Beyond the Valley of Mist (10 page)

Lox told them to tie the
raft to the walkway and then step onto it. But long before they
reached it, people were gathering. Lox waved to the crowd. They
recognized Lox and began jumping up and down excitedly.

As they got nearer, people
threw ropes, which Lox tied to the raft.

“
Now we
can’t
escape,” Zen
whispered.

Lox noticed his concern and
told him not to worry. He leaped onto the walkway and embraced a
tiny woman and two nearly full-grown boys, who were overjoyed to
see their father.

Zen’s party was reluctant
to go ashore, but two men and three women jumped onto the raft and
helped them climb onto the walkway, and then they led them along a
path into the village.

The villagers were short
with black hair, brown skin, and brown eyes. They stared in wonder
at Zen and his friends, as they had never seen anyone with hair and
eyes in those colors. Ador’s yellow hair and bright blue eyes
especially fascinated them.

Lox told Zen that the
villagers had the same reaction that he had when he first saw Zen
and Jok. The only person they ever heard of who had yellow hair,
fair skin, and blue eyes was Zor, the Wise One, who had come to
them long ago but they had never seen him. The story was told that
he had married one of their women, and that they had two children,
a boy and a girl, whose hair and eyes were brown. When these two
children became parents, their children's hair was
black.

The Zorians' houses were
built in straight lines on each side of a hard-packed dirt walkway.
Behind each house was a walled area. Zen and his friends had never
seen animals like the ones kept behind those walls.

“
Each family has its own
animals that provide food or wool,” Lox explained. “The wool is
used for making clothing, and they either eat the animals or eat
what they produce, like eggs and milk.”

“
The people are dressed in
strange-looking skins,” Lela commented.

“
Those are not skins,” Lox
explained. “That is clothing made from the wool of the
sheep.”

“
What are the big animals
with the horns?” Ador asked.

“
We call them cows. We get
milk from cows, and we make cheese from the milk after it is no
longer good to drink. We also raise chickens and eat their
eggs.”

Zen remarked, “Jok, this
village has practical knowledge that our people need,” then asked
Lox, “How did you learn to do all these things?”

“
Mostly from Zor, the Wise
One, who came to us from your village long ago,” Lox replied. “Why
didn't your villagers learn from Zor?”

“
Because our priests ran Zor
off. In contrast, your people listened to him and became happy and
prosperous. Our people tried to kill him because our priests told
us to, and our village became oppressed and unhappy,” Zen
explained.

“
Perhaps that is why he told
us never to worship fire and never to make sacrifices to the gods,”
Lox said. “We revered him as a messenger from God, while your God
banished him. I think your God is a false God.”

“
That is what Zor tried to
tell us,” Jok agreed.

Lox’s wife was looking at
him with pleading eyes, so Lox turned to his new friends and said,
“My friends will take you to a house of your own so that you can
rest and refresh yourselves. Tonight we will hold a feast in your
honor. Now, I want to spend some time with my wife and sons. It’s
been a long time since we have been together. ” Lox’s wife clung to
his left hand, while his younger son was holding unto his right
hand. The older son was leading the way. Their faces showed how
happy they were to see him.

Now that is a happy
family,
Zen thought.
That is what I want for my family.

Two young women stepped
forward, took Lela and Ador by the hands and led them to a house.
Zen and Jok followed. When they got inside, they noticed wood
chairs, and two extra rooms extending from the main room had wooden
beds with soft padding made of straw covered with a soft, smooth
material.

“
These are wonderful beds,”
Ador said, touching the padding. She couldn’t help but bounce on it
a little.

Lela just looked at her and
smiled, and then they lay down on the beds and were soon fast
asleep.

But Zen and Jok couldn’t
sleep; there was too much to see, so they went outside to look
around. They walked to the edge of the village, where plants were
growing in straight rows in flat sections of earth. Some people
were tending the plants, while others were gathering fruit or
gathering the seeds of plants.

“
This is so strange,” Jok
marveled. “I don’t know what to make of it.”

The people working in the
fields looked up, smiled, and waved as Zen and Jok walked by. They
waved back and walked on.

“
Jok, don’t you wish our
priests had not banished Zor, and we had learned from him how to do
these useful tasks? This is a happy village.”

“
We were not allowed to
learn except what our priests thought we needed to know. For
example, we had to worship the Fire God. If we learned other
skills, they were afraid we would defy them. Zen, we must learn
everything we can here and share this knowledge with our people. We
can have a happy village also.”

“
There is so much to learn.
We will each concentrate on certain areas. That way we can learn
more quickly. Let’s go tell the girls what we've
decided.”

When they got back to the
house, they found a man and a woman talking to Lela and Ador. The
man was telling them that the feast would begin when the sun
touched the earth.

“
Why start so early?” Zen
asked.

“
It is the most sacred time
of day, because that is when Father Sun and Mother Earth join to
make new life,” the man explained. “That is how men and women are
supposed to live also. Rest now, and we’ll come back for you
later.”

The Zorians had brought
clean garments for the girls, who looked beautiful in
theirs.

Lela told Zen and Jok, “The
Zorians placed small containers of water to drink from in the
bedrooms; the large containers are for us to bathe in. There's
fresh fruit on the shelf in the main room, in case you’re
hungry.”

Zen and Jok marveled at the
containers and wanted to know what they were made of—something
light, yet very strong, shiny as the sun and polished very
brightly.

