The Boy From The Forest

Icelandia was coming down from the tree. She could have easily climbed down by herself. But Norman was there to help her, and she was not going to say no to that. Her Father was also right there helping her out of the tree. It took quite a while to get her down, with all the help she had.

“Icelandia, your Mother and I thought that you were lost forever. I am so glad to see you safe and sound.”

“Yes Father, I am perfectly fine. Those demons were not all that organized. I figured out how to defeat the strange wall that they put up around their evil mountain.”

“That is true.” Confirmed Norman. “She showed me how to ease through the barrier. What she told me was ‘Gentleness not force’”.

King Beauford looked at Norman. “Norman, that is true of a lot of things. Especially with women.”

Sirs Elmer, Bob and Harold were standing near one of the huge casks of water which The King had brought along for the campaign.

“Sir Harold, you ruined another suit of armor today. Good thing we have all this water to wash off the tainted blood from these invaders.”

Sir Harold regarded Sir Elmer with a jaded eye. “For something like this, it is better to have armor and equipment that is dented, dirty and well used. How many of those creatures did you slice open today?”

“I am disappointed that I could not bite any of them. We were warned that it would dissolve us from the inside out.” This was Sir Bob’s horse Larry.

The knights and their horses continued to scrub away the alien blood. They had been told to take all the time they needed.

There was a huge celebration going on. I mean it was a HUGE celebration. There was some drinking, but mainly, the men were just rejoicing about the victory over the alien invaders. Woodlander and Civilized were milling about, mixing freely. Their language was pretty much the same.

Norman and Vincent wandered about. Someone gave Norman a drink of homemade wine. It made stygnian ale seem good. Norman thanked the man, then he nearly threw up.

“Vincent, look at that. A bunch of men are dancing around in a circle.”

“Norman, you must have led a sheltered life. So what, men are dancing in a circle.”

“The circle is over a hundred yards across. And they are all men. Normally, a bunch of men do not dance around in a circle. There are men from many different kingdoms, from Cultivated Lands and Forest. Different ones are trying to sing at least three or four different songs. It is like all the old distinctions do not matter any more.”

“Hmmm. Yes, Norman. Normally, those from each little kingdom would be huddled together looking suspiciously at everybody else. You don’t see that at all here. This is something new.”

“Vincent, I once read about a great land. It was divided into quite a few… I think it was called states. Anyway, you could travel wherever you wanted.

There was no problem going from one state to the other. There might be a sign beside the road that you were going into a different state. You could pass right through with no hindrance. Everybody spoke the same language and used the same money. This land spanned an immense continent, from one ocean to the other.”

“Norman, that is a little too much to believe. So what else was there? Were people going around giving away free beer?”

“I don’t remember anything about free beer. But I do remember that there were laws, and the laws applied to everyone equally.”

“Norman…”

“Vincent, all this was in the book. That much I know for sure. Why is this so impossible? Look at what is happening right here around us, that could be the start of something very much like what I saw in the book.”

The two young men continued to walk along together. Nothing more was said about this topic. At first, Vincent had been a little put out that Norman could read. (Vincent could not read.) But Vincent was intrigued about the thought of people living in harmony. It sounded pretty silly, but all around him, he saw men from every race, nation and tribe mingling freely. Over there, a group of yogslobbians was sharing a roast aurochs with two archers from the army of The King.

Chew, chew. Ron chewed the slab of roast aurochs that had been given him. He looked over at Casey, and he too was chewing as hard as he could. Roast aurochs is very chewy. This one must have been a hundred years old, and it had a hard life to boot. It would be very rude to spit it out, so Ron and Casey continued to chew away.

The King sat alone in his tent. They had buried Eric that morning - what was left of him. They had piled stones over the mound of dirt and sung songs as befitted the son of a king. None of this really helped. Now, he had to find Norman and start training him for the day when he would be The King.

Johanaston looked about. The fools were celebrating. Johanaston felt no emotion, neither joy nor sadness. They were glad because the war was over and they were not going to get killed. So what, they would die anyway. Life in this material plane was nasty, brutal and short. Oh well, in a few centuries, he could ascend to a higher plane where nobody made jokes about why did the archer cross the road.

“Norman, look at that!! There is a man with a trained cat!”

“Vincent, there is no such thing as a trained cat. A cat will do what it wants to do, and nothing else.”

“No, he is telling it to roll over, and then it rolls over! Let’s go take a closer look.”

“Vincent, he waits until it is starting to roll over, then he tells it to roll over. Watch closely, and you will see.”

“It is only a silver piece to get in the tent and see the cat do all its tricks. That’s a bargain!”

“I’m hungry, Vincent. I am going to go see if those Epicureans will share some of their beef stew with me. It smells pretty good.”

The two men parted. Vincent really wanted to see the trained cat. Norman found that the Epicureans were quite willing to share. They had made enough for both themselves and the Stoics, but the Stoics did not want any beef stew.

“Keep looking men. My younger son, Norman, has to be here somewhere.”

They kept looking. Two men from the kingdom of Narrython had seen Norman after the battle ended yesterday. Too bad nobody knew at the time that The King was going to want him.

“There he is!! Over there, eating something.”

The King strode up to Norman. “Hello, son.”

“Father!! It has been a while. Have some beef stew.”

“Eric is dead. It happened right at the end of the battle.”

Norman was stunned. He was swept with an overpowering grief. Eric had hated him and had never missed an opportunity to pick on him. Still, Norman grieved. Eric was family.

“Norman, you have to come back with me to The Castle right now. You have much to learn.” The King took the bowl of Epicurean beef stew from Norman and threw it in the dirt. Away they went. Norman had no opportunity to say goodbye to Vincent or to anyone else.

Vincent came out of the tent where the trained cat show had been held. He felt kind of cheated, but he was not going to admit it to Norman. Where was Norman, anyway? He thought they would meet right around the place where they had split up. He went back to the Woodlanders’ camp, but Norman was not there either. But there were people running around everywhere, and it would be easy to lose track of somebody.

The next morning, Vincent woke up and still no Norman. A lot of the Woodlanders were preparing to head back. Vincent decided to go with them. Norman was probably somewhere on the road already. It was time to travel.