Chapter 4: Start of a journey
The hut door opened to a round of applause from those waiting outside. The cheering once again lifted Ludus’s spirits, while diminishing Mith’s. She looked all around the crowd for her father. At first she could not see him for the mass of people crowded about, then, through the crowd to her left emerged her father. Mr. Hardel was smiling broadly, almost laughing with merriment. He walked right up to his daughter, bending down to whisper in her ear:
“Congratulations.” Was all he said, but that one word lifted her spirits like nothing else could, all the fear and nerves washed right out of her mind.
Ludus’s parents had also found him, and were walking beside him, occasionally patting him on the back. The elders led the way to the edge of town, with everyone else following. Mith and Ludus could not see anything but the crowd of people around them, and therefore did not have any idea when they would get to the edge of town. After several minutes of walking, the gathering suddenly stopped. Ludus almost walked right into the person in front of him, but caught himself just in time.
Clarin turned to Mith and Ludus with her ever glowing kindness. “You go on ahead.” She said to them. Ludus bid farewell to his parents and walked past Clarin to the front of the crowd. Mith gave her father a big hug, then followed Ludus. She looked back to Mr. Hardel, her face showed the worry of leaving home for the first time. Mr. Hardel tenderly motioned for her to go forward, Mith nodded and continued to the front until she was right beside Ludus.
The sight of the desert caught Mith off guard. This exact spot was where the Bay Region ended. The lush green grass of Rerum abruptly stopped; beyond it was a vast landscape where nothing grew. Brown rocks were scattered across the barren land as far as the eye could see. This was the Rough Region.
Mith and Ludus took their last step before entering the Rough. They both looked to the crowd, Ludus showed enough victory for the both of them. Another cheer came up and died down rather quickly, for a familiar voice came from somewhere in the crowd, yelling so all could hear him.
“Mith and Ludus will now continue their journey, good luck to you both.” Everyone turned to see Maows standing near the left side of the mass. Allard sulked beside him.
The gathering now took several steps back, giving room for young Hardel and young Tinn. But they did not move right away, they continued to look into their town, their region, not finding it in them to be able to go just yet. Mr. Hardel stepped forward and motioned with his hand once again, this time for them to continue into the Rough. Both nodded to him, turned, and took their first step into the Rough Region.
The transition was unmistakable. Mith gasped and immediately held her breath. Somehow that one step changed everything. The warm and inviting feeling she always felt in Rerum was gone, replaced by an arid, intense dry heat. The wind blew into her hair and face, she turned, expecting to see others’ hair moving, but no one else’s hair moved. Not one person in the crowd, who stood just feet away, was showing any signs of feeling the wind. That one step not only took Mith and Ludus out of the Bay Region, but seemingly transported them to another world. Mith turned to Ludus to see if he had felt anything. Ludus did not look changed, he was too busy keeping the crowd entertained by stomping his feet in the desert floor to the cheer of onlookers. Mith was about to ask someone what was happening until she noticed Ludus’s hair was also moving in the wind. Mith looked from Ludus, then to the crowd, then back at Ludus. It was increasingly eerie to her, seeing Ludus’s hair blow about, then turn to see the crowd who stood with no wind on them.
Then another strange phenomena took place, the crowd began to get quieter. Mith turned to Ludus, who finally began to notice something was wrong when those cheering for him began to go quiet. He turned to Mith, who stood stark white, staring with wide eyes at the crowd gathered just feet away, still cheering as if nobody had noticed the changes. Ludus then looked to the crowd himself, and became almost as pale as Mith was. For the crowd was starting to grow smaller. Every person was shrinking, and behind them, the town was shrinking as well. Mith and Ludus stared in horror as everything and everybody they had ever known grew smaller and smaller, until they finally disappeared. Immediately they both made a charge for the grass, but stopped abruptly. They knew that they could not face their families if they went back so soon. In the crowds place was a view of the Bay Region as the children had never seen it before. Rerum was gone, completely gone. The grass remained, and past that the water could be seen sparkling near the pink beach. Mith called to her father for help, while Ludus battled with his thoughts for nearly ten minutes. Finally Mith decided it was hopeless and sunk down to the ground, Ludus followed.
“Why did they disappear, where are they?” Ludus asked, he was in no way trying to hide his fear.
