Wool of the Prince-- Chapter 18

Chapter 18

~1,725 words

Jay stayed in the inn with the trolls for the rest of the day while Shep spoke to other people around the city. It had sounded like Shep didn’t expect to find any trace of a sheep, but Jay remained hopeful. The trolls taught Jay how to play a game called “which road,” that involved cards and bluffing. It was a fairly simple game, and Jay got a hang of it right away.

While they played, Jay asked the trolls to tell him stories of their work as guardians of the road.

“It’s not always easy,” Godfrey started. “It take a powerful loyalty to your road, and skills to keep it safe. And a determination as ‘ard as iron. You have to be able to walk up and down the road in at least a week, no matter ‘ow long it is. If you can’t do that, you’ll never know what part might be falling apart, which bridge might have collapsed. If you ever see a collapsed bridge, it means there are no road trolls there, or they are the most inadequate trolls in Trevon.”

“It sounds a little dull to me…” started Jay.

“Oh it’s anything but!” exclaimed Gilfred. “There’s always new people to meet, and new challenges to face. It helps if you ‘ave interesting scenery too.” At this he puffed up a little. “And of course the pay’s not something to sneeze at.”

“There are always bonuses too, if the pay isn’t what you like,” said Godfrey, then laughed a dark laugh.

Jay was startled by the laugh. “What do you mean?”

Gilfred glared at Godfrey, then turned to Jay, pity in his expression. “There are sometimes travelers that… don’t make it. They’re thrown into bushes, or just left by the side of the road. Sometimes it’s thieves and bandits, but most of the time it’s natural causes. Of course everyone carries money with them when they travel.” Gilfred looked around uneasily.

Jay was aghast. “You steal from the dead?”

“Well it ain’t doing them any good is it?” Godfrey said defensively.

“I suppose not,” Jay murmured. He didn’t like the idea, but it wasn’t as if they had asked him to do it.

Eventually they tired of “which road” and Godfrey suggested that he tell a story. Jay agreed, and settled down in his chair to hear it.

“This is a story of how a man became part of the climbed his way to the stars…”

---

. Once there was a young man by the name of Menos. He lived deep in an ancient forest that since has been lost to time. He lived so deep within the forest that he had never seen the sky, just the leaves and branches that wove above him. But Menos was not a happy man. Every night he had a dream where he came home and felt happy, but every morning he woke up, in his home, and felt a desperate longing. He didn’t know what for.

There was an enchantress who lived in his forest village, and every year, she would grant one wish. Menos came to her one day and said “O great enchantress, who knows the footfall of every forest creature, I am lacking a piece of my heart. Help me find it.”

The enchantress looked at him with eyes as old as the mountains, searching for which piece of his heart was missing. Finally she said, “Have you ever seen the sky?”

Menos had heard stories from travelers about the sky and all her beauties, but he had never seen them himself. “No, I have not.”

“I believe this is what your heart is missing.”

“Then will you grant me my wish to see the sky?”

“Silly boy,” the enchantress said, laughing, “you don’t need a wish to see the sky. Just travel to the far reaches of the forest. At the edge of the trees, just look up. It will be there.”

So Menos did as she said. He traveled 5 days and 5 nights, and on the final night, he saw the edge of the forest. He ran until the final tree was behind him. Then he looked up. He immedietly felt a sense a vertigo, as if he might fall of the ground. He rushed back to the nearest tree then looked carefully up again. A dome of beautiful lights. The moon was like a shining lake, and the stars (there were fewer then) were like fireflies that had landed on the sky. But everything was a brilliant white, a celestial glow Menos had never seen before.

Maybe it was because the moon was full that night and he became a little bit moon-struck, maybe it was because the part of his heart that was missing was still up above in the sky, but for whatever reason, Menos longed to be a part of it.

So he ran back to the middle of the forest. He fell down at the feet of the enchantress, crying “I must touch the stars and hold the moon. Make this my wish for I cannot live without them beside me.”

