On Their Way
? Chapter Nine
THE STORY SO FAR: To Rainera’s delight, Dalton has announced that he will indeed accompany her up the mountain to see the Eagles.
Rainera hardly slept. There were butterflies in her stomach all night. In the morning, as the sky grew gray, she heard voices in the kitchen.
“I’ll be back in a few days,” her father was saying. “I know you’ll keep an eye on things.”
“I just wish Rainera would be less willful and impulsive,” her mother replied. “Remember when she took the hydro-boat and disappeared for two days? She said she wanted to see where fish went when they left our section of river. I think she’s scheming again. I just feel it.”
“She can be a handful,” agreed her father. “Remember the part in the Story when Eagle Mother chants, ‘I will not go, but will stay and protect these People,’ and none of the other Eagles can convince her to change her mind?”
“Of course. It gives me the chills.”
“Well, it always reminds me of Rain. She’s just as strong-willed, courageous, and headstrong.”
“You know, you’re right. There is a similarity,” said Mother. “I wonder how Eagle Mother’s parents dealt with her shenanigans!”
Rainera’s father laughed. “Let’s put that in the Story next year,” he said. “Eagle Mother’s parents at home, worrying. Ha!”
“That’s absurd!” thought Rainera. “Who knows if Eagles even have parents? And to think of them worrying!” Still, Rainera liked the idea that her parents thought she was like Eagle Mother.
“It’s another sign, for sure!” she told herself. “What I’m about to do must be right!”
She heard a few more muffled words as her father put on his jacket. Then she heard the door to Bilt’s room open and, a minute later, quietly close. Next the door to her own room opened. Father walked in, bent down by her bedside, and kissed her on the forehead. She kept her eyes closed, pretending to sleep. When Father left, Rainera heard the front door open and close, then the sound of her mother weeping.
“I want to comfort her, not make her feel worse,” thought Rainera uneasily. “Am I just being headstrong and impulsive, like they said? Maybe I should forget the whole thing. But this feels too important, like something I have to do. And I’ve had good signs!”
She heard her mother blow her nose and begin clearing the table.
“I don’t want to hear about the Eagles,” Rainera thought. “I want to see them for myself. Why is everyone so willing to live secondhand? Why don’t they rush up the mountain themselves? Why are they so … so …” She searched for the word. Tame! That was it. Somehow that made her more determined than ever. “I’ll tell Mom and Bilt all about it when I return.”
Now that Rainera’s mind was made up, she couldn’t wait to start. She leapt from bed, washed and ate, then helped Mother with chores. After she’d chopped an armload of firewood and stacked it behind the house, she asked permission to go fish for dinner.
“My, what a whirlwind you are,” commented her mother. “But yes, you can,” she continued. “Though the riverbank is slippery and the water freezing, so be very careful.”
“I will, Mother.”
Rainera packed some food, slipped a note partway under her pillow, where her mother was sure to find it later, then at last set out.
Though it was a clear day, with only a few flakes of snow drifting through the air, the mountain remained cloud shrouded. And now and then lightning once again flashed from among the clouds, and thunder growled.
Rainera knocked on Dalton’s door. She knocked again. At last the door opened.
“Didn’t you hear me?” she asked impatiently.
“No. That is, yes,” he answered. “I was putting food together and didn’t want to rush.”
She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Sometimes you just have got to get up and go!” she exclaimed.
“And sometimes patience wins the day,” he answered back.
“Okay. Point made. Are you ready now?”
“Yes.”
Half an hour later they were at the base of a trail. The path was snow covered and slippery, with no visible footprints. “I sent them up the main way,” said Dalton. “I thought we’d take the rim trail to make sure we don’t run into them. It’s steeper, but we’re young and strong, right?”
“Definitely. What are we waiting for?”
They started up, at times having to pull each other on. The trail was steep, and so slick with newly-fallen snow that in many places it was hard to get good traction.
They toiled for hours. Legs aching, Rainera paused at last, brushed snow from a log, and sat down wearily. Far below, the village looked as peaceful and quiet as the toy village of her dream in the storeroom. Smoke rose from tiny chimneys. The sound of a dog barking carried clearly in the stillness.
“This is how the Eagles see us,” she thought. “How small our world looks to them. How can they really know who we are?”
Suddenly Rainera missed it all, all those ordinary people and ordinary things. She almost wanted to run back down the trail and forget her foolishness and just be happy and safe at home. Instead, she forced herself to open her packet of food. After breaking off a piece of cheese and a hunk of bread, she handed the packet to Dalton, who nodded his thanks and did the same.
The hard work of climbing had given them focus. Now that they had stopped, they couldn’t help but think of where they were going and whom they were going to see. One of Dalton’s eyes was twitching. Rainera noticed that her hands were trembling, making tiny crumbs fall from her bread.
The lightning continued to pulse from above, and the thunder continued to roll.
“Well, if we’re going,” she said, brushing the pile of crumbs from her lap, “we’d better get a move on.”
• NEXT WEEK: The Unexpected