Ilika and his students had only walked a few hundred yards along the trail to the beach when three men stepped out from behind a bush and blocked the path. Dressed as deck hands or laborers, they wielded knives and clubs. More men, dressed and armed the same, appeared at the sides and behind them, bringing the total to at least eight.
Ilika’s group instinctively huddled closer together. Tera gave her two-toned call loudly and tried to run, but Mati held the reins.
“Looks what we gots here!” one of the men at the front said. “The ones who’ve been spendin’ money in town like it was beach sand!”
“Mati, dismount,” Ilika said firmly.
“But Tera . . .”
“Now!”
Boro was near and lifted her over the bedroll. Tera bolted toward the beach almost before Mati could get her left foot out of the stirrup.
The men made way for the frightened donkey and laughed.
“We figures if you got so much money to spend, you’ve probably got lots more. And even if you don’t got that much, the pretty girls’ll be fun to play with, right guys?”
“Yeah!” several of them called, laughing and jeering.
“Boro, get Mati on the ground,” Ilika ordered.
Mati was confused, but Boro acted, lowering her to the sand firmly.
“Ways I figures it, you boys got two choices. Drop yer bags and take off them nice clothes and walk away, or the birds can pick yer bones when we’re
done with you.”
“Everyone down on the ground!” Ilika yelled as he tapped a code into his bracelet. A strange high-pitched sound filled everyone’s mind, students and thieves alike, while Ilika turned a complete circle, aiming his bracelet at those standing.
Ilika turned once more to make sure. All the thieves had crumpled to the sand and were completely still.
“Yes!” Miko cheered, raising both fists. “But you got Toli, too.”
“Don’t worry, he’s just asleep.”
Kibi jumped to her feet and wrapped her arms around Ilika.
“Can I get up now?” Mati asked.
“Yes. Everyone can get up,” Ilika said over Kibi’s shoulder. “Sata, walk with Mati. Boro, help me carry Toli. Everyone’s going to wake up in about a quarter hour, and I want us . . . let me see . . .” He kissed Kibi, then extracted himself from her embrace. “. . . on that little hill by the beach.”
“What about Tera?” Mati asked with concern while getting her feet back under her.
“I’m glad she ran,” Ilika said softly. “She could have hurt someone as she fell.”
“Don’t worry, Mati, we’ll find Tera,” Rini said, touching her on the shoulder.
Boro and Ilika carried their limp cargo as far as they could, then Ilika climbed onto the highest boulder as Toli and the thieves started waking up.
He cupped his hands and projected his voice toward the thieves. “HAD
ENOUGH?”
The men, still wondering what happened, could hardly get back to town fast enough. They knew sorcery when they saw it, and figured they were lucky to be alive.
When the others described to Toli what he had missed, he looked ashamed. Mati sat on a nearby rock and admitted that she too had been confused, worried about Tera, and hadn’t responded to Ilika’s commands very well.
As soon as Toli could stand, Ilika urged them all toward the beach to look
for the donkey. Mati hobbled along as fast as she could with her crutch, worry written on her brow. The trail took them between grassy sand dunes and finally to the water’s edge.
If Tera had turned right, she could have run up the coast to her heart’s content. But she had turned left, and the beach soon ended in a sand bar at the entrance to the cove. She had run as far as she could and then stopped.
While she stood there, dealing with her fear as well as a donkey can, the tide continued to rise, and the sand bar was rapidly becoming an island.
Mati
called.
Rini and Neti pleaded.
Miko and Boro yelled.
Tera stood where she was and called back with her unique voice.
Ilika, Boro, and Toli waded out to Tera’s shrinking island. They talked to her, pulled her halter, and slapped her rump.
But wading through swirling water was just not something this donkey was ready to do. At least, not until some greater danger came along.
Ilika arranged for one. He explained to Boro and Toli that his bracelet could make a variety of sounds, and one was especially designed to scare off just about anything made of flesh and blood. They got Tera pointed toward the beach, then waded into the water as far behind her as possible. Ilika tapped in the code.
The roaring, snarling, snapping sound they all heard caused hearts to race and muscles to tense, but since no beast was visible anywhere, the students mastered themselves.
