The Forgotten World Part 14
Rocky had a harder time getting up, but with a little persistence from Zoe she was able to make him get up. She handed him his clothes and looked away while Jacob and he got ready.
Zoe was pleased to find out that the clothes she had been given, fit her perfectly. They felt comfortable on her body. She was wearing a brown and white short sleeve shirt and pair of blue jeans. She slipped the pendant around her neck. In the glass world, she never wore jewelry. But she was pleased with the pendant she had received. To her it was a sign of being welcomed, of acceptance. And wearing it made her feel like she thanking the tribe for letting her be here.
Then she picked up the shoes, two brown boots, they looked like they went about mid-calf. Zoe remembered how much the raw elements of the surface grated against her feet. She needed to wear the shoes to actually protect her feet. She pulled them on. They fit perfectly, how they had guessed her shoe size exactly was beyond her. The shoes suffocated her feet and made her feel cut off from the floor beneath her feet. But then she looked at them and laughed a bit. She knew if she wore these around the people of the Glass World, she would still would get made fun of. They weren't fashionable at all, in fact, they were kind of ugly. Wearing shoes for practical reasons actually made sense to her. Wearing shoes to get around faster and do be fashionable didn't.
It wasn't too much longer when Leah came bounding into the room, knocking first. “He says you can, he says you can,” she said very excitedly. “You get to work with me. You're lucky, you know, I'm one of the best herders there is.”
“Well, then, I should feel lucky, shouldn't I? To have such a great teacher?” Zoe said. “I'm excited to get to work with you.”
Leah smile grew. Jacob rolled his eyes. “I'll help you too, Zoe. Since I abandoned my hunting trip I don't have anything to do for my job,” he said smiling at her.
Zoe looked down at Rocky. “What about, Rocky? He'll just be lonely all day if we all leave him.”
“Yeah, Jacob, he'll just be lonely all day. Why don't you stay here and I'll go with Zoe?” Leah said with a smug voice.
Jacob also looked down at Rocky. He liked Zoe but he was already not to fond of Rocky. He really didn't want to be stuck here with him. But Leah had a point, herding was actually her job and Jacob didn't have one today. Whether he liked it or not, he had taken both Zoe and Rocky as his responsibility and he needed to show Rocky some hospitality.
As he was about to volunteer to stay, Rocky spoke up. “I don't really need someone here all day.”
That was exactly what Jacob wanted to hear. “Okay, good, my mom should be done making breakfast, then all she has to do is clean it up, and she'll be up here in a jiffy. Plus, today's Saturday so Rachel doesn't have school today.”
“Sounds good to me, I'm going to work on getting us back to our world, where we belong,” Rocky said.
“You going to be okay?” Zoe asked.
“I'll be fine.”
“Great, let's go, we're already late,” Leah said. “We'll get breakfast in about an hour.”
They wandered through the halls and out into a large field, surrounded by a homemade fence, that it looked some people were still working on. But that's not what amazed Zoe. Standing around all over the field were at least fifty people surrounded by hundreds of animals in every corner. She was startled by all the animals in the same place and actually began to feel a little fear again.
“C'mon, Zoe, just this way,” Leah said once she realized Zoe was following her anymore.
Jacob was standing behind Zoe and he put his hand on her back and gently pushed her forward. “You nervous?” he asked her.
“A little. They're not going to hurt us, are they?” she said jumping as a cow walked right by her.
Jacob laughed. “That depends. What are you planning on doing to them?” he said.
“Nothing,” she said giving him a startled look.
“They have more reason to be afraid of us then we do of them,” he said smiling at her.
They followed Leah over to where two kids, a boy and a girl, that looked about Jacob and Zoe's age were standing. The boy had a very concerned look on his face and was wearing clothes that were covered with dirt. He was talking to the girl. She had a long braid that touched the bottom of her back. She had thin blue eyes and a large mouth that was formed in a smile. That smile grew when she saw Leah. Both of them looked at Zoe and Jacob.
“I'm Marcus,” the boy said pointing to himself. “And this is Eve.” He pointed to the girl.
“Looks like we got another trainee, and just right after Leah graduated from trainee,” Eve said.
“Well, two, if you count Jacob,” Marcus said.
“Funny, Marcus, but I'm not here to train. I'm here to make sure Zoe gets it and she stays safe,” Jacob said.
Marcus's eyebrow went up. “You don't think I can keep her safe?”
“I think he's worried about us, Marcus. You have nothing to worry about, Jacob, we only occasionally bite,” Eve said.
“I think he just likes Zoe,” Leah mumbled under her breath. Fortunately for her, nobody heard her.
“Is it alright if he does stay, I think I'll be less of hassle that way,” Zoe said.
“Oh, yeah, it's fine. We were just giving him a hard time,” Marcus said. “Did you know that Jacob and I are cousins?”
“Really?” Zoe said.
“Yeah, everybody's related down here in some way or another,” Eve said. “Common ancestor, you know. That's why we don't use last names, we all have the same one.”
“We don't use last names in the Glass world either, we use identity numbers. For instance my name is Zoe 54372111,” she said.
“Wouldn't that be really hard to memorize? I mean all those numbers, for every person,” Leah said.
“Oh, no, you don't memorize everyone's number, just your own,” Zoe said.
“So you're here for less then an entire day and they put you to work?” Eve said changing the subject.
“Oh, well, I volunteered. I feel like I should earn the hospitality I've been getting,” she said.
“You keep that attitude, you'll fit in in no time,” Marcus said.
“That would be the first time,” Zoe said.
“The first time you did what? Work?” Marcus asked.
“No, the first time I'd fit in.”
The kids just silently looked at her until Eve said, “You must have fit in with your group of friends, right?”
Zoe looked at the group. She worried that she had said something wrong. “Uh, no, not really. I didn't really have any friends.”
“That's so sad,” Leah said. Zoe just looked at her.
“What about that blue-haired boy? He's your friend, right?” Eve asked.
“No, don't get me wrong, we're friends now. But we weren't yesterday morning.” Zoe sighed. “It's funny how people will change when the circumstances do.” She looked at her shoes.
“Well, dear, the tribe already adores you, so you don't have to worry about not fitting in here,” Eve said smiling. Zoe smiled as well. She had never felt so loved.
“Let's get to work,” Marcus said. “Zoe, you stick with Eve. She'll show you what to do. Leah, Jacob, you two come help me.”
“But-” Jacob protested.
Marcus just looked at him, and the three of them left.
The Forgotten World Part 16
Index
No comments:
Post a Comment