The River

Chapter 17

Lots of people were gathered in the center of the village. There was a big square at the end of the passageway that had no ceiling, there were no houses on the walls of the square and it seemed like a place for social gatherings of the village.

Logan and Laura stood inside the square a little farther than the crowd and watched them in the center. There was a big fire in the center. People were talking and laughing all around the fire.

The man and the woman that Logan had seen earlier in the house came and one by one people silenced and looked toward their direction. It looked like they were the king and queen of these people.

The man started talking and after him, the woman said some words. After her speech, everybody cheered, some people started playing drums and people started to dance around the fire.

They brought the two panthers. Their skin has been peeled off. There was a big hole beside the fire in the ground that Logan had not noticed till now. They threw some of the fire inside the hole and dropped the panthers on them and then threw some more of the fire on them. After that they started to throw soil in the hole till it was almost full and no fire could be seen inside it anymore.

The dancing and cheering continued that night. Logan and Laura start to walk around, they have given some liquids to drink. It was a cold and bitter drink. They did not like it but the village people made them drink it with cheer. After some drinking, Logan got dizzy and saw Laura in the middle dancing with other villagers.

Logan joined her and they danced for a long time. At some point two men started digging the hole again and brought out the panthers, they were now ready to eat.

The feast continued with eating the panthers, it was one of the most delicious foods Laura had ever had. She checked the hole and tried to remember how it looked. She was thinking about trying to cook some food this way. It was a new way of cooking that she has never heard about before, and the result was unbelievable.

They did not stop celebrating until the sunrise and after that everybody went to their house to sleep. Logan and Laura did the same.

They woke up a little after noon that day. The village was quiet. The silence made Logan feel good. He ate some of their own food for breakfast and started to read his book. Every time he read the book, he learned a new thing or two about rivers and their impact on the life of people. But he was still confused about the machine that could create water out the thin air.

They stayed in the village for two days. On a night Logan saw a new dream. He was standing in a field beside a tree. A tree that was like the drawings of his old books back in their village. The tree was dead and had no leaves on it. Then Logan saw a cube beside the tree, it was a smoothly carved cube and looked like some kind of stone. He touched the stone and water started to flow out of the stone, suddenly the tree started to come back to life, it grew leaves and became green. Logan walked toward the tree and just at the moment of touching the tree he woke up.

That day Logan and Laura wanted to start their journey. They went to the king and queen’s house and said goodbye. They received some food and supplies for the journey and two men escorted them outside the village.

The two men stayed with Logan and Laura until they reached the river. Then Logan looked at Laura “We should go this way,” he pointed at the direction toward the desert. Laura changed her way toward that direction.

“No,” said one of the men who was accompanying them. They looked at him, “No, kill,” said the man as he shook his head and hands. The other man was doing the same. Logan said goodbye to them and started walking,

Laura followed him and the men took their arms stopping them from going farther. “You, No,” said one of the men, “Kill,” said he again pointing to the desert. “Travel,” said Logan as he pulled his arm out of the man’s hand. “No,” said the man again.

Logan took Laura’s hand and started walking, the two men said some other words but eventually gave up and walked back to their village.

“I think they were trying to warn us,” said Laura “There must be something dangerous in this desert,” “I know,” acknowledged Logan “But there is no other way, we have to go through this too.”

They talked no more and continued their way into the vast desert.