She looked down on him, eyes full of pity, for she too knew the yearning to dance among the stars. “I grant thee thy wish, Menos.” She touched his forehead, then each temple, and Menos started to rise. He broke through the tree branches as his body disintegrated into a million glowing pieces. These pieces became most of the stars we see today. The stars that were already in his sky was the missing piece of his heart.

The moon is his best friend, for whenever she is not shining down on our world, she is conversing with Menos, the man who dances on a beach of stars.

---

“That was a beautiful story,” Jay breathed, after Godfrey had finished.
“Thank you. My mother always told it to me.” Godfrey’s eyes looked wistful. Gilfred looked like he was remembering the same thing, but he was silent.

The rest of the evening was spent talking about small things. When Shep returned, Jay’s heart lifted for just a moment, but seeing the weary face of the old shepherd told Jay everything he needed to know. Shep trudged into his room without a greeting to any of them. A few minutes later, Marc came in, looking a little guilty. He spotted Jay and the trolls, and came over, sitting in the seat next to them.

“I lost him there at the end. Has Shep come back yet?” Marc asked, looking around.

“Yes, he headed straight into his room,” answered Jay.

“Ah. I can understand why. We had to deal with some difficult people today.” Marc rubbed his wrist absentmindedly.

“Like who?”

“Well there was this old man who said he saw something strange and magical. When Shep asked him to show him where, the old man just smiled and shook his head. Shep had to get a little violent with him—he’s desperate, you know?—and he doesn’t like to resort to violence. When we got to the place, it turned out the only magical thing there was a con man doing magic tricks. It took its toll on Shep.” Marc sighed. “It was a long day of hard searching. And we didn’t even cover a quarter of the city.”

“That’s no fun,” Gilfred sympathized.

“No, it was not. Shep’s leaving tomorrow, but I’m going to keep looking, when I can. There would be no better place to hide a sheep then right here in the biggest city in Trevon. I’m sure there’s one here. I can feel it.” With that, Marc ordered fruitwashes for all of them.

Marc told more stories of difficult citizens as Jay sipped his fruitwash. It tasted like peaches, honey, vanilla, and of course, that one thing Jay could never recognize. When he reached the bottom, he vaguely wondered what the black crunchy things actually were. They reminded him of poppy seeds, but they didn’t have the same taste, and these were a little more… brittle. Jay was so absorbed in analyzing the contents of his fruitwash that he didn’t even notice Marc had asked him a question.

“Jay?” Marc prompted.

“What?” Jay looked up to see everyone looking at him.

“I asked you where you were from. Shep told me that you were from far away, but when I asked from where, he said that was yours to tell.”

“Oh. I’m from… well. It’s complicated. I’m from a different world. It has lights that don’t need fire, and machines to do complicated things. It has coaches that can move a hundred times faster than horses, and many inventions that you can communicate with people who live far away instantly. It has buildings that scrape the sky, hundreds of stories high. We have been to the bottom of the sea. We have been into space. We have landed on the moon.” Jay had told this to Fleta while they were traveling a while back, and she had had a hard time imagining just one of these things.

Marc threw back his head and laughed. “As if you could even touch the moon. Where are you really from? If you don’t want to tell me, just say so.”

Jay felt his face grow hot. “No, I really am from such a place.”

“Light without fire? What would be burning then?”

“It’s more like lightning. It’s called electricity.” Jay crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t care if you believe it or not, it’s where I’m from, and you can take it or leave it.”

“Haw! Electricity. Even that sounds storybook.” Then Marc settled a bit and said, “there was a point in time when I would deny the place where I was born. But right now I’ll admit it, seeing as it doesn’t really matter. I was born and raised in Grubania.”

“That’s the country that has always had tense relations with Trevon, right?”

“My word, boy. When you pretend to be dumb as that, your story’s almost believable. Yes, Grubania and Trevon have been warring on and off for years.” Marc shook his head and chuckled, seeming to marvel at Jay’s stupidity.

Jay decided he had had enough for one night, and quietly crept off for bed when Marc was distracted with paying the bill.