Onion Smoothies For You

…go on, try it


The Doclopedia #3,019

366 Days, 366 Paragraphs: #258

Chapter Thirty Two: Messages In The Dark

The sun had been down about an hour and Dree was getting hungry from the smell of the rabbit that Ala was frying up. Bevan had killed two of them with thrown rocks earlier in the day and now that they had camp set up way out in the middle of nowhere, it was nearly dinner time. Besides the rabbit, Ala was frying up a sort of flatbread on a hot rock beside the fire. It all smelled delicious.

Their camp was in a small depression in the ground that Bevan said would hide any firelight. By tomorrow, they would be in an area with far more trees, which would be good for hiding from humans, but not so good if large predators were about. Bevan thought that most of the predators would be heading out to the prairie to greet the approaching herds. Dree sure hoped he was right.

Soon enough, Ala declared dinner served and handed out fried rabbit on a dinner plate sized flatbread to Dree and Bevan. It was delicious and they told her so. In hardly any time at all, they were done eating. Not a huge amount of meat on two rabbits, Dree thought, but it was tasty.

As the two adults sat and talked about great meals they had eaten, Dree took out his comslate and decided to send a message to the mysterious “S”. He was very curious about how this person might help them find the crystal relic. After a few minutes thought, he wrote, “Hello, my name is Dree Brunfelder. I was given this comslate and told that you could help me. Can you?” He sent it off and waited for a reply.

Several hundred miles to the south, Seyan and Lahn were pedaling Gertie through the sky to where a nice fast wind would catch them when Seyan’s comslate buzzed. Taking it out, she saw Dree’s message and almost stopped pedaling.

“Lahn, it’s a message from the boy! The boy we’re looking for!”

Lahn nodded and opened Gertie’s wings. They caught a nice little 40 mile an hour wind out of the southwest and she leaped ahead.

Looking at Seyan now, he asked, “What does he have to say?”

“Just his name and how can I help him out. What should I tell him?” She was a little nervous about this. It was important and she didn’t want to mess up.

Lahn thought a moment, then said, “Tell him your name and that we

will be in his general vicinity in a day and a half. Ask if he is alright.”

Seyan quickly composed a message that said, “I am your friend, Dree. My name is Seyan. I’m traveling with my friend, Lahn, and we will be in your area in about a day and a half. Are you and your friends alright?”

A minute passed and she got an answer saying, “We are all fine. I’m glad to meet you, Seyan. How are you traveling? We are on horseback.”

Seyan smiled at his question. She could imagine how he would react to her answer. He message simply said, “We are flying, Dree, in a machine called Gertie.”

Ala and Bevan both jumped when Dree shouted “Wow!” He quickly sent back a message saying, “Really? That must be incredible.”

The two of them sent several more messages back and forth before Seyan told him she had to get back to flying. He said goodnight and she put away her comslate.

“He sounds like a good kid,” she said to Lahn.

Lahn steered them into a good strong wind that pushed them to 60 miles an hour, then said, “I’m sure he is and with any luck, we’ll meet him soon and help him avoid the Seekers.”

This made Seyan think about the dangers that Dree might face, which in turn made her think of the dangers she and Lahn might face. Porcero might not be able to go back to the Museum, but he had many loyal Seekers out here in the wider world who had little choice but to follow him on his mission to find relics. He would be desperate now and wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone who got in his way.

Well, if that was the case, Seyan would be there to stop him, because she would be cursed ten times over if she was going to let anyone get hurt. The Grand High Curator had given her a mission and part of it was to stop Porcero and others like him, so he’d better watch out or she’d show him the business end of her staff.

Back in the little camp on the prairie, Dree had explained everything to Ala & Bevan, then crawled into his bedroll and fell asleep. He dreamed of people flying through the air with a giant mechanical bird named Gertie.