Beyond the Valley of Mist by William Wayne Dicksion Page A

on it
a little.
    Lela just looked at her and
smiled, and then they lay down on the beds and were soon fast
asleep.
    But Zen and Jok couldn’t
sleep; there was too much to see, so they went outside to look
around. They walked to the edge of the village, where plants were
growing in straight rows in flat sections of earth. Some people
were tending the plants, while others were gathering fruit or
gathering the seeds of plants.
    “ This is so strange,” Jok
marveled. “I don’t know what to make of it.”
    The people working in the
fields looked up, smiled, and waved as Zen and Jok walked by. They
waved back and walked on.
    “ Jok, don’t you wish our
priests had not banished Zor, and we had learned from him how to do
these useful tasks? This is a happy village.”
    “ We were not allowed to
learn except what our priests thought we needed to know. For
example, we had to worship the Fire God. If we learned other
skills, they were afraid we would defy them. Zen, we must learn
everything we can here and share this knowledge with our people. We
can have a happy village also.”
    “ There is so much to learn.
We will each concentrate on certain areas. That way we can learn
more quickly. Let’s go tell the girls what we've
decided.”
    When they got back to the
house, they found a man and a woman talking to Lela and Ador. The
man was telling them that the feast would begin when the sun
touched the earth.
    “ Why start so early?” Zen
asked.
    “ It is the most sacred time
of day, because that is when Father Sun and Mother Earth join to
make new life,” the man explained. “That is how men and women are
supposed to live also. Rest now, and we’ll come back for you
later.”
    The Zorians had brought
clean garments for the girls, who looked beautiful in
theirs.
    Lela told Zen and Jok, “The
Zorians placed small containers of water to drink from in the
bedrooms; the large containers are for us to bathe in. There's
fresh fruit on the shelf in the main room, in case you’re
hungry.”
    Zen and Jok marveled at the
containers and wanted to know what they were made of—something
light, yet very strong, shiny as the sun and polished very
brightly.
    After the men had bathed
and dressed in their new garments, Zen called the girls over and
said, “There is so much to learn, it's almost overwhelming. So if
we each concentrate on a couple of areas, we’ll learn faster, and
then we can teach the others what we've learned. Lela, maybe you
could learn to weave wool into garments and blankets. Ador, perhaps
you could learn to grow plants and turn them into food. Jok, you
could learn how to make mud blocks into houses. I will learn how to
raise animals for food.”
    “ Why don’t we just stay
here,” Lela asked, “and make our home in this village?”
    “ We could do that,” Zen
answered. “If that is what you want, then that is what we’ll do.
But I think we’d be happier if we started our own village. I want
to find a way around the Valley of Mist so we can rescue our
parents. We’ll also bring anyone who wants to come back with us.
That way, we’ll have our families and friends with us. We, too, can
create a happy village.”
    “ That’s a wonderful idea,”
Ador agreed. “I so much want Mother and Father to know that we made
it through the valley.”
    “ I also believe it would be
better to start our own village,” Jok added. “If we stay here,
we’ll never see our families again, and in time, we’ll lose the
right to make our own decisions. The Zorians live by their own set
of rules. I say, let’s start our own place.”
    “ I think I know how we can
get horses we can ride,” Lela interjected.
    “ You do?” Zen and Jok asked
in surprise.
    Ador remembered the colt,
smiled, nodded her head, and said, “If we had horses, we could
travel faster, and it would be easier to bring our families here.
Don’t forget, we still have to deal with the priests, and their
penalty for trying to escape is death by burning.