Read: Part One || Read Part Two || Part Three || Part Four || Part Five || Part Six
I was lost in thought–my head reeling with questions about what would happen if we couldn’t complete this mysterious task–when I was rudely brought back to the present by a sharp elbow poking into my ribs.
“Hey, Wil, are you listening?”
I glanced at Millie. She had been talking. “Sorry, Millie,” I said. “Say again?”
Millie rolled her eyes. “I asked asking if you’ve any ideas what our task might be?”
We had reached another circular courtyard, the twin to the one we’d just left. Mouthwatering aromas rose from the large pot at the cooking fire. I blinked as I watch the cook stir the meal: she was the prettiest girl I have ever seen in my life. I couldn’t help but stare at her as I replied to Millie’s question.
“Um, uh, no. Sorry, Millie, I’ve no earthly idea what the task might be.”
As Andironus lead us past the fire and the pretty Adena girl, I noticed him having the same trouble I was trying not to stare. He looked at her shyly and said something quietly that made her lips curve into an enchanting smile. We stopped beside her.
Andironus introduced us. “This is May,” he said. “May-la-kee-la-may, to be formal.”
“It means Star Flower,” she added. “Dinner is ready, if you are.”
“That’s great!” Orville gave his customary grin. “Thanks, May. I’m starving and something smells delicious! Come on, Andy, let’s eat. Hey, you don’t mind if I call you Andy, do you? Andironus is kind of a mouthful.”
May giggled and handed Orville a carved, wooden bowl into which she ladled some of the marvelous-smelling stew. We each took a bowl and sat down cross-legged on the ground. The meal was scrumptious, I got to say.
Gesturing as she talked, May explained how she’d helped her mother make the stew, using corn and beans that they had grown themselves, mixed with small chunks of venison and corn-meal dumplings. As I spooned the savory concoction into my mouth, I noticed that Andy’s eyes were transfixed upon May’s face. He listened avidly to her every word.
Now that is the look of a boy in love, I thought.
It wasn’t hard to see why anyone would fall in love with the beautiful, kind Adena girl. Her dark eyes were alight with humor and intelligence, and her high cheekbones flushed slightly pink on her gleaming copper skin. Her hair, the color of midnight with a hint of blue, was long and smooth as it draped over her shoulders.
Orville interrupted my daydreaming, saying, “So, Andy, what about this task? Do you know what we have to do?”
Andironus shook his head. “I’m sure that it won’t be easy. And that you will all have to work together.
Just then, the same group of young braves who had pulled us from the river came walking up to us. On boy stood next to Andy and nudged him with his foot.
“So, Andironus,” the young man said, “when are you taking the Manhood Trial? I bet your mommy wants you to move out of her hut and into the men’s hut… After all, you’ve been fifteen for nearly a year now.”
Andy looked at his feet and muttered something quietly. I thought to the man Andy would grow up to be and frowned.
“Speak up, boy! Are you going to play with your finger-paints at mommy’s house forever,” the brave taunted, “or are you ready to be a real man? Like me!”
Then he directed his gaze toward May.
“Star Flower, why are you seated with this loser?” He ordered, “Come and sit with me, instead.”
“Andironus and the visitors are all my friends, Jonan,” May said. “I am happy to stay here with them.”
Jonan’s cheeks burned with anger… was it embarrassment? He said nothing more, spun on his heel and stomped off.
After a minute of silence, our group took up the conversation again as if Jonan had never spoken. But I had a feeling that this wouldn’t be the end of that guy’s bad attitude. I could tell he had it in for Andy; probably something to do with being jealous over May’s friendship with our young guide.
I asked Andy what Jonan meant when he said something about a Manhood Trial.
Andy said, “Our elders set us a task when they feel a boy is ready to leave his mother’s hut and join the single men’s circle. It can be anything, but it’s always something pretty difficult. I’m still waiting to be assigned my task.”
By then, it was getting late. We were all tired, so our group disbursed to our assigned sleeping quarters. As I lay down on a pallet of animal skins, I wondered what tomorrow would bring and–for a second–the image of Jonan’s angry face flashed through my mind. Was he going to do something to get back at Andy because May had chosen to stay with us instead of going off with him?
My sleep was fitful, plagued by that thought.
~*~
Ben, Orville and I had woken up in the faint, pre-dawn light of morning. We’d quickly realized that Andy was already up and out of the hut. We made our way to the fire circle and eat some delicious corn cakes with honey for breakfast with May and Millie.
There was still no sign of Andy when May said we should follow her to the mound for the Sunrise Song.
The day was shaping up to be a beautiful one. We approached the mound, where Andy’s father and other elders stood together facing the rosy skies of an approaching sunrise. The men began to sing in a low, melodic harmony that was soon enhanced by a lilting chorus of girls and women repeating the verses. It was a beautiful song to welcome the new day and offer gratitude to the Creator for the blessings of nature’s bounty.
As the song ended and a quiet descended on the little gathering, I heard a short, snickering laugh from behind me. I looked to see Jonan and his friends standing there grinning from ear to ear like a bunch of clowns. They were focused on the trail past the mound. I turned back to see what had their attention.
Trudging down the path towards us was the strangest looking creature I’ve ever seen. From a distance, it looked like some kind of monstrous giant bird, but as it came closer I realized it was a person.
“Oh, no! Andy!”
He didn’t look much like himself, covered as he was from head to toe in goop and fluff. Dark, oozing black mud plastered every inch of his skin while hundreds of little white feathers clung to it.
Poor Andy! He’d obviously been the object of a nasty prank, and it was just as obvious who was responsible.
