“How about if I wheel you along on my cart? That way you won’t tire yourself.”

  “I suppose if I didn’t have to walk, I could travel some.”

  “What about me?” Asked the prince. “I want gumfruit.”

  “I will bring back more than enough for everyone. Besides, you have much work to do with your smart new discovery, yes? Ho ho! You will collect as many gels as you can find until the sun is high and then take a day of leisure. Yes, enjoy the day and rest for you have worked very hard!” Prince Damron looked convinced by the beasts. words.

  “I wouldn’t mind taking it easy for a little while.”

  “Who doesn’t enjoy a bit of relaxation? Find as much as you can. Upon my return I will make us a great pot of spiced fish and green onions! So delicious! Come, Hoxley. The young king’s progress suffers by our talking.” Hoxley followed Bohga back to the cave and climbed aboard the cart. The cyclops in turn grabbed a bit of bread and water for them to enjoy and fashioned a makeshift cover to provide shade for her. “There.” The beast smiled. “I believe that should make things more comfortable.” A long slope to the north east didn’t have steep parts to it so it was nothing for Bohga to push the cart up and out. Past the perimeter of his home, Bohga took up a slow but even pace pushing the cart across grassy plains. Hoxley reclined and didn’t mind a bit of travel free of walking. Her head felt better, and the canopy kept her from getting hot as she reclined upon the crude cushioning he’d provided. Across one field and on to the next they moved, the only sounds being the wind and occasional creek of the wooden wheels as they spun on their axles. “I must confess my intentions, Hoxley.” said Bohga after half a dozen hills.

  “Oh?” she asked, lazily snatching the bloom from a tall flower as the cart passed.

  “Yes. I find our meeting to be oh so unexpected yet serendipitous at the same time. You and the young king have fallen from the sky to land in my life. Everything I thought I knew about the world has been upended.”

  “I’m so sorry to have upset you with all of this, Bohga.” She said looking upon the flower. “I feel as though I’ve been swept up in a whirlwind of events that I have no control over. I can hardly make heads or tails of anything. I wouldn’t ever want to upset you. You’ve always been nothing short of kind to us and such pleasant company. You’ve always shared your fish and fire.”

  “You cannot stand on both sides of a fire, Hoxley,” said Bohga. “And a fish can easily be split in twain. They are meant to be shared.”

  “I’m amazed by your generosity.” Hoxley shook her head. “We’ve brought nothing but hungry mouths and trouble. We’ve disrupted your life on every occasion. And in the wake of the news we’ve brought you, how are you not angry with us?”

  “I was upset to be sure.” Said Bohga looking out across the sunny hills. “But this world is not just about me. There are so many things that make the world what it is; it’s the trees and the bees and the flowers and snakes and creatures big and small. It is like threads interwoven. The unseen hands of something we cannot understand putting us all in our places for the time that we are here. Perhaps it is part of a plan, perhaps it is not. But we are still here, yes? Are we not a cyclops and faun on our way to get gumfruit?” he asked.

  “We are.”

  “Then we are parts of the whole. No more, no less.”

  “But what can it mean?” asked Hoxley. “I feel so small sometimes, like a feather being blown about in strong winds.”

  “Ha! Yes, it can seem that way, I suppose. But put yourself in the position of the insect that stands in your shadow. It must feel the very same by being in your presence. Here stands the gargantuan Hoxley! As big as a mountain herself to this tiny thing! She could crush its life with but the step of a single hoof! But she does not, most of the time, because she is not aware of its presence. She continues on, caught up in the strong winds that scatter her and her friends.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “But what can this mean for you?” she asked. “Where are you in all of this?”

  “A feather, just the same as you. I thought my course set and under my control until people came into it and shifted it. I thought myself ready to stay the course until I saw the paths of other feathers. And in this time and in this place, I am part of the wind. I have the power to push the other feathers this way and that. “ he smiled down at her. “I see you, Hoxley of the plains. I see your heart. You are the wind just as you are feather. A young boy feather drifted into your path in need of lift, and you adjusted your path to change his. This will mean you won’t land in the same place you expected but neither will he. I believe this is what the world is; paths and winds converging and separating countless times upon one another with its little feathers doing their best to fly as best they can. Now, when you arrived, I was quite upset. I was expecting to land somewhere else entirely. But this was not to be.”

  “But you had a choice.” Offered Hoxley. “You could have regarded us as strangers and turned us away.”

  “Yes, that is true. I could have stomped and growled and told you to leave my lands, even snatched you each up and thrown you into the river. But what does that say about Bohga? Had I not shared my fire and fish with you, then I might never have learned that a great discovery was going to be made. By your appearance and proof of the spear you carry you tell me that in my time I will create a new substance that has never existed before. That is a noble goal for a cyclops or for anyone! It is an opportunity to introduce something new to the world! I do not know what I might have accomplished had I departed these lands and traveled north. Perhaps I would have stood in the glow of something great or drowned in failure. I must not be afraid of the unknown. When you told me of your travels and our meeting, I was assured of something I had not expected; fashioning this beautiful lyythium. I will tell you the truth, fair Hoxley. It took great fortitude not to be discouraged. I shamefully must confess that during the time I sat alone I cursed you and the young king for coming to my land for it made me confront truths I was not prepared for. But as I contemplated it, I chose to look at the good instead of the bad. I believe your arrival is a gust of wind to set this feather upon a path to reach heights far greater than the ones it had planned. And for something like that, an offering of a bit of fish and warmth from a fire is a meager price indeed! Ho Ho!” Hoxley lay dumbstruck.

  “I’m humbled by your words, Bohga.”

  “And I by you for caring for the boy. You say you had a choice upon that stone bridge and that you could have left him in the hands of those dangerous men. It upsets us when change comes about. We would like oh so much to be left to float and undisturbed. But this is not where life begins. It begins when we undertake rough winds and command them to do our bidding instead. There is still a great unknown ahead for each of us as we walk in separate directions. The words of your story say that I may meet my fate on the day you depart. And whatever is meant to happen to you and the boy cannot be known after we part company in the days to come. There is a very real chance that you and I may never see one another again.”

  “But there is a very real chance we might.” Said Hoxley, pushing herself up to a seated position. “Like you, I choose to see the good. I believe it is to be, great Bohga. I believe we are destined to meet once more to tell our tales.”

  “Ho Ho, then let it be so that our fates are intertwined! But there is still the matter of the others. Tell me more of your friends. Tell me all you know of the witches and mushroom boy. We still have some way to go before we reach the fruit grove.” Hoxley reclined once more in the shade of the creaking cart.