The Tree House - 02
Ξ March 24th, 2008 | → | ∇ Essay |
Running. Running through a forest of dark trees. Branches grasping and scratching at his face and arms. Running. The occasional thorn setting in his flesh and ripping. The burn of nettles against his forearms as he bursts into a clearing. He can taste the blood on his lips. Sweat is burning his eyes. His lungs are on fire, ready to explode. The man has almost caught him. He can hear his breathing and the sprinting steps behind him. Terna is too afraid to look back, to take his eyes off the terrain in front of him. Terna knows that he has to clear the fence, it’s his only chance to escape the grasp of his pursuer. The distance to the fence shrinks. The barb wire and rusted metal grid is difficult to see, even for Terna. He only knows it is there because the undergrowth that has grown up over it. Terna presses harder, readying himself for the leap. 20 feet to go. 10 feet. 5 feet. The man is right upon him. He jumps up and forward into a roll as his body clears the fence. The toe of his boot snags on the fence as his body levers toward the ground. He violently tries to free his foot from the fence as the man’s hand takes hold of his boot.
Terna gasps awake. sweating. panting. out of breath. Unsure of his whereabouts, ready to run again. Only a dream again, but so real. Again this dream comes. He can’t ever see the man’s face in the dream, but he thinks it is a soldier that has finally discovered him. Terna takes a deep breath and looks around as he sits up. The sky is just lighting up in the east and he can see dimly around him the shapes of the trees and the grayish detail of the tree house. The few that take refuge in the tree house are sleeping quietly, unbothered by his private dreamy scare. He can hear their steady breathing in the quiet of the early morning.
Terna works to collect himself and calm his breath. Why this dream? His mother used to say that visions would sometimes come in dreams, that sometimes God would communicate things to people through dreams, communicate warnings and premonitions. Terna wasn’t sure if he believed that, but this recurring dream was beginning to worry him. Terna checked his travel pack again, reached inside and felt the cool steel grip of the handgun inside. He checked the safety as his father had showed him. He quietly pulled out the ammunition he had in the outside pocket. He counted the rounds. 20 rounds. Roughly two clips full. Terna knew he would need to make a supply run soon and that meant possible danger and discovery. They needed food, they needed ammo for hunting. They needed to check their traps and make sure the roads were still clear, that is, no new tracks.
They also needed new books. Terna still couldn’t believe it. Old man Lormah would be back soon and would expect to continue their lessons. Despite the trials and tribulation, Terna and the few others who lived here needed to be schooled. Terna’s father had made an impression upon him. He had always told him that a well read man was a wise man. Terna’s father had read to all his children, from the moment they were born they were held in his big arms while he read in his deep but quiet voice. When they grew too large to hold, they moved to the floor around his chair. He could still hear it, the voice. He could still smell his father’s favorite soap and feel the comfort of his arms, the breathing in in between sentences, the low rumble of his laughter, the expressiveness as he read different parts of the stories. Terna’s eyes pooled. What had they done with his father? Where had they taken him? Terna wiped his eyes and regained his composure. The others would be up soon, he had to stay strong, for them.
Terna remembered the need for books and the upcoming arrival of the old man. The old man had stumbled upon them shortly after the soldiers had taken his parents and his brothers. If Terna’s brothers had not been there, Terna doubted he would have ever trusted the old man. His brothers had known Lormah from the village as a respected man, otherwise, Lormah might have been shot as he approached the area of the forest that held the tree house. The young men were quite shaken and unstable back then, not really wanting to trust anybody. Initially, Lormah stayed on for a month with Terna and his brothers. He recognized immediately that the young men needed some instruction and care. Over those first days, Lormah grew close to Terna, thinking of him as a grandson he had never had. Lormah also recognized Terna as a kindred spirit and wanted to help fan that flame. Even in such dark times, he was compelled to help the young men survive and teach them to avoid discovery by the soldiers for as long as possible.
The old man was a traveler, a trader. He came and went on long trips, taking rare things from one area off to somewhere else and bringing back rare objects from abroad. Of course, that had all changed now, there was no one to trade with. That was what made him so mysterious. There was no trade, and yet he kept returning through the great forest. Until Lormah’s last appearance, Terna had no idea what his purpose for returning this way through the forest was. Now that he knew, he was both sad and thankful for all the events that had brought them together and kept him returning.
Terna had followed Lormah at a distance the last time he departed from the tree house refuge. Terna wanted to see where he went when he was not here. Although the old man had left going north, once out of view from the tree house, he quickly made a large turn to the west and eventually south, moving silently through the forest. He went due south until he met the edge of the forest. He then turned and followed the contour of the forest west, being careful to stay 10-20 feet inside the edge of the forest to avoid discovery from the field to the south. Lormah had taught Terna well, not just in books, but in tracking and trailing. The old man had not yet noticed Terna’s pursuit. Terna was careful to stay back, out of sight, using his skills of observation to see what path through the forest the old man had taken. Occasionally he would see the back of his head and long gray hair in the distance, but mostly Terna avoided being in sight. Terna noticed that the man was picking flowers of various kinds along the way. Strange, he thought. What is he doing? He could not identify any medicinal value. No poltice or salve that Terna knew of used these plants. No spice value. What was the old trader doing?
As Terna crested a wooded hill, he saw the old man below in a small clearing, leaning over what appeared to be a large stone on the ground. The flowers that the man had picked had been bundled into a bouquet and set on the stone. Lormah was kneeling by the stone and appeared to be talking to it. Terna was very confused.
Slowly, Lorma turned to look directly at Terna in the distance. Their eyes met and Terna immediately felt both ashamed and deceived as he realized Lormah knew he was there during his entire pursuit. Then Terna noticed tears flowing from Lormah’s eyes and yet Lormah had a quiet peaceful smile as he stared back at Terna. Then Lormah raised his hand and silently motioned for Terna to approach. Quietly, Terna got up and walked toward the old man.
Terna is startled from his memories by Gharnai touching him gently on his shoulder. “The old man is near, Terna. I heard his call.” Gharnai continued past him and climbed down the ladder towards the ground to gather water. Terna smiled to himself, his friend and mentor would soon be here, he thought. Terna knew he would need to venture out to the old library tonight.
on March 24th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
[…] The Tree House - 02 […]
on March 25th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
[…] has finished part two of his series The Tree House on his blog In Continuous Pursuit. Terna makes an appearance in The Tree House - 02, along with […]