“I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to do over the next four days and I would like to find my friend, Araena, but I don’t know where to start. I don’t think she’s in Korlas anymore, but my visions haven’t given me the answers I was hoping for.”
My guardian glanced toward me, and I wondered if he thought I had no place becoming an oracle. He didn’t say it; if anything, he was helpful.
“What did your visions show you?” he asked.
“Nothing. Well, almost nothing. A week or two ago, they showed me the sky, but I don’t know what that could possibly mean.”
Karulo leaned back against the rock as he thought it over. “What do you associate with the sky?”
I thought about it for a moment. I knew there were those in the eastern lands who associated the sky with the afterlife, but my people weren’t one of them. When I thought of the sky, I thought about those places closer to it.
“The mountains?” I asked him questioningly.
He nodded. “That’s one possibility. If it’s the one you feel is right, it means it’s more likely to be accurate. Your insights are worthy of your trust, and the more you trust them, the more they’ll show you.”
I wondered how he knew, but then I realised his ancestors had also been the guardians of oracles. They’d likely helped and witnessed the struggles of oracles, time and again, over the generations. Maybe Karulo had learned from them?
“Then let’s go toward the mountains,” I said. “I don’t think we can reach them in four days if we walk, but perhaps I could borrow or hire a horse.”
“I can change into a horse, you know?” Karulo suggested.
I wasn’t prepared for the suddenness of the change. One moment he sat beside me—a man, more handsome than I felt comfortable with, knowing he was a gryphon. The next, a horse materialised beside me in his place. It looked like any other normal horse with one exception: its white coat was streaked through with blue strands of fur, other than its mane and tail.
“That’s impressive and incredibly helpful,” I said, grinning. “We might actually be able to do this.”
The horse was silent and merely waited on me. I didn’t think he could talk in his present form but I knew better than to make assumptions at this point.
There was no saddle, but I shouldered my bag of belongings and climbed up on the horse’s back. He started off along the beach toward the distant mountains. We had a long way to go, but I was sure we had time enough to search for Araena and return before the ceremony.
The mountains were often capped with snow in the wintertime, and on a clear day you could make out the details from Korlas. There was a large city near the base of the mountains, close to the sea. That was the port of Salfrey. Further into the mountains there was a smaller town, little more than a village, called Erilnes. However, I couldn’t think of a strong reason that Araena would be there. Nevertheless, it remained a possibility because it was closer to the sky.
I wasn’t sure if Karulo would understand me in his horse form—I thought so, and that’s why I talked to him.
“You’re probably wondering why it means so much to me that we find Araena. She was an older girl who lived down the hill from me. She was the closest thing to a sister I had, and we always talked about what we’d do in the future. One day, a few years ago, I was out walking and I heard her arguing with her father. You have to understand, that wasn’t like her. She was normally a quiet person, though she had a wicked sense of humour at times. I miss it.”
We rode through the waves that washed up on the beach, and then Karulo guided us off the shore, beyond the cliffs. We followed a path that cut through a pine forest and sheltered us from the warm sun. I didn’t know this area well, but I knew that sooner or later we’d reach the edge of the city and somewhere beyond that we could find the Northern Road.
As we rode on, I continued.
“I heard Araena’s father tell her that she couldn’t see her friends anymore. I was her closest friend, and I don’t know why he’d say that, because he’d always treated me like a member of the family. Maybe I didn’t know him as well as I thought, but I feel like there had to be more going on that I didn’t know about.
Five days later they moved away. I got one last chance to say goodbye and she apologised to me, though she refused to tell me why. Araena said she couldn’t tell me where she was going, but she would write to me when she had the chance. I waited, but it didn’t happen. One month became a year, and then three. I don’t know what happened, but I worry for her, Karulo. And yet, it could just be that the circumstances were strange and she didn’t bother writing.”
My heart sank, but I knew why I needed to see Araena again. I didn’t just need answers—I could find them as an oracle. I wanted my friend back and I missed how happy I so often was in her company. When she left, it was like I’d lost a part of myself too. She was family to me, even though we weren’t related by blood. I tried to have faith, because I knew that if I was supposed to find her, I would. I just really wanted to, now more than ever.
I patted Karulo’s flank as we travelled on between the tall pine trees.
