Open A mysterious visitor

[Thomas Corbin]

Winter 513

I woke at noon when the cold winter sunlight finally shone through my eyelids. There was a frosty winter chill permeating the air and I was at once eager to find shelter. I was perched in my tent on the shore of Lake Ravok, only a few minutes away from the city. Hastily I packed all my possessions back in to my bag and mounted Bertha, my horse.

I had been putting off this moment for as long as I could – I was by then quite used to the absence of human presence and was a bit apprehensive about jumping straight into civilisation again. Nevertheless, one can only stay out in the cold for so long. I picked up the rains and reluctantly Bertha started trotting towards the shore’s edge.

It wasn’t long before I realised what should have been obvious all along – that I needed a boat to even get near the city. For a moment, I felt like a total idiot. But then I saw a small boat bobbing just out of sight behind some bushes. All that tethered it to the nearby tree was a thin, rather mouldy rope. It broke easily enough; I barely had to touch it for it to start falling apart. At this point my veins filled with that familiar adrenaline, the reason I stole things in the first place. Now I felt fully awake.

I pulled the boat closer to the shore, careful not to damage the rope. The boat, fortunately, looked sturdy enough to hold both Bertha and me without tipping over. Gently I urged Bertha onto the boat, careful not to let it wobble in case Bertha bolted. Once she was in, I clambered over the side and looked around for a method of propulsion.

For a while, I panicked. Then I found some oars inside the small cabin. This was going to take some effort.

With my arms burning, lungs contracting, I made it over the lake to the docks. The clamour of busy people struck me immediately as strange, so at peace had I been with the tranquility of my journey. It took me a while to set my head straight, to think over all the noise.

I wasn’t sure where I could anchor the boat safely, so I just found the closest bit of land and got off there, leaving the boat to float off back into the lake. I was proud of myself for thinking of that – it would just look as if the rope had rotted through and released the boat, which had just floated wherever a current happened to take it. No-one needs to know about this visitor.