Chapter Two: Good Uncle
AFTER HE LEFT the kind uncle’s farm before the sun came up, he only had to travel a little further before he saw a wagon being pulled by a big, horned buffalo.
“Uncle!” he called, running towards the wagon. With any luck, and from the direction they were facing, they were heading in the right direction for Nilhin to join him for at least a little bit. He caught up to the driver, and held onto the side of his wagon to keep up with his pace. “Are you heading to Aurumte, uncle?”
“Just on my way back to Villas,” he said. “Where are you headed, kid?”
“Capvita,” Nilhin said. “Perhaps a travelling man such as yourself would know how far that is from Villas?”
“Capvita’s in Seritium,” the man said, bringing his hefty buffalo to a stop. “I can get you to Villas. I suppose you’ve never been to Aurumte, have you? From Keydaya, I’d bet.” Nilhin nodded, and then the man slid over on the front seat of his wagon. “Well, climb on. You can sit in the back if you want, but it’s still damp from the barrels I was carting to Atah. That’s a city that doesn’t fish much for itself despite settling right by a lake.”
Nilhin jumped up and sat beside the man. The man slapped his whip and the buffalo gave a low whine before it started to walk again. The road wasn’t nearly as bumpy when Nilhin was walking as it was once he was supported by this uncle’s wheeled wagon. It was like he could feel every single rock beneath them.
“Are you travelling alone?” the man asked.
“Well… I’m just going to visit my father, so my mother supposed it was safe enough, but I’ve never been to Aurumte, uncle. Was it that easy to tell?”
“People from Aurumte don’t call people they don’t know ‘uncle’,” the man said, “That only happens in Keydaya and Tbai as far as I’m aware. Maybe Naling, but I’ve never been that far south. You can call me Nehe.”
“I’m Nilhin,” he said in return. “So, you sell fish?”
“Fish and baskets. There are a lot of reeds where I live, and my wife and daughter spend a lot of time braiding and weaving them into baskets. Such lovely things they make. I couldn’t imagine sending my daughter out alone, especially when she was your age. You can’t be more than ten or eleven, right?”
“I’m almost fourteen,” Nilhin said. He had been told his youthful appearance would only benefit him, but it had never benefited him outside of the brothel he grew up in. He kicked his legs off the bench they were sitting in, his feet didn’t quite reach the bottom ledge that Nehe had his boots perched on. He had never met a fisherman or a basket-weaver before. He had only run errands and shopped from them.
“That’s still too young,” Nehe said. “Aurumte is not like Keydaya. Not even a little bit. It’s like a whole new world. If I didn’t have my life in Villas, I would definitely migrate west into Keydaya fully where it’s safer. Why do you need to get to Capvita? Do you know magic?”
“My mother bought me manuals so I could learn, but I’m not very good at it,” Nilhin admitted. Nilhin had never considered that the world would be different outside of Atah, not because he didn’t think it was possible, but because he had never thought he’d have to leave. Nehe grunted in response, and jostled the reins in his hands so that he could shove a wad of black herbs into his mouth. The man didn’t say much for quite some time, and Nilhin just enjoyed the countryside, and all the lovely fields. They passed by many farms, and most notably they had to cross a river over a large, wooden bridge to get to Villas.
Nehe explained that to get to Villas, even by cart, it would take two days. Then Nehe was kind enough to share a round of flatbread with Nilhin on the journey. As night approached, Nilhin drew his limbs towards himself to try and keep warm. Nehe shrugged off his coat and wrapped it around his shoulders.
“But you’ll get cold,” Nilhin explained, trying to give it back.
“You’re smaller than me. You need it more,” Nehe said, pushing it back against Nilhin. “You get some rest the best you can, and when you’re alert, I’ll let you hold the reins so I can take a nap. Every ounce of silver has got to go back to the farm, so I can’t afford to stay at any of the inns along the way.” Nilhin’s guilt, having silver on him, burned through his pocket and into his soul. If Nilhin paid back the kind uncle Nehe for helping him by buying them a room to sleep in, he may not have enough money at other times. He wondered if his many necklaces were worth something. Neither Nehe nor the man from the cottage before had commented on his jewelry, but sometimes he saw Nehe glance at it.
“Thank you, uncle Nehe,” Nilhin said, pulling his cloak tight around his shoulders. He leaned against the short side of the wagon, but when he woke up, he had gravitated towards the warmest thing he could, Nehe. The man had an arm cocked out at what had to be an uncomfortable angle in an attempt to not wake him. When Nilhin finally awoke, the sun had yet to rise, and Nehe looked just as tired as Nilhin had before he finally got some rest.
