Chapter 3

In the days after Tali had imprisoned him, Raiel strove to create a routine for himself. Worrying would do him no good.

He spent many of his waking hours glued to his tiny, barred cell window, watching the many people milling about on the streets of Canyon's Gate.

Raiel was forced to admit that his previous assumption, that all humans were timid and afraid like Graven, was not an accurate description of them, as a whole. Tali had certainly proved that to perfection. But more than that, after standing by the window as much as he did, he had noticed, that the people outside often would start fights with one another over one matter or the other. He wasn’t sure what made them converse seemingly good-naturedly one moment, and then explode violently the next.

Another thing he had noticed was how they would exchange their belongings with each other. The place outside was a quite large, open area with stalls displaying any number of curious sundries, most of which Raiel couldn’t even begin to guess the purpose of.

All goods were given away in exchange for tiny coins, which the seller would quickly pocket. Surely, such coins would be valuable in one way or the other, and Raiel would definitely like to get his hands on some when he got out.

Some of the merchants also sold large, red, glistening pieces of meat. His drool flowed at the thought of the taste. Others sold herbs and plants in amazing numbers. He wanted to take those herbs to his pup to make it better. He wanted it so much. But he couldn’t, and he hated that.

He had always been the strong. He had been the hunter, and seldom the hunted. Now he wasn’t sure what he was. Helpless.

Whenever he thought of that, he would exhaust his body with exercise, to distract himself from the bad thoughts. Very quickly, his body begun to crave the activity that he’d always lived with, and a restlessness would come over him whenever he sat still for too long.

The exercise kept him hungry, and fortunately, they fed him two to three times a day, depending on who was on duty as warden. The older warden, Komren was his name, who had been there when Raiel arrived, would often sneak him a little extra when he could. Raiel really liked the man, not that he’d readily admit that. The warden had been the only one to treat him kindly.

It had been nineteen days and Raiel was as settled into his everyday life as he could be.

He was sitting with his legs crossed and eyes closed, thinking about what he’d seen through his window today. It was early evening and it had become a daily routine of his to recount events he’d witnessed and conversations he’d overheard during the day.

When he sat down, relaxed, and simply focused on his thoughts, he found he could remember many things clearly. When he focused like that, concepts seemed a little less complicated, than they had been, and words connected with meanings more easily.

Meditation was not something he’d done before. That would simply not have been a good idea when he lived on his own.

He’d come to think of his mental exercises as a key to the cell he was locked in. Normally, he could only see out of the tiny window on the wall, but his meditation allowed him to freely open the heavy door to the world outside, letting the knowledge flow in in much bigger quantities.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway outside, coming closer and closer. When the sound ended outside his cell, he pointedly ignored whoever it was, keeping his eyes shut. The person outside stayed quiet, but didn’t move away. Raiel couldn’t help but give in to curiosity, as he peeked at the door with one eye.

The old warden gazed at him, a hint of a smile crossing his lips when he saw, that he had caught Raiel looking. Raiel closed his eye again and pretended like he hadn’t noticed.

The warden stood for a while longer before he spoke, “Lad, can I ask what you’re doing?” His voice sounded amused.

Raiel considered not answering the man outside his door, but thought better of it and decided to humor him.

“Think.”

“You’re thinking? What are your thinking about?”

“Day.”

In the time since his imprisonment, Raiel had managed to learn quite a few words, but he still found it a bit intimidating to construct entire sentences. He thought, he would be able to, if he had to, but for now, he was content with the easy stuff. Listening was much easier, anyway. Additionally, it was very clever of him to hide his progress, he thought.

“I see. So you’re thinking about your day, are you?” Komren would sometimes engage him in conversation, as he was doing now. Usually, Raiel would refrain from answering, but today he felt a little like talking. “What did you do today, then?” Komren continued.

“Listen. Look, too.”

“You’ve been looking out the window again?” Komren asked. Raiel still kept his eyes closed.

“Raiel, don’t you want to do something else? I can maybe get you a book or two to read, while you’re in here.”

Raiel heard the keys rattle in the lock briefly before the lock swung open on hinges in need of a good oiling. When Komren sat down next to the boy, Raiel granted him another one-eyed glance. “Wouldn’t you like to read some books?”

