There was nothing to it, it was as ordinary a day as any. Shadow was waking up there in the shadow of trees and feeling a bit peckish I heard. Yes, hungry he was, take my word. He had not eaten anything in weeks and was beginning to feel a bit weak. He reached into the shoulder sack and fished out from there one of the silver nuggets; travel food to nibble on and grub it. Silver nuggets and water are all that's needed for his sustenance on the journey on the far side, but if all else fails, he always has a prayer. A never-failing, ever-dependable prayer, one can never go wrong with that right?
"Right."
So, he sat down at the base of a large oak tree just a few giant steps away from the water's edge, and me. As he reached into the side bag hanging from his shoulder bare and cried, "Help me." Then, he reached in deeper with his right hand and begged. He begged for it and just as quickly received it from the keg when he fished out one serving of the very well-preserved meal. He then nibbled away on the silver nugget until it was all done, as is the norm. Or until he had his fill, until he was full of it you know, big man. "I must not drink water while I'm eating my nugget," he grunted repeatedly, and spit.
He has always got to remind himself (verbally) of that small detail. Otherwise, he runs the risk of forgetting and breaching that code. If he does, he will also be found to be there breaching the overload and going on to sleep away for years in humanoid terms and time measures down the road. As such things were found written in the codes of the ages, the Shadow Man doesn't have that kind of luxury, no ladies. There's a job to be done, ways yet for him to go. It has waited way too long already as it is, no? Yes.
Having finished feasting on the silver nugget, and yet again. After waiting until the sun had gone around in a circle one dark and one light, up unto and around the same point where it was up there in the skies when he had had his meal that night. He can then have however much water to drink as he may need on this earth. The earth where humanoids live and work, I think! So, down into the water, he went, or go. From his perch up there at the base of the old Oaktree, you know? That giant Oaktree standing right over there proud and boasting on the riverbank, across from me, here giving thanks. Can you not see it? Yes, that one right there.
It was there that he sat down and feasted, so I was to hear. Among the many other things that are documented and well-known that he did. Many are the other things he would have done there in that square, eventually, but, as of now, look, and answer me. Because he stooped down by the water's edge and scooped up handful after handful of refreshingly cool, clear water. Took it to his dry thirsty lips and sucked it in thereafter. But then, at about the halfway point through the routine. He heard it and turned around to look and to inquire, I mean. To the right of him, he saw it.
There he was, someone was sitting there in a canoe amongst the bugs, (he just sat there watching him and slapping them-blow!) While looking back and forth between him and you. Of course, it was happening, like so. He didn't know who it was or what any of it was about at the time. He had never seen anyone quite like him before his dine, he only knew that -this time, a being was there. Of that, he was quite sure to be fair. There he was a being of some kind. It looks like some kind of a man, sitting there and doing something. Like, busying his hands kneading away at the Cornmeal dumplings.
Some of the humanoid kind of beings doing what humanoids do, perhaps. He wasn't quite sure about much, but he knew enough about that, he was there. The being was sitting on some sort of a contraption that floated on top of the water, not on-air as is the custom over there on the far side, so I hear. This humanoid-looking kind of being was watching him, very attentively. But at the same time, he was doing other things to try and frighten me, out of my mind.
Shadow was trying to communicate with the being in the usual and customary way. First, by a wave of the hand and then a bow of the head like, like this way. But he did not respond. At least not in a like manner as it was said and done. He spoke, though, in a strange sort of "other" language, like so. Shadow talked back at him in proper Cekko language, of course, the king's own Cekko language, no doubt. Everybody knows and does speak it, right? But not Man-ho-Manuel, not on this night. He just sat there and stared at him in wonderment. "What the hell?"
Shad was wondering what it all meant. He would eventually make beckoning gestures towards Shad, though. Which he'd interpreted as a call to action (of some sort,) or not? A call to join him on board the floating contraption to go, perhaps. "Not in your life," said the Shadow man to him. Again, in a language known to only him in and around these parts on the bend near these partings, so it would have seemed. "There's no way I'm getting in that thing with you," he said, upon the back and forth shaking of the head.
Look, they're out in the deep waters now and sailing ahead. The boat ride is cool too after all. Shad is even getting into the finer aspects of the fishing thing to call. He caught quite a few fish himself by the time they were all done as a matter of fact. They had enough food to feed the family and to bubble the pots, so the road now leads back home. Or to the safe side of town over on the other shore near the pearly rocks as they are known. Where they could begin to bond man-to-man, or man to... "Whatever." Yeah! That one. No.