“Okay, they know where to go, but you need to make sure they don’t pull us too fast, the wheels just can’t take it. You can keep them from going off the path if you need to, but they’re pretty good about keeping on the right direction. I’ll just close my eyes for a minute, and you can wake me up if you need help or something just isn’t working right, okay?”
“Alright,” Nilhin agreed, taking the ropes from Nehe. The man leaned back, one leg hanging off the wagon near the rear of the buffalo, and his head fell back. His neck looked like it could have been broken, and his mouth was open. He started to snore quickly, and Nilhin held the reins in his trembling hands. It was actually quite easy, once Nilhin got used to it. Keep the buffalo on the path, and don’t let it go too fast because the wagon, while somewhat sturdy, was old.
Nehe slept until a while after the sun rose. It was the sun’s blaring light shining right against his eyes that seemed to finally rouse him. Nilhin had continued along the straight road with few problems, but they were approaching a fork, and it was just luck that had the sun wake Nehe rather than Nilhin. Nilhin may have had to stop just to work up the nerve to startle such a kind man awake.
After handing the ropes back to Nehe, the man took the left fork and they continued on their way. They stopped for the first time to let the buffalo drink some water, and graze on some of the tall grass that was poking out from the river’s edge. Nehe stretched and yawned. Nilhin thought these actions fit a man much older than how Nehe looked. Nehe’s daughter couldn’t have been much older than Nilhin with his rather youthful features, his skin being just as tanned as the other farmers that Nilhin had met.
“I’m gonna go over there and do my business. Make sure that the buffalo doesn’t run away, alright? You should take care of yourself, too. After that, I’ll worry about getting something to eat. There’s probably some berries around here…” Nehe waved Nilhin off as he headed down the lake and into the sparse row of trees lining the grassy river beach. Nilhin watched the buffalo, but it didn’t look like it really wanted to be anywhere besides near the water. It drank and ate lazily, chewing the grass with half lidded eyes, paying no mind to Nilhin as it did so. Nilhin ran off to look for berries, so that he could save time for Nehe.
Every now and again, he peeked out to make sure the buffalo was right where he left it, and it always was. Nilhin gathered juicy berries in the front of his shirt, the kind that he foraged out in the bramble behind Ya Brothel. They were definitely edible, and he had seen many birds try to snatch them up before he snagged them first. He popped a few in his mouth and chewed them. They were a little tart, but they were more refreshing that way.
By the time he returned, the buffalo had migrated down the beach, but was still chewing on the frilled grass fronds that sprouted at the water’s edge, and Nehe had yet to return. Nilhin deposited the berries in the wagon and walked towards the buffalo. He picked up some of the grass that she seemed to enjoy, and tasted the end. He spit out the bitterness he chewed from it and held it out to it. It could keep eating the grass all it wanted. As he walked with the buffalo, he saw fish in the water, a fat-headed one with pearlescent gray scales. He waded in slowly to try and grab it.
The poor fish never even saw him coming, and he grabbed it with his hands. He tossed it onto dry land and shook himself free of water. He picked up a big rock and bashed the head in on the fish. He dragged his nails down the fish’s underbelly, slicing it open and tossed the insides out. He hoped that Nehe would appreciate this. Nehe seemed like a man who might be sick of eating fish, as a fisherman himself. He could only really try to pull the skin off with the scales, since he didn’t have a knife. Struggling to do that was how Nehe found him.
“Whatcha got there?” Nehe asked.
“A fish!” he called, walking towards him. He held it out, his finger hooked in the gill. “I don’t have a knife, so I can’t really get rid of its scales. Mother just pulls flips them inside out and eats them like that, though. I figured since you’re a fisherman you might know how to do it better.”
“How did you cut it open here then?” the man asked, pointing to how Nilhin had gutted it. His brows furrowed as he tried to recall. He had used his nails, and this didn’t seem strange to him. Both he and his mother had very long and sharp nails, no matter how much she had tried to shave them down on him, citing that he wouldn’t need them. They were very handy now that he was out on his own, though, so maybe he could grow them a bit.
“I used my nails,” Nilhin said. “But I didn’t have a proper knife to descale them.”
