Craft (11 page)

“Could be,” the younger man
said.

The younger man took a step closer,
pointing his rifle at the air above Ellie and Thane. His eyes swept
the trees for movement and color among the brown trunks of the
trees.

The older man, trusting his son,
gripped his rifle tighter. He made a hand gesture at the younger
man. The younger man nodded in understanding. They separated and
started walking toward Ellie and Thane in a long arc. Their fingers
were on the triggers of their guns. They were prepared to use their
guns. Their eyes scoured the landscape in a familiar, capable way.
They would not miss much, especially two teenagers and a raven
crouched in the bushes.

Ellie froze in fear at their approach.
They had just killed someone. They would kill them without thought
and simply because they were trespassing. The idea stuck in her
mind. She was as terrified of them as she had been of Thane when
they had first met. Her fear ruled her mind.

Ellie watched the men
slowly approach her, wondering if they would really kill her, too.
She and Thane were teenagers, barely adults. Surely, they did not
just kill
everyone
who trespassed on their land. Thane did not have any doubts
about the matter. He had heard stories about the men. Their family
was legend among his kin. The men in front of them were fierce
about their land and keeping ‘witchcraft’ in check.

The men got closer. They were zeroing
in on their location. Their senses were leading them toward Ellie
and Thane. Time was out. Thane grabbed Ellie’s hand again and
pulled her to her feet.

“Run!” Thane said.

The men spotted them as they stood.
Their eyes hardened, and they pointed their guns at Ellie and
Thane. They started firing at them without bothering to ask who
they were. Bullets tore through the leaves and trees around Ellie
and Thane as they ran away as fast as they could. Caw chased after
them with a fearful squawk, swooping low along the dead leaves of
the forest to avoid the bullets. The men chased after them, their
bullets trailing after Thane and Ellie with frightful closeness.
One bullet tore through the fabric of Ellie’s dress, making her run
faster and with more purpose.

“I got him!” a voice called
out.

Ellie half turned at the call. The
older man had his rifle focused on Thane’s back. His finger moved
to the trigger. He was about to kill Thane. He would not
miss.

Ellie raised her hand instinctively.
She pulled in the necessary craft and gestured at the men. They
flew back as a large explosion erupted in front of them. The
bullets stopped throwing up dirt around Ellie and Thane. It took a
moment for the men to find their feet again. By that time, Ellie
and Thane had disappeared into the forest. The men swore after
them, their curses chasing the pair as much as the bullets
had.

Finally, Thane stopped running. The
forest was quiet again. The men had given up on finding them.
Ellie’s craft had scared them off. Ellie leaned against a tree for
support as she tried to catch her breath. She kept her eyes trained
on the landscape behind them, expecting the men to appear behind
them at any minute.

“Did we lose them?” Ellie
asked.

“I think so,” Thane panted.

“What was their problem?” she
asked.

“They own the property around here.
They think we’re a bunch of freaks and don’t appreciate when we
bring our magic, or our feud, to their lands. They’ve had a long
history against our kind – they think we’re evil because we do
magic.”

Ellie looked behind her, scared of the
men but also very curious about them. Thane’s words had challenged
one of her long-held opinions on the world.

“You mean to say, they don’t do
craft?” she asked.

Ellie had never met someone who could
not craft. She found the idea to be unusual and somewhat sad. How
did they manage? How did they do things without sneaking in a bit
of craft here and there? She had read about such people, sure, but
she had thought they were simply the same sort of literary
creations as the monsters and the fairies. The idea that someone
could actually exist without craft was as farfetched as the journey
she was currently taking. A day ago, she would have never believed
it.

“Most people don’t use magic,” Thane
said.

“Most?” Ellie asked, wanting
clarification.

‘Most’ did not provide the sort of
scope she was looking for. Surely, he did not mean to say that
craft was not as natural as she had long thought. One or two men in
the world who did not craft sounded logical – there would always be
aberrations to the natural order of things – but ‘most’ sounded
like a lot more than just two people.

“Except for my family and yours, I’ve
never met another who could do magic,” Thane admitted.

“How many people have you met?” Ellie
asked skeptically.

“Lots and lots,” he said. “I’ve been
in more cities than you have, remember?”

Ellie felt her world shift with the
revelation. How was it that no one in her family had mentioned a
whole world out there with people who could not craft? Was she the
weird one in a world of people without craft? She had spent her
whole life feeling as if she was the opposite of special. She was
boring. Simple. Learning that her craft was unique was difficult to
wrap her mind around when she had proof she was anything but
unique.

“Weird,” was as all she could think to
say.

“Yeah,” Thane agreed.

Thane grabbed Ellie on the arm, his
face worried as he looked behind them. He was not eager to stand
around and wait for trouble to find them while discussing the
ins-and-outs of the non-magical world. Not when trouble was
carrying a gun and looking for blood.

“We should probably keep moving,” he
warned. “They know this area better than we do…We don’t need them
catching up with us.”

“Right,” Ellie said.

Ellie definitely did not want them
catching her. One near miss was enough. Thane pulled her away from
her tree and they walked a fast pace toward town.

They walked parallel to the railroad
tracks for a couple more hours, though they stuck to the edge of
the woods. Their encounter with the men made them tense. It had
them prepared to duck into the bushes at a second’s notice. Ellie
wholeheartedly hoped the men had given up the chase. She hoped she
had scared them. She was not eager to face another bullet. Caw
stayed on Ellie’s shoulder as they walked. There was no more
swooping away to search out bugs or stretch his wings in the wind.
Danger lurked in even the most peaceful of settings. They had
learned caution.