“No. Can’t book.” Raiel replied, growing a little annoyed. He didn’t like being reminded of his shortcomings.

Komren studied Raiel curiously, “You can’t… book?... Oh, you mean you can’t read?” Komren clapped his hands together in understanding, before continuing, “Actually, I had sort of expected that.” He said apologetically. “Would you like me to teach you how?”

Now it was Raiel’s turn to study Komren, “Teach… me? What means?” He asked with eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“I mean, I can help you to read.”

Raiel, having instantly forgotten to keep from speaking too much, suddenly understood what was being offered to him, “Oh, yes, yes, yes! Wants learn reading!” He beamed at Komren like only an excited child can.

He jumped to his feet without warning, startling Komren. Raiel grabbed Komren’s hands, pulling him along to the open door, “Wants book now! Go get now!” Raiel exclaimed, full of glee.

Komren couldn’t contain his own delighted laugh, filling the tiny room with a hearty, booming guffaw. He let himself be pulled along by Raiel and stood in the doorway.

“Okay, okay, lad,” he chuckled, “to tell you the truth, I already brought the books with me to my shift. Let me just go find them in my pack.” Komren turned and started down the narrow hallway before he abruptly stopped.

“That’s right! I forgot!” He bellowed and hurried back to the cell door while he tugged at something inside the inner breast-pocket of his coat. He pulled out a small, elongated item wrapped in soft paper. Komren took Raiel’s hand and unceremoniously dumped the package into his waiting palms. The package was warm with an indescribably delicious scent wafting from it.

Raiel already knew what it was as he ripped the paper apart, revealing a golden piece of grilled chicken. He devoured it in the blink of an eye and delivered a burp and a content sigh.

If he had to choose something from everything he’d seen so far, he’d say one of the most amazing inventions of the human race was their grilled meat. That flowy, orange stuff they used to make it was just great, and he’d definitely want some of that in the future, so he could make his own roasted goods. Komren had brought him grilled chicken once before, and afterwards, Raiel hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it for three days.

“You liked that, eh?” Komren smiled. Raiel nodded enthusiastically. “Give me a second to go find the books.” Komren added and went down the hall again.

Raiel walked over to his cot and sat down to wait for Komren to return.

When he did, he was clutching two thin books to his chest with one arm, while he carried a jug and two cups in the other. He placed the jug and the cups on the floor next to the cot and laid the books on the blanket Raiel was supposed to use when he slept. He never did, though, since he never really felt cold.

As Komren poured a misty, green liquid into each cup, Raiel was already busy inspecting the two books. The first one was something like a faded, brown notebook. The scribbling on the cover was completely indecipherable to Raiel and didn’t interest him anywhere near as much as the second book did.

This one was bright green, albeit with quite a few stains both on the cover and on the back. This one also had a bunch of writing on it, but the main attraction was a colored drawing, which took up half of the cover. Raiel could recognize the forest drawn almost as he knew it, with the tall trees swaying in the wind and the running stream from which he would drink. There were also various animals drawn, some of which he knew, and others which he had never seen before.

When he looked up, Komren was holding out a cup of the steaming beverage for him to accept. Raiel took the cup and almost dropped it on his bed. It had scalded his palms painfully. He hastily set it down on the floor, spilling some of the liquid on his hands in the process, burning him further. He hissed at the cup and jumped onto the bed again in an attempt to get as far away from the damned liquid as he could.

Komren rose from the bed with a surprised cry, “Arh, shit! You okay? Let me get something to put on that!” He rushed out of the cell once more, leaving Raiel a little time to calm down.

Soon, a cool, wet cloth had been laid across his hand and the drink, which he learned was called tea, had chilled to a point where he could swallow it without burning his tongue. He didn’t particularly like tea, he found, as it was a too bitter for him. However, Komren drank it with satisfaction, so obviously he’d pretend to like it.

“Which one first?” Komren asked as he held up the two books for Raiel to see.

Raiel immediately took the old notebook, laid it on the floor, and waited for Komren to open the picture book to see inside. The pages of the book were similarly designed to the cover, with a big, colorful drawing on the upper half of the page, and a section of text on the bottom half.

Komren pointed to the drawing and asked Raiel what he saw on it.

