“I have not.”
“Well, I guess you can share with me. But you’ll have to earn it.” Quentin showed Babel a bowl of fruit.
“Wait, why don’t we split what we have?” Babel walked back to his shack and grabbed his backpack. He pulled out a small brown sack and carried it back to Quentin. Inside the sack was a loaf of bread that he had purchased as he left the city the day before. “Here, have some of this.” he said, pulling the loaf in half and passing to Quentin.
Quentin smiled. “If you think this is going to get you out of work today, you’re wrong.”
Babel laughed. “Have you forgotten to whom you are talking? I am the Császár. You do what I say, not the other way around.”
“Keep that up and see where it gets you.” Quentin retorted with jest.
The two of them sat and ate, enjoying the morning quiet. Quentin looked over at Babel. “We will have to leave today.”
Babel was confused. “What do you mean leave? I just got here. You have not been here long. Surely you want to visit with your people. I would enjoy getting to know them.”
“It’s not a decision we made lightly. The entire village will come with us. The Klopph know about this village and they know that I grew up here. They will have noticed that my body disappeared from the morgue. The Keeper is a very intelligent man and, given his resources, will soon determine the truth behind my death as a boy. They will come here looking for me.”
“Do you think they know that I would come here?”
“They will suspect that you and I know where each other are. They will begin their search in this village.”
“When do you think they will be here?”
“They will be here sometime today or tomorrow. We will not be here to find out. We leave in an hour.”
Babel reflected on the morning. “Jims and Krista were so calm.”
“What do you expect? Life in the Outerlands is a daily battle. Everything that the people have, they worked for. The Klopph surround these lands but leave people alone unless they have orders not to.”
Babel nodded. “Are they ordered to often?”
“Not often. But periodically, the Keeper feels the need to remind people that he has control.”
“And so he reminds us today?”
Quentin nodded in agreement. “So is life in the Outerlands.”
Babel thoughts turned back to Jims and how calm he was. That sparked his recollection of what Jims had said to him that morning. “Why did you tell Jims that I am afraid of being naked? I’m guessing Triana said something to you.”
Quentin’s somberness turned lighter and he smiled. “Harmless enough. It makes you uncomfortable, does it not?”
“Not uncomfortable. People where I come from don’t just strip their clothing wherever they feel like. In fact, that can get you trouble.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing we are not where you come from. Here people feel the body is something that we all have. If it is seen by others, who cares? We all have skin.”
“Alright, let’s just forget it. But please don’t tell anyone else that. I’m a big boy and can handle being around other naked people.”
Quentin laughed. “Fair enough. Now, you’d better get your belongings.”
An hour later, they began the trek deeper into the Outerlands. The plan was that the group would split, dividing north and south to confuse the trail. Those groups would split further, some doubling back and others following rock trails before the entire group converged in a designated location several miles away.
As they started off, Quentin turned around one last time and looked at his childhood home. He did not know it then but that would be the last time he would see the village.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
“From the look of the village, they were here only this morning.” the Kaptajn observed.
The Cancellarrii nodded. “It certainly seems so. Did you find the trail?”
“We found several. Each moving off in different directions. I imagine they all intersect again at some future point but it will take some time to explore each and determine where.”
The Cancellarrii sighed. He knew the people in the Outerlands well; he had been raised in the Outerlands. They were a crafty people – they had to be. “And the energy source?”
“There is none that we can pinpoint. The energy of the Chokka seems to be everywhere at once.”
“Have your men divide and search each trail. I would expect several of those trails to double back. We must take our time and not be misled.”
The Cancellarrii dismissed the Kaptajn and considered the village around him. It was not dissimilar to his own childhood village. The Keeper had grown up in a similar village as well, just to the east. The Cancellarrii reflected on their first encounter.
The two met hunting for their respected village. It was nearing winter and the game had begun to move, forcing them to hunt further from their home. This was the two young men’s first winter hunt and a chance meeting of the two villages in the wild sparked a friendship between the two young men.
Over the period of the next few months, the two met several times to hunt together. It was during these hunts that the two young men began to talk seriously about their futures. Both would soon each would be expected to marry and start a family. Neither were content with that prospect and determined that there had to be more to life than what currently existed for them.
When the summer came, both men decided to leave their village to explore the world around them. As they traveled, the spoke with others, convinced other young men to join them. Soon a group of several hundred men
