Roosters greeting the new day woke Ilika, as they had each morning at the farm. Kibi was still asleep close beside him, so he carefully got up and tucked the blankets around her. Shadows already moved about the farm, carrying feed or milk buckets to and fro. Smoke rose from the kitchen chimney.
Ilika looked around the woodshed, and found all his students still there.
Seeing Buna and Toli side by side again made him smile.
Tip-toeing out of the woodshed, he visited Tera, already working on fresh hay, grain, and molasses, then stretched his stiff body toward the sky. The farmer’s wife came out of the barn and walked toward him.
“You did good last night about Kora. How soon will you all be ready for breakfast?”
Ilika looked toward the woodshed and saw his students beginning to stir.
“Half an hour?”
“That’s about when Keni and the children will be ready.”
When Ilika returned to the woodshed, Kibi was rolling up her bedding, and so he busied himself with his own. A few moments later, he discovered Buna had seated herself on the ground nearby, and the others were standing behind her.
“We figured out what the problem is,” she said, “and I was picked to tell you. We just don’t know enough about what it’s like on a ship. We know it will slow down other lessons a little, but we need you to tell us more about it.
We’re sorry we didn’t trust you yesterday. Now that you told us why you
won’t let Kora join us, we can see it. We know we’re free to walk away, but all of us want to go with you.”
Ilika blinked away some moisture that had gathered in his eyes. “You . . .
um . . . you’re right. I’m sorry. I haven’t told you enough about life on a ship.
Even though I can’t get into technical details until we’re at the ship, I can certainly teach you the communication skills and trust a crew must have.”
“We also made another decision. You tell him, Boro.”
“Um . . . we decided that, if it’s okay with you, we don’t want to mess with horses. One donkey for Mati is enough. Horses will cost a bunch of money, and take time away from lessons. We want to sell our saddlebags at the next town, except for Mati’s, and get rucksacks instead, the kind we can tie our bedrolls onto. Everything will be easier to carry that way.”
Ilika considered the proposal. “No one is bothered by walking a few miles a day?”
They all shook their heads.
“Okay. I agree, it will keep things simple.”
Just then a clanging sound began, and they turned to see the farmer’s wife banging her serving spoon against a lid as steam rose from the cooking pot on the stump.
Miko licked his lips. “Sounds like breakfast!”
After eating, Buna was full of energy, so Ilika assigned her to purchase food from the family. Then he asked Mati and Rini to plan their route toward Lumber Town at the foot of the mountains. He handed them the map and they huddled in the woodshed to look at the situation.
When everyone was packed and ready to depart, Kora was nowhere to be seen, and her mother explained that she had suddenly volunteered to check on the goats. The farmer, his wife, and their three boys waved good-bye as the troop of nine walkers followed their one rider along the farm road that would take them north to the main road.
“Buna, report on our food supplies, please.”
“Lots of good stuff! Hard and soft cheeses, plenty of bread, and dried fruits. Porridge grains and some butter. Oh, and hard crackers that’ll last a
long time. Kibi got salt and herbs already. And I got a bag of shelled nuts!”
“Excellent. Hopefully we’ll find more berries and other goodies in the wild.”
“Of course we will,” Kibi said with a grin.
Ilika ruffled her hair.
As soon as they rounded a bend and were completely out of earshot of the farm, Ilika caught up with Toli and Buna, and spoke softly. “When I give the word, lead us westward up into those hills.”
He waited until they were crossing a stretch of dry, stony ground that would not easily reveal their direction. “Everyone, Toli and Buna are leading now.”
The two new leaders headed off the road without saying a word. Most of the others shrugged, and quickly followed.
Mati and Rini were the most confused of all, having just planned the route for the next several days. They looked at each other as the rest of the group disappeared into the bushes.
Toli and Buna guided them slowly up a rocky ravine into the grassy hills above. On the way, Ilika caught up with Boro. “At the top, take the lead and go south along the ridge line, but stay out of sight of the farm.”
Boro nodded and continued the climb.
Ilika looked back and could see Mati and Rini, last of all, slowly coming up the ravine. Tera was sure-footed, but occasionally came to piles of loose rock and refused to cross. Mati talked to her donkey for a moment, then let her choose a way around. Ilika smiled.
Breathing deeply and glowing with pride, Toli and Buna reached the top of the hill and stood gazing around at all they could see. Once everyone arrived, Boro announced he was leading, and headed south.
