Lost Founding

By: J. Elias Epp

Jayden sat in the shade created by the enormous bulk of the star-home called Shade and mended the ragged tear in his only coat. Cooking smoke rose out of a hole in Skylock’s upper structure, the star-home across from Shade. Jayden was right across from Skylock’s back end with his back against Shade’s slanted side. He could hear dull thumping sounds from the rope bridges echoing through the metal. Sounds of hammering and voices came from the main doorway of Shade. The sun reflected dully from the dirt-caked metal of Skylock. Dry gritty wind rushed through the gap between the star homes.

The day was hot, like all the rest had been since Jayden's birth. Fortunately for him, the wind cooled as it swirled through the shade and its touch on him was sweet. It was cooler inside the star homes but there was also no wind inside. He could feel the cool of the star-home through his back and he knew the walls of Skylock were just as cool, even in full sunlight. Besides Shade and Skylock, there were no other star homes for many miles around. There was only desert.

"Ouch!" Jayden shook the sting out of his finger from the needle and hissed through his teeth. He resumed his work more carefully and payed more attention to it. He awkwardly maneuvered his fingers so the bead of blood on his finger would not touch the fabric.

Another 30 minutes passed before he finished his work and got up, brushing the sand from his pants. A few others had come out of the main doorway and were making a trip across to Skylock. One of the called out to him.

"Jayden! Where have you been?!" A young man trotted up to Jayden. The man had pants and a shirt far too large for him and a balaclava wrapped about his head.

"I tore my coat."

"Tor-roo has been looking for you, better go and see him." With that, the man rejoined the group as they entered Skylock.

Jayden flung his faded green coat over his shoulder. He walked along the side of Shade to reach the large main entrance which was at the top of a sandy slope. As he trudged up the slope his feet kept slipping from under him where the hard-packed sand gave way to his weight. He reached the top and stopped as he walked into the door's shadow to let his eyes adjust to the dimness. Here and there a beam of light shone brightly through rents in Shade's side. The beams of light made it difficult to see into the darker parts of the room.

His eyes adjusted and he was able to see various workstations clustered around these beams of light. Close to him was a table with women and children preparing food. Further on was a man busy fixing tools. The entire floor was slanted upwards and as people walked around they had an awkward gait because of it. Jayden walked between the beams of light, careful not to be blinded by their brightness.

He reached a stairs and walked up. From there he walked through numerous other passages and stairs pausing only briefly to deposit his coat on his bunk. Though everything was slanted his movements were familiar with the awkwardness. At one point he had to jump across a three-foot rent in the floor. He never liked that part. Through the rent he could see twisted metal below and other passageways. If he were to fall...he continued on. His long trip caused perspiration to break out on his forehead though it was quite cool in the ship, but as he continued upwards it got slightly warmer.

Eventually, he passed through several sets of thick doors that had only been partly opened, up some stairs and into a room with windows all around. The windows had crude shades on them made from clothing that was beyond repair. In the middle of the room on a raised dais were a small group of men. The dais had a table on it with chairs around it which the men were sitting in. The slant of the structure forced some of them to hold onto the table to keep their chair from swiveling.

"Where have you been? We need to hear your report now," one of the men said.

"It’s my fault, forgive me. I went on a scouting mission into the frozen parts of Skylock and tore my coat.”

"Did you find anything?"

"No, but we mapped out more of its passages"

The man sighed. "There may not be any more food down there. We can't wait any longer, we have to buy more time. Tacknot, you will have to lessen the food rations even more."

Every man's stomach in the room tightened a little more.

Another man spoke up, "We can't live here much longer."

The man who had spoken first, Tor-roo, motioned Jayden to sit down. "Tell us how your scouting mission went yesterday to the Long Valley. How is the water there?"

Jayden sat down. "The stream has gotten stronger." Jayden got up and reached over the table tapping on a simple map. "The stream now reaches here."

All the men bent forward and looked. "That is encouraging," said one.

"You're always the optimist, Beuht," said another.

"It does mean the stream is stronger further up though," said Tor-roo.

"We might die trying to get everyone there though."

"You're always the pessimist, Nir" said Beuht.

Nir chuckled.

"Did you find anything else?" Tor-roo continued, "Plant life? Greenery?"

