open, sitting by our fire, and let them see we are not hiding. Let us invite them to take us if they will. They will feel my wrath if they do.'
No one but Benjin seemed to know what to make of the change in Catrin. He had accepted her as the Herald and let her be in complete control of their destinies. The others had known Catrin most of her life-and theirs-and seemed to have a difficult time accepting her now as the figure of legend from the prophecies. But they had seen too much of her power to deny it, and slowly they came to believe.
'As you wish,' Benjin said with a short bow. He walked ahead to look for dry wood; Chase matched his stride. Strom and Osbourne remained alongside Catrin as she headed toward the campsite.
'Is there anything you need us to do, Miss Catrin?' Osbourne asked, looking uncertain.
Catrin sighed. 'Please don't call me 'Miss Catrin'… not you or Strom or Chase. You're my friends, and I need you. I'm sorry I bossed everyone around and was so mean,' she said, sounding much more like herself.
'Oh, that's all right, Miss Catrin, ' Strom said with an impish grin. 'We know you have the whole 'Herald of Istra' thing to contend with. We could probably forgive you for being weird.'
'I want you to dig,' Osbourne said in a high-pitched voice, 'from here'-he posed and pointed-'to here,' he finished with a flourish.
'You best be careful, Osbo. You don't want risk the wrath of Miss Catrin. Fear the wrath, boy. Fear the wrath,' Strom said as he ducked away from Catrin's playful jab.
While she was relieved to know she had not lost her friends, Benjin's behavior concerned her. His sudden change in personality was as bizarre as her own, and she needed to talk to him soon, but she feared she would insult him. She had looked up to him for so many years, and he had always been the first one to help her with her unusual ideas. She would never hurt him on purpose, but she did need to understand some things about him.
When they reached the top of the hill, Chase and Benjin were setting up a fire circle beside a small supply of firewood already stacked to one side.
'You're absolutely certain about the campsite and the fire, Catrin?' Benjin asked.
His use of her name annoyed her for reasons unknown, and she suppressed her irritation. 'Yes, this will be fine. Strom, Osbourne, you asked if there was anything you could do, and now there is. Would you gather fish from the puddles please?'
Strom and Osbourne both nodded, and they left seeking fish.
Catrin turned to Chase. 'Can we talk for a moment, please? I really need to know your opinion on something.'
Chase raised an eyebrow and nodded before following her. A nearby tree grew around a large bolder, cradling it in its massive trunk, like a great claw clutching a mystical orb. Catrin climbed atop the bolder and sat cross- legged.
'Do you believe I'm truly the Herald of Istra?' she asked. Chase had always been her closest confidant, and they trusted one another. Before their tragic deaths, their mothers had been quite close, and Chase and Catrin had spent most of their childhoods together. Chase had the same pain she had, and she knew he would be honest with her.
'I think…' He paused a moment, thoughtful. 'I think I do, Cat. I mean, all the signs are there, and you have shown your power.' He pondered for a moment then returned the question. 'Do you believe you are truly the Herald of Istra?'
'Yes, I do,' she replied. 'I didn't want to believe at first. I tried to tell myself it was all coincidence, but things just kept happening, no matter what I believed.'
'What is the Herald supposed to do?'
'I have no idea,' she admitted. 'I wish I did know; it would certainly make things easier. I guess I'm supposed to destroy the Zjhon, but I'll be boiled if I know how or why.'
They sat quietly for a while. Strom and Osbourne returned with an abundance of fish, and Catrin watched them while her thoughts drifted.
'What did you do on the plateau today? I mean, how did you hit the ground so hard? I've never seen anything like that.'
'It's hard to explain,' she began. 'It's like trying to describe an eagle's call to someone born deaf or a sunset to someone born blind. I guess in this sense, I was born blind, but something opened my eyes. I'm still uncertain about a great many things, but I'll give you my best guess. I think the comet flooded our world with energy, and somehow I can gather that energy, focus it, and release it. I'm not exactly sure how I do it; that's just how it feels when it happens.'
'I think I understand. What opened your eyes?'
'It could have been a number of things, I suppose, but I think it was Peten's staff.' She paused. 'Something inside me snapped. I can't tell you exactly what happened, but I'll tell you what I remember. When I saw my reflection in the wood of his staff, I knew I saw my own death approaching. I think my conscious mind accepted my fate and waited for the killing blow. Perhaps it was my unconscious mind that reacted instinctively.' She realized how strange her words sounded, but they were the closest thing she had to an explanation.
'Well, Cat, this is how I see things: You're the Herald and you have great power, but you don't know how to control it. Your instincts seem to tell you things the rest of us cannot hear. I don't think you're any different from the rest of us, except that you've had some experiences that expanded your mind. The prophecies say you'll destroy the Zjhon nation, so I guess we should concentrate on doing that first.'
Catrin saw thousands of complexities, and Chase had reduced them to a few simple statements. She shook her head and laughed. 'I'll get right on that nation-destroying thing.'
The pain in her left thigh got her attention as she got down from the boulder. Most of her body was sore, but her thigh felt different; it felt as if she had a small spot of sunburn. Then she recalled having pain in her thigh while she was engulfed in power. She reached for the tiny carved fish still in her pocket, precisely over where she felt the sting.
The carving looked worse than she remembered, now dull and chalky. It retained its shape, and even in its current state, it was oddly beautiful, and she was surprised it hadn't been broken or crushed during her misadventures. She guessed it must have bruised her leg during the climb, and when she could find no other reasonable explanation, she accepted that.
'What've you got there?' Chase asked.
'I found this while I was exploring the passage beyond the cavern; I had completely forgotten about it. It looks like a carving of a fish, don't you think?'
'It's pretty crude, but yes, I'd say it resembles a fish. I don't think you want to keep it in your pocket if you want it to stay whole. Here, I have something for you.' He reached into his shirt and pulled out a plain and simply made silver locket, its worn surface dented and scratched. Catrin had seen the locket many times but had never seen what was in it. It hung from a necklace made of thin leather strips braided together and tied in a knot.
He deftly separated the strips and removed one. He retied the two remaining strips and slipped his necklace back on. 'You never know when these thongs will come in handy,' he said with a wink. She watched him form a tiny noose from the leather thong. He extended his open palm, and she placed the small carving in his hand. He looped the little noose around the tail of the fish, and created a necklace that firmly secured her carving.
'May you wear it in good health,' he said, placing it in her hand. She admired his handiwork, holding it up and studying it for a moment before slipping it around her neck. She let it hang outside her shirt, so it could be seen.
'It's beautiful in its own way. Don't you agree?'
'It's a lot like you, Cat. If you look hard enough, it's kinda pretty,' he said with a smirk. 'Perhaps you're both jewels in the rough.'
He ran ahead of her back to the campfire, drawn by the smell of cooking fish. Benjin and the others were eating fish and drinking the last bottle of springwine. More fish roasted over the fire, with a plate of fillets waiting to be roasted.
'I give thanks to the mighty fishermen who have provided so well for us. My compliments to your skills,' Catrin said with a smile.
The day had left them tired and hungry, and the fish were satisfying. The springwine disappeared, and they wished that bottle were not the last. Despite their exhaustion, restlessness set in. Benjin kept a watchful eye on the surrounding land, alert for any movements, but the night remained peaceful and still.
