Tauren Tale, Chapter 13
#13 of Tauren Tale
"So, do the Tauren worship the Ancients?" Kazbo asked.
Sanja shook her head. "Tauren worship the sun and the soil. They worship nature. The Ancients are part of that, of course, but they aren't gods," she explained. "I think that if the Ancients really were gods, then there would be no people at all."
"In all the books I have read, I've never seen any on Tauren lore," the Gnome said. "I find it so fascinating, but I guess no one has ever written it down before."
Jorga had plucked some newly-grown grass stems and was blowing on them to try and get them to hum.
"I wish you could hear my favorite story about the Ancients," Sanja said.
"Will you sing it?"
Sanja shook her head. "To do it right, the entire tribe has to participate. You sing it in the dark, around the fire, at the end of a celebration. They beat on drums, and everyone dances in a circle around the fire, and they spin and spin."
She rolled over on her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows. "Before the celebration, everyone gathers up a shtumanialo. That's a bundle of thin sticks, but you roll green leaves inside the bundle, and you tie them up tight. Then when you dance, you cradle the shtumanialo in front of you."
Sanja smiled as she thought back to the utankan festivals. "You see, the bundle is supposed to represent a dead body."
"A dead..." Kazbo gasped, "dead body?"
Sanja nodded. "You see, the story is about an Ancient that sees the wood smoke rising from a Tauren camp. So she comes out of the forest and stomps on the village to put out the flames. She kills a bunch of people before storming back off into the woods.
"Normally, Tauren bury their dead, but in this story the survivors build this gigantic bonfire, and they burn the bodies instead. So, at this point in the song, all the dancers toss their shtumanialo on the fire, and it builds into a huge blaze. And of course, all the green leaves burn, and the whole camp fills with smoke."
Kazbo stared at her blankly. "That sounds like an awful story! The Ancient punishes the Tauren for burning wood, so the Tauren burn more wood?"
Sanja sighed. She picked a tiny daisy and flicked it at the Gnome. "Most Tauren stories are ironic, Kazbo. They're supposed to teach a lesson. The purpose of the story is to show that there's no point in being angry about something that can't be changed. Tauren need fire to survive, so why be miserable about it? You should think about things you can change, instead."
"Someday I'm going to go talk to one," Jorga said, suddenly.
"You're going to talk to an Ancient?" Kazbo asked.
The boy nodded, without looking up.
"Oh, really?" Sanja turned to look at her brother. "And what are you going to say to an Ancient?"
The trio stood and walked along the shore, away from where they had seen the creature go.
"I'll say, 'I'm Jorga!'"
Sanja laughed. "I doubt an Ancient would even notice you. He'd probably just step on you and squash you flat."
"Nuh uh!" Jorga retorted. "I'm not always going to be short. Someday I'll be tall! I'll be... a hundred and six feet tall!"
Sanja bobbed her head in disbelief. "Oh really?"
"Uh huh! And then I'll step on the Ancient." He slapped the palm of one hand down on the other. "And I'll squash him flat."
She shook her increasingly unkept mane. "No. If you stepped on an Ancient, it would be like... like a giant splinter in your hoof! Don't you think that would be awful?"
"No!" Jorga pointed at his sister. "Because I'm going to have metal hooves."
"What? Since when are you going to have metal hooves?"
"Uh huh!" Jorga nodded his entire head. "I'm gonna' have giant metal hooves that Kazbo makes for me!"
"Oh really..." Sanja said, as if she understood. She turned and addressed the Gnome directly. "Do you make a lot of giant, metal hooves?"
Kazbo gasped in surprise. "Er, um... no... the metal hooves I make for Jorga will be unique."
They reached the edge of the oasis in the late afternoon. The three stared out across the vast desert and unanimously agreed to camp inside the trees for one final night. Although no one would miss the humidity, they had enjoyed having an abundance of water. All three hated being thirsty.
