Creative Commons – The Plainsrunner – Chapter Nineteen

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Sage packs up and leaves Skylight’s home. She’s got new lodgings.

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Chapter Nineteen – Moving

“I don’t know how much more of that I could have stood.” Digger was walking fast, apparently unaware that Sage was having to work to keep up.

“Oh, come on,” said Sage. “How could you not be interested in that?” She trotted a few steps. “Did you know before today that there are only a few of these in the whole world?” She raised her left arm with the glider lashed to it. She wasn’t taking any more chances with it. Not only was it valuable in itself, now it was the key to her future. It meant a job, money and a place to stay, and she knew enough about this city to know what those things meant. “Hey,” she said, trotting again, “how much did you even know about these things before yesterday?”

“Not much,” he said, “and life seemed to go on anyway.” His head was moving as he scanned the street for trouble. Maybe he’d been a little bored and now he felt like he had to hurry, but that didn’t make him forget where he was.

“Yes, but …” She hurried alongside him. He was on her left, to help her protect the glider, and she was walking close to the building fronts, her right hand on the hilt of her knife. All four of her eyes were intensely taking in everything. She was getting tired of having to keep up with his long-legged gait, though. “Digger!” she said. “Could you slow down a little, please?”

He looked at her, surprised, and slowed his pace. “Sorry,” he said. “I guess all that waiting around made me impatient.”

“You didn’t have to just wait around,” she said. “You could have joined in. It was fascinating.”

“Fascinating for you, maybe. You and your professor. And your gliders.”

Years later when she was thinking about it, she would wonder if Digger might have been jealous. Then and there, though, it didn’t occur to her. It was her present and her near future that filled her mind, and she had no reason to think he might be. “But they’re not just our gliders,” she said. “They’re part of a … what did he call it?”

“A global phenomenon.”

“Yes. A global phenomenon.” She savored the words, neither of which had been in her vocabulary before today. To her the world had been the plains, until yesterday when she added the city. Now it was a whole planet. A globe spinning through space. Her mind felt expanded and alive. “The gliders are part of a global phenomenon, so they’re part of a bigger mystery. And I’m part of it.” She grinned at him.

He had to grin back. As much as he might have been bored, and whatever else he might have felt as he watched them with their heads together, he couldn’t help sharing her pleasure at her good fortune. He was a digger and helping newcomers was what he did. He was pleased that this one had so quickly landed on her feet. Tomorrow he would be finding another one to help and this one would be just another of his contacts. One day he would be using Sage just as he was using Skylight now. He said, “Yes you are. You’re part of something big and important.”

They walked quietly, thinking their thoughts. Then Sage said, “That was awfully nice of the Professor to give you the money anyway, wasn’t it?”

“Yes it was,” he said, “although he didn’t stand much of a chance, did he?”

“What do you mean? All I did was give him a chance to do the right thing, and he did.”

He laughed. “Of course he did. Anyway, thanks. This money will really help. I know two or three people who could use some help right now.”

“And how about you?” she said. “Isn’t there anything you need?”

“Like what? I don’t need anything.”

“Well, that blanket,” she said, eying a few threadbare spots.

“What’s wrong with this blanket? This is a good old blanket. I don’t need a new blanket.”

“Sure,” she said, laughing.

The buildings she was passing as they walked were different from the ones she’d seen yesterday evening when she first arrived. These ones were taller for one thing. Nearly twice as tall. And along the street here, a lot of them had windows. These were bigger than any windows she had ever seen anywhere else, and they were fully glassed in. Behind the glass, displayed to be seen by people passing by, were things for sale. Further inside she could see people moving amongst shelves and racks holding more things. Digger had told her that people came to these places to buy things with money. With all the things for sale in there, Sage imagined there must be a really big workshop out back, filled with many artisans making them. She’d forgotten what Digger said about mass production.

They were passing in front of one of the places that Digger called restaurants, and Sage was looking at the people eating when she realized that she was hearing something. Her ears were getting used to the sound of the city, and now they could pick out something that she had thought was just a background noise. Something like the susurration that was almost always there as the wind moved the grass. It was a kind of rushing sound, like an unseen river.

When she mentioned it to Digger he said, “Traffic.” Then he said, “Come on. I’ll show you.”

They took a side street and walked a few of Digger’s blocks, the sound getting louder as they went. Sage began to see big wagons crossing back and forth up the way, but there was no one pulling them. They were going faster than people could have pulled them anyway. She slowed down as they approached the intersection, and Digger had to encourage her.

“It’s okay, Sage,” he said. “It’s just cars and trucks.”

“But how are they … What’s making them go?”

“They have engines,” he said. He frowned, lips pursed, then said, “We have ways of burning fuel and turning it into motion.”

She nodded. She could work that out later. For now she said, “But how do they know where to go if no one’s pulling them?”

“They have a driver,” he said. “See the person standing near the front? They have controls to guide the vehicle.”

She did see, and now she could see that the drivers were watching closely as they went, and did have their hands on what must be the controls. Some of them were standing in the open, and some were enclosed within cabins. Some of the vehicles were smaller and seemed to be carrying only people, while others were big enough to carry a large amount of goods.

When Sage asked why people would ride in one of those things instead of walking, he laughed and said, “Riding is quicker if it’s any distance, and of course some people are too important to walk. They like to prove it by riding.”

Sage understood that. She was old enough to know about vanity. So she just asked, “If it’s quicker, then why aren’t these vehicles on all the streets?”

“It’s more efficient this way,” he said. “These main routes can get you quickly from one part of the city to another, then it’s never very far on the secondary routes to your destination. People can walk a few blocks and goods can be transferred into wagons pulled by people.” He looked down at her feet. “That’s one of those heavy jobs where you would wear iron shoes.”

She curled her nostrils. “It’s noisy,” she said, “and it smells bad.”

“That’s true,” he said, and they turned to get back to where they were going.

Skylight surprised Sage with her emotional reaction to her departure.

“I thought you’d be glad to see me gone,” she said, handing her the mended sack.

Skylight huffed, her arms crossed. “I thought it was going to be two or three days,” she said, “not just the one night. I’m just surprised, that’s all.”

Star wasn’t trying to hide how he felt. He stood beside his mother looking as if he was going to burst into tears, and he did when she hugged him good-bye. Skylight didn’t cry when Sage hugged her, but her voice was husky when she said, “You take care of yourself, Sage. And watch yourself with that professor. You can never trust anyone who’s too smart.”

Sage promised to be careful, and to keep in touch, then she set out for the university, Digger at her side. She turned a few heads on the street, with her panniers on. She had her glider lashed to the right one, and Digger walked on that side to protect it. At his insistence, she wasn’t carrying her spear in her hand, so it was sticking up from its sheath on her left pannier. What attracted the most attention was her necklace, hanging around her neck and rattling as she walked.