Hope in Deep Waters (an AtE story) Ch. 5

Mixed Fruit and Mix-Ups

As dawn broke, the family broke camp. Hulwen and her two companions had expressed a desire to join them, but explained that unless the group wanted a bunch of toppled trees, it would be best for the dragons to await their return at the forest edge. Nobody could bear to wait one more minute to begin their journey into the forest, so bidding the dragons goodbye and promising a quick return, they set off.

After walking for a few hours, Kalmar's stomach was growling like a wild animal.

“My heart and my mind want me to not stop walking until we reach the First Well, but my stomach is begging for mercy! I'm starving!” Glancing around desperately for something to eat and finding nothing, Kalmar muttered, “guess I'll have to eat bark. Everything is edible if you chew it long enough.”

“Uh oh. He's getting hangry,” whispered Leeli to Sara. “We need to get some food in him fast!”

Just then, Oskar piped up. “Perhaps, instead of eating the bark of a tree, you could consider eating the fruit of a tree?” 

“Well yeah, that would be nice, but I don't see any,” replied Kalmar.

“Oh, but I mean to say that I do,” clarified Oskar. “‘This is in fact a wild plumyum tree!’ That's a quote from The Memoirs of Snorkelsbad the Suspicious, by the way.”

“Oh, thank the Maker!” exclaimed Kalmar, racing up the tree and cramming one of the soft, ripe fruits into his mouth. Purple juice squirted onto his shirt. Nia sighed and shook her head. 

“My, my… there's an apple tree over here!” announced Oskar's voice a bit further down the path. “And its branches do seem lower to the ground. Reaching the fruit should be a simple task.”

Nia, Sara, and Artham walked the few paces over to the apple tree, but Leeli remained at the base of Kalmar's plumyum tree.

“May I have one?” Leeli called up to her brother.

“Sure!” he shouted down. “I see a really good one at the end of this branch! I'll toss it down to you.” Kalmar scrambled up a few more feet and began to scoot his way toward the end of a long branch that held a cluster of mouthwateringly ripe fruit at its tip.

“Be careful!” Leeli warned.

“I'll be fine Jan- I mean, Leeli.” he responded, face falling. He hoped no one had noticed his mix-up. He needed to stay optimistic for the others, not bring them grief. A quick glance at the apple tree assured him that his mother, his uncle. Oskar, and Sara had not heard. Snatching the plumyum quickly, he made his way down in silence and without a trace of the enthusiasm he had shown before. Pressing his prize into his sister's palm, he avoided looking at her eyes. Before he could pull his hand away, Leeli took it in hers and squeezed it. Oh no. She heard. But… she's not mad at me? Kalmar turned his head to give her a grateful look. He tried to muster a smile. It ended up looking more like a grimace, but Leeli understood. He squeezed her warm little hand back as they rejoined the others.

After filling a sack with fruit for later, they continued walking with Kalmar in the lead. The rest of the journey was less eventful, aside from a nerve-wracking five minutes hiding behind a tree because Oskar thought he heard a toothy cow. Artham offered to catch it for dinner, but nobody else seemed too enthusiastic about that.

As the shadows began to lengthen and the birdsong petered out, the exertion of the day began to show itself in dragging feet and slumped heads. Finally, Kalmar stopped walking and turned to face the group.

“Soon, we won't be able to see much of anything. You guys are tired, I'm tired, I say we find a place to set up camp for the night. We are getting close, but I'm not sure how close we are in this darkness, and I don't want to get us lost.” 

“The king is right,” Artham chimed in. “There's no sense going on farther and risking getting lost. Besides, I think it would be best for us to try whatever we are going to do with the Well after a good night’s rest.”

A scant few yards of walking brought them to a clearing flat and spacious enough for all of the tents. The ground was springy and soft, making it easy to drive in the tent stakes, and comfortable to lie down on. While Nia rummaged through her pack in search of matches to light the revolting, yet admittedly helpful, snot wax candles* Oskar had brought along, Kalmar found his chance to speak with Artham privately.

“Thanks for backing me up when I suggested that we stop,” he said to his uncle.

“You had a good idea,” replied Artham.

Kalmar was silent.

“I also wanted you to see that you don't have to do this alone.”

Kalmar's head shot up and cocked to the side questioningly.

“You know, leading this hopeful trip into the forest, worrying about whether it will turn out the way you want it to or not, being king for Peet's sake…” Artham trailed off. “What I'm saying is that keeping all of this to yourself is not good for you. Believe me, I know.” He paused and fixed his nephew's eyes in his gaze for a moment. “I want you to know that I am happy to be there for you. You carry a lot on your shoulders, possibly even more than your father did."

Kalmar fiddled with a blade of grass, not knowing what to say. Finally, he looked up and Artham saw that though his bright blue eyes shone with tears, a genuine smile had spread across Kalmar's face a moment before his nephew threw his arms around his neck.

"May the Maker's will be done," Kalmar whispered.

The little band of travers slept more soundly that night than they had in days, unaware of just how near they were to the mysterious waters of the First Well.

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*in North! Or be Eaten, Oskar says that snot wax candles repel the uncouth forest creatures, but are odorless to humans.