The River

Chapter 2

Logan was a shepherd, he had twenty sheep and four camels. He was considered one of the most wealthy people in the village. There was just one other person with more camels and sheep than Logan in the village. Of course in the next village, Hector had almost two hundred sheep. He could take care of them all without any help since he had legs like a Horse and could run fast.

Logan was his friend and always wished he could have legs like Hector instead of his weak human legs. They mostly used their flock for providing milk, and very rarely if a sheep or camel would die they could eat their meat. Of course most of the time they would just smoke the meat and store it to be eaten on ceremonies or feasts. Their main meal was insects. Humans, centaurs, goblins, and all other creatures that Logan knew of their existence would feed on the sources of insects around them. Of course with so much little water reserved for them, it was hard to keep up a good living anyway. They usually gave the most part of their water resources to kettles and used their milk instead.

Logan has seen very few kinds of plants. There were the dry thorn bush, thistle, and two kinds of Cactus, one would grow on the surface and the other would rise up and grow upwards with its green body. Sometimes people used the Cactuses as a food source too. But since they were few in number not many people would use them. There were some people who named themselves ‘Insecterians’, they believed in order to preserve the last plants left on earth, it's better to just eat insects and don’t kill any kind of plants.

There were some books in the village's central hall. These books have remained from the ancient times. Most of them were just writings. Logan and only two other villagers could understand a bit of those writing. They were not able to read, but if tried they could understand some words.

Many years ago, people of the village could actually read and write, but as time passed by, they forgot it. Parents would not teach their children to read anymore, it was considered a useless act. Some families like Logan did not believe that reading is useless and taught their children a little bit of reading and writing. Logan remembered his father teaching him how to read. He was better at it than his mother, therefore he accepted the task of teaching Logan. He was not a good student, but he managed to learn a little before starting to work beside his father as a shepherd.

From all the fifty or so books that were still in the village’s central hall, Logan preferred two of them. They had some drawings in them. One had some drawings from birds and animals which most of those animals Logan had never seen. Some birds were in the book that Logan had seen them living in the mountains years ago when he was exploring around with his parents. Her mother always encouraged him to be an explorer, to see the world. His parents have explored a lot in their youth. They always told him stories about big abandoned villages with tall buildings made from iron and stone. Buildings that were taller than the mountains. It seems that ancients lived in those big villages and called them cities.

The other book had drawings of plants and none of the plants in the book, Logan has ever seen in his life. There was only one plant that looked a little like the upright and tall Cactus that would grow in the fields everywhere, but he couldn’t decide if they are the same or not. Besides that one plant, there was no other plant in his world that looked like the plants in the book. They had leaves, lots of leaves and some were drawings of tall plants beside a human. Plants were almost three to five times taller than a normal human. He always wondered if there were any of these plants in the world today. He really liked to see one of them someday. They kind of looked like the tree from his dreams and he would really like to see a treeو like that one day.

Usually, Logan would talk about these plants with Laura, she has seen the pictures in the book and one of her wishes was to see some of them in reality so she could use them to make new variations of foods.

But Logan’s biggest passion in recent months has become the River. It has been more than two years since he saw the river for the first time. Before that, it was just a dry valley like all others in the area, but one day as he took his flock out to the field near the valley, a new and weird sound drew his attention toward the valley. He could not believe his eyes the first time he saw the river. It was the most beautiful thing he has ever seen in his life. A small stream of clear water was flowing down the valley and made the most relaxing sound he has ever heard in his life. Even more relaxing than the lullabies of his mother.

Since then he has brought his flock near the valley every day and sat beside the river and just looked at the stream and listened to its sound for hours knowing that his flock is safe around here.

One day after almost an hour by the river Logan thought he heard something. It seemed that someone or something was calling his name from far away. He got up and started to walk around, it seemed that walking away from the stream made the sound go away. He went just beside the river, laid down on the ground, and carefully listened. Yes, it was the river, the sound of running water was changing its pitch and mesmerized something that was like Logan’s name. He thought for a moment and then said “River, are you talking to me?” he smiled to himself, for a moment he thought it sounded crazy, rivers can’t talk, but yet he concentrated. There was a sound combined in the sound of the river, it had the same timber and it was so slow, but Logan could hear it better every moment. River whispered “Yes Logan, hear me” Logan widened his eyes. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What? What do you want to tell me?” said Logan as he sat up beside the river. “I need your help, you are the only one who can help” whispered the river. Logan hesitated for a moment and talked back to the river “What is it? What can I do for you?” there was no more sound. He thought he just heard the river say his name again, but that was it. He started walking inside the river, he felt a hand grab his foot as he walked in, he tried to walk away, but his foot was stuck in the water. He started to scream for help, he hoped for other shepherds, especially for Hector to hear him and come to help. Suddenly he woke up screaming. His body was wet from the sweat but everything was back to normal. He was in his room.

A few seconds later, Laura knocked and entered his room, she just woke up and the sound of Logan screaming made her worried. “I heard it calling my name,” said Logan, Laura looked at him with eyes wide open. “What? who?” asked Laura with an almost high pitched voice, Logan looked at her in shock then answered with calmness “The river, I was sitting beside it and it called me, it needed my help, then it grabbed my foot and tried to drown me in itself” “Well, dreams never are true, right?” said Laura with a smile, “But,” said Logan with a serious deep voice, “There was something different,” Laura stared at him waiting for him to continue, “Have you ever?” continued Logan, “Had a dream that felt more real than the time you are awake? I mean a dream that makes you think maybe this is real-life and the actual life is the dream,” “No,” said Laura strongly, “Whatever happens in the dream belongs to the dream world, it is not real,” “But,” said Logan “I used to see dreams that would come true, I could see things before they happen,” “No,” interrupted Laura, “I’ve been living with you enough to know what you are getting at, you will just feel miserable and nag about your dream while there’s nothing you can do about it. Just forget it, come to have breakfast and you will feel better,” then she left the room without waiting for his answer. Logan stood up, looked outside the window for a moment, the sun was almost up, the small village houses were standing humbly under the tall shadows of the faraway mountains. He then walked toward the door to join Laura for breakfast and start a new day.