As he drew nearer, Andy stared down the path in front of him and walked right by us. Jonan and his friends laughed loudly now, pointing fingers and jeering.
May, distraught, ran back to her hut.
Andy didn’t see that, though, and walked straight towards the river. When he reached the shore, he stepped right in.
It dawned on me that this is what adult Andrew had been talking about before we’d Traveled, when he asked me not to laugh. He must have been so embarrassed, especially because he’d been humiliated in front of May, the girl he liked. I started to follow him, when Millie put a hand on my arm to stop me.
“Let her go to him,” Millie said.
I turned to see May running to the river. She carried a small, covered basket, which she set down on the sandy bank. I heard her call out to Andy, who repeatedly dunked himself under the water. He rubbed furiously at the mud and feathers on his arms and chest.
May said, “I brought you some soap, Andironus. I’ll leave it here for you.”
She turned and came striding purposefully back. Sparks flashed in her beautiful eyes as she stomped up to Jonan.
She didn’t say a word, she just lunged forward and shoved his chest, hard enough to knock him right on his behind! Then May stormed off towards the circle of huts, leaving Jonan lying on the ground in the midst of his laughing friends. At least now the laughter was aimed at him instead of Andy.
“That’s enough nonsense this morning,” boomed Santaro. “Young friends, it is time for you to learn of the task you must complete before you are granted permission to return to your own times.”
Santaro acknowledged a now-clean but dripping wet Andy as he climbed out of the river and back to us.
“Andironus, you are to join these young Travelers in this task, which will also be your Manhood Trial. In this task, you will all learn to work together as a team.” Santaro said, “You must continue toward your assigned goal no matter what obstacles you face. If any one of you gives up and quits the trial before completion, you have all failed.”
“Sir,” Orville piped up. “Just what is this task? I’m dyin’ to know!”
“I will tell you, Flapping Tongue, if you can be quiet long enough to hear me!”
That seemed to work on shutting my brother down.
“Your task is to climb the mound and bring back one of the five eagle feathers you’ll find in a basket at the top,” said Santoro.
We all sized up the Adena mound. It was pretty much like the others we’d seen: a tall, conical hill covered in grass and a few small shrubs. It looked a little more steep than I’d seen with other mounds, but not all that difficult to climb.
Orville, Ben, Millie, Andironus and I smiled to each other. I could tell we were all relieved that it didn’t seem like our task would be all that hard.
Then, as we shrugged our shoulders and started walking toward the base of the mound, the previously beautiful blue skies darken ominously. I felt the first raindrop hit my face. Two seconds later, the skies released a deluge of pounding rain, and I realized that the task we’d thought would be so easy was about to become a trial of endurance.
As the rains poured, the ground became more and more slippery.
Ben said, “Seems we’re not being let off too easily, eh, old boy?”
“Certainly a lot harder than I’d first thought,” I replied.
I looked back at Santoro with the faint hope that he’d postpone our trial until after the rain. He pulled a hood up over his head and made a shooing motion with his hand, waving us onward.
We all started trying to climb. I say trying, because we weren’t making much headway. Every time anyone got a few feet up the hill, they’d slide down again. It seemed impossible to gain any traction.
I tried boosting Orville up on my shoulders, and he managed to get hold of a little shrub and pull himself up a few more feet, but the shrub’s roots let go. Slide, slide, slide!
I saw Ben grab Andy’s arm, yelling something I couldn’t hear over the driving rain. Then the two of them ran off back toward the huts. They weren’t gone but a minute or two when they came running back, arms loaded down with a bunch of sticks and a couple of fist-sized rocks. I was puzzled until I saw them start using the rocks to pound the sticks into the side of the mound. They were making a ladder!
Genius Ben had figured out a way for us to get to the top. We had to work together, kind of leapfrogging our way up the hill by climbing on a protruding piece of wood, then someone below would hand up another stick for us to hammer into the dirt mound. Each stick was one step closer to the top.
All five of us slowly but surely worked in the steady downpour to build our crude ladder on the slippery mud of the Adena mound. When Orville slipped off his step and started to fall, Ben grabbed his arm and pulled him back up. I don’t know exactly how long the whole process took, but it seemed like hours.
I was starting to pound on another stick, when I felt Millie yanking on my foot and pointing ahead of me. I didn’t need to build another rung to the ladder. We’d reached the plateau at the top!
As I crawled forward a few more feet and stood up straight, the rain slowed down to a few splatters before it stopped completely. In a couple of minutes, my little group of five weary, soaking wet friends was standing at the top of the mound, peering at a basket sitting there in a ray of sunshine. I reached into the basket, pulled off the lid, and saw five long beautiful eagle feathers.
I picked up the basket and held it out in turn to each of us. Then I took the last golden feather for myself.
Andy said, “Friends, we have succeeded in our task! You can all Travel home now, and I’ve passed my Manhood Trial.”
Orville asked, “How do we get home, then?”
Andy answered with a mysterious smile, “Take your feathers to the base of the waterfall and you’ll see…”
It took us a while to climb back down the slippery slopes of the mound, and then hike the trail upriver to the bottom of the falls. But it was definitely well worth the trouble, because this Travel experience exceeded all others in its astonishing and amazing method of returning us home.
Andy instructed us to hold up our feather over our heads. This time, I was the first one to Travel. With my arm held high with eagle feather extended, a swift current of air lifted me off my feet.
By golly, I was flying! Flying, yes, straight up into the air right beside that waterfall!
I let out a whoop of delight. I couldn’t wait to be home!
~*~
To be concluded…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Cathy Jones lives on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina. She loves the beach, reading every type of book ever written, inventing delicious recipes, and making up tall tales.
