Page 13 of Earthbound

She was quick-witted and clever, far cleverer than he could ever imagine being. She picked up instructions with ease, learning more on the trail than most elders knew after half a century as a Nomad.

‘Thank you for coming with me,’ he said as she pulled him along. She paused and looked back at him.

‘The truth is everyone’s burden; I’m not going to let you carry it alone.’

The truth. That scared him too. Lettle could sense it and didn’t let him linger, squeezing his hand as they set off again towards Caperly.

The elders on the periphery of the town spotted him first. They were taking turns to lean in and whittle a large wooden bowl.

Scrash, scrash, scrash.

Each chisel chipped away at the bark. Their tools stopped mid-air as he and Lettle approached.

They knew who Alder was immediately. He’d been Wayfarer of the Nomads, not quite a leader, but someone who communed with the land to guide their path and was respected for it.

‘Poppy, Geni,’ Alder greeted them. ‘Would you be able to direct me to Dart?’ But after the initial shock of seeing him, their gazes skittered away as though he was not there. There was a long silence.

‘Hello?’ Lettle said, waving a hand towards them to get their attention.

‘They won’t acknowledge you either, Lettle. You have arrived with me, so you are no one to them.’

Lettle stood up a little taller–which admittedly wasn’t very tall. ‘We’ll see.’

She marched through the streets, weaving between people and shouting, ‘Dart! Has anyone seen Dart?’

Some people would start to respond before another would stop them and point Alder’s way. His cheeks flamed with humiliation as Lettle’s bellowing drew in a crowd.

‘She is very loud,’ Farhan commented. Alder jumped, forgetting, as he often did, that the fae was with them.

‘Yes, she is.’

Farhan looked around. ‘Where do they sleep? I see no houses.’

‘Within the mountain,’ Alder said.

‘Fascinating.’ It was the most effusive Alder had ever heard Farhan be. His obeah lowered herself to the ground by their feet and began to clean her paws.

They didn’t have to wait long before Dart pushed through the gathering throng of Nomads. He was a heavy-set man and though his heft lent to his presence, it was his self-assurance that distinguished him from the crowd. He had an air of quiet confidence that hardened his soft features. This was a man who had been to war. But he was also a man who had turned his back on violence and all its forms. His green eyes were kind, his lips, that were topped with a greying moustache, were pinched as he caught sight of Alder behind Lettle. She noticed and rounded on him.

‘Are you Dart?’

But Dart did not reply.

‘That’s not very polite,’ Farhan said, as though commenting on the weather.

Dart began to turn around but Alder called out. ‘Wait, Dart, this is important. I wouldn’t have come back if it wasn’t.’

But still the large man turned away. Alder pushed through the crowd and the Nomads undulated away from him as though he were diseased. It gave him a straight path to his old friend.

‘Dart, please, wait!’

Lettle fell into step behind Alder and together they followed Dart into the mountain.

The small pathways were lit up with gas lamps, illuminating the village built into the rock. Hexagonal doors marked rooms and bedsits, making the expanse of Caperly look like a beehive. The setting sun’s rays could only be seen through small pockets of rock, but where it shone, alpine flowers grew through the stone, scenting the air with fresh pollen. A stream fed by a glacier flowed between the cobbled pathways, each river crossed by a small wooden bridge.

Lettle gasped, ‘This is incredible.’

But Alder didn’t respond, he was too distracted trying to catch up. ‘Dart, wait!’