On the Path of the Giants

Chapter 7: Joshua

        As Joshua entered the massive stump, he realized that there was nothing that served as a roof. It rather seemed like the Gats had used the rocky bark of the dead tree to create a sort of wall, and he could see that some parts of the walls had been manmade, crumbled here and there, with stones hanging faintly in place. The Gats were looking at him with strange airs as he walked along the stony roads. Some would spit in front of them at his passage, while others would just look back in awe.

        Johan was still gripping at Joshua's arm, but the way she looked at the people of Gats made him realize that she was almost acting as his bodyguard, making sure no harm comes to him at the wrong time. “I bring you to my mother now. She speak Sharp better than me.” Joshua started to understand that his language must sound sharp to the Gats, the way that the Gats language sounded nasal to him. However, he failed to understand what exactly was so sharp about his tongue, that would make everyone think so.

        They arrived at the end of the road, in front of a house made of the crumbling bark of the Giant’s trees, in a manner that reminded him of the outer walls. The light from a fire could be seen from the inside, although the smoke was coming out of a hole on top of the roof. The aroma coming from inside the hut made Joshua's mouth salivate, as he remembered that he had not been able to eat his cooked hare.

        “Can I eat something?” he shyly asked Johan, thinking that his words would communicate his hunger better than his rumbling belly. Johan seemed startled by his voice, as if she had forgotten that the person she had been speaking to actually had a voice of its own.

        “You eat when you answer good to questions” she said as she pushed Joshua inside of the small building. There sat an old woman with pure white hair, in front of the fire, cooking what smelled like fish in a large cauldron. Johan was quick to follow, and started to speak in the nasal tongue of hers. The old lady seemed surprised at the words, and glared at Joshua, while Johan nodded.

        “So you do speak the language of the Sharps, do you young man?” Joshua was startled by the clarity of the old woman’s voice. He had been used to hearing Johan speak, with an accent that betrayed her origin. But her mother spoke like she had been born in the village, which startled Joshua. He had never heard of a woman leaving the village before, and he wondered how she could speak so well. What startled Joshua more than anything was the way that she said “Sharps,” like they were a people, like he should know of them.

        “I don’t know what you mean by the Sharps” Joshua answered, “but I speak in the language.” Joshua feared he might have said something wrong, but understood that he was expected to tell the truth.

        Thankfully, she chuckled, but her eyes still peered into his soul. “So you are not a Sharp then? Where are you from?” It still pained Joshua to think about the past – the village. Lydia. He tried not to answer, but remembered that he had to if he meant to eat.

        “I come from the village. Not this village. Another village. It’s past the Giant's river and the Giant's forest.” He made his answer as sincere as possible, and yet the old lady seemed unconvinced. She turned to her daughter, and asked her several things in the nasal language. It was then that Joshua heard that the old lady was not speaking the nasal language the same way that Johan did, as if there was an accent in her tongue the same way there was one in her daughter's.

        “I see” she answered, after Johan had mimicked what felt like directions to her. “I have never been there before, and I do not know who has. I did not know that other people had survived the great sickness in this area.” Joshua had never heard of a great sickness, but he guessed she must be referring to the curse. However, he did not know who was using the right term: him, or her.

        Joshua’s stomach grumbled once more. The smell of the food was getting more and more poignant inside the building, and Joshua grasped his stomach in an attempt to quiet it. Johan, who had understood Joshua's gesture, turned towards her mother and said a word or two in the nasal tongue. Before he could realize what was happening, Joshua was being served a bowl of stew, which obviously contained fish and some sort of wheat paste.

        The old lady held the bowl towards Joshua, and asked: “Now boy, what is your name?”

        “Joshua.” He said it in a way that conveyed his whole life story with it, as if the name mirrored his whole life.

        “Bon appétit, Joshua. I am Mary.”