Chapter 2

2
Ari awoke but did not open his eyes. He could smell the warm, dusty scent of hay and felt the jarring motion of a wagon moving under his body. He heard the horses’ hooves thudding along the path as if they were walking on grass and he heard their occasional whinnies and snorts. He heard the groaning of the wheels and the creaking of the harnesses. He strained to hear human voices, but there were none. He could not imagine where he was. Ari tried to open his eyes. His eyelids stuck together for a few seconds but he finally pried them open and sat up.

He was sitting in a wagon, as he had thought. He was covered in hay and there was a blanket twisted up around his legs. Ari felt a motion. He peered into the hay beside him and saw Alak buried in hay, still sleeping. Suddenly, it all came back to him. He had been chosen by the Prayermakers! They had snuck him and Alak out of the village last night during the celebration. The last thing Ari remembered was climbing into the wagon and feeling the scratchy hay brush his bare arms. He searched for a sign of the Prayermakers, but for all he could tell, he and Alak were alone in the wagon. He began to be frightened.

"Alak! Alak! Wake up!" he urged as he shook the sleeping boy.

Alak moaned and rolled over. He slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Where are we?" He asked groggily.

"I don't know. And I can't see the Prayermakers either. I think we're alone."

"They wouldn't leave us! That's dangerous and irre...sonsiple! They must be in a different wagon!" Alak protested.

They turned to look behind them and could not see any other living thing nearby. They realized that they were in a wood, the horses navigating between trees as there was no path.

Alak began to panic.

"They tricked us! They sent us here to die! We're lost! We'll never get out of here! Ari, what are we going to do?"

"Well," Ari said slowly, "I think that the Prayermakers would not have left us alone to die. They must have a good reason to leave us. Maybe they're finding food. I'm sure the horses know the way to wherever we're going."

"No! We're going to die! We have to stop those horses! We should just go back to the village!"

Alak lurched to the front of the wagon and reached where there should have been reins. There were none. Alak screamed at the horses,

"STOP! You stupid animals! Can't you hear me? STOP!!!! Whoa! Stop! WHOA!"

After a few minutes of shouting, he gave up, and instead attempted to leap off of the moving wagon. He was stopped as if he had hit a wall. Defeated, the boy slumped back into the wagon box, exhausted and discouraged.

"Well," Alak whispered hoarsely, "I guess we'll sit in this wagon until we starve."
Then he fell back onto his blanket in despair.

Ari glanced at him nervously. What if he was right? But Ari could not imagine a reason why anyone would leave two boys in the middle of nowhere trapped in a moving wagon, if not for a purpose. Although he had not wanted to leave his village, he felt that he could trust the Prayermakers and would only doubt when there was no alternative.

Ari soon became hungry and searched through the hay for any food the Prayer makers might have left. His hand struck something cold and hard. He shoved aside the hay covering it and discovered a silver handle lying on the floor of the wagon. He pulled on it and it opened. Ari gasped as he viewed the contents of the secret opening. Piles of all of his favorite food! He reached into the hole and pulled out a note. His Prayermaker had written:

"This food is for you alone, Ari. If Alak desires to eat, he must strive to find food for himself."

Ari wondered how the Prayermaker could have known that he would find the food first. He did not let this worry him for long because he was soon enjoying the fruits of his search with warm satisfaction!