World of Io

2.5 The Pond

Vito hugged his cloak closer. It wasn't cold, but he was uncomfortable. He had traveled all day, walking along the familiar paths in the forest until his feet ached.

Crickets sounded through the air, welcoming the night even if he didn't. He wasn't sure if he should take the next step, the step that would take him out of the forest and onto a meadow. The choice should be simple, it made more sense to stay inside the forest until morning, but it wasn't what a brave man would do, and he desperately wanted to feel brave. 

He took a step and his foot landed in the tall grass. It felt strangely exhilarating and frightening at the same time. He had not been outside the forest in five years, and he sent a grumbling mental message to Qumo that he should have brought him on more missions. He was unprepared, and it scared him. There was no room for failure, and no one there to pick up the pieces if something went wrong. 

He was alone. 

The sun was about to set, and he realized that bravery wasn't the same as foolishness. If he wanted to stay out of sight for a while longer, he would do best to stay inside the forest until the last beams of sunlight died down at the horizon. He went back and sat down with his back against an old oak. His breathing slowed immediately, as if his body wanted nothing more than to sleep -- preferably right away. 

Hours later, he woke up with a start. Disoriented, he stared out towards the open sky and blinked again and again. Where was he? he wondered, until he remembered. He wasn't at home anymore. He looked back into the forest, breathing in the fragrances to calm him down. He wasn't truly away as long as he still remained within the forest, or so he told himself. He reluctantly returned his gaze to the vast sky, littered with stars. He didn't remember it being so big. In the forest, you saw only patches of it between the towering tree crowns. He recalled reading about a few of the constellations, and began his search to find them. 

He smiled when he found the Raven. Qumo had told him of that one, of how it represented Io's flight from the Creator towards the Earth. It was an odd story, and it didn't make much sense. From what he knew, Io had always grown up from a child to adulthood before he made his presence known. He didn't just come down from the sky, flying in to save the day. He wondered if Io had known who he was from the start, or if he learned as he grew older. He hadn't read anything about that in the scrolls that littered Qumo's library. 

He let his gaze wander until he ended up looking out over the meadow. It felt less threatening in the darkness, which was odd in itself. Perhaps it was because he couldn't see very far in the dark: that way, it didn't look so large. 

He heaved himself off of the ground and put the small rucksack on his back. It was time to move. This time he didn't look back. There was no use. He had a mission, and he wouldn't let fear determine the outcome. He would find what he was looking for; if not for himself, then for Juno.

An hour later, he found that crossing the meadow had been the easy part. There, he hadn't been worried about meeting someone. He stood beneath a young linden tree, looking out over a dirt track that was wide enough to accommodate a horse drawn carriage.  Clearly, it was a frequented road, and that made him shift from one foot to the other every few seconds. The sun was about to rise, and even if he shouldn't be afraid of people, he was. Or rather, he was worried. He knew that they would take one look at his eyes and run in the other direction, or at least that's what usually happened. 

Once again, he decided that he could either wallow in self-pity about the fact that he was a Human with strange eyes, or he could ignore it and be happy. As long as people ran away instead of attacking, things should be fine. After all, fearing Humans because they feared him was a silly notion.