The River

Chapter 16

Laura put her sword down and took her hands up. She walked away from the battle slowly, and none of those men chased her. Logan saw the situation and did the same as Laura. He took one of his hands up and slowly put his dagger down on the ground. Then he started to walk away from his dagger and stood beside Laura.

The two other men came back with the black panther dead on their shoulders. They saw the situation and dropped the panther and took their spears toward Logan and Laura.

“We are not here to fight,” shouted Laura toward the men “We come in peace,” they said something slowly between themselves and one of them shouted back “Peace,” he put his spear down and shook his hands in the air, “Why fight us? Kill?” “You attacked first,” answered Logan, They looked at Logan and did not answer, “We,” Shouted Logan this time word by word and clearly so they could understand him “Want to pass, no fight, no kill,” he shook his hands as was saying this words and continued “We are friends,” “Friend,” said one of the men while smiling, “Where you?” and then he added a world that Logan could not understand, but he assumed they are looking for where they are coming from. “We come from the south,” said Logan as pointing toward the south “Traveling, adventure, passenger,” “Aha,” said one of the men “Travel, good, where?” “North,” said Logan pointing to the north.

Finally, they all lowered their spears and came closer to Laura and Logan. Though Logan and Laura could not understand all of their words, they understood to follow the men to their village after all.

They reached a village after some walking. Logan had to leave the river for this but did not say anything about it. A look between him and Laura was enough to make him sure it’s better not to talk about the river.

They were still not sure if this is a friendly visit and they were welcome here or not. But having their stuff and even weapons back made them feel a little safe.

The men led them to a field between mountains and a desert. There were some vegetations here and there but a dry desert could be seen on their left that was as vast as the horizon. Suddenly Logan realized a big crack on the ground, it seemed that something was moving inside the darkness under the ground.

He looked at Laura and she had the same wondering look on her face. They walked through a narrow entrance between the mountains, it was dark but the men in front of them lit a big torch and led the way.

Not long inside the narrow corridor, they reached some stairs and climbed down until they were completely under the ground. After some turns that made both Logan and Laura confused, they reached a pathway with no ceiling.

Now they were inside the crack that they saw earlier from the top. They were watching their surroundings in awe, it was not just a crack in the ground, it was a village under the ground.

They could see houses inside the walls of the corridor on two floors, and they had no idea how one should get inside any of these houses. What they could see was just some windows on the walls, there seemed to be no entrance anywhere at the bottom of the pathway.

People were looking at the strangers inside their village from their windows. As Logan and Laura were walking inside the path the silence was growing with them, a deep silence that made them feel unwelcome.

They walked inside the village following the men that were carrying the two dead panthers. Finally, they reached a small entrance on the ground, it was short so all the men and Logan had to lean a little to pass through it.

It led to another corridor, there were torches burning and running the darkness away from the corridor. There were stairs and doors inside the corridor that seemed to lead to the houses they have seen from outside. Two of the men led Logan and Laura with themselves and others went in another direction with the panthers.

They reached a door and one of the men went inside, the other stayed by the door and after a while, they heard a sound from inside and the man showed Laura and Logan to get inside with a hand gesture. He walked behind them inside immediately.

It was not very big inside the room but it was nice and clean. Big windows let a lot of light in and it was cooler than what they expected it to be.

A man was sitting in a stone chair in the middle of the hall, of course, it was more like a throne than a chair, a woman was sitting right beside him on a chair as big as the other one. They both had the same clothes as anybody else in the village, but a little more clean and with more colors.

Two other men that brought Logan and Laura here, stood beside the chairs, there were five more men and three women all with a spear in their hands, standing here and there inside the house. The man gestured to Logan and Laura to sit on two small stone chairs in front of him.

Laura sat first and Logan followed him. “You Travel,” said the man and then said something that did not have any meaning to Logan. The man was trying to speak clearly and slowly, but still, there were only a few words in common between their languages.

“Yes,” said Logan and waited to see if there were any questions. The man and the woman talked a little between themselves, the woman started saying some words with a question mark, she was trying different words and by the reaction on Laura and Logan’s face, she would know that they did not understand the word, and she tried another word afterward with a hesitation.

“Purpose?” asked the woman, finally she could say the word on her mind. Logan looked at Laura with doubt and Laura said to them, “Adventure,” there was no reaction showing any understanding of the word Laura said. “Explore, Journey, To find the source,” Laura tried different words, but they could not understand her clearly. Then Logan opened his bag and took out his book and showed it to them.

They looked at the book in wonder, one of the standing women came to Logan and took the book out of his hand and passed it to the woman. She started looking at the book and going through its pages, the man also leaned over to see inside the book. They started talking about the book with each other. When they talked normally to each other it was almost impossible to understand any of their words for Laura and Logan.

The man took the book and looked at it for a while, they chatted for some time without paying any attention to their guests. It was obvious that they could not read the book, but in the end, it looked to be almost satisfying for them as a reason for the journey of Laura and Logan.

One of the men gave the book back to Logan, “You,” said the man, “Bad?” “No, no,” said Logan while shaking his hands and head “Friend, we, you, friends,” Logan accompanied all his words with hand gestures. They seemed to understand him.

“You, kill,” said the man and continued to show an animal with some gestures and then showed his gratitude.

“I think,” said Laura quietly to Logan, “They are thanking us for helping kill the panthers,” Logan made a thankful gesture back to the man, and Laura followed him and did the same. “I hope so,” said Logan to Laura “Though we barely did anything useful for their hunt,” “Us being there,” said Laura “And wounding the panthers, probably made it easy for them to kill the animals, they seemed to be pretty clever hunters, probably many of these people are killed by them.”

“Stay,” said the woman, “Friend, we,” and then said something in the other language. “We,” said Logan “Travel, should go,” “Yes, yes,” said the woman, and continued with some other words, but from her gestures, it looked like they wanted Laura and Logan to spend some time in the village, or at least stay till tomorrow.

Logan and Laura shook their heads in agreement, a man and a woman came to them and gestured to them to follow. They took their stuff and followed the two people. They went to a new house nearby but on the second floor, and entered it alone. After entering the man and the woman closed the door and went away. It was a house with a bed and other stuff for living, and it seemed to be emptied for a time.

“I’m going to rest,” said Laura and jumped on the bed that was covered with some animal skin, “Oh,” continued Laura “This is the softest bed ever,” “I join you then,” said Logan and went to bed with her. It was indeed soft. Though the skin on the bed was not as soft as a sheep's skin, inside the bed seemed to be full of soft plants.

The pressure of everyday walking and the fight with two panthers and then five men, made them go to sleep immediately that evening.

Logan woke up with the soft sound of knocking on the door that was made out of an animal’s skin. It was dark, But he got up and went to the door, standing there was the woman who had brought them to this house. She pointed in a direction through the window, Logan looked and there was a shaking light in that direction, it looked like a big fire. He went back in and saw Laura already getting up. They joined the woman and went toward the light.