Waki: Part 1

WAKI

  By Jose Pino Johansson

  Waki the Wanderer

  Bright rays of sunshine pierced through the unclouded sky as morning arose in the land of Thugaanim. The Kingdom of Thugaanim, ruled by the High King Theldrick the Third, was the greatest and most powerful of the four kingdoms of Mauriya. From the giant capital fortress of Thugaariyaa, Theldrick ruled all the lands from the Great Mountains of the East to the Delfi river valley, home to the mighty Delfi river and much of the region’s farming villages. Many towns and villages lay in the Delfi river valley, across the river from the neighboring kingdom of Wyland.

  In the small village of Pirgaat, a young boy wakes up to the sunshine in his face. Stirring in his sleep, knowing that he must get up for his morning chores, Waki tosses off his covers and slips on a pair of old crusty shoes. Getting out of bed, Waki walks out from his dark and cramped bedroom to an adjacent room. Dipping his hands in cold rainwater from last night, he splashes his face, awakening himself for real. Waki walks back into his room, changes into an Abiiyan, a traditional farmer peasant’s suit, and heads to the hovel-like living room. In the circular room, his parents are already there, his father feeding some wood into the fireplace while his mother was busy boiling three eggs for breakfast. His father, Tyrigon, was a woodcutter and a member of the village elder council, while his mother Mara, was a typical loving and supportive farmer’s wife. During summer season she would often organize children’s games in the village, and on occasion help with preparation and serving of traditional feasts when neighboring villages were invited as guests to their own.

  Such was Waki’s life. A monotonous dry existence born out on the Delfi marshes, of tending the goats and chickens, helping the village build its levees before flood season, playing with the other village boys during summertime. Waki didn’t have much time outside of tending to the farm, but occasionally him and his friends would get out of the village and go exploring the farther bushlands that extended along the Delfi. Waki, and his friends Yago and Filnip, knew that if one continued to walk along the Delfi, far to the North, they would eventually reach the fabled Bridge of Wyland, the fabled bridge that led to the neighboring kingdom. But, according to the edicts of the crown, it was forbidden for any commoners to cross it, and it was so far away that none of the villagers, most of whom never traversed far from familiar territory, had even come close to it.

  Waki eats breakfast and goes to feed the goats, cleans the pigsty, and adds fertilizer manure to the corn and wheat. Afterwards he collects wood from the pile near the southern trail and heads back to the village. Dropping off the wood outside his home, he notices his friend Yago standing outside his house. “hey”, shouts out Yago, “You have to hear this! I saw a wizard today” “You’re joking?! A wizard?”, shouts back Waki in reply, “you must be dreaming!” “I’m not dreaming. I know what I saw”, replies Yago smugly. A short, squat, dark-haired boy, Yago is eating a few grapes as he continues, “let’s take a break, go on the north trail and see the wizard.” “There are no wizards.” “That’s what you think. You have to see him, then you’ll believe me. Its true though. I saw him.”, insists Yago. “Fine. But I have to be back before midafternoon.” “I’m sure we won’t take that long to find him, if he’s on the trail.” “Let’s go!”.

  Waki sprints off with Yago, quickly gaining distance on the northern trail. Soon enough, the two boys slow down to a paced walk.

  “How did the wizard look like?”, asks Waki inquisitively, suspecting his old- time friend of trying to tricking him. “He was a well built, older man.”, replies Yago, “tallish, with a pointed hat and wearing a long black cloak. He also had a great bushy beard.”

  “And let me guess, he also had a wand in his hand too?” “No, but he was carrying a dark satchel bag across his shoulders. Maybe he has the wand in there?”. “Sure, whatever you say.” The two boys continue along the road, stopping for a moment to look at some raadberries. “Let’s stop for a bite.”, suggests Waki. If the wizard comes along, we’ll hide in the bushes and wait for him to pass”. “Ok, let’s do that!”, agrees Yago.