Jayden sat back in his chair and caught himself as it almost swiveled. His eyes didn’t meet those there. "No, there was no plant life. Not even upstream where the water is fifty foot wide at places." He looked up, "That was in the first week of our mission."

The men leaned forward. One’s chair swiveled slightly.

"It was at the end of our first week, when we were planning our trip back, that we saw a man."

"A man? Was he alone?" said Nir.

"He was alone. He came out of the rising sun and we watched from a hill as he followed the river. We could not see his face because of a hood he wore and he had a bag. As he walked along the river he reached into the bag and threw something on the ground into the damp sand.”

“We tried to approach him to speak with him and yelled at him but he payed us no mind and we could not catch up to him though we ran. In the evening, he disappeared into the setting sun. The next day we saw him again, or one like him come from the rising sun, only this time he was on the other side of the river. And like the last time he threw what was in his bag upon the ground. We passed by him and called out to him again but again to no avail. Again, the man disappeared on the horizon into the setting sun.”

“On the third day after we started back here.” While we traveled we noticed something along the shore of the stream. There was grass. And at parts, there were the saplings of trees spouting up. Through the whole third day as we traveled, the growth along the shore grew taller and wider. By the time we had to leave the stream and travel the Slope back here, there were meadows and small thickets of saplings a foot high."

"Plants! You say there were plants!" Beuht had stood up and had both hands on the table.

"Yes there were plants, there were also people."

Everyone started at this.

Jayden tapped his finger on the table. "As we were trudging up the slope on the third day back we saw in the distance a small band of people traveling towards the stream. Our food was very low then so we did not try to make contact. They stopped by the stream and we don't know of their movements after that. But we did see a hooded man leading them who looked much like the one we saw earlier."

"Mmmmm, haaa, mmmm."

All the men turned to the one gray-haired one in the room.

"The man, the one who walked from and to the sun. I know his name. Hmmm."

All the men sat patiently. Tod was the only one left of the Awoken. Those who were the first to be birthed on the world and who remembered bits of what happened before the Awakening. His was of the generation who had found Shade and Skylock and saw them for the star homes that held food, water and shelter for survival.

Tod stroked his beard, what little there was that hadn’t fallen out. "I have a name on the tip of my tongue. Phone? No, that's...I don't remember what. Rocket? No that's...a ship...no, they aren't connected at all." The sun had finally fallen to the point in the afternoon that it shone through the window opposite Tod and struck him in the eyes as he stood up to pace. He recoiled from the sudden light and staggered on his old legs. His arm reached out and gripped the table for support. Then his head lifted into the sun's rays and he smiled. "Rawala! That’s the name! Our sun! Our star that shines upon us! Rawala is here to sow the seeds of his world again!"

Tor-roo closed his eyes. The others seemed to sit back a little in disappointment as well. This was not the answer they were expecting. Tod wasn't usually given to his fits of...crazy. It was only once in a while he would get very excited and spout strings of nonsense. His eyes would light up with the revelation and then they would dim when his memory simply ran out, he could not remember more. Usually he was very intelligent.

Tod sat back down but his eyes were still full of excitement. "The stars! Yes! I remember now! Rawala will take care of us. He knows what we need. We must all travel to the stream and settle there. It will be good for us."

Nir frowned. "What are you saying old man? That the man Jayden saw is...a star? Our sun?"

Tod's eyes grew dark, he hadn't heard Nir, his eyes were focused in the past. "They will come, the others. Oh how they hate this world! How they hate Rawala for tending it! They will come and try to destroy it just as their own were. The stars are coming to destroy just as we destroyed them." He trembled in his seat and gripped the table hard.

Tor-roo motioned to Beuht and he took Tod out of the room. "Come, you need rest now."

When he was gone and Beuht came back Tor-roo leaned forward. "Now, it is time we decided what to do. We cannot stay in this place much longer and we still need supplies to last us if we move and settle at the stream. We can't grow food if we die of starvation doing it."

Nir rubbed his forehead. "Like I said yesterday, we either take a greater risk scouting for other star homes in the desert or we try to survive at the stream. We will die here. We need to move."

Tacknot absently waved his hand in the air. "Can't we, I don't know." His hand kept waving as if grasping for something. "Out there, with our own shelters, it'll be hot, not cool like here. We could...you know." His hand waved higher then he set it in his lap."

Jayden spoke up, "There is a canyon carved out by the winds, we might be able to take shelter there. Not all of us but some. However, it is further away from the stream than might be practical."

