THE CASTLE, PART 1

THE CASTLE – Part One

Anna’s feet ached with each step on the rough mountain path.  She had seen the top of the castle in the distance, white and beckoning, just before turning this curve. Finding a flat-topped boulder, she sat down, kicked off a shabby shoe, and rubbed her foot.

Oh, why had she come here?  The castle hadn’t called to other people.   No one else in the village had been plagued with this compelling wonder.  Everyone was content to sit in their small homes and work their gardens and simply survive until old, and worn out.

But from Cabon’s Point, just outside their village, she could see the castle gleamed like a tiny gem in the distance, tempting her.  Jable, the cobbler, had said it was a bad omen, her being so curious when the ancient tales warned of such behavior.  No one who’d ever set out for the castle had come back to tell the story.  So when Oma, the baker, withdrew from Anna’s inquisitiveness, it took years to allow herself even a glance at the gleaming temptation again.  After all, Oma knew everything about anything, including the secrets of Adjin and the Universe.  She knew why He had created everything and where He’d gone afterward.  Therefore, if Oma was afraid, then everyone in the village was afraid.

At one point while navigating the mountain path, Anna had turned to look behind her through the mountain peaks.  She could see the pasture where the village lay so far away.  Shaking her head slightly, she had twisted her lips sideways in resolution to continue.

A Nechomae vine hanging from a crag overhead slapped the rock wall in the breeze and caught her attention.  These beautiful flowering vines only grew in this mountainous region of Antillor and they produced some of the most applauded flowers in the land.  She imagined that during the creation, the Nechomae had asked for the best view and that’s why it hung so high above.

Watching the vine, comforted her. She had taken a grave risk coming here.  If the castle turned out to be a disappointment which resulted in her return home, it would be late fall by the time she arrived in the village. There would be no chance of producing a garden and her over-winter survival would depend on the charity of family and friends. Their help, of course, would be grudgingly given, and their reprimands would freely flow for a very long time.  In old age, she would be the object lesson taught to children on shunning foolish curiosity.  But for now, like this vine, she would continue her perilous trek.

Sliding the shabby shoe back onto her foot, she stood to finish this unadvised quest, and once more focused on her need to know this castle.

A crow flew overhead and landed on a dead branch jutting from the mountain wall. His reprimanding caw made her jump and caused a Tindaloo to scamper from his rocky home. Anna set her jaw and stood unyielding on the stony path staring up at him. Then defiantly she took a step forward and continued walking. Losing interest, as most bullies do, he flew away as she filled her lungs with crisp air.

At last rounding a steep curve, Anna came to stand before the gate to the castle.  It loomed nearly five times her height.  Rock moss had leeched onto the greenish metal bars excepting for the well-worn hand-hold.  Grapevines had thickly intertwined making it impossible to see anything more than shadows on the other side.  But there were sounds.  People talking, horses trotting and a flute accompanying the smell of herbs, and spices, and bantille roasting.

Her stomach growled and she trembled, placing her hand on the bar.  What had she come to find?  What reception lay inside?

She closed her eyes for a moment in thankfulness to Adjin for the success of her quest.  Then she steadied her rushing heart and pushed.

(Go to Part Two)

Experiences journeying with Father