Free Awaken by Michelle Bryan Page B

Inviting him to eat with
us…to camp with us for the night! We don’t know who he is….what he
is! I don’t think he’s quite right in the head! He could slit our
throats in the night for all we know!” I cain’t believe the boy was
foolish enough or stupid enough to do such a thing.
    “ He could slit our throats
in the night whether he’s making camp with us or not Tara, he knows
we’re here,” he says. Okay, so maybe not so stupid. “Besides, Cat
won’t let no harm come to us. And he says he’s a storyteller….and I
like him. He’s funny.”
    Tater reappears before I can respond to
this. He is leading a dappled gray mule laden down with two leather
saddle bags on either side. Cat stiffens at the sight of the mule
but Finn gives her a stern “No Cat! Winnie is not food! You don’t
eat Winnie!” and as if the beast understands she lays down with her
head on her paws and looks the other way as if saying ‘it don’t
interest me none anyways’.
    “ Here we are. This is my
Winnie, my most loyal traveling companion. And Winnie these fine
young folk are….well I do not know now do I? I’m afraid in all the
excitement I did not get your names.”
    “ I’m Finn,” Finn pipes up.
“And that’s Tara, and this is Cat.”
    “ Finn and Tara…and Cat. All
excellent names indeed. Are you brother and sister by chance?” he
asks.
    I snort at him. “Do we look like we’re
kin?”
    “ Well no you do not but then
again I do not resemble my family at all.” He smiles but eyes me
strangely. I ain’t had a chance to braid my hair since my wash and
it’s now almost dried by the warm evening air. I can tell this is
what he’s looking at.
    “ You have the most striking
hair Tara, I do not believe I have ever seen such contrast. Black
and white is usually a combination reserved for the old folk, but
for you....someone so young, rare indeed. And
so….symmetrical.”
    I don’t like his interest in my hair, I
find it very unsettling. As if noticing my unease he then smiles
and rubs his hands together eagerly.
    “ Now, about that
snake.”

    Well Tater truly wasn’t lying about
being a storyteller. His storytelling was even better than Thomas’
and I wouldn’t have ever thought that to be possible. As much as I
didn’t want to, I fall under his magical spell just as much as Finn
does. We listen entranced as Tater speaks of life before the Shift.
He tells stories of the settlers with their magic picture boxes and
their tall sky buildings with their moving floors that went up and
down. He tells us about their great cities that had spread out over
leagues and leagues, so full of buildings and people you could
hardly move. We listen, and for a while we forget all of our
misery, our troubles and get pulled into the tall tales. It was
real nice. And we had been so caught up in the stories I ain’t even
noticed that between the three of us and Cat we had eaten the whole
snake. I knew we should have saved some for the road but it was
just so damn tasty! Finn hadn’t lied. I decided snake was now my
favorite thing to eat, well next to sweet berry bread. Thinking
about the bread makes me think of Miz Emma, and I push it away. Not
now.
    Our bellies full of snake and our heads
full of tales, we were now all laying content ‘round the fire.
Tater had gone quiet and was sipping something from a flat tin
flask he had pulled out of his jacket pocket. From the way he would
screw up his face at every sip I reckon it wasn’t water. Cat was
cleaning herself and occasionally swatting at Finn as he flicked
her ears teasingly. I was poking the fire with a stick, stoking the
flames, when Tater speaks again.
    “ Now your turn,” he says,
pointing his tin flask at us. “What are two fine young people such
as yourselves doing out in the middle of nowhere with a tame devil
cat? Which by the way, no one is ever going to believe when I tell
this fine tale.”
    Finn looks at me as if to do the
talking. I hesitate. I don’t want to