Ch. 7
The forest ended of a sudden, being replaced by a dirt road with fields all around. An occasional tree lined the road to the left, while the right stood completely bare. This road curved ever so slightly and I could follow it with my eyes for almost a mile before it shrank off to the left. The sun beat down unrelenting on my face and I wished to no end that I had sunglasses. The day was waning; the sun setting just off to my right. There wasn't much time until it was back to complete darkness, and I had no intention of trying to find my way through that again, as it seemed that there were no street lights in Hurdeen. This determination added quickness to my step, as I tried my hardest to find the house I was looking for.
It is strange how wide open places can hide things better than trees in a forest. Not even half a mile away from the woods I stumbled upon the house up on the left. It was a very nice little house, no different than those on Earth, many things look like they had been influenced by what Dimitrius found on Earth, even if it did for some reason get him exiled. Fragrant and colorful flowers sat on one side, a fenced in yard on the other. Whoever lived in that house must be very tidy, not one shutter or blade of grass looked out of place.
I can honestly say I was anticipating a warm welcome from a pleasant family, or an elderly man who was an adventurer in his youth, ready to let me in on the secrets to stopping invasions. I can also honestly say that I was shocked when the door opened. Who--or what was standing before me was a grizzled looking old woman with long disheveled hair sticking out in all possible directions. She wore a long shirt down to her knees, and while I don't want to assume, that may have been all she was wearing. I took one look at her paranoid eyes and wished I could run back to the woods.
The woman grabbed the door and groaned loudly, as if I was some sort of terrifying monster, and then grabbed me, pulling me into her home. Looks can be very deceiving. While the outside looked warm and welcoming, the inside was anything but. The smell of rotting meat met my nose and I could not breathe. From what I saw of the inside it was dark, all the furniture, which looked as if they could have been at one time lovely to use, were deteriorating, with stuffing and padding all over the floor. She dragged me out back and I spent the first few seconds catching up on my breathing. Something heavy landed in my hands and I lunged forward, trying not to drop it. It was a small cannon, or maybe better described as a wide barreled gun. Swiftly she straightened me back up, and pointed the cannon at some bushes at the edge of the yard.
"It's coming." She said through a relatively nice voice for someone so odd and smelly.
"What is?" I asked, not really wanting the answer.
"It—it is coming, it always comes at this time, but I never get it in time. You . . . you came at the perfect time, you can get it."
I looked into her crazy eyes. "What are you talking about?"
She turned my head in the direction of the bushes. "Be at the ready to fire!"
"I don't know how."
"There!" she screamed.
A small animal had come out of the bushes and stepped through holes in the ground I took to be where she had missed last time. It looked like a squirrel, except it had a small flat platypus like tail, and longer ears. I was so shocked and nervous from the woman that when she yelled 'there' I fired the mini cannon. I'm not sure how I did it, but a little cannonball came zooming out and blew a new hole next to the rest, just to the left of the animal, which ran back into the bushes and out of sight.
"You missed it!" the woman yelled, taking the cannon from me and shooting a few more holes into the ground and bushes. When all the cannonballs were gone she dropped the weapon and sighed deeply. "Well, there's always tomorrow."
"Excuse me," I started, trying to pretend that nothing had just happened, "I was told by a Miggins that you might help me find Dimitrius."
She looked at me as if for the first time, and it could have been. "Dimitrius eh? Miggins told you to come? Where is he?"
I told her about how Miggins was called back when we were leaving and gave her the message he gave me. She looked it over and her eyes widened with surprise. She looked at me with much more interest. When she handed me back the message I tried to read it but found it was in their language. I had an idea as to what it said, but I hoped that he would not write too much information about me, but then again it was for Dimitrius and I gave it to somebody else first. In hindsight it was probably not the best move.
"Yes I will tell you how to get to Dimitrius, but first you need to tell me what you are doing here."
"I already did."
"You know what I mean."
I hesitated, everything I knew of this woman was not having her add up very well in my eyes, but Miggins trusted her, and besides she already knew a lot from my foolishness of giving her the message. "The leaders of Hurdeen want me to stop an invasion of Terror Bringers from the north."
