coming from as it was ringing out across the open space, but eventually, we found its source. Tucked within the kale plants, partially hidden under the leaves, was a small, fat, red-haired baby.

  "Oh my goodness," was all I could manage to say as I leaped off of my yak and took a few careful steps towards the child.

  As soon as it saw me, it scrunched up its face and began to cry.

  "Here, let me take her," Esis offered as she began to crawl away from me when I attempted to reach for her.

  The messenger squatted down and snatched the baby off of the ground before rocking her back and forth in his arms. In little time, she stopped crying, and even looked upon me with a friendly eye.

  "Where did she come from?" I voiced as Esis clambered to his feet.

  "I have no idea," he sighed, shaking his head. "She does look awfully sick to me. We should take her back to camp."

  "How can you tell she's sick?"

  "Her nose is running and her eyes are red."

  "Esis... I think that's because she was crying."

  "... Oh."

  "Do you see any footprints?" I inquired, scanning the ground. "They might give us a clue as to which direction she came from."

  "There may have been some, but I think the yaks disintegrated whatever clues may have been." Esis responded, pointing to our companions, who were turning circles in the sand.

  I gave a heavy sigh. "We should take her back to camp."

  We mounted our yaks once again. I ended up taking the baby off his hands, for she had begun to cry again, and Esis had enough trouble riding his steed without a screaming girl in his arms. She was cute, but her cuteness was somewhat dampened due to that fact that her origins had me completely mystified. After all, the clothes that she wore were not ones that the Vannakai had made, nor the Dolinkee, so she couldn't have come from anywhere in the area. And there was nothing else in the area for at least a couple dozen miles. Nothing could make me believe that she had crawled that far on her own.

  When we got back to camp, I quickly took her to Jakinski, one of the doctors of the tribe, as Chief Rincott was reported to be busy settling an argument between two citizens.

  "We found her in the cucumber fields," I answered once the doctor expressed her shock upon seeing the baby. "We heard her crying, and found her nestled under one of the plants."

  "Do you have any idea where she came from?" Jakinski inquired.

  "No idea," Esis replied. "We were hoping that you would be able to figure it out."

  Jakinski didn't answer. Instead, she carefully pulled away the clothes surrounding the child's chest, and let out a quiet gasp.

  I stared at her for a moment, wondering if she was going to say anything, but as the seconds ticked by, I finally walked up to her and peered over her shoulder. Esis followed.

  "Is something the matter?" I asked, looking down at the child, but she was already feverishly buttoning up the baby's shirt.

  "Nomen," she said sternly, although there was a twinge of worry in her voice. "Sit down, please. And Esis, you can stay too, if you want."

  "Wait, why?"

  "I have something to tell you."