Library: The Path of Nuu: Book II - The Free Kingdom

READING NOTE ------------ This is Book II of "The Path of Nuu". I recommend reading "The Path of Nuu: Book I - The Warm Hall" (ID: 1336) first. +++++++++++++++++++++++++ THE KINGDOM WITHOUT WALLS ------------------------- Beyond the doors of the warm hall, a greater world had always waited. I had smelled pieces of it whenever the herd came and went: wet earth, strange creatures, and roads that clung to their feet. But the doors always closed again, leaving the greater world outside, immense and unfinished. Then the herd brought me to the cottage. It was a smaller hall in a much larger kingdom. Trees stood around it, their highest branches speaking with the wind. Paths wandered through grass and vanished into the woods. Every scent appeared to lead somewhere important. Most astonishing of all, no walls surrounded it. I stepped from the cottage and looked for the wall that would tell me where the room ended. There was none. So I ran. I ran around the cottage, beneath the trees, across the grass, and back again. The earth changed beneath my paws without ever becoming a floor. Whenever I looked back, the herd was still there. They watched, but they did not stop me. The kingdom was mine to explore. Its first inhabitants were winged scraps of colour that drifted above the grass. They fled whenever I approached, then settled nearby as though inviting another chase. I pursued them with great determination and achieved nothing. Butterflies, I learned, were creatures made entirely of escape. The next winged creatures were smaller, louder, and less courteous. I found them near the trees. One circled my head. I snapped at it. Then another came. Then several more. Their angry humming gathered around my ears. I had entered their territory, and they answered in numbers. I ran. They pursued me across the grass, but abandoned the battle when I reached the cottage. I waited until the humming faded. Then I went outside again. I had not finished exploring. THE CREATURES OF THE LAKE ------------------------- Beyond the grass and trees lay a body of water larger than every bowl in the warm hall placed together. I stood at its edge and tasted it. It was water. The herd had brought me to the largest drinking bowl in the world. I could not see its edges, nor any giant strong enough to carry it. But the herd possessed many powers they did not explain. I stepped deeper. The water climbed my legs, touched my belly, and then stole the ground from beneath my paws. For one startled heartbeat, I fell into the drinking water. Then my paws found a different kind of ground. I moved them, and the lake moved past me. It held my body while asking only that I keep walking through it. I could swim. The lake had inhabitants of its own. The first was a great white bird standing near the shore with the dignity of a creature that believed the entire lake belonged to it. I approached openly. I had no quarrel with it. There was room in the kingdom for diplomacy, and perhaps for play. The bird raised its wings, stretched its neck, and delivered an answer that needed no translation. The swan did not wish to play. I respected its decision from farther away. The next bird was smaller and seemed more reasonable. It floated near the shore and watched me with one bright eye. When I moved toward it, it paddled away. At last, a creature that wished to play. I entered the lake. The duck led me away from the cottage at a slant, always near enough to promise capture and far enough to prevent it. I swam after it while the shore slipped behind me. Ducks, I began to suspect, possessed an unfair understanding of lakes. Then I stopped and looked back. The cottage had become small. The herd stood far away upon the shore. Between us lay all the water I had crossed, and the duck continued onward as though it had other kingdoms to visit. I abandoned the chase. The cottage was far behind me, but another part of the shore lay close beside me. I chose the nearer shore. I reached solid ground, shook the lake from my fur, and entered the woods. The cottage was hidden, but the herd was not. Their scents travelled between the trees, and their voices reached my turning ears. I followed both through roots, shadows, and paths that had not existed until I chose them. Their voices grew clearer. Then the trees opened, and the cottage stood before me. I had crossed the water, entered unknown woods, and found my own road back. The herd gathered around me. Their hands searched my wet fur while their voices rose and fell. I stood patiently until they understood that I was unharmed. The free kingdom had no walls. I was not lost within it. THE WATER THAT CARRIED US ------------------------- After that, the herd showed me another way to cross the lake. They had a vessel for travelling upon its surface. They called it a canoe. It smelled of wood, water, old journeys, and the hands of the herd. Its floor shifted beneath my paws, and its narrow sides offered little protection against the lake. Yet the herd climbed inside without concern, so I joined them. The canoe slid away from the land. I stood near the front while the cottage withdrew behind us. Islands and distant shores appeared from places the trees had hidden. The wind brought unfamiliar scents, and my ears turned with every dip of the paddles. The canoe carried my nose where my paws could not. In time, there was nothing near us but water, sky, and the quiet movements of the herd. I lay down. The canoe rocked beneath me, but it did not cast me out. The lake touched its sides, but did not climb inside. Around me sat those who had once been giants and had since become mine. They carried me across the deep water as calmly as they had once carried two fists of frightened fur away from the first den. This time, I was not afraid. I closed my eyes and slept in the middle of the lake. When we returned to the cottage, the great lake remained outside. Yet within the cottage, a smaller water waited in my bowl. The bowl! I stopped and looked at it. There was water in the lake. There was water in the bowl. I had entered one and discovered that it could carry me. There was only one way to learn whether the other could do the same. I lowered my nose into the bowl. The bottom was much closer than expected. I pushed deeper. My nose struck the bottom, my paws struck the bowl, and the water escaped over its shores. It spread across the floor, but wherever I followed it, it remained far too shallow to carry me. The herd came quickly. Their voices rose as they studied the flooded floor. My experiment had been noticed. Then they began a drying spell. They laid rags upon the escaped water and pressed them against the floor. Wherever a rag touched, the water vanished into it. The rags were part of the spell. This much was clear. Soon the last of the water had disappeared. Where the herd carried it afterward, I never learned. When the spell was complete, I understood. The bowl contained water, but it did not contain a lake. At least, this bowl did not. Outside, the true lake waited beneath the sky. Beyond it lay more shores, more scents, and roads no walls could contain. I could follow them. And wherever they carried me, I knew how to return. Far beyond the lake, other roads waited. They carried scents I had never known and climbed toward lands where lights danced across the darkened sky. I knew nothing yet of the new hall waiting beside the road. It would hold the whole herd, carry our scents through the night, and open its door upon a different world each morning. One day, I would step inside. And even a hall would learn to move.

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Library: The Path of Nuu: Book II - The Free Kingdom