Gathering of the Chosen by Timothy L. Cerepaka Page A

know
everything, don't you?”
    “Not everything,” said Tinkar. “But most
things.”
    Saia, unfortunately, must have had a much
weaker disposition than Carmaz, because he actually threw up. It
was mostly liquid, but the sight of his friend throwing up made
Carmaz's stomach retch, forcing him to look away to avoid joining
his friend in illness.
    That was when Carmaz noticed that they
were standing in the village square of Conewood. It was a village
of about three dozen or so huts, with an old well set in the center
of town where anyone could gather water (even though the well was
dry half the time). Tall jungle stood on the outskirts, surrounding
the village on all sides, but Carmaz was so used to seeing the
jungle that he didn't have any strong emotional reaction to it
except to note that he felt happy and safe being back home, even
though Conewood was hardly much safer than the rest of the
island.
    Right now, Carmaz did not see anyone else
in the village out and about. He at first found it odd before
remembering that it was in the middle of the afternoon, which was
usually the time that the entire village of Conewood napped inside
their huts. That was because it was usually too hot at this time of
day to do anything else. And indeed, with the sun's rays beating
down on him, he wished he could be inside his own hut taking a nap
right now.
    “Allow me to wake up the people,” said
Tinkar, raising his hand.
    Carmaz was about to ask Tinkar what he
meant when the god waved his hand. Not a second later, the doors of
the huts opened and all of the villagers streamed out, heading
toward the village square as quickly as they could, like they had
been summoned by a mysterious force that they could not deny.
    In less than five minutes, the entire tiny
village of Conewood was gathered in the village square. This was
the quickest that Carmaz had ever seen everyone gather like this.
It was rare indeed for the villagers of Conewood to gather here. In
fact, Carmaz could name only two other times that this type of
village-wide gathering had occurred, and both had been several
years ago when Carmaz was much younger than he was now.
    The villagers were a sorry lot in
appearance. Most were quite thin due to a lack of food to eat and
very dirty due to a lack of soap and water in which to bathe. One
man, who Carmaz knew as Wood-foot, was missing a foot, which had
been replaced with a block of wood that was held on by rope. And,
although some of the villagers were descended from the old Ruwan
Royal Family, none of them looked rich in the slightest.
    Yet none of the villagers dared to speak
or move toward Carmaz or Saia, even though Carmaz could tell that
everyone was both surprised and happy to see that the two of them
had returned to the village safely and in one piece. All eyes were
on Tinkar, as if everyone knew who this god was but were too afraid
to actually talk to him.
    The silence was broken when a young girl
shouted, “Carmy!” and dashed out from behind the adults. She
slammed into Carmaz's legs, almost knocking him over despite her
small size, and hugged his legs fiercely as she said, “Carmy, I
missed you! I thought you weren't ever going to return.”
    Despite the serious situation, Carmaz had
to smile as he looked down at the young girl clinging to his legs
like she thought that she could keep Carmaz from leaving through
her childish strength alone. He swept the girl up into his arms,
hugged her tightly (much to her delight), and then rested her back
on the ground, saying, “I'm glad to see you as well, Frissa. And
see, I even brought Saia back with me, too.”
    The young girl, Frissa, looked up at Saia
with her dark, innocent eyes. Saia spread his arms as if he
expected a hug from her as well, but then Frissa said, in a rather
monotonic voice than before, “I'm glad to see you are alive, too,
Mr. Saia.”
    Saia's smile vanished as quickly as if
Tinkar had teleported it away and his arms fell to his sides. “Hey, I was