Cathartis Ch. 3

Chapter 3 – Exploration
Valban ran across the grassy meadow, the wind brushing his blonde hair behind him. His blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight. In all of his ten years he had never felt so alive, so free! He was free of that boring village, all the rules and restrictions. The charm around his neck was the key; it had freed him from the doldrums of his former existence. The world was so green and vibrant, so much brighter and full of life than any village painting could imitate. He was getting a little tired, and hungry, so he slowed down and plopped onto the grass-carpeted ground. He took the small clay jar out of his pack and popped open the cork. He drank some of the gruel he had been saving and his hunger subsided. He would need to find more food soon, his supply wouldn't last long. He popped back to his feet and continued strolling along the meadow.

A short time later he spotted a hill with a round stone atop. He was out here to explore, to see the world outside of his village and what the holotube would show him, so he confidently strode to the hilltop. As he got closer he could see it was not a regular stone, but more of a polished stone arch, as if taken from one of the Ondus buildings in town. He stopped short and hoped he wasn't just wandering into another boring Cathart village, or worse, an Ondus outpost. He hunkered down and crept in more slowly and carefully. He tried to hide himself in the tall grass. He had practiced moving quietly and unseen since he could remember, so he could get closer looks at all the Ondus wonders they occasionally brought with them to the village on Supply Day.

He got to the top of the hill and saw the arch was solitary. There were no other structures around it. Why would someone leave a perfectly good arch out here in the middle of nowhere? He went in for a closer look and he saw strange designs all along the length of the arch. There seemed to be patterns but he couldn't make any sense of it. He touched the stone and it was smooth and cold beneath his fingertips. Then he noticed an indentation in the arch; the design matched the symbol on the charm on his necklace. He pulled the charm out and matched the half ring with the line under it with the indentation on the arch. It was a perfect match! Before he had much time to wonder about it, the arch began to hum, and the charm glowed so brightly that he couldn't look at it. He tried to pull it out, but it was stuck. The ground beneath the arch caved in and a spiral staircase leading into the hill appeared. The humming stopped and the charm fell free from the indentation. He peered down into the dark hole. That was some sort of magic, he was sure of it! He looked around, but didn't see any Ondus mages nearby. He looked back down into the hole and shrugged. This was the kind of adventure he had dreamed of, so he might as well explore a little further.

As Valban descended the spiral staircase, the air chilled and smelled stale and earthy. At the bottom he found a large stone door. He pushed on the door, but it wouldn't budge. He looked around and saw another indentation matching his charm, so he pushed the symbol into the indentation again. A vertical slash of light appeared down the center of the door and the two halves swung inwards. He stepped into a hallway as multiple globes of light appeared along the length of the hallway. He was excited, terrified, confused, and curious all at the same time. He slowly tiptoed down the corridor; the lights cast his shadow dancing along the walls. He realized there was nowhere to hide, so he just started walking normally and he noticed how clean the floor was. There was no dust or dirt, it was perfectly clean. At the end of the corridor there was another doorway, framed by a small arch, but there was no door.

The room inside was brightly lit, shaped like a seven-pointed star, and was pure white. In the center of the room was a pedestal, above which floated a shining half ring. He stepped forward to touch the half ring and his finger went right through it like a holotube image. He looked around for a holotube box, but couldn't find one. The half ring flashed brightly, then floated quickly towards his chest. Before he could react, the half ring merged with the charm on his necklace. The charm got hot, but not painfully so, and glowed so brightly he could see it through his shirt. After a few seconds it stopped glowing and the charm cooled down to its normal temperature. The half ring was gone from the pedestal and the room was much darker. He had no idea what to make of the strange occurrence and there seemed to be nowhere else to go. He turned back the way he came and left the strange room and corridor, climbed back up the spiral staircase, and emerged back into the sunlight.

Valban continued to walk across the meadow, leaving the stone arch and hilltop behind. What was that all about anyway? He had never seen something so strange, even on the holotube. He knew there was something important about this charm back when he had found it locked in a small chest in his grandfather's basement. He had been using the chest to practice opening locks with a couple of wires he had stolen on the last Supply Day. He hoped to get good at opening locks so he would be able to escape his house at night without his parents noticing. He thought he'd be able to get into the Ondus storehouse and find something that would help him get out of the village unnoticed. When he put on the charm, he had a feeling of calmness and hope, and somehow knew that the Ondus couldn't see him with their magic anymore.

