The Forestwalker

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5

• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10

• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15

• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17
• Chapter 18
• Chapter 19
• Chapter 20

• Epilogue

Epilogue

The Crane's new seaside cottage in Tik'ra was one of the most comfortable houses Gareth had ever had the pleasure of living in, he decided. It was much smaller than their old house in Shasta had been, but that was really the best thing about it: it was cozy and comfortable and felt much more like Gareth's parent's house, but it fortunately had enough room for everyone to have his or her own bedroom, including Gareth, Gavin, and Tara. Gareth's room – which Teskar had thoughtfully equipped with a hammock instead of a bed – was on the second floor and had a balcony on one side that overlooked the sea. Gareth was standing out there now, as he did almost every night, looking out over the sandy shore and crashing waves to the darkness beyond them. When it was light, you could see the outline of the forest whose borders ended just before the mainland coast, but in the moonlight those tall trees were nothing but a dark smudge on the horizon. Thinking about them, and all the people he loved who were still living safely in their branches, made him a tiny bit homesick, but it was a fond homesickness now, not like the soul-wrenching pain he had experienced when he had been stolen away from there as a slave six years ago.

This time, it had been his choice to leave, in order to fight for the end of slavery in the outside world. It hadn't been an easy choice, and almost everyone he'd left behind had tried to talk him out of it, but in the end it had been his choice. And it had been something he had to do: he felt it was his calling in life, given everything he'd seen and experienced in his five years as Kastor's slave as well as all the information, contacts, and motivation he'd gained during the difficult journey he, Kastor, and Shanna had taken across the world – the journey that had led to him being freed and had brought the Crane children safely home to their father and their mother, just as he had promised he'd do for them. He felt he had earned his freedom, and he was standing in this strange land now not as a slave but as his people's first unofficial ambassador to the outside world. He was not here to blend in, which was a novel experience for him, but he enjoyed it because it meant that he was able to wear his forest-dweller's clothing – all brand new and hand-made and embroidered by his mother before he'd left on this new journey to true adulthood – and start to correct all those misconceptions that outsiders had about his people.

That was his most important task right now, he had decided, because he had realized somewhere along the way that it was not the collar and shackles that had made him less than human in free people's eyes; it had been the other way around. The slavers were able to train him as a slave and place a collar and shackles on him – another human being just like them – because they had seen him as an 'other' – as something less than human – already. So one of his first jobs out here as an ambassador was to do his best to help these people who were not like him to see him and his fellow forest-dwellers as people just like them, with families and a society and a culture just like them, in the hopes of eventually making it harder for them to so easily enslave his people. If he had been the only person doing so, he probably would have found this a daunting task, but Tara and Gavin were his constant companions and fellow ambassadors here in Tik'ra, and Gareth also knew that, in cities and towns all across the world, a hundred or so former captives and slaves were at this moment spreading the truth about the forest-dwellers among their families and friends, and that more would join them every time the new border patrol was able to liberate a nomad slave caravan. He wasn't the only one out there that was going to make a difference, and that was more of a relief than he had expected it to be.

But even knowing that he was going to do something to change the world hadn't made it any easier to leave his family and friends behind so soon after getting to go home. His folks had been the most understanding, but it had still taken a lot of reasonable argument and emotional appeals before they agreed to let him go. Gwen had been less understanding, but she was still young, and Gareth had done his best not to make a big deal out of it. He had been the perfect big brother for the few months that he'd been at home, and he had promised all of them that he would be coming back to visit as often as he could. Gareth, Kastor, Tara, and Gavin all had plans to do just that as soon as school was out for the year; they were going to be spending the summer in Devrost working with Tam in the hopes of tracking down Tara and Gavin's missing family members, and they planned on traveling through the forest in order to get there. Gareth was going to take every opportunity he could to go home and see his family. He wasn't going to let his new calling in life stop him from being the good son and big brother he had promised to be.

But even having his parents agree to let him go and having the support of the entire village hadn't made it any easier to leave Cesra behind. Though his name wasn't Cesra any more; as part of their efforts to help the young boy fit in with the rest of the village, Gareth's parents had given him a brand new name – a forest-dweller's name. Not that there had really been anything wrong with the name 'Cesra'; it was the way he had gotten it that had sparked his new parents' decision to change it. They were all shocked to find out that the poor boy hadn't even had a name until Master Ara had bought him when he was five years old, and Master Ara had simply bastardized the C-5-RA designation that his slave had been given in order to give his slave a name. So Cesra's name was now Asher – Asher Elmwalker – and it had gone a long way towards helping Gareth's adopted brother fit in and feel accepted by his new family and the other villagers.