Tera did not have so much self-control. Mati wasn’t sure her donkey even touched the water as she came flying back to the beach.
Tera ran back toward the road until she was tangled in bushes and face-to-face with a rocky hill. There she stood, eyes swirling with fear, head turning from side to side looking for the gigantic donkey-eating monster that must be close behind.
When the three rescuers returned to the beach, they collapsed onto the dry sand, unsure whether to laugh or cry.
Deep Learning Notes
Ilika’s students got an example of a situation in which following orders is essential. Situations like that come up quickly and unexpectedly. Toli and Mati both had trouble recognizing the need, but Mati’s hesitation was over-ridden by a sharp word from Ilika and Boro’s actions. Toli wasn’t so lucky.
How was Mati able to turn her mistake to good use on the hilltop?
NEBADOR BookTwo: Journey 136
Chapter 27: The Edge of the Ocean
This part of the coast, Ilika and his students discovered, was much more populated than the rocky beach south of Port Town. Every time nature left a bit of land between the high-tide line and the cliffs, a fisherman’s cottage nestled among the stunted trees. Occasionally, when the cliff was low and gentle, a crude stairway climbed the rocks to a simple dwelling at the top.
Mati looked at those stairs and shook her head.
Almost without exception, the fisher folk were friendly, and the group took lunch at one cottage where the young wife, baby at her breast, had a big pot of fish stew always going on the stove. She was amazed and delighted to receive the silver piece Kibi handed her.
As they sat on the log seawall just below the cottage, frothy waves nearly splashing their boots, the students had questions about recent events.
“Ilika, what would happen to someone like Kit in your country?” Neti asked.
“As soon as anyone was aware of it, a companion would be assigned. That person would be with him while he dealt with his mother’s death, and would help him make the transition to a new family. People foster each other’s kids all the time. No one goes unloved or uncared for in my country.”
“Wow. Where do these companions come from?” Sata asked.
“All citizens of my country are available for companion assignments. In the Transport Service we don’t do a lot of it, because we’re moving around all the time, but once I was called to spend a couple of weeks with a guy about my
age who was having emotional problems. During that time, the healers figured out what was bothering him and found him a new home where he would be happy.”
“Amazing . . .” Kibi said quietly.
As the tide went out, they continued their journey northward along the beach. A rickety wooden bridge spanned the mouth of a roaring river where it cut through the cliffs. Tera was nervous, but allowed Rini to lead her, both of them following Mati on her crutch. Once on solid ground again, Buna walked with Ilika, a mischievous smirk on her face.
“Let me see . . . your bracelet can make bright or dim light . . . feel horse vibrations . . . chime the hours . . . see when someone is coming . . . put people to sleep . . . and roar like a dragon. Anything else?”
Ilika only smiled.
“Can it make money? It seems like we never run out!”
He chuckled. “No, it can’t make money, Buna. I brought thirty-two great gold pieces with me, and each one breaks down into so many copper and silver pieces that it just seems unlimited. My biggest expense so far has been six great gold for slaves.”
“Slaves!” she blurted out with wide eyes. A moment later she relaxed and smiled. “Oh, yeah . . . us.”
As the sun started descending toward the ocean, they came to a cottage and asked if they could camp above the high-tide line.
The old fisherman and his wife welcomed them, but were unable to offer a meal as they had next to nothing themselves. The man’s hands were getting very stiff, he explained, and he was having trouble fishing.
Kibi immediately invited the old couple to join the group for dinner, and they gratefully accepted.
The students collected driftwood and pried mussels from the rocks, just as they had back at the cave. A few vegetables, some spices, chunks of bread, slices of cheese, and they were ready to share a feast.
The old couple wondered what brought such a group to the ocean so far from the nearest inn.
“Ilika’s a ship’s captain,” Miko explained, “and we’re his students. Some of us are going to be his crew.”
“That reminds me,” Mati said, looking at her stew, “I’m sorry for questioning your command this morning.”
Toli looked at the ground. “Me too.”
“Apologies accepted. What did you, or anyone, learn from it?”