That same night he gathered up the supplies he'd been storing and sneaked out of the house. He had to duck down an alley to avoid being seen by a patrol of mages but they didn't even sense him. He quickly made his way to the edge of the village. He got to the edge of the barrier, took a deep breath, and took a step forward. The barrier hadn't offered any resistance, no alarms went off, no patrols came running to capture him, not like the last time he'd tried to leave. He took another step, and another, and soon he was running off into the night. He had no idea where he was going, but anywhere was better than the boring existence called home. He had heard that dangerous beasts roamed the forests and plains and he could be attacked by them at any moment. He stuck some rocks in his belt pouch and picked up a fallen branch about half his height. He pulled the small twigs off and figured he could probably use it to defend himself against beasts. He was so excited to be free and he continued walking through the night into the morning.

That was only a few days ago, but it felt like much longer. After a few more hours of walking, he saw a plume of smoke rising in the distance. He walked towards the smoke and soon saw a small village, but it didn't seem like the village he had come from. The houses were all made of plain wood and hay; nothing like the brightly colored and refined homes the Ondus made for the Catharts in his village. As he got closer he could see people walking around and engaged in various activities. They were buying, selling, and trading things, like tools, food, clothing and weapons. Weapons! He had only seen them from a distance and heard about them in whispered rumors. There were no Ondus in sight and the people didn't look like Catharts either. They didn't have the various skin tones of the Catharts and didn't have the pale skin and black hair of the Ondus. These people looked...plain. Most of them had hair of brown hues, some darker and some lighter, but mostly brown. Their skin wasn't pale, but it wasn't the vibrant tan that some Catharts had either. Their skin took various shades of dull brown, the same kind of dull brown as their hair.

He started to realize that his vibrant bronze skin, its almost metallic sheen, would be too obvious here, so he crouched down and smeared some mud and dirt on hands and face. The dirt dulled the vibrancy of his color, and from the looks of these people, he would fit right in. He continued towards the village and stopped trying to sneak in unseen. The people started to take notice of him and a few people stopped their conversations to watch him wander in. He tried to mimic some of the people he saw, tried to act like he belonged here. He wanted to belong here. This place already seemed so much more interesting than the village he came from. A friendly looking man, partially balding, with a bush of hair over his top lip, approached him. He wondered what crime the man had committed to be cursed with such an ugly bunch of hair on his face. He thought it might be rude to ask, or perhaps forbidden, so he kept it to himself.

“Hello there son, what brings'ya'ta Darslo?” The man cracked a crooked-toothed half-smile at Valban.

“Um, hi, nice to meet you Darslo. I'm Valban, I'm just traveling...” he noticed the man was snickering at him, so he stopped talking and waited.

“Oh, sorry, sorry, didn't mean no offense. Ma name isn't Darslo, that's the name o'the village. I'm Bandar”

The village had a name? That seemed odd, why would someone give a proper name a place? His home, his old home, was just called Cathart Holding 3. He started to wonder if the houses were alive too. He tried to play it off, “Oh, my mistake. Do you, um, have any food here?”

“Sure, if'n you have some coin, er something to trade. You seem a little young to be traveling alone. Ya with anyone?”

“No, no, no one is with me. My parents, uh, died. There wasn't anything left for me there, so I left.”

“Ah, I see. Well, come along with me, I'll show ya where the inn is.”

“The in of what?” Valban looked around. What was this man talking about? In what?

“The Plough and Trough Inn. Ya can stay there for the night. The owner's my friend, I'll talk him into giving ya a room for the night.”

“Ok, thank you.” Valban was nervous, but he tried to act calm. He followed the man through the dirty streets of the strange wooden village. The people watched him with curiosity as they walked down the street. The people seemed wary of him and they watched him for anything unusual. The pair approached a building with a wooden sign hanging out front. It had some strange symbols on it and a picture of some sort of four-legged animal pulling a spiked metal-looking thing. This was nothing like the art he was used to from his home village. It had no vibrant colors, no beautiful landscape, just a dingy grey backdrop. He thought the art he was accustomed to was boring, but this art was beyond boring, it was dreary and tiring to look at. As he entered the building, his senses were assaulted by a variety of strange odors, raucous laughter, plain-looking men and women of various shapes and sizes rocking around in their chairs, and the feel of warm, humid air. He smelled smoke, something that made him hungry, and dirt, and sweaty people. A few of them stopped talking and laughing as he walked in.

“This'y here's Valban, he's been traveling 'lone. He'll be stayin' th'night. Why'on'ch'all make 'im feel'elcome.” Bandar was barely speaking words by the end, as far as Valban could tell. The people were watching Valban intently.

“Uh, hello, my name is Valban. I'm just traveling through.”

They found something he said hilarious, because the room erupted in laughter, and the people went back to what they had been doing before he arrived. Bandar led him over to a tall stool sitting next to a long countertop.

“What'll it be, son?” The man behind the counter was talking to him, he realized. The man was missing a tooth, and he had more of that ugly hair along the sides of his face. Valban wondered if these people were all criminals, being punished by the Ondus.