Gareth had spent as much time as possible with Asher before he left, reminding himself all the time that it was for his little brother that he was doing this over anything else. He had finally convinced Asher to tell him his life story, and he had listened and remembered every word, as heart-breaking as it had been. Asher's complete devotion to Master Ara was disturbing but understandable; the poor boy had not received a single second of kindness or compassion from the slavers who had raised him, and Master Ara had been as kind and friendly a man as Gareth had judged him to be, despite being both a slaver and a slave-owner. Ara had known how badly his slave would be treated by his fellow slavers, and he had done his best to balance that abuse out by treating the young boy more gently than any slave expected to be treated, especially one that had been born and bred for slavery. This had caused the five-year-old slave to imprint on his new master as an infant does to its mother and father.

Unfortunately, this reaction to his kindness had not been anticipated or even acknowledged by Ara, and it had been a further torture to the poor boy when his master had overlooked his increasingly brutal treatment at the hands of the other slavers and had so easily cast him aside as soon as a better, stronger slave had come along. All the boy who had once been called Cesra had wanted was to be a good slave – he hadn't known any other desire was possible – and when Gareth had taken him away from that life of slavery, he had taken his entire purpose in life away from him. That was why he had responded so badly to his freedom initially, but he was slowly getting used to the idea that he could find another purpose in his life, one of his own making, and that he could still be happy living for himself instead of living only to serve others. He still maintained the warped impressionable nature that had caused him to feel deep loyalty and affection to such a cruel, uncaring man, but it worked in his favor now that he had two kind, caring adults who were willing to love him back and give him the affection and attention that he so desperately needed and unconsciously craved, and he grew not only to care deeply for his new family, but to truly love and trust them too.

Gareth looked after Asher closely as he recovered from his injuries, and as soon as his little brother was better, Gareth wasted no time in taking Asher out and teaching him how to climb trees, hunt and forage for food, swim, and survive in the forest, just as his father had taught him. He took Asher to school, and introduced him to other boys and girls his own age, and looked out for him as he learned – slowly and awkwardly and sometimes painfully – how to socialize and fit in with other children. He helped Asher learn to read and write in an effort to help him catch up to his peers, and realized to his own relief that there was potential in Asher's untested mind. He would never be brilliant – few people ever were, after all – but he was not a dull-witted and slow as everyone who had known him as a slave had thought he was, and Gareth made sure to tell him so every day, especially when he was frustrated at being so far behind or angry and ashamed because the other children had teased him and called him dumb.

Asher's primary advantage in his fight to fit in and learn how to live a normal life was his excellent work ethic and his desire to please everyone around him, as painful as it was sometimes to watch him do everything that was asked of him without question. It also made Gareth unreasonably angry to see the other children occasionally take advantage of this unconscious impulse in Asher by telling him to do things that were dangerous or would get him in trouble. Finally, he had to take his little brother aside and point this out to him, pleading with him to understand that he did not have to do everything that others asked or told him to do any more. “It hurts the people who care about you to see you still acting like a slave,” he finally said desperately.

“But... you do that too,” Asher had said, and to Gareth's horror, he had realized his little brother was right. Though he had not meant to, he'd still been carrying out the same duties that he had once done as a slave around his own household and with his friends, oblivious to the pain and empathetic embarrassment in their eyes when they noticed what he was doing. From that day on, the two brothers did their best to keep one another from falling back into bad habits, and it was only the success of this concerted effort to recognize and change their thoughts and actions that allowed Gareth to feel comfortable leaving his new brother behind after only getting three months to help him acclimate to life as a free forest-dweller. But even now he worried about his little brother, and he couldn't help but wonder how Asher was doing in school, and if he had made any friends, and how he was getting along without Gareth to talk to...

“Hey, Gareth! Earth to Gareth!”

Gareth reluctantly turned away from staring blankly at the horizon to see Kastor leaning casually against the wall near the door to his bedroom, nibbling on a piece of fruit. “Where were you just now?” he asked as he stood straight again. “I've been trying to get your attention for the past ten minutes.”

“Sorry,” Gareth said sheepishly, remembering a time not too long ago when Kastor's reaction to being ignored like that would have been very different. “I was just... thinking.”

“Yeah? I noticed you do that a lot,” Kastor said with a snarky grin.

“Well, it's a good habit. You should try it some time.”

Kastor stuck his tongue out at Gareth and flicked a seed from the fruit he was eating at his head, then came over and leaned against the balcony railing, staring out in the direction Gareth had been looking. “You're not getting homesick already, are you? I mean, we've only been here for two weeks.”