"I wish we could follow the edge of the oasis all the way back to Mulgore," Jorga said. "Hiking across the desert is easier, and then we could go into the swamp whenever we wanted to refill the water skin."
"Yeah," the other two agreed.
The trio traveled north, across the baking desert. The sun was as relentless as it had been before, but at least they were able to find more streams here. The hike - so far - had not been as bad as they feared.
"There!" Kazbo shouted. He ran ahead to a strange, short, tent pole that someone had planted next to a fork in the road.
When the others caught up, he gestured frantically to one of the slabs of wood that had been affixed to the top of the pole. "Can you read the symbols carved into the top sign, Jorga?"
The boy looked at the Gnome and then back to the sign. He seemed pretty unenthusiastic.
"There, on the left, is a circle with three dots underneath it. What sound is that?"
"It's a..." Sanja started to say, but Kazbo shushed her.
"I want Jorga to read it."
Her brother scratched his chin for a moment. "That's the 'my' sound, right?"
"No, no, no," Kazbo corrected him. "Three dots under the circle."
"Oh, oh! I meant the 'ny' sound."
"Very good!"
"So, it must say 'Nijel's Point'."
Kazbo sighed in exasperation. "Yes, it does, but you're supposed to read it, not guess what it says. See how the sign goes to a point on the right side? That means that if you follow the road on the right, it will lead you to Nijel's Point."
The trio followed the road with their eyes off into the distance. Although it was difficult to judge distance in the desert, it looked like about a mile before the path lead up into a curved channel in the rocks. Tiny blue pennants waved from either side of the canyon. Flickers of light reflected off polished metal beneath each of the flag poles.
"Sentries," Sanja said, "stationed next to the Alliance banners."
The boys nodded.
Sanja headed off down the opposite fork. "I'm going to sleep so much better, knowing that Nijel's Point is behind us."
She turned about when she realized that no one was following. "What?"
"We have to go there," Kazbo said, refusing to take another step. "We have to go to Nijel's Point."
"Are you mad?" Sanja gasped. "The sentries would kill Jorga and me on sight! And even if they let us pass, the townspeople themselves would string us up."
"Well, Theodore was going to take you there..." he said in a dejected voice. Even if Sanja hadn't interrupted, he would have realized that it was a pretty weak argument.
"Yeah, as slaves!"
"Well, you could pretend to be my slaves," Kazbo said, his face brightening.
"I will never be anyone's slave!"
Jorga spoke up, but only slightly. "I want to..."
"And you're not taking Jorga into a town where everyone wants to kill him," Sanja said. She waved her hands across her chest. "No."
"Just for pretend, I said!" Kazbo put his tiny hands on his hips. "Then we could go and get supplies for the journey."
The three stared at one another. Jorga looked like he had something to say, but that he wasn't yet ready to cross his big sister.
Sanja's mind was awhirl with a mass of dark thoughts. She imagined getting separated from the tiny man and being attacked by villagers. She visualized Theodore hitting Kazbo over the head and taking the two as his slaves. Without Kazbo to protect them, they'd be helpless in the enemy city.
Kazbo finally broke the silence. "You can't tell me that there aren't things you wish we had. What if it was a Tauren village?"
"It's not."
"I know it's not, but what if it had been?" Kazbo tugged on her vest to get her to look at him. "Aren't there things you'd want to get?"
Sanja hung her head. Part of her was afraid; afraid of the danger surrounded the Alliance town. But other parts of her mind were focused on much more subtle dangers. "An axe."
"An axe?"
Sanja nodded. "Yes, we need an axe if we're going to make it through the winter." She kicked a small rock with her hoof and sent it flying. "Gathering firewood out here is easy because we don't stay in the same spot for very long. But if we try to wait out the winter in a mountain camp, then we're going to burn through all the dead fall.
"We have be able to cut down trees for firewood and to make shelter."
In silence, the boys opened their eyes up wide. They hadn't really thought about running out of firewood during the winter.
The moment stretched and Kazbo broke the protracted silence. His voice seemed squeakier than normal. "Is that all?"