Tor-roo stroked his chin. "Hmm, where is it?"

Jayden pointed. "Its about a mile from where the stream is."

Tacknot shook his head. "It is too far. To make the trip for water would be too much, it would have to be done at night."

Tor-roo nodded. "I agree, it is too much. Is there anywhere else that we could take shelter in?"

Jayden shook his head. "Not really, we’ve scouted the length of the stream on all our trips and didn't find many areas of natural shelter. If we move to the stream we may just have to take our own shelter somehow."

Everyone was silent for a moment. The afternoon sun was shining fully in the window now and heating up the room. Perspiration was breaking out on everyone's foreheads.

"See what happens when you don't make yourself available? We get hot." Nir said.

Jayden smiled but it was a wane one.

"We stay here we die, we move some of us will die. We can't win this." Nir said. "Someone will die because of what we choose to do."

Tor-roo stood up. "Tonight we start planning to move to the stream. Who knows if it will stay or be sucked up by the desert. We don't have another choice."

Everyone else got up, the room was getting warmer by the second and the metal the sun was shining on was getting hot.

Tacknot came up to Jayden. "I was thinking, what makes it so cold in the depths of the star homes? It must be something right? What if we could take that with us when we move?"

Jayden shrugged. "The problem is we still haven't found much in those areas. A few frozen men but not much else. Not to mention some of the doors are frozen shut. It will take more than a scouting team to really search the place." Jayden stopped. "Not to mention, we have already lost five people to those places."

Tacknot patted his shoulder. "Think on it, it may be worth it. I can't tell you how many people we may lose to the heat when we move."

Jayden grimaced. Together they went from the room and squeezed through the narrow gap of the thick door. As they made their way to their respective duties to see what needed to be readied for the departure, a child ran up to Jayden.

"Hey Palto, where are you going?" Jayden asked.

"I gotta tell Tor-roo about the strange man that came."

"Strange man?"

"Yeah, he just walked into Shade famished so we gave him a little to eat."

"Okay, I saw Tor-roo go to his room, you might find him there."

Palto ran off. When he was gone Jayden jogged down steps back to the main entrance, careful not to slide on the slanted slope. Who was this strange man? Was it the same they had encountered on the scouting mission? In five minutes Jayden was back to the main entrance. There was a small crowd gathered near the entrance. Jayden started jogging there but forgot himself and ran through a shaft of light from the ceiling. He stopped and blinked his eyes.

"Look! There's Jayden!" Someone called out.

Jayden's eyes cleared and he saw the crowd part and Hrote leading a man by the arm with a bowl sipping eagerly at it. The man's dress was nothing like Jayden had seen before. The man was wearing what looked to be finely formed plates of metal all over his body. The man's hair was long and unruly and it looked like someone had recently taken a knife and cut the hair's length at the neck.

"Who are you sir and where do you come from?" Jayden asked.

The man looked up at him over the lip of the bowl and took another long sip finishing the broth off. He nonchalantly handed the empty bowl to the nearest person to the side of him. "Yes, that is the question. Only who I am and where I come from is something none of you know nor will ever figure out." The man laughed and slapped his forehead. "That's the tragedy of it isn't it? They don't know! I guess I am nobody and from nowhere because those things that made me who I am and where I am from are no longer here. Ha! I'm nobody from nowhere from notime! Hahaha!" The man sighed and his face fell.

"They probably think I'm crazy now." He looked up. "Oh, did I say that out loud? I've just been alone for so long..." He sat down on the nearest table and clapped his gloved hands. "So, as far as I'm concerned in all my wanderings you are among the only people left alive on this planet." His eyes looked up. "Which, if we were going by my old directive I would be inclined to kill you all." He looked back at their shocked faces. Their hard life hadn't done anything to improve the hard countenances they now wore. They didn't know what to do with the man. The man could also see the suffering they were going through, the pain of lost loved ones, the uncertainty of life, it was painted on all their faces. The man sighed. "Well, I guess you saved me. Can’t go killing everyone on a whim. So, who’s the big boss?"

The sound of a sob came from in the crowd. Everyone turned. It was Tod.

Tod walked forward out of the crowd, his face streaked with a single tear. "Are, are you a soldier from before the Awakening?"

The man looked at Tod. "Old man, you remember?"

“Yes, I really do.”