Walking, for both people and donkey, was now much easier, as animal paths laced the grassy hillsides everywhere. Rini caught up with Boro, and Mati found herself in the middle of the group behind Sata. Morning clouds started to disappear, and sun hats quickly came out. Occasionally the bones of an animal stood witness to the passing of the years.
At Ilika’s request, Neti took the lead and guided them down along a tree-lined stream where everyone was happy to drink and refresh themselves.
Sata led them slowly to the top of a high, lone hill. The spring air was so clear they could see the capital city, now just a small gray line below a range of hills in the southeast.
Miko took them across a ridge back to the north-south line of hills, and finally Kibi led them downhill to a small creek with flat, sandy banks.
“I think this is far enough,” Ilika said, setting his bedroll and saddlebags down.
Everyone else did the same, and Rini untied Mati’s bedroll so she could dismount.
“What should we eat first?” Ilika asked.
“Soft cheese and bread,” Buna replied firmly. “Everything else will stay good longer.”
“I’m sure some of you are wondering why we are here, instead of on the road to Lumber Town.”
“Yeah!” Mati blurted. “Me and Rini had it all planned. Now we’re going the wrong direction!”
Most of the others gathered around with equally puzzled looks. The only ones who seemed completely comfortable with the day’s journey were Kibi, Boro, and to Ilika’s surprise, Buna.
“Dis-information,” Boro said calmly.
“You mean . . . for Keni and his family?” Neti asked with disbelief. “Can’t we trust anyone?”
“To take someone into our trust, we would have to explain exactly what needs to be kept private, and why. That would take a long time. And even if we were sure we could trust Keni and his wife, could we trust all his kids to keep our route secret? Even his four-year-old son?”
Neti looked at the ground. “Okay.”
“I vowed to keep us all safe, and never let that high priest, or anyone else, mess with us again. I can’t do that if we’re completely honest with everyone we meet.”
Mati struggled with hurt feelings. “It just seems like it was a waste of time for me and Rini to plan that route.”
Ilika accepted a slice of bread covered with soft cheese from Buna. “You asked me to teach you what it’s like on a ship. In any challenging team-work
situation, we have to deal with unexpected change. That’s what today’s walking exercise was all about. Nothing I will ever ask you to do, as your teacher or your captain, is ever a waste of time.
“Sometimes things will change before we expect. If nothing else, our preparations will be valuable practice. Can you be happy with that situation?”
Mati squirmed a little. “Um . . . I think so. It will help if you tell me beforehand if it’s real or practice.”
“Sometimes I will tell you, sometimes I won’t. Do you want to know beforehand so you can do things less well, less carefully, if it’s just practice?”
“Um . . . no.”
“Remember when you were learning to ride Tera?”
“How could I forget!” she said with a grin.
“You didn’t just put the saddle on and head down the road. You started by practicing in the corral, around the camp, and on the nearby hills. None of that practice put any miles behind you. Was it wasted?”
“Okay, now I see what you mean.”
“On the ship, we will practice many things before we ever really do them.
We will plan ahead, only to change our plans — or toss them out completely and make new ones — or just wing it because we don’t have time to make plans.”
Ilika fell silent and started eating his bread and cheese.
“Which way are we really going?” Kibi asked quietly.
“Port Town,” Ilika said around a bite of food, “unless something comes up to change that.”
Kibi chuckled. “So . . . we would have the best chance of getting there if we keep it to ourselves when we meet people?”
Ilika laughed and nodded, still chewing.
“On your ship,” Boro began, “can we always talk about why we did something after it’s over?”
Ilika swallowed his bite. “Oh, yes, that’s important. It’s essential that the crew members do their jobs when the commander speaks, but it’s also important they understand their jobs. Imagine how hard it would have been to get here if each of the leaders had to explain, on each leg of the journey, to each person, how to walk.”
Buna laughed out loud. “It would be like Mati learning to ride Tera!”
Everyone laughed as Neti passed out pieces of dried fruit.
Deep Learning Notes
Ilika’s first lesson about life on a ship caught some of them off-guard, and gave them practice at not getting too attached to plans and preparations.
What does this tells us about the nature of Ilika’s ship? Is it the sort of ship that always sticks to a set schedule, like a cargo or passenger ship, or one that responds to changing situations, like a rescue vessel?