Don't be clever. Just come along, look. They're roasting fish on a coal fire there by the water's edge and eating their fill of it, and then, look. Man-ho or Manuel as he would from then on began and came to be known to the Shadow Man, as you can tell; Manuel the fisherman got the bright idea to take it all the way home. To the place where he and the rest of his clan live and calls it all, his home. Way out there in a floating village across the deep. Across many deep and shallow waters too, so to speak. So, on home, the ship then sails back to you. No?
"Right."
So, he sat down at the base of a large oak tree just a few giant steps away from the water's edge, and me. As he reached into the side bag hanging from his shoulder bare and cried, "Help me." Then, he reached in deeper with his right hand and begged. He begged for it and just as quickly received it from the keg when he fished out one serving of the very well-preserved meal. He then nibbled away on the silver nugget until it was all done, as is the norm. Or until he had his fill, until he was full of it you know, big man. "I must not drink water while I'm eating my nugget," he grunted repeatedly, and spit.
He has always got to remind himself (verbally) of that small detail. Otherwise, he runs the risk of forgetting and breaching that code. If he does, he will also be found to be there breaching the overload and going on to sleep away for years in humanoid terms and time measures down the road. As such things were found written in the codes of the ages, the Shadow Man doesn't have that kind of luxury, no ladies. There's a job to be done, ways yet for him to go. It has waited way too long already as it is, no? Yes.
Having finished feasting on the silver nugget, and yet again. After waiting until the sun had gone around in a circle one dark and one light, up unto and around the same point where it was up there in the skies when he had had his meal that night. He can then have however much water to drink as he may need on this earth. The earth where humanoids live and work, I think! So, down into the water, he went, or go. From his perch up there at the base of the old Oaktree, you know? That giant Oaktree standing right over there proud and boasting on the riverbank, across from me, here giving thanks. Can you not see it? Yes, that one right there.
It was there that he sat down and feasted, so I was to hear. Among the many other things that are documented and well-known that he did. Many are the other things he would have done there in that square, eventually, but, as of now, look, and answer me. Because he stooped down by the water's edge and scooped up handful after handful of refreshingly cool, clear water. Took it to his dry thirsty lips and sucked it in thereafter. But then, at about the halfway point through the routine. He heard it and turned around to look and to inquire, I mean. To the right of him, he saw it.
There he was, someone was sitting there in a canoe amongst the bugs, (he just sat there watching him and slapping them-blow!) While looking back and forth between him and you. Of course, it was happening, like so. He didn't know who it was or what any of it was about at the time. He had never seen anyone quite like him before his dine, he only knew that -this time, a being was there. Of that, he was quite sure to be fair. There he was a being of some kind. It looks like some kind of a man, sitting there and doing something. Like, busying his hands kneading away at the Cornmeal dumplings.
Some of the humanoid kind of beings doing what humanoids do, perhaps. He wasn't quite sure about much, but he knew enough about that, he was there. The being was sitting on some sort of a contraption that floated on top of the water, not on-air as is the custom over there on the far side, so I hear. This humanoid-looking kind of being was watching him, very attentively. But at the same time, he was doing other things to try and frighten me, out of my mind.
Shadow was trying to communicate with the being in the usual and customary way. First, by a wave of the hand and then a bow of the head like, like this way. But he did not respond. At least not in a like manner as it was said and done. He spoke, though, in a strange sort of "other" language, like so. Shadow talked back at him in proper Cekko language, of course, the king's own Cekko language, no doubt. Everybody knows and does speak it, right? But not Man-ho-Manuel, not on this night. He just sat there and stared at him in wonderment. "What the hell?"
Shad was wondering what it all meant. He would eventually make beckoning gestures towards Shad, though. Which he'd interpreted as a call to action (of some sort,) or not? A call to join him on board the floating contraption to go, perhaps. "Not in your life," said the Shadow man to him. Again, in a language known to only him in and around these parts on the bend near these partings, so it would have seemed. "There's no way I'm getting in that thing with you," he said, upon the back and forth shaking of the head.
Look, they're out in the deep waters now and sailing ahead. The boat ride is cool too after all. Shad is even getting into the finer aspects of the fishing thing to call. He caught quite a few fish himself by the time they were all done as a matter of fact. They had enough food to feed the family and to bubble the pots, so the road now leads back home. Or to the safe side of town over on the other shore near the pearly rocks as they are known. Where they could begin to bond man-to-man, or man to... "Whatever." Yeah! That one. No.
Don't be clever. Just come along, look. They're roasting fish on a coal fire there by the water's edge and eating their fill of it, and then, look. Man-ho or Manuel as he would from then on began and came to be known to the Shadow Man, as you can tell; Manuel the fisherman got the bright idea to take it all the way home. To the place where he and the rest of his clan live and calls it all, his home. Way out there in a floating village across the deep. Across many deep and shallow waters too, so to speak. So, on home, the ship then sails back to you. No?
Support E. Lloyd K (The WritingElk)