Maybe so, Gareth thought, but, to be fair, they had left his village almost two months ago, and it seemed somehow longer than that to him. Not to mention their two weeks in Tik'ra had been some of the most memorable in his life: seeing the ocean and riding on a boat for the first time – getting horribly seasick, to his great embarrassment – then arriving in the city and hurrying straight to the hospital to find to everyone's great relief that Laresa Crane was alive and well, completely cured of her mysterious illness and overjoyed to see her family again, who she had feared dead when they'd failed to arrive on schedule several months ago. Fortunately, Teskar had sent enough money ahead of him to take care of her hospital bills and other necessities – she was cured, but still recovering from the weakness her long illness had left behind – so she'd had no need to sell the house he had purchased for them, which meant they'd all had a place to stay when they arrived. The days since then had been a flurry of activity getting the new house in order, enrolling all the children in school, and bringing Laresa home from the hospital so she could finish her recovery surrounded by the loving warmth of her family. Tara and Gavin had been accepted into her home with open arms, and she was not the least bit surprised to find out that her husband had set Gareth free – in fact, she was overjoyed both by that and by the news that the Cranes would no longer be keeping slaves. Having her home filled with the laughter of children again seemed to do more for her recovery than the doctors had done, and Gareth was overjoyed to see his former master get his family back, whole and happier than they had been before.

“It's been a long two weeks,” Gareth said in response to Kastor's comment, “but don't worry. I'm not that homesick yet. I was just thinking about them, hoping that Asher was doing alright.” Suddenly, he remembered something he'd been meaning to do. Earlier tonight, while unpacking the last of his things from his bags, he had come across a very important item that he had almost completely forgotten about. Reaching into the pocket of his pants, he pulled it out and handed it over to Kastor. “Here, I found this. I think it belongs to you.”

Kastor took the pocketknife that Gareth handed him and stared at him in amazement. “Where did you get this?” he asked. “I thought I'd lost it months ago!”

“I know,” Gareth said sheepishly. “I'm sorry. I... forgot I had it.” As Kastor studied the knife with a faraway look in his eyes, Gareth told him the whole story of how he'd come to take the knife with him to the slave caravan, how he'd given it to Teskar in hopes of helping him escape, how it had ended up in Ara's hands, then in Gareth's again, then in Asher's, and finally back in Gareth's, only to be forgotten about until he had found it in the box full of all his old treasured possessions a few hours ago.

“This knife has done so much more than that, though,” Kastor said softly once Gareth had finished talking. “It was as much an instrument of our protection as you were, remember? It cut the bark from those trees that you used to make pain medicine for me, and you used it to open the cages and release us from the ropes those slavers used to hold us prisoner, and I... I fought off those bandits with it when you got shot...”

Gareth remembered every incident Kastor listed with perfectly clarity except the last, but he remembered imagining it clearly when Tara had told him about it. “A knife is an excellent and necessary tool,” he said in agreement, touching his own hunting knife where it hung in its sheath at his belt. “I didn't mean to keep yours from you for so long. You should keep it with you from now on. You never know when a knife like that will come in handy.”

“I could say the same for a good friend,” Kastor said, slipping the knife into his shirt pocket and giving Gareth a disarming grin. But his grin faded as he turned to stare back out at the ocean. After a moment of pensive silence, he asked, “Do you really think we can change all those things you and Father want to? Is ending slavery really possible?”

Gareth shrugged honestly as he joined his friend at the balcony railing. “I dunno, Kastor. I won't deny that sometimes it seems an impossible task, but we've got our whole lives to try, and even if we don't finish everything we set out to do, we can hopefully at least start something that others can finish in our stead.” That reminder had and would continue to keep him going no matter how daunting the task ahead of them seemed at times, and it was one that Tara had shared with him first, so he had no problem sharing it with Kastor.

“And will that be enough?”

“It will be, I'm sure of it. It has to be, because we don't have any control over the outcome really, only over our actions. But if we can free people's minds and help them to see that those they take as slaves or capture as potential slaves are people just like them – as you managed to – then we have a chance, because people's basic humanity, dignity, and equality is an idea that, once started, will be almost impossible to stop. Of that, I'm certain.”

Kastor looked at him with another grin, and Gareth marveled once again at how completely Kastor's transformation from a spoiled, bratty monster to a happy, kind, friendly young man had been. Teskar had thanked Gareth profusely, over and over, for his part in his son's transformation, and Kastor's mother and Shanna had also said similar things to him recently about what a different person Kastor was. Kastor was the reason Gareth was sure his plan to end slavery by changing people's hearts and minds would work, even if it worked slowly, because if someone like Kastor could have his opinion about slaves so completely changed in such a short time, others who were less intractable than he had been would not need the extreme experiences he had survived in order to have their minds changed as well.

“Well, with that much conviction, I guess I have no choice but to follow you,” Kastor said as he tossed the remains of the fruit he had been eating off the balcony and out into the ocean.

“You have a choice, Kastor. You'll always have a choice.”

“Well, then I choose to follow you,” Kastor said decisively as he put a companionable arm around his friend's shoulders. “You showed me the truth first, and I don't mind saying it's the best thing that ever happened to me. I can't wait to see the effect that same truth has on others... and on the whole world, eventually.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Gareth said with a laugh. “And who knows, maybe it will even be fun.” A companionable silence fell between the two friends as they stared out at the ocean, looking towards the world that lay out before them on the horizon, but seeing the future that lay in store for it... a future they were determined to fight to create.