It was dusk when the train tracks
branched off to reveal more tracks on the forest floor. The tracks
merged in and out of each other in a design Ellie did not quite
understand. They walked for another mile before the tracks gave way
to buildings. The tracks continued their course around long rows of
tall, industrial buildings. The forest ended abruptly at the
buildings. Ellie and Thane stopped at the edge of the trees and
looked out over the tracks, a sense of accomplishment surging
through them at the sight. They had made it.

“Is that town?” Ellie asked in awe as
she looked at the tall, shiny buildings.

“Of course not,” Thane said. “This is
the shipping yard. Ships bring goods here then the trains and
trucks take the goods inland.”

Ellie blushed at his condescending
tone. She felt stupid and more out of place than ever. She felt
silly to be so impressed with just a shipping yard.

“Oh,” she said, hoping he would not
notice her blush.

Ellie looked around the shipping yard
again in suppressed wonder. Despite the fact that it was not town,
it was the largest set of buildings she had ever seen. The light
from the setting sun reflected off the buildings, making them look
as if they were glowing. It was as if they were saying ‘hello’ to
her through the light. Ellie was dazzled by the sight. It made her
more excited to see town. If the edge of town was so amazing, the
center had to be beyond beautiful.

“Well, we’re out of the woods,” Thane
said slowly, bringing Ellie back to the reality of their situation.
“I guess this is the end of our truce.”

Ellie nodded. She was a bit sad to
lose her guide, but there was no help for it. They had promised to
set the feud aside in the forest, not beyond. He would not be
convinced otherwise. Town was his home. He could not pretend they
were not enemies there.

“Reckon so,” Ellie agreed.

Thane pointed straight ahead. A bridge
was in the distance. It was long and made a slow curve toward a
large collection of buildings.

“If you keep going that way you’ll see
the downtown in no time at all. It’ll be on the other side of a
bridge,” Thane said.

“Okay,” Ellie said.
“Thanks.”

“Whatever you do, don’t mention your
name to people. You’re not a Bumbalow today. You’re from out of
town, passing through with your family. And make some shoes for
yourself. People will stare if they see you walking around
barefoot…and don’t do magic. The people that don’t do magic get
scared when they see it, and my family will know you’re a Bumbalow
and try to kill you. They’ll probably succeed, as they’re very good
at what they do.”

Ellie looked at him curiously. From
his tone, it sounded as if he actually cared what happened to her.
She was certain it only seemed that way – a trick of her
imagination or her willingness to hope in the goodness of people,
even a Cooper. Neveah called it fool’s hope. Ellie knew her hope
did not always have a place in the real world.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Ellie told
him with a small smile.

“Right,” he agreed.

Thane rubbed at the back of his neck
awkwardly, as if he had more to say and did not know how to say it.
He settled for ‘goodbye.’ He gave a small wave.

“This was interesting, Bumbalow,” he
said. “See ya.”

Thane walked away without another
word, headed in the general direction he had pointed out to Ellie.
His back was stiff and his body tense as he left her standing at
the edge of the tracks. He did not look back. The truce they had
forged was broken. They were strangers, enemies with conflicting
purposes.

“Bye,” Ellie whispered.

Caw cawed once in parting, a low sound
full of sadness. Thane did not seem to notice either goodbye. Ellie
kept her place at the edge of the woods, giving Thane time to get
away before she moved toward town. She did not want him to feel as
if she was following him.

When he was gone, Ellie took a deep
breath, absorbing the sights around her with a sense of
satisfaction. She had really done it. She had made it to town. To
have a Cooper be the reason she had made it just made the situation
stranger. She shook her head at the weirdness and started to follow
Thane’s path into town. She would deal with the realities of the
weirdness when her adventure was over. That would be the time to
take stock of the situation.

Ellie passed the industrial buildings
she had mistaken for the town. They towered above her. She craned
her neck to look up at them in awe. She wondered how they had
managed to make them so beautiful and build them so tall. Looking
at them, she was certain Thane had been lying when he said most
people did not craft.

Smiling from ear to ear at the newness
she found in front of her, the first row of buildings opened out to
a large shipping yard. The yard revealed a large, unobstructed view
of the harbor. For the first time, Ellie noticed the
ocean.

The buildings had distracted her from
the glittering waves in the distance. As the metal buildings passed
by, she could no longer deny the significance of the sparkling
water. It was in front of her, spread out like a quilt of liquid
green. The dusk reflected in the moving water. She felt her mouth
drop open, and her heart filled up with happiness at the
sight.

She had read stories about the ocean,
about pirates and seafarers who went on epic journeys on the high
seas, rescuing damsels and getting into trouble because of their
pride. She had imagined herself riding the waves on a ship and
taking part in those adventures many times but she had never
imagined the ocean could look the way it did. There was something
magical about it. It went beyond any craft anyone could ever
conceive of. It went beyond beauty. Ellie felt the magic of it stir
in her chest.

Forgetting Thane’s warnings about
blending in, she ran down to the shipping docks. Waves lapped
against the edge of the wooden docks while huge barges waited
impatiently to be unloaded further out at sea. People were milling
around in a pattern of chaotic organization, unloading large
shipping containers and moving the merchandise inland to waiting
trucks and trains. The men were loud and called out often, filling
the warm sounds of the ocean with the sounds of humanity. Ellie
ignored them all, oblivious to their meaning, and focused on the
perfection of the glittering water.

Seagulls and ducks flew around the
harbor in an endless search for food. The light against the water
was even more impressive than the light against the buildings. It
reflected back in a thousand glittering waves. Ellie felt tied to
the rhythm of the water as it surged in and out. She smiled and
tentatively lowered a foot down to the trash-littered water,
thinking she had never seen anything quite so beautiful.