The Stone Bird
Chapter One
‘Can you hear me?’
Adam awoke from a restless sleep to find himself lying on the ground. A man with a grey beard and long, brown robe was leaning over him, a look of concern on his face. Tethered to a tree behind the man was a donkey, laden with goods.
‘Where...?’ Adam groaned. He tried to move, but his head ached terribly. ‘What...?’
‘My name is Fontus,’ the man said soothingly. ‘Your home was attacked. I fear your parents—’
It all came rushing back to Adam. Letting out an anguished cry, he climbed to his feet and saw what remained of the home he had shared with his parents. Fire had reduced the once sturdy stone building to ruins. The ceiling had collapsed and the walls were black with soot. The fences holding their cattle had been torn down and the animals slaughtered.
But Adam’s attention was quickly drawn to something else: two figures lying motionless on the ground at the front entrance.
‘No!’ he cried.
Scrambling over to where his parents lay, he fell at their side. The life was long gone from their eyes. Adam had not cried for many years. He was eighteen years old and prided himself on his manliness, but now the tears filled his eyes. He felt the world weave around him and darkness claimed him once more.
When Adam next awoke he saw that day had passed into night and that he was now lying on a blanket next to a small fire. To spare him further anguish, Fontus had taken him away from the ruins of the burnt home to a small clearing near the river. It was the same place to which Adam and his parents would sometimes come for picnics.
As he lay there, Adam remembered that Fontus, now stirring a pot over the fire, was a travelling merchant who would come this way to exchange goods.
‘My boy,’ the old man said gently, seeing Adam was awake. ‘How do you feel?’
Adam swallowed. How did he feel? His world had turned upside down. His parents were dead, their farm destroyed, and everything they had built had been destroyed in a single day.
‘Terrible,’ he said, despair in his voice. ‘I feel terrible.’
‘I understand,’ Fontus nodded. ‘I too lost my parents when I was very young.’
‘It was the Dagarni,’ Adam said. ‘The Dagarni killed my parents.’
‘The native people?’
Adam and his parents had moved here when he was only seven. They had settled into their small bend of the river, living off the land and making some money by trading goods with travelling merchants, such as Fontus.
All through the years an uneasy peace had existed between Adam’s family and the Dagarni who lived further up the river. They had left each other alone, one not interfering with the other.
Then a new chief, Prendah, had taken over the tribe. He had quickly emerged as a far more aggressive leader than his predecessor. Resenting the settlers’ presence, he had confronted them, telling them to leave. Adam’s father, though, had steadfastly refused. There had been an argument, and the chief had stormed off, making it all too clear that they would pay for their trespass.
Adam and his parents had assumed it was an empty threat—until that morning when a warrior cry split the air. A group of men attacked, quickly and ruthlessly. While Adam and his parents had tried to fight them off, it was over in mere seconds.
Gingerly touching his forehead, Adam remembered one of the men had struck him across the skull with a flint axe, knocking him to the ground.
Fury welled within Adam. ‘I will kill them!’ he yelled, clenching his fists. ‘I will make them pay!’
‘Revenge is not the way,’ Fontus said, his voice calm. ‘Actions born of hatred inevitably serve only to produce more and greater hatred.’
‘Then what would you suggest I do? They killed my parents!’
Fontus regarded him silently. ‘For now, you must do no more than eat and sleep,’ he said.
‘What!? I must attack the tribe! I must—’
‘Attack the tribe?’ Fontus allowed the words to hang in the air. ‘Can you defeat an entire tribe by yourself?’
Adam said nothing. It was obvious that he could not.
‘I have cooked a rabbit stew,’ Fontus said, diverting the boy’s attention away from thoughts of revenge. ‘Eat and get a good night’s rest. Despite everything, the world will look different in the morning.’
Even though Adam did not feel hungry, he nodded and ate the bowl of stew offered to him by the travelling merchant. Soon after, with another blanket placed on him by Fontus, he lay back on the ground.
But thoughts raged in Adam’s mind as he stared up at the night sky through the gaps in the trees.
I will avenge my parents, he thought. I will.
Early the next morning, Adam awoke to the sound of Fontus packing bags to load onto his donkey. Watching silently, Adam remembered what the old man had asked the previous night.
Can you defeat an entire tribe by yourself?
Adam knew he was in no shape to fight anyone. For now, as he contemplated the future, the hopelessness of the situation brought tears to his eyes.
I can’t go on, he thought. I should just lie down and die.
Fontus finished packing the donkey before handing a sack to Adam.
‘I buried your parents,’ he said. ‘Then I searched the ruins for anything that survived the fire. This is what I found.’
Opening the sack, Adam peered inside. There was the gold coin his father had kept hidden in case they ever returned to civilisation, as well as some tools for stone carving. His father had taught him how to carve, and Adam had quickly demonstrated a natural ability and flair.
The last items were sculptures he had made: a bear, a tree and the piece he had given his parents at the last solstice—a stone bird in flight.
‘You must honour your parents by getting on with your life,’ Fontus said. ‘You must leave this place and make a new home. Honour them by becoming the man they would want you to be.’
‘No,’ Adam said. He could not imagine living anywhere else. ‘I...I will stay here. This is my home.’
‘Adam,’ Fontus said, staring into the boy’s eyes. ‘You will not survive if you stay here. The Dagarni came here once. They will come again. A war is brewing between them and the Telang. This whole area is dangerous.’
‘I don’t care,’ Adam said, miserably. ‘It makes no difference to me if I live or die.’
He was surprised to hear those words coming from his mouth. It was how he felt, although he had barely acknowledged it himself. He felt adrift, as if he were marooned on a makeshift raft, alone on a vast ocean.
Adam peered at Fontus, expecting him to appear surprised or disappointed. Instead, the old man was nodding.
‘Many people never truly live,’ Fontus said. ‘They exist as if their lives are eternal. Then one day they look in the mirror and see an elderly face peering back. Their lives have passed by without them noticing.’
The old man gripped Adam’s shoulder. ‘My boy,’ he said. ‘You can lie down here and die if that is your wish. I will not stop you.’ He paused. ‘But there is another path.’
‘What is that?’
‘Choose to embrace life with all its beauty and terror. Be a part of it. Face the day with an open mind, acknowledging the past, but always looking to the future.’ He stared into the boy’s eyes. ‘Choose to live.’
Lesson 1: Choose to Live.