CHAPTER SEVEN
Gnak awoke near midday, with the sun high in the sky. Fearing to stand up, he listened for many minutes, watching the still sleeping form of Jen across the tiny clearing from him. It was not long, perhaps an hour, when she stretched before rolling to look at him. She grinned a crooked grin and pushed herself up to a seated position.
“Good morning, sunshine,” she said, her grin growing wider still.
Gnak simply grunted, unsure what a proper reply would be. What he did know was that he owed his life to the small human. When you owed something, you repaid it. You paid things with currency. Gnak’s life had been changed by the small girl, and so too would he change her life. It was obvious her clan had little wealth among the humans. But he knew how to change that.
It would take them two more days to reach the pass, then four to return her back to her clan. Without her to slow him, it would only take three days to reach the pass through the mountains once more, and he would still have plenty of time to collect a goblin captain before returning home. Debt owed. Debt paid. Sacrifice owed. Sacrifice paid. Problem gone.
Handing Jen the bag of supplies, she grabbed them and instantly Gnak was ashamed. Still her little hands remained bound together, even after saving his life. Reaching across the distance, he untied her small wrists and watched her rub them a moment to restore her circulation. Then with a quick prayer to her god, she seemed to glow for only a moment and even the redness around her wrists vanished without a trace. The child was impressive.
“I no kill you.”
“That’s good, Gnak, I was hoping that I might head back home today.”
“No. You no go home. No yet.”
“Aww, Gnak, are you going to miss me?”
“Miss? I have give you. Change life. I owe this.”
“You really shouldn’t have,” Jen grinned. “What is it?”
“I have debt you. I pay debt.”
“And then I go home?”
“With I pay debt, yes. I take you home.”
It was a simple conversation but conveyed a lot. They had managed trust, where the only certainty for either of them was death. Gnak could not help but think again and again about the words she had spoken to him as he lay dying. They had opened him to a world different than his own. He could help his people become something more, something better than they already were. He could teach them, like she had taught him. Every life was precious.
But still he had questions. So they ate a meal together and, deciding it was safe, Jen stood up and scouted the surrounding hills to see if anything sought them out. When she gave him the all clear Gnak rose, and shouldering their supplies they walked side by side through the tall grass, watching its golden stalks bend and sway in the breeze.
It was some time before Gnak worked up the desire to ask the question and hear her reply but when he did, he paused in their trek and turned to face her as an equal.
“Your god say all life precious, yes?”
“Exactly, Gnak, why do you ask?” she asked with a knowing smirk.
“If all life precious, how you kill animal for eat?”
“I’ve never had it explained to me, but this is how I understand it. Killing to eat, is killing to survive. If nothing killed, everything would die. So killing to eat is OK, but killing just to end a life is not.”
Gnak nodded his understanding, and they began walking again. Apparently the child had already questioned all this herself at one point or another. They spent most of the day with simple conversation, each asking the other a question and listening patiently for the answer.
It was late in the evening when they crested the plateau that looked down upon the valley that blocked their way to the pass in the mountains they sought.
Closer to the eastern edge of the valley this time, Gnak guided them around the steep drop-off and further still into the night. Reaching the eastern edge of the valley he could tell the girl grew tired from all the walking, so they stopped and rested a while, eating once again before carrying on.
Nearing morning they finally made their way around the remainder of the valley and, turning once again to the south, Gnak aimed them towards the pass in the near distance. With daylight coming, the giants would be more active and he dared not risk taking Jen into the pass with the giants during the day. Instead they would find a place to hide until night and enter the pass then. Turning off course, he aimed them towards the tree line at the base of the mountains.
It took less than an hour, once they reached the trees, to locate a suitable spot to wait out the day. Here a great pine tree had fallen and been caught near the ground by a neighboring tree. Nearly parallel to the ground, its great boughs swept out in all directions, including down to the soil, creating a great place to hide beneath its thickly needled branches. Under the tree were various openings hidden within its boughs, and together they selected one big enough for the both of them. Then, gathering up branches that had broken free when the tree fell, they carried them into their makeshift room to create for themselves a comfortable place to lay, and better walls to keep predators at bay. Two hours later, both lay sprawled out atop beds of soft pine needles, lost in their own thoughts, drifting into and out of consciousness as the day passed them by.
Gnak used the day to ponder his future. He had never really looked too far ahead before, but now he knew that it was a fault of his people. He was proud of his clan, proud of his people too, but their short-sightedness had created a weakness among them. It was a weakness he could help them change into a strength. All he needed to do was make the clan proud. Make them see his strength. Then become a captain. In time, if he worked hard and planned ahead, perhaps he could help his people find a better path. A more understanding path. After all, if what Jen had told him was true, and now it seemed obviously so, then his people were not loved by the gods as they should be. More could get power if they changed their ways. Their clans would grow bigger and stronger. Their race would become more powerful. He had to find a way to show them.