“That’s alright, I’ve got a knife we can use,” Nehe said. He reached out and ruffled Nilhin’s hair before he wrapped an arm around him, letting him hold the fish, while his other hand held the reins on the buffalo. When they returned to the wagon, the man reattached the buffalo to the harness that pulled the wagon, and he looked at the pile of berries. Nilhin grabbed a handful and ate them.
“We get these all the time. They’re pretty good. I just spit out the bitter ones,” Nilhin explained.
“Are you sure these are safe?” Nehe asked. “They look a lot like baneberries.”
“I think they’re safe, I’ve been eating them for a while now,” Nilhin said. He looked down at them. They looked, grew on the same plant, and tasted exactly like the bushes he foraged from at home. He had been eating these for a very long time and they had never made him sick, but Nehe was more experienced in the world, and he was a farmer on top of it. Perhaps he would know.
“How about I stick to the fish,” Nehe said. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, kid, but…”
“I understand,” Nilhin said.
Nehe took him to the water’s edge and showed him how to quickly descale a fish, using the sharp end of his knife. Once he rinsed the fish off in the water, it just needed to be cooked. Nilhin had eaten lots of raw fish before, but Nehe had looked at him funny when he said that.
“Oh, I hear that the people of Naling do that sometimes,” Nehe said, but that was the end of it. Nilhin had never met someone from Naling, at least nobody that came to speak with him or his mother about anything other than her profession, and he hadn’t known that. He had read in a book he stole from a student in Naling that they weren’t supposed to eat any of their foods raw. Nilhin still thought that such a rule was stupid, because fish tasted better raw, and he couldn’t imagine cooking his berries.
Nilhin continued to polish off his stack of berries, while Nehe cooked the fish over a small fire. The man kicked some dirt to smother the flames, and ate his fish-on-a-stick on the road. They continued that way for quite some time, well past the midday when the sun was the hottest.
“We’ll be there by morning, Nilhin,” Nehe said. “Then we can figure out how to get you all the way to Capvita.”
“You don’t have to help me anymore than you have uncle Nehe, you’ve been so kind as it is. I really wouldn’t wish to trouble you anymore than I already have,” Nilhin said. Nehe waved his hand dismissively.
“Please, if you’re trying to get to Capvita, you’ll need all the help you can get, and it doesn’t hurt to have a native to the area on your side. Plus, I’m sure my wife and daughter will just adore you. At least stay for the night so you can get some proper rest,” Nehe insisted. Nilhin nodded.
“I will, as long as uncle Nehe is certain it’s no trouble for him,” Nilhin agreed. The man patted him on the back.
“You’re a good boy, Nilhin,” Nehe said before he pulled his hand away to put more of the blackened herbs into his cheek. The man spit similarly brownish-black sludge on the ground as they drove past. Nilhin thought it looked a lot like the herbs that his aunties would smoke in their pipes, only Nehe didn’t use a pipe for it.
They continued on until night, where Nehe wrapped Nilhin in his cloak again, and this time, with no pretense, held his arm out so that Nilhin could cuddle beneath it. Nilhin did just that, resting his forehead against Nehe’s ribs. He missed the comfort that being with someone kind brought -- he missed his mother. He didn’t want to find his father, and he was only going so that his father, apparently wealthy and noble, could get a proper doctor to help save his mother.
“Nilhin?” Nehe asked. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, uncle Nehe,” Nilhin said between his sniffles. The man sighed.
“Why are you really running all the way to Capvita? Did something happen?”
“My mother’s dying,” Nilhin admitted, his voice shattering into a thousand pieces. “She wants me to find my father, a man who I’ve never met, so that he can help us. But I’m so afraid that when I get there… that by the time I come back, when I finally have a doctor with proper medicine, my mother…” Nilhin rubbed his face against Nehe’s ribs, wiping his tears on his shirt. “And I will never get to tell her all the things I need to because she’ll be gone, and I’ll have missed it for some stupid man who probably doesn’t even love us!”
Nehe sighed again, and then with the arm that wrapped around Nilhin’s back, he rubbed his shoulders.
“That’s rough, kid,” Nehe said after a moment. “That’s really rough, but there is a silver lining, don’t you think?”
“I can’t see it if there is,” Nilhin admitted. “What is it, uncle Nehe?”
“Well, by the time you return, you’ll have learned enough to live without your mother, even if you wish you didn’t have to. She’s helping you grow stronger. She’s preparing you for life. Isn’t that what good parents are supposed to do for their children?”
“I don’t want to live without her,” Nilhin said.