Mith took a long time to speak, she was pondering all possibilities before finally answering, “I have no idea.”
“Well . . . we have to do something, don’t we?”
Mith thought out the possibilities again before answering. “I have a strange feeling that this was supposed to happen.”
“What’s that supposed to mean.” Ludus inquired, he was now shaking with nerves and fear.
“For one thing,” Mith began slowly, so as to make sure Ludus could follow. “Maows did tell us that we needed to grow mentally, and this seems like a good way to ensure that.”
“What’s the other thing?”
“Oh, I don’t know, I just like starting sentences that way sometimes.”
Ludus looked around again in a failed attempt to see Rerum again. “That sure does seem like a mean thing to do, I always heard they were supposed to tell us what was going to happen.”
“I heard that too, but I guess that we wouldn’t grow as much if we knew everything that was going to happen.” Mith said not looking at Ludus, but looking at something that had caught her eye up ahead. “Do you see that?”
“See what?” Ludus looked ahead and immediately saw what Mith was seeing. About thirty yards away from where they now sat, was a small shelter made with a carpet resting on top of several large rocks. Lying face down under the carpet’s shade was a man. Mith pointed at him, and together they made their way over, in hopes that he may have some answers for them.
Within seconds they were standing over him, not sure of what to do, Ludus knocked on the carpet. The man jumped up onto his knees, his head pushing on the carpet. The sight of his face forced the kids back several feet. His face was caked with a combination of black and brown dirt. The man had a brown beard that hung down to his chest, in which Ludus was sure he counted several rather big spiders. An ancient and loose fitting shirt hung around his shoulders down to his knees. The man’s eyes squinted up to the kids, though never actually focusing on either of them.
“What you wat?” The man asked, his voice was low, almost bass.
“You mean, ‘what do you want?’” Mith corrected him.
The man looked up in incredulously, “Excuse me, missy, but I do’t like ‘N’.”
Ludus rolled his eyes, “You just used—”
“Aaaagh, I do’t like to hear it either.” The man interrupted.
“Do you think you could tell us your name, sir?” Mith asked sweetly.
“Why yes, missy, I might just do that.”
“Well, what is it?” Ludus asked, starting to get annoyed.
“I said I might tell the missy.” The man answered, waving his hand for Ludus to keep quiet.
“Can you tell me, then?” Mith asked even more sweetly.
“Orman’s the name.”
Ludus had enough of this guy already. “There’s an ‘N’ in your—”
“Aaaaauuurrrrrgggghhhh!” the man screamed. Mith and Ludus took several steps back; Mith quickly checked for escape routes, which in the desert would be anywhere she decided to run.
“Can you help us with something, Mr. Orman.” Mith asked bending down to be near Orman’s eye range, despite being sever
al feet away now.
Orman began to sift sand through his hands and watched it fall to the ground. “I suppose missy.”
“Great, can you tell us why everyone in Rerum disappeared?” She gestured back to where the now empty Bay Region began.
Orman looked to where she was gesturing and stared for a while before responding. “You just came from there?”
“Yes we just did about two minutes ago.”
The man nodded, “It happes all the time, youg people, aroud your age, always wader over the boudary.”
Mith finally saw progress, “You mean this happens a lot.” The man nodded. “Do any of them ask you this question?” The man shook his head ‘no’. “You said something of a boundary, how does it work?”
Orman turned his head to the side, his mouth hanging creepily open, eyes bulging wide. “I do’t have a idea how it works.”
Mith sighed in defeat, “Alright, thank you, we will be going now.”
Mith looked around for Ludus, finding him some ways away studying the division between the two regions. Mith walked up to him and studied the boundary with him.
“Orman said that he doesn’t know how this works.”
“That’s a shock.” Ludus said sarcastically.
“So what should we do then?” Mith asked, though she already had an answer.
“We should probably start on our journey, and get as far away from that guy as possible.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking.” Mith said, already walking away from the grass and the Bay Region. Ludus followed close behind.
“Bye bye, missy. Bye bye guy. Have a good trip to owhere.” The man began to laugh loudly and uncontrollably. Mith and Ludus waved, but did not stop as they walked past him. Orman watched until he saw that they had completely gone, and then he lay face down in the sand once again, still shaking with laughter.