Haven

Chapter 8

After another hug and a promise to talk again at dinner, he sends me to an office down the hall to be assigned a job. The office is owned by an elderly woman who quickly barks instructions at me, telling me to go to the hut on the west side of the Outlands to help there. I have no idea what I'll find there or where exactly it is but I start heading in that direction and quickly locate the buzzing hut. It's constructed of metal sheets, planks of wood and swaths of material. It's relatively large compared to all the other tents and is intimidatingly busy.

Jamie is standing about near the centre of the crowd and I rush towards him. When he explains that this is the hunting/scavenging/cooking/everything-to-do-with-food tent he sends me to a boy called Josh in the corner sharpening sticks into spears. I think for a horrible moment that he wants me to go hunting but Jamie quickly assures that the spears aren't for that particular activity. So I have no idea what they are actually for but I can't really be bothered to ask so I just do as he says.

There is a small group of people milling around Josh, all sharpening their own sticks. When I walk over to them they all look up at me and Josh grins. He has auburn hair that falls in a wave over his forehead and his nose is smattered with freckles. He appears to be in his early twenties.

"You're Jamie's sister, right?" Word must travel fast here or he must have been at the campfire last night but it still surprised me that this stranger knows who I am.

"Yeah," I answer, extending a hand in greeting, "Jess." The name feels right coming from my mouth and seems to fall comfortably in the air around me, settling there as naturally as if it's been my name for centuries. Jess. Me. My name. My identity.

Josh shakes my hand and passes me a stick, holding it up against me as if measuring a hight. He seems to decide that it is wrong and picks up another.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"Finding you a decent hight walking staff. You don't want one that's the wrong size or it can get really painful."

"Um, ok, but what is it for?"

"Jamie didn't tell you? We're hiking up into the hills to collect wood and food and basically anything and everything we need from up there. It's a long trek with tricky ground so it helps to have a sharpened stick to anchor yourself to the earth sometimes." After trying multiple sizes while he talked, josh finally holds one out to me with a flourish. "Here, this should be alright. There's a knife on the table over there. Just sharpen the end into a point a little. If you need help just ask someone. We're leaving soon though so be quick."

I take up a knife and start whittling away the end of the stick as I let my mind wander. Everything has happened so quickly these past few days that I almost can't believe I'm here. The Outlands seem like a whole different universe to the Haven and I wonder if this universe is better than that one. But what if it isn't? What if everyone, like in the Haven, thinks it's perfect but has no idea of the truth? What if the Outlands are just as corrupt? But I can't believe that because I can't believe that there isn't a good place in the world. There must be somewhere made up of people who are wholly good and who care about the world. If there at least the hope of that world then there would be no point in living. Because after all, doesn't everyone just want to make the world a better place in their own small way?

And if for me that means hiking up into the hills to scavenge for supplies then that's what I must do. But I can't help thinking about my sore feet. They aren't actually as bad as we first thought as they had been covered in mud and blood which had made the injuries look much worse than they were. When we got to the campfire the healer came over to check my feet. With all of the dirt cleaned off we saw that there were only a few small scratches that, although they were still incredibly painful, will heal quickly. My feet are still tender and a little bruised but the special padded shoes I was given help relieve most of the pain. I don't know if I'll be able to hike up the hill though. I decide that it's probably best to voice these concerns to Josh and he sends me at once to the healer to have them looked at again.

Thankfully, the healers hut is only a few tents away and I find my way there easily enough. Inside there are whole teams of people rushing about, tending to patients, that I am almost ovewhelmed by the sheer numbers of people in such a small place. It's not long before a young girl around my age with plaited blond hair and green eyes comes up to me.

"Are you ok?" She asks, pulling me into a quiet corner out of the masses of people. "What do you need?"

I'm so overwhelmed that, for a moment, I forget what I am there for. "Oh, um... my feet... I was told to come here and get them checked again." I stumble over my words so much that I wish the ground would just open up and swallow me. But luckily the kind young nurse guides me to a seat and sits me down, gently pulling off my shoes. "Ok, so this isn't too bad but because its on your feet, I'll just do something to relieve the pain." And then she disappears into the crowd again.

She returns a moment later holding a small pot and some bandages and bends down to tend to my feet. "I'll just apply this cream to your feet and wrap them in some medicinal bandages to speed up the healing. You'll be fine in a few days."

I leave the tent not five minutes late, feeling like I'm walking on sponges. The cream and bandages have pretty much taken away all the pain but I can only hope it will last all day, or at least I get back from the hills.