  Waki walks off the trail, followed by Yago, until he comes up to several Raad bushes. Reaching out to the bush, he works his hand around the thorns and grabs several raadberries, stuffing them into his mouth. Waki chews slowly, savoring the sweet and sour taste of the dark purple, spiky fruits. Yago grabs a handful and begins gulping them down three at a time. Waki then carefully takes a few more handfuls and lies down on the ground, taking in the sights and smells of afternoon Pirgaat land. A bird chirps in the distance, as critters crawl around in the underbrush surrounding them. A bush rustles suddenly nearby, as a large skunk moves out from the underbrush. “Don’t move, don’t tease him!”, orders Yago forcefully, seeing the furry animal emerge between himself and Waki, “Let’s hope he gets bored soon and goes away.” Waki eyes the skunk, dropping down his gaze as the animal look at him before quickly meandering off through the Raad bushes into the surrounding undergrowth. “Whew. I hate tomato bathes”, comments Yago. Waki nods in agreement, before noticing that someone was coming up along the northern trail. They were walking in the direction of Pirgaat.

  “shhh!”, he whispers, before mouthing, “someone is coming on the trail”. Pointing that way towards the trail, Yago quickly comprehends and straightens himself on his stomach. Waki crouches down and quietly inches up to a large bush, which provides cover from the trail but enough space between its leaves for sharp eyes to keep an eye out on anyone walking along the road.

  The silent crunch of footsteps becomes louder as the boys’ hawk eyes scan the trail bend. Soon enough they are rewarded, as a stranger appears. He look just as Yago described him: tall, well built, with a large gray beard up to his waste and tall, pointed black hat. But it was the eyes that Waki noticed. A greyish hue, they had an intense, blazinging fierce look that took Waki by surprise. He expected a wizard to have a calm, serene look to him; after all, was this not a man who devoted himself to meditation, ascenticism, alchemy and the medical arts? Indeed, the strange wizard head a great big black cloak around him as well as the satchel bag across his seemingly broad shoulders. The stranger walked along the trail with his head held high and his eyes fixated on the road ahead. As he passed by their location, Waki thought that he saw the stranger pause for a fraction of a second, and rapidly flick his eyes around, as if he could sense that he was being watched. But, a blink later Waki kept his eyes trained on the wizard as he continued along on his determined pace towards the village. A few moments later he was gone, around a bend in the trail near several large bushes and pine trees.

  Yago, still lying down, turned his head to Yago, his eyes reading told you so! Waki slowly got up from his low crouch and made his way over, not conceding defeat. “See? See? Didn’t I say so? Can you believe it? A real, live wizard. And he’s going to our village!” “But we don’t know that.”, replied Waki cautiously, “and we don’t know if he is good or bad. What does he want, if he is coming to us?” the quick witted boy asks his friend. “Who knows? Let’s follow him and find out!” The boys run out of the bushes and onto the road, following the wizard.

  The boys followed the wizard for a while, eventually arriving back in Pirgaat. They returned to the center of the village, where they found Waki’s mother and father talking to the strange wizard looking man.

  “Father, what? . . . and how, do you know this man?”, exclaimed Waki excitedly. “We have, son, for a long time now. . .”, replies Tyrigon steadily, “And we have much to discuss. If you are willing to listen, son” Waki stared at his father with wide eyes, “listen what?” “Well,” begins Tyrigon sadly, “we have kept this from you for a long time, but you . . . are not our son. You are of another”. Waki is unable to believe his ear
s. His father, not his father at all?! After all these years? “No. no, it can’t be! You must be mistaken, father!”, cries out Waki, tugging at Tyrigon’s shoulder.

  “No, he is correct”, interrupts the wizard, “you, Waki, are not the son of Tyrigon the farmer. I have come to fetch you, so that we may go and see your real father.” The wizard looks upon Waki with his kindly, grandfatherly eyes. “But in order to do so, we must head north, along the Delfi, so that we may reach the Bridge of Wyland.” Waki and Yago both dropped their jaws at the mention of the fabled Bridge of Wyland. “But. . . that is soo far. None have gone there before!”, exclaimed Yago, half excitement and half in fear. “Not so far”, replies the wizard, “only a two week journey. But not to worry, I shall accompany you along to see to it that you reach it. We shall not only reach the bridge, but cross it and enter the Kingdom of Wyland.” “Wyland!”, exclaims Waki, furiously excited that his life had taken such a drastic turn. Then, sadly, he realizes that if he goes, he would not see Tyrigon and Mara for many moons. Tyrigon and