“Tree,” he said, as his finger traced over the image. “Cloud. Ha—hill.” He corrected himself.

“That’s right.” Komren steered Raiel’s attention to the letters on the page. “These are words. When they’re put together like this, we call them a sentence. Those are what we use to speak and write.” Komren explained patiently. Apparently, he was determined to start from the very beginning.

Raiel already knew some of the things he was told, but most was new to him. Komren read a few pages to him, and the more he heard, the more he wanted to be able to read it himself.

“For now, this is a little too difficult for you, so I think I have a better idea.”

While he spoke, Komren placed the brown notebook on the bed again.

“Before we start with all the complicated stuff, I want you to learn a little from this one.” He said and showed the eager boy the first page. Raiel was a little disappointed to see no drawings in it.

“This is how everyone learns to read at first.” He gestured to the page, which had six large symbols on it. He turned to the next page, where another six symbols were written, followed by a third page of six new symbols.

“This is the alphabet. That’s what we call all the letters collectively. The letters you see on these pages make up all words in the world. Isn’t that amazing?”

Raiel nodded. It really was very amazing.

“The first thing we should do is have you write the letters over and over to memorize them, but unfortunately, I can’t give you anything to write with, because you can’t be in possession of anything sharp.” Komren told him dejectedly. “For now, we’ll just go over them together and see if we can’t form some words out of them, eh?” He smiled.

They went through all the letters systematically. Komren would point to a letter and say what sound it represented and provide Raiel with a few example words containing each letter. Raiel would repeat it.

“Excuse the scribbles on the pages. The book used to be my son’s, you see.” Komren mentioned.

“Sssson?”

“Yes. My son is my child, who used this book when he was learning to read and write. If the parents want their children to be able to read, it’s usually up to themselves to make sure they learn it. That’s why I got a scribe to create this handy, little thing for him.”

“Now son… old?” Raiel enquired.

“He would have been, yes. In his mid-twenties, in fact.” Suddenly Komren looked away and hastily wiped his cheek. When he turned back, Raiel noticed his eyes were a little red.

“What wrong?” Raiel asked, concerned.

“Oh, nothing you have to worry about, my friend.” Komren smiled, but this time, the happiness from before had all but evaporated.

“No. Now tell me.” The boy pressed on and sat himself on his knees on the cot to better focus on Komren.

Komren sat for a little, seemingly unsure whether he should continue with his story or not. Apparently, he concluded, that it wouldn’t do any harm to indulge the boy for a bit.

“Alright, here it is,” He said quickly, as if wanting to get it over with as fast as possible. “My son was always an energetic and happy boy. So eager to learn and experience was he, that I was sure he would run off to see the world the day he was old enough. But… when he was fourteen years old, he was… drafted for military training.” Komren spit resentfully.

His shoulders slumped visibly, and the old man instantly looked even older still, as he became unable to hold back his tears. They streamed down his cheeks, wetting his grey beard. Raiel was as unprepared for the situation unfolding in front of him as he could have been. Not only was he not sure he understood most of the words, but he also did not know how he should respond or console the sad man.

Raiel patted Komren gently on the knee, looking into his eyes. Komren smiled, and continued with a lump in his throat, “He’s likely already died in some war, far away from home, all alone. And I’m never going to see my boy again.” The old man looked weary, and Raiel thought he understood some of Komren’s pain. He was hurting, and there was nothing to be done about it.

Komren suddenly seemed to notice where he was and with shaking hands he awkwardly straightened his clothes. “Well, I think that’s enough out of me for today.” He said while trying to appear cheerful, “I’m sorry, lad. I didn’t mean to spoil the mood like that. I’d better get back to my errands, anyway.”

Before he left, Komren told Raiel, that he could keep both books for now, as long as he promised to practice his words diligently. Raiel promised he would.

As a gift, Komren handed the boy a wooden coin, that looked almost exactly like the metal ones he had seen used outside. It was hand-carved, Komren added with pride. Nobody made them like him. You could almost pay for real things with it, he said, winking.

“You remind me of my Argir, you know. I don’t want to see you end up dead. Let me tell you again, like I did before: Just tell her what she wants to know.”

Raiel wished he could. He really did. However, he couldn’t risk putting himself in such a demanding situation without even having a decent grasp of human-to-human communication. He’d have to bide his time, for now.