I probably sounded too nonchalant about the whole thing, since I was involved after all, and her face showed the angst that mine wasn't. At first I thought she might have a fit the way her breathing grew shallow and she stumbled backward. "An invasion, it’s really happening?"
"As far as I know." I tried to add a little worry to my voice.
She calmed down, "But it’s alright, you're here. You have a power to stop them?"
"No, I don't, I don't know why Dimitrius told those stories, but that's not true at all."
She went back to her fit. I waited patiently for her to settle down, occasionally looking around, seeing if the little squirrel-like animal would show itself again. Finally she calmed down. "Are you sure you don't have powers? Maybe their late."
"I'm positive, everything he told you was from fictional sources, I'm sorry."
"But you will help?"
"Yeah, I have to; they said I can't go home until I help stop the invasion. But I am not going to worry too much, I'm sure we can figure something out before it happens."
"You are very optimistic." She chuckled; it seemed that my calmness was rubbing off on her.
"Now all I need is to find out where Dimitrius lives and I'll be on my way."
"Don't you want to stay for the night; it’s starting to get dark?"
While I was extremely tired, I could not think of a worse place to sleep then in that rancid smelling house. "No thanks, I really must be on my way."
"Oh, alright, but I will give you something that may help you." Without another word she ran inside, leaving me in the growing darkness out back.
The air was growing cooler with occasional wind, not unlike the nights at home. The similarities between the two worlds were so eerie. I was beginning to lean towards my theory that all inhabited planets were made from the same mold. Though that would mean a deity, and that was something I had not fully wanted to accept yet. But it was beginning to be too much for doubt with each new similarity. I had to believe something, I wasn't the type of person who could go through life without any belief system, I was just slow in finding mine. I went to church for years but as I got older I no longer wanted people to tell me how to believe, I wanted to figure it out for myself. And that is when my personal journey began, though it didn't go anywhere until I arrived in Hurdeen. It remained internal as I didn't even know where my thoughts would take me, but it had begun, and I knew that by the time I got home I would be just a little bit different in my beliefs, and that was alright.
I waited out there for a while, not wanting to go inside after her for fear of the smell. As I was analyzing the mini cannon she came back out, carrying a backpack similar to the one I had on, except in red. "Here, put this on, it has more of what you need."
The backpack I had on was fine with me, but I figured I could use a new one since mine was almost out of food. She would not let me look inside it, insisting that the correct time for that would come later, and she refused my request for moving the small blanket Miggins had packed to the new bag. I accepted in the end, though hes
itantly. The awkward strangeness of this woman made me question the content of the bag, but I knew she had good intentions.
"Thank you very much, um . . . what's your name?"
"Angeela." she said sweetly.
"So what can you tell me? Miggins said you can help me find Dimitrius."
"Yes, yes, alright, what you need to do is . . .” She shot a quick glance toward the bushes, and after realizing that the squirrel thing was not there, continued. "You need to get back on that road you were just on, and from there you need to walk until you come to a town. There are four ways to -- Are you listening?"
I had glanced over to the bushes again. I quickly nodded and she went on.
"Four ways to leave, what you want to do is go out of the eastern road, which will be the one on your right from the town square. About a mile down that path you will come to a fork in the road, take the left one, heading north. After that just keep walking until you get to Dimitrius."
"So left at the fork?"
"That is what I just said."
"Thank you, I guess I'll be going."
"Wait, what is it like, where you are from?"
Her face was in shadow, I couldn't see her expression. "It's nice, though not much different from here. Mainly just the people and places are different, from what I see so far."
She took a step closer and I saw the excitement on her face. "I can't wait to go." She said softly.
I was completely perplexed now. She wanted to go to Earth, but why? I didn't have the heart to ask her, her face showed longing for something just out of reach, something she never had, and I couldn't tell what it was. I let the conversation die there, I simply nodded my reply.
I thanked her again. We went around front, avoiding the inside of the house. The last thing she did was hand me a small oil lamp. She gave me several matches and I lit one as I started down the path, she watched and waved until I was out of sight. We had made a connection in that last little bit of conversation, I can't say why, but it happened. And for almost a single second I wanted to stay with her, at least for the night, so she would not have to spend another lonely night in that smelly house. But I knew I did not have time, and so I walked away from her into the darkness.