"Lindsay Pratt." She looked me in the eyes, stone serious. "You need to leave."
"Excuse me?" I asked, not sure if I'd heard her correctly.
"The village. You need to leave the village," she clarified quickly. "You need to find those answers. You and your friend might be the tribe's only hope." I raised my eyebrows. Maybe this woman was whacky.
"Leave?! To where?" I exclaimed.
Martha thought for a moment. "We're almost at Ackon. You and that boy need to hike ahead of the peoples until you reach the river. Once you get there, you need to go upriver until you hit the next village. After that, well, you'll see," she explained mysteriously.
I began to imagine having an adventure with Nathen, seeing Ackon River, meeting new people . . . I quickly shook off the idea. There were far too many holes in the plan. What about our families? What if we got stuck in the other’s size? What would happen when we reached that village? No, it was a stupid thought.
"I'm afraid not, Miss Martha," I replied as politely as possible, then quickly left the tent. I kept thinking she must be insane, but deep inside, something told me she was right. And even if she wasn't, the tribe was still in danger. I had to do something. Anything.
I went back home to my family after talking with Miss Martha, but the subject of leaving still tormented my mind. My heart longed to get out of my normal, everyday life, and if we did go, it could save my tribe . . . or so Martha said. After rolling around in bed for a couple of hours, I decided that I'd talk with Nathen as soon as possible about the whole idea.
This put my mind a little more at ease, and the two nights of bad sleep finally caught up with me, causing me to be still as stone throughout the rest of the night.
"Lindsay . . . Lindsay . . ." someone whispered in my ear. Suddenly, my name was screamed, and I jumped up, startled. "We're moving today!" Mason shouted at me, his tone filled with excitement.
"What?" I groaned, rolling away from him.
"Get up, lazy!" He rolled his eyes. "We've got work to do, remember? We're moving again today!"
We were moving today, and we'd get to Ackon in only two days if all went according to plan. I jumped off the floor. Normally I never liked moving. I mean, we'd been hiking for weeks, moving locations every few days. But this was the last time we were going to pack up. Even if I didn't like the river, I was determined to make a home out of Ackon if it killed me. For my sake, and for my family's sake.
Mason shoved something into my mouth, half-choking me. I didn't even bother trying to guess what it was. I just chewed and swallowed as quickly as possible.
"There. See? Now you're done with breakfast and you can go help Mom with packing." He started out of my part of the tent.
"Why the rush?" I asked, following him out. He sighed impatiently.
"Everybody else woke up two hours ago," he stated. "I wanted to wake you, but Mom said you needed your sleep."
Two hours?! I rushed outside. Mom was packing up the last few things, Dad was starting to take down the tent, and the tribe shuffled about, doing the same. I ran back inside and quickly changed. The next half-hour consisted of packing and throwing bags into beetle-pulled carts, taking down tents, and arguing with Mason about where our rooms would be in the cabin we would build at Ackon. Before I knew it, the tribe was on the move.
Some people walked, others rode on their lizards, others drove the carts.
Because there wasn't any extra room in the family cart, I carried my own bags. It wasn't much of a bother to me. It's not like I owned much more than my clothes and other essentials.
I slowed my pace so I walked behind my family. Mom was busy keeping Mason out of trouble, and Dad was busy driving the cart. That was my chance. I made a straight shot to where Nathen and I had decided to meet. Sure enough, he was there leaning against a tree, seemingly deep in thought. I darted toward him, avoiding obstacles such as sticks, leaves and mud.
I stopped at his feet. He continued staring off at Ackon as I swung my arms, attempting to get his attention.
"Don't bother looking down," I muttered, then kicked his shoe. White light flashed in my vision, and a groan from in front of me caused a mischievous smile to spread across my face. That had worked better than expected.
Without a thought, I skipped right to telling him what Miss Martha had said. "Ridiculous, right? I just can't stop thinking about it."
"She seems to know something." He shrugged. "Maybe we should consider."
"Yeah, but what about our families? We just leave them out of the blue, for who knows how long?" I bit my lip.
"That's something you worry about afterward. What we need to worry about now is your tribe. If there is someone, or something, in one of the Ackon villages that could prevent what my father plans, then we probably shouldn't be hesitating," he suggested.
I pursed my lips and nodded. It wasn't really surprising he thought this. It was exactly how I felt.
The Upperlanders packed up the last of their things, starting the two-day journey to Ackon. They weren't very far away, and all their stomping and ruckus caused the ground to shake under our feet. Nathen, sensing my discomfort, held out his hand. A smile spread across my face as I took it. Just as we had the day before, we closed our eyes, trying to summon an unknown magic. After just a minute, that white light and punch-in-the-stomach feeling alerted me that we had just changed our size. My eyes adjusted much quicker than usual, and I became aware of the view Nathen had been admiring before I’d shrunk him.
Ackon was flowing much faster than usual, splashing around rocks and branches and watering all the life that was near it. It was quite beautiful from a distance, but I had a feeling that once we got there, it wouldn't seem so pretty as chaotic and disturbing. I could imagine all the noise the splashing made. How it would drown out the birds' song, how people would have to yell to be sure their message was heard. In all the weeks I had stared at Ackon from these mountains, I'd never seen it so active. So excited. Almost as if it knew something terrific was about to happen that we didn't know about.
I suddenly realized I'd been staring at the river for a whole ten minutes, and Nathen was watching me patiently. I shook my head, turning my focus on our situation.
"So you think we should do it? Go to that village?" I asked quietly, staring at the ground. Nathen nodded.
"We both have enough things to last the journey," he said, eyeing my backpack, and gesturing to his. I'd packed a few dresses and other necessities, and if I ever ran out of clothes I could easily pick another leaf, fold it and sew it into a dress.
We started walking toward Ackon together, hiking as quickly as we could down the mountain.
I still couldn't believe we were about to do this. Leaving my tribe and walking into the unknown with an Upperlander and some strange size-changing magic was something I never really expected to happen to me. Especially at the age of fourteen. But two things pushed me on. One, Miss Martha had said this would save my tribe. Two, I was still extremely curious about this new magic that Nathen and I shared. Part of me wanted things to go back to the way they had been before. On the other hand, another part of me said that whatever lay in that village was going to get me out of my boring everyday life.