“Just get 'im an ale an' some muttonchops Cairg. Boy's been traveling.” Bandar added with a slight smirk.

Valban knew at that moment he didn't fit in at all. No amount of dirt or feigned confidence could change that. These people were so strange compared to the Catharts he grew up with his whole life. He had never imagined that people could be so different from the Ondus or the Catharts. So happy, so carefree, so inviting. Catharts didn't have many conversations with one another, just a few quick discussions about new ideas for arts and crafts. Catharts rarely laughed, rarely enjoyed staying in groups and … and … what were these people eating? He started to notice that people were pouring some strange brown liquid into their mouths, and they were cutting. Cutting! Yes, they were cutting pieces of some strange substance with knives, putting it into their mouths, and moving it around with their teeth. It was disgusting, but also intriguing. One of the women nearby noticed him staring.

“Ya 'ungry? Wanna bite?” She seemed to be asking him if he wanted to eat some of the strange substance as she held it out on the end of a spiked metal thing. Not quite the same kind of spiked metal thing as on the sign outside. He needed to learn what to call some of these things, so he could keep them straight in his head.
“No, thank you,”he finally stammered. “I think I'm getting some ordinary food from the man behind the counter.”

She burst into laughter. How could people find everything he said so funny? No one ever laughed at him at home. He felt a pang of loneliness, and something else. It felt like, he wanted to be home again. He didn't want to go home yet, but this was all so new, so sudden, he couldn't make sense of it all. The man behind the counter came back a few minutes later with a plate and a mug. The plate had more of the strange food the other people in the bar had been eating, and the mug had the bitter-smelling brown liquid in it.

“Go ahead, eat up. This one's on me tonight, since ya've been traveling.” Bandar had a half-grin on his face as he watched Valban uneasily take a sip of the brown liquid. He guessed this was the ale Bandar spoke of earlier. The drink was as bitter as it smelled, slightly bubbly, and it burned his throat on the way down. He grimaced and set the mug down, and looked at, what he assumed, was the muttonchop on his plate. It was greyish and solid, like the gruel he was accustomed to, if it had been frozen into a chunk. He imitated the cutting had seen the other people do,and took a small bite of the muttonchop. It had so much more flavor than he had experienced before; it was tough and chewy, with a stringy texture much different from the porridge from home. He didn't chew it enough, and tried to swallow too much at once. He felt his airway clog up; he was choking, and didn't know what to do. He looked over at Bandar wide-eyed, hitting his chest.

“Ya choking? Ya need'a chew yer food boy!” Bandar shouted as he thumped Valban hard on the back. The chunk of food went flying out of his mouth and splattered on the floor behind the counter. The man behind the counter looked at it with squinted eyes, lips upturned in disgust. He kicked the chunk under the counter and continued on with his business.

“First time ya've eaten mutton, eh?” Bandar chuckled and continued shoving the muttonchops in his mouth, followed by a large drink from his mug. Valban gave the mutton another try, with a slightly smaller piece. He took more time to chew this time and made sure the food was easier to swallow. He was starting to like this muttonchop. He tried the ale again, and started liking that as well. After a few drinks from his mug, he started feeling dizzy, and sleepy. He kept drinking and the room started spinning. The laughter and conversation faded to a dull roar and he found himself laughing along with them. People slapped him on the back, spun him around, shook his hand, and kept jostling him around the room. He couldn't think very well and he could only manage one-word replies to their questions. He started feeling sick, his stomach started to heave. A few minutes later he collapsed to his hands and knees, emptying the contents of his stomach. The muttonchops didn't taste nearly as good coming back up and neither did the ale. He started crawling through the sea of legs towards the door and found himself hoisted into the air; two large strong arms swept him from the floor and he was flung on Bandar's back like a sack of beads. He couldn't track what was going on, where he was, or how he was still moving. He soon found himself in a room on a lumpy mattress lying on his back staring up at the ceiling.

“Ok boy, jus'sleep it off. Ya'll be fine in the mornin'.” Valban heard the door to the room bang closed and he tried to get the room to stop spinning, so he closed his eyes. He saw bright, colorful lights dancing in the darkness behind his eyes. He couldn't remember a time he'd had more fun, been more excited, more nervous, more thrilled, than tonight. He started to wonder what his parents had done when they found out he was missing. Would they look for him, would they even care? He got the feeling that Bandar would care more if he suddenly went missing in the morning than his parents would. He didn't know what to do anymore. He hadn't thought any of this through nearly enough before he left the comfort and security of his home. He was in a strange, cold place, surrounded by strange people, and he felt so alone. Tears streamed down the sides of his face onto the lumpy pillow and he buried his face in it. He continued to sob until he lost consciousness a few minutes later.