After Komren left, Raiel looked over the alphabet again. There were thirty-two symbols. He tried to remember them, but it wasn’t easy when there were so many. So, he sat down to concentrate.

After ten minutes of quiet focus, the different sound- and letter combinations started flowing to him, and they all flew around behind his closed eyelids, like he was really seeing them. He laughed joyfully as he began to spell words with the letters he’d learned.

He started out easy, but gradually moved on to four-, and even five-letter words. He threw the funny symbols around like how he’d seen a juggler throw juggling balls in the marketplace. He kept this mental training up for another half hour before his eyelids became heavy, and he longed for rest.

He wasn’t sure why he was suddenly so exhausted, but his bed called him alluringly, and he obediently listened to his body.

Just as he was about to lie down, he thought of the two books by the cot. He didn’t want Tali to find out about them, so before he slept he hid them under his bedding. Luckily, they were both so thin, that they weren’t visible under the blanket.

Laying there, Raiel tried playing around with the letters in his head, but once again found himself limited, when he wasn’t concentrating properly. It did, however, help him fall asleep, and soon he was sleeping peacefully in his little cell.

A heel smashed into Raiel’s cheek, rudely awakening him.

“Up.” A cold voice uttered.

Tali was back again. And she didn’t seem happy to see him.

She ground her foot into his face until he grabbed her ankle, upon which she removed it and stood above his prone figure. He sighed out loud. Why was she like this? Raiel rolled over on his back and saw that she’d brought that giant spear again. He really hated that spear. A wooden cudgel hung in a belt-strap at her hip, which promised all kinds of trouble for him and his health.

He loathed to admit, that he had recklessly dropped the guard of which he was normally so proud. To think she had actually caught him sleeping so carelessly.

“Good to see you again, stranger.” She said with no hint of a smile. “Are you about ready to talk to me?” She asked him. He remained silent, and tried to keep a neutral face.

Raiel tried to get out of bed, but just as he swung his feet over the side of the cot, something flashed in the edge of his vision and his forehead exploded in incredible pain. The impact sent him stumbling across the room. He went to his knees while his head was spinning like crazy. He felt like throwing up.

She placed a foot on his ass and kicked him forward onto his face. Seeing how badly trying to stand up had gone so far, he decided to only get up onto his elbows.

She now held her cudgel in her hand, and he felt thick liquid run into his eyes. When it ended up in his mouth, he could clearly taste the blood.

In his dizzy state, he almost didn’t see her raise her hand in preparation for a second blow. He desperately threw his arms up in front of his face and closed his eyes tightly. The cudgel slammed into his forearm with crushing power producing an audible crack as it hit. Agony branched out from the impact point and Raiel’s scream echoed throughout the building.

Tears streamed from his eyes and his vision blurred. The dizziness in his head became even worse, and for a moment, he thought he might lose consciousness.

All he could think about was the horrible pain. That was all there was. A distant voice demanded his attention, but he just couldn’t bring himself to care. A sudden kick to his solar plexus instantly changed that, as he convulsed into a fetal position. He coughed several times, unable to inhale properly. He was suffocating!

With eyes wide open he laid there for a few seconds, gasping futilely like a stranded fish, before his ability to pull in air gradually returned.

As he laid there on the floor, with droll in the corner of his mouth and a distant look in his eyes, Tali addressed him once again.

“So, how about it?” Her voice remained as cold as before.

Right then, he briefly considered giving in. The anguish permeating through his body felt unbearable, and although he’d experienced grievous injuries before, he wasn’t sure he could willingly let himself be subjected to it again.

He was about to break when a thought occurred to him. His little puppy was sitting somewhere in the big city, afraid and alone. It was probably cold and hungry, and maybe even hurt. He was reminded of the story of Komren's son, who had been taken, never to be seen again. The thought of that happening to his only friend was even more unbearable than this pain he was feeling.

He was filled with determination, and with renewed strength, he resigned himself to an afternoon of torture.

When Raiel kept his mouth shut and gazed at her defiantly, Tali narrowed her eyes with a frown.

Raiel looked away when he saw her intentions and spotted Komren standing in the doorway. Komren shot him a saddened look as the cudgel connected with Raiel’s temple.