“Sometimes, no matter how unfair, we just can’t get what we want,” Nehe said. “It’s harsh, and it’s horrible, but it’s the truth. Do you know what she was sick with?”
“I don’t know. She coughed a lot, and blood came up with it. She couldn’t breathe right, and her body hurt her all the time… Whatever that sickness is, I guess.”
“That sounds like how my father went out. After a particularly rainy season, after he worked out in the thunderstorms because we needed the money for my sister’s wedding… he just started to cough, and we thought nothing of it. Then blood started to come up, and then he was stuck in his bed. Then, one night, he just didn’t wake up. I like to imagine it was painless.”
“Then you know that I have to find someone to help her,” Nilhin insisted. “You know that I can’t let her… ‘go out’ like that.”
“I understand your rush now, for sure,” Nehe agreed. Nilhin nodded against him. It seemed that Nehe knew more than just farming and fishing, he was far more experienced in life than Nilhin had given him credit for. He was lucky to have met such a knowledgeable man during his journey. “But I also know that a day won’t change much of anything.” Nehe sighed and stroked the back of Nilhin’s hair. “Why don’t you try to get some sleep?”
“Thank you, uncle,” Nilhin said, pulling his legs up underneath his body.
Nilhin woke up at dawn, when the sun hadn’t quite made it over the horizon, but its light had begun to shine despite it. In the distance was a small house white smoke curling out of the crooked chimney. He wriggled out of Nehe’s loose grip and sat up. He rubbed his eyes a few times before he looked at the house.
“Is that your house?” he asked.
“It sure is,” Nehe said with a smile, “The ol’ homestead.”
“It looks so cozy,” Nilhin said. Nehe laughed as he guided their buffalo through the gates into a pond-filled yard. Water had been cordoned off to flood specific areas, pits in the yard. Grains grew in the shallow depths, but Nilhin couldn’t tell which kind. There were baskets partially submerged in the water with strings attached to them. Nehe pulled the reins up and the buffalo stopped outside the roofed porch.
From the front door, a round-faced woman came bustling out with a woven basket in her arms. Tucked behind her was a young woman, quite a few years older than Nilhin. She looked like she could be near his mother’s age. His mother, who despite his aunty’s words, had no gray hairs nor wrinkles to make her seem older. In fact, his mother had never aged at all as far as Nilhin could tell -- his aging aunties were just jealous of her steadfast looks.
“Nehe,” the woman called, “I’m glad you’re back… Who’s this you’ve brought with you?”
“This is Nilhin,” Nehe said, putting his hands on Nilhin’s shoulders. “He’s travelling to Capvita and asked me to help him get there.”
“Capvita?” the woman asked with a stunned look. “Why would he ever want to go there?”
“Eh, it’s his business to tell, if he wants to tell you,” Nehe said, hopping off the wagon, only to turn back around and pick Nilhin up beneath the arms. He set Nilhin on the ground before he started to untether the buffalo from the harness on the wagon. “Why don’t you make sure he’s taken care of, while I get this old girl back in her stable for now.”
The woman ran down the steps, her large breast bouncing as she did so, before she stood in front of Nilhin. Nilhin looked up at her. Her smile didn’t make her rugged and strong stature any less intimidating to Nilhin, who had only seen slight and dainty women for most of his life. In fact, slight and dainty people were the most sexually desirable by the masses, and thus it was those kinds that worked at the Ya Brothel.
“I’m Tsani,” the woman said, holding a hand to her chest, her half-woven basket beneath her arm. “This is my daughter, Angla.” She stepped back so her daughter was in front of her, and she held a strong hand on her daughter’s shoulders. Angla was beautiful, in the way that Nilhin more commonly thought of women. Like her mother, she had dark brown hair, and a strong, curved nose, but her lips were far daintier and pointed greatly at the bow. Her arms were similarly wiry as opposed to her mother’s bulk and muscle.
“This one is Nilhin,” he introduced, standing back lightly to properly bow, his hands clasped in front of him. “It’s nice to meet you both. Your husband, and father, has been very good to me.”
“I’d hope he was,” Tsani said. “Why don’t you come inside? I’m certain we still have food for you to eat.”
“I wouldn’t want to take from you…” Nilhin began.
“Oh, don’t start with such nonsense. There’s plenty,” Tsani said. “Well, if you come.” Tsani headed inside, and Angla followed behind her. Nilhin peered around the house to where Nehe said he would be in the shed, but he didn’t see either the man, the buffalo, or the shed. He continued into the house instead.
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