The Origin by Christopher Coleman

Author:Christopher Coleman [Coleman, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781791732912
Amazon: 1791732917
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: 2018-12-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

“It is so dark, Samuel. How will we ever find the woman you are looking for?”

Samuel and Sokwa were less than a half-hour into the trek, a trek that Samuel estimated would take just under three hours, and he could see early on that the Algonquin girl’s doubts were justified. The sun was down now, and with his eyes not yet adjusted, he felt nearly blind walking the single island road. And ‘road’ was a generous term for what it was. In truth, it was little more than a narrow footpath that had been carved through the forest decades ago and had been maintained very little. In many places, it was overgrown to the point of invisibility, and in no place was it wide enough to avoid the tickling pine needles on either side of the path.

But Samuel knew his own positivity would be key to completing his mission. Sokwa was daring, that was true, but she was also a child, a girl, and without the drive of purpose that Samuel possessed, he knew her enthusiasm for the adventure would eventually die.

But not now. It was far too early.

“We’ll find her, Sokwa. We must find her for Nootau’s sake. And I know we will as long as you ensure we stay on the path south. I’m depending on you for this, Sokwa.”

Sokwa checked the sky again and nodded and then pointed up to the heavens just off to their left. Samuel could see only the outline of her figure, but the whites of her eyes glistened in the moonlight, and there was a devoted focus in them as she scanned the dark canvas above. She quickly found the beacon and lowered her finger. “It is the South Star,” she said, almost as if to herself. “It is dim, I cannot point it out to you, but I can see it. We must continue in this direction.”

For the next two hours, Samuel and Sokwa walked at a brisk pace, fighting their fears of the screaming foxes and hooting owls, shrugging off the branches that grabbed for them as they carved their bodies through the forest, each step requiring a faith that was quite literally blind.

Samuel told a story of fiction as they walked, quickly inventing parts to the story, and then backtracking on them when they contradicted, acting as if the trauma of the day had been too much for him to remember it all accurately. He gave Sokwa vague details about this western woman, whom he’d obviously never met, explaining how she had met him and Nootau at the ocean beach on the day of Nootau’s disappearance, and that Samuel believed she had lured the boy to the cave they were heading toward now.

“But why did you make up the story of the shark?” Sokwa asked. “And Nootau’s death?”

“He had wanted to push himself. To explore and grow as a man, the way his father had encouraged. But he was supposed to be gone for only half of the day.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.