“It’s like what we talked about before,” Boro began. “We can ask questions later, but when you give a command, it means right now.”
The old fisherman and his wife ate their stew quietly.
“Boro is right,” Ilika said, “but this is a little different. Mati thought she knew something that made the command seem wrong. She knew Ter was thinking of bolting, and knew that if she dismounted, she wouldn’t be able to keep that from happening. Am I right, Mati?”
“Yep.”
“What she didn’t know, and I didn’t have the time to tell her, was that I wanted Ter to bolt, considering what I had to do next.”
Boro nodded. “I see.”
“So what should we do in a case like that?” Rini asked.
“Right now, you know almost nothing about how the ship, and how my . . .
um, tools . . . work, so you have to have lots of trust in me. However, in most cases I still want to know your thoughts and observations, whenever there is time. So you should carry out the command, and share your thoughts as soon as possible.”
Rini
nodded.
“When the five of you who become my crew know your jobs very well, this will change a little. It is possible for me to give a bad command. I’m human
— I can make mistakes. If you’re very sure something’s wrong with my order, then it’s your responsibility to delay carrying it out until I explain it. In an extreme situation, it’s even your responsibility to refuse the order, maybe even remove me from command, by force if necessary.”
They were all silent and thoughtful as his words lingered in the air.
“Sounds like you are training your students well,” the old fisherman said.
“My wife and I are going in now.”
“Good
night!”
When the couple had gone, Ilika brought up another subject. “Toli, you experienced something back there that none of the others have experienced.
Can you describe it?”
“You mean what it felt like, or how embarrassed I was afterwards?”
Several people chuckled.
“Both.”
“Everything just faded to gray and then black. I never even felt myself hit the ground. Next thing I knew, I was up in the rocks. Then I remembered what happened. I remembered standing there hearing what Ilika said, and thinking that I wanted to discuss it first.”
Nearly everyone laughed. Ilika was grinning from ear to ear.
Boro said what others were thinking. “When eight men with knives want to rob us, kill us, or rape us, it’s just not a good time for talking.”
Toli squirmed. “I know that now. I’m really sorry.”
“You paid the price,” Ilika pointed out firmly. “But there’s something I want all of you to remember. My bracelet can put people to sleep. What if the person is on a horse or donkey, or standing on the edge of a cliff?”
“They could get hurt,” Mati said with big eyes.
“Yes. Even just standing, someone could hit their head on a rock and die.
It’s a defensive weapon, but it can be deadly.”
The following morning, the old fisherman went out in his little boat very early.
His wife ate breakfast with the group, then went to her garden to scratch at the ground and try to make something grow.
As the students were packing to leave, Ilika proposed an idea. They all checked to make sure they still had great and small gold pieces in their pouches, then smiled and nodded.
When the aging man returned with the rising tide, he had two small fish in his boat. His heart was heavy with worry, for this was one of the best times of the year for fishing in those waters. It took all his strength to pull the little boat back up the beach.
When he got to the old stump where he always tied the boat, there, on top
of the stump, was a great gold piece gleaming in the sun.
He looked around. The travelers were gone, and his faithful wife was at work in the garden. His heart suddenly felt lighter than it had in years.
Deep Learning Notes
A map shows the area north of Port Town.
Fostering (not to be confused with the current “foster care system”) and assigned companions (not to be confused with the current “mental health system”) are both ideas that have been used by communities in our history from time to time. They only seem to work in small, tightly-knit communities in which wise elders can oversee the people. Such communities have been rare in our history. What does this tell us about Ilika’s civilization?
Which student seemed most comfortable with the concept of following orders from the commander quickly?
After discussing it, we can see that Toli and Mati failed to quickly follow Ilika’s order for different reasons. How would you describe each one’s reason for doing what they did?
By admitting that he could make mistakes, and that his crew might someday have to relieve him of command, how is Ilika different from most persons in command?
In your opinion, did Toli really learn from the experience?
Considering that the great gold piece would probably make the fisherman and his wife LESS independent in the long run (they wouldn’t try so hard to catch fish and grow vegetables from that point on), was it a good thing for Ilika and his students to do?
NEBADOR BookTwo: Journey 141