After the men had bathed
and dressed in their new garments, Zen called the girls over and
said, “There is so much to learn, it's almost overwhelming. So if
we each concentrate on a couple of areas, we’ll learn faster, and
then we can teach the others what we've learned. Lela, maybe you
could learn to weave wool into garments and blankets. Ador, perhaps
you could learn to grow plants and turn them into food. Jok, you
could learn how to make mud blocks into houses. I will learn how to
raise animals for food.”

“
Why don’t we just stay
here,” Lela asked, “and make our home in this village?”

“
We could do that,” Zen
answered. “If that is what you want, then that is what we’ll do.
But I think we’d be happier if we started our own village. I want
to find a way around the Valley of Mist so we can rescue our
parents. We’ll also bring anyone who wants to come back with us.
That way, we’ll have our families and friends with us. We, too, can
create a happy village.”

“
That’s a wonderful idea,”
Ador agreed. “I so much want Mother and Father to know that we made
it through the valley.”

“
I also believe it would be
better to start our own village,” Jok added. “If we stay here,
we’ll never see our families again, and in time, we’ll lose the
right to make our own decisions. The Zorians live by their own set
of rules. I say, let’s start our own place.”

“
I think I know how we can
get horses we can ride,” Lela interjected.

“
You do?” Zen and Jok asked
in surprise.

Ador remembered the colt,
smiled, nodded her head, and said, “If we had horses, we could
travel faster, and it would be easier to bring our families here.
Don’t forget, we still have to deal with the priests, and their
penalty for trying to escape is death by burning. Bows and arrows
will help, but we’ll need more than that to overcome the
priests.”

“
It’s going to take a lot
of planning,” Jok said, “and we’ll need the Lalocks to help us.
They’re going to be afraid to help us because they would bring
extra trouble down on themselves. I think we can do this, but it’s
not going to be easy. After all, we had to escape through the
Valley of Mist once, and I definitely hope we won’t have to do that
again.”

Zen was still thinking
about what Lela had said. “How can you get horses?”

“
Well, while you were
killing the deer,” Ador answered, “Lela and I found a colt whose
mother had broken her leg. The baby horse couldn’t feed, but he let
us pet him.”

“
Now that I have seen how
these Zorians raise animals,” Lela added, “I’m sure we can raise
horses if we start with babies.”

“
That might work,” Jok
remarked.

“
It’s certainly worth a
try,” Zen said. “Now I have something to show you.”

All eyes were on
Zen.

“
I’ve been waiting until we
could be alone to show you this. I found a firestone. It’s amazing,
and it will help us get what we need to start our new village. I
think the Zorians will be willing to trade whatever they have for
what we have. Everyone will be better off.”

Zen removed one of the
firestones from the skin pouch. Everyone stared at it in
bewilderment, as they had never seen rocks like that before. Then
Zen brought out dry moss and placed it on the dirt floor, grasped
another stone, and struck the firestone on top of the dry moss. A
spark landed in the moss, and almost instantly, a tiny flame
blossomed. Jok and the girls gasped! Did Zen just make a fire? They
were so astonished; they didn’t know what to say. Zen couldn’t help
but be pleased with their reaction.

Zen quickly extinguished
the flame and rubbed out any evidence that he had started a
fire.

At last, Jok spoke. “We
know that a stone won’t burn, yet we saw you knock fire from one.
How did you do that? This is even more amazing than some of the
things we’ve seen here in this village!”

Jok and the girls walked
over to touch the spot where they had seen the flame.

“
I found this firestone
when we stopped at the place where the two rivers run together. I
had to use both hands to kill the deer with my bow and arrow, and I
accidentally dropped my spear on the rock. I noticed the sparks
flying and thought it was my imagination, so I hit the rock with my
spear again.”

“
Do you have any more of
these firestones?” Lela asked.

“
Yes, I picked up several
and placed them in the skin of the deer. Stones like these were
lying all about. Some of them are larger than this one and could be
broken into smaller pieces to make more firestones. We could
distribute them among the Zorians, and they could make a fire
anytime they wanted.”

Jok tapped Zor on the arm.
“I was wondering why you skinned that deer before you returned to
the raft. That was just an invitation to have a hungry lion take
the meat away from you. I thought something must be wrong; you’re
not usually that careless.” He picked up a firestone and examined
it. “What are you going to do with these stones?”

“
After the feast tonight,
I’m going to show them to the Zorians, but I’m not going to tell
them where I got them.”

Four men came to their door
just as he finished speaking. “We're here to escort you to the
feast,” the spokesman said.

Two men walked in front,
and two walked behind Zen and Jok. The two in front carried lighted
torches, and the two in back carried poles with tops decorated with
brightly colored feathers.

“
They are treating us like
royalty,” Jok whispered.

***

Many people were already at
the meeting place when they got there. They were dressed in
colorful garments and sat in a semicircle facing a raised area
under a large tree. In the middle of the raised area sat an old man
with a cape over his shoulders and an elaborate covering on his
head.

“
He must be the village
headman,” Zen said.

Lox and his wife were
seated at the headman’s right. Zen and Jok were escorted to a spot
beside Lox. Lela and Ador were escorted to sit beside Lox’s wife.
Everyone was laughing and smiling.

“
Gar, these are the people
who saved my life,” Lox said, and introduced them.

“
Welcome,” Gar said. “We
are grateful that you have brought Lox back home.” Then he raised
both hands over his head, paused for only an instant, and then
clapped his hands.

From an area of subdued
light, two men began beating drums. Drinks were served in small
cups made of the same material as the containers in the house.
These containers were small enough to be held in one hand. No one
drank until the leader stood and raised his drink high; then he
spoke a welcome to their guests. The people all held their drinks
high in a salute and began to drink.