"No, I'd try to get a map and another water skin too."
Kazbo nodded and slapped his hands together. It was a less-than-impressive little clap. "Fine, it's decided. I'll go to Nijel's Point and try to find those things. Just wait here and I'll bring them right back."
"No!" Sanja shouted. "Splitting up is a really bad idea. You said you'd watch out for us!"
Jorga's eyes looked large and tragic. "Don't go..."
"I am watching out for you," the little man tried to reassure the children. "Getting us an axe will help keep everyone safe, and a map will keep us from getting lost. Just wait here."
"No! No, no, no, no! There's no way we're waiting here any longer," she insisted. She pointed down the right fork. "Anyone who walks on that road is Alliance. It's not safe for us here. Don't you remember how Tanavar and Meridia acted before you told them to stop?"
"Well, if you go on, I'll never catch up with you," Kazbo said. "Especially not if I'm carrying a bunch of stuff."
In frustration, Sanja rubbed her face with her hands. "Do you think you could find the campsite we used last night?"
"Well, sure," Kazbo replied. "It's only about an hour south of here."
Sanja noticed then how much Kazbo had changed. She marveled that he could now talk about an hour's walk and use the word "only". "Okay, then Jorga and I will head back to the campsite. We'll wait for you there."
"Give me three days," Kazbo said with confidence.
"What? Three days?" the Tauren gasped in unison.
"If we're going to do this, then we should do it right!" The Gnome's manner was different too. He no longer seemed to be the helpless, little bookworm that they had first met. "Who knows what might be available to us? What if I could get the parts to make another balloon?" He smiled hopefully. "If we could fly over the mountains, then we wouldn't have to wait until next summer to get you home."
Jorga's mouth opened wide, but he didn't speak.
"You mean a balloon like the one you crashed?" Sanja grumbled, but without much conviction.
"All I want is for you to give me a chance to look. If there's nothing useful there, then I'll just get what I can and I'll come right back." He reached up and took one of Sanja's and one of Jorga's hands in his tiny hands. "But if there was a way to get you home this year, well, wouldn't that be worth the look?"
Sanja sighed and Jorga fidgeted with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. "Okay, three days. If we don't see you in three days, then we're going on."
"Deal struck," Kazbo said with a smile.
The children sat silently at the campfire.
It had taken a long time to start a fire without the use of Kazbo's magic. Even with the bone-dry wood, it had taken a tremendous amount of work. Sanja was intent on keeping it burning continuously until the Gnome returned; just so she wouldn't have to repeat the effort.
It was too early in the afternoon to cook supper, and the day had been upsetting enough that it had thrown all of the regular chores askew. Sanja had taken out the rope she had made for tanning rabbit hides, but just couldn't muster the energy to work on them.
A tremendous wave of loneliness crashed over them both.
"Why so sad, little cow?"
The Tauren jumped to their hooves in shock. Sitting beside them was Theodore. No one had heard him approach or sit. He grinned up at them with a few too many teeth.
"It was so nice of you to come all the way out here by yourself," he said. He fidgeted with some object in his hands. "I would have hated to drag you all this way."
"How did you find us?" Jorga bleated.
Theodore grinned wide and tapped his nose with a finger. "The beast had no problem picking up a cattle trail."
Sanja's rage erupted from her shock. "What did you do to Kazbo?"
The rogue feigned innocence. "Do? I didn't do anything to the little fool." He batted his eyes up at her. "Why, I saw him running around Nijel's Point without you, and I just knew you had to be nearby. And here you are!"
Sanja reached out and pulled her brother close. She pushed him behind her body and then took a slow step backward.
"Oh, come now. Is that any way to treat an old friend?" He cocked his head at her. "Look, I even bought you some pretty jewelry," he said. "Here," he tossed the object toward them and it clanked to rest in front of her hooves, "Why don't you try them on?"
A cold chill ran down Sanja's spine. In the dust before her, lay a pair of iron manacles.