Dreams in Eldrim; Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Training in the Orchard



The name of the orchard keeper was apparently Joel, and although he'd been listed as one of the people who'd needed help, he still seemed surprised to see Don, when the boy first arrived at his front door.

Joel was an older-looking man in a basic green and brown outfit, who was starting to go bald on top of his head, and was graying around the edges.  He wore a pair of spectacles, which sat on the end of his nose, and he was only slightly more than four and a half feet tall; very short compared to most of the people in town.  However, Don couldn't help but notice the development of his muscles.  They were well-developed and pronounced, though not particularly bulky.  Don only needed that one look at the balding orchard keeper, before he knew that he'd found the kind of workplace he'd been looking for.

"Yes?" Joel asked almost as soon as he'd opened the door, "Is this about that offer I got from Bill?"

"Yeah." Don admitted, grinning a little, in spite of the fact that Joel clearly wasn't smiling, "I'm here to take an apprenticeship for about an hour."

Joel looked a little sarcastic when Don said that, but he didn't say anything rude, seemingly out of fear of scaring off the free help.  For a few moments, he looked like he was fighting back the urge to make some negative or pessimistic remark, but eventually, he just said, "Well, come on out back, then.  I can't afford to pay you for this, you understand, but if you just want to learn a bit about the work, there's no harm in that."

Joel went back into his house in another moment, and Don followed quickly.  The two passed through a hallway and two rooms until they reached the back door, and emerged from the house into the orchard.  Of course, Don had seen the orchard a number of times, but it was always a relaxing sight.

The orchard trees spread out across that edge of town for quite some distance.  They were divided into the three different types of orchard trees that Joel and his son managed.  Don had seen Joel's son Bradley at work before, but they'd never been formally introduced, so he had no way of knowing Brad's second name.  The older orchard keeper was in no hurry to correct that oversight, however.  In fact, he looked eager to get down to business, showing Don how his trees were divided.

"The trees on the outskirts are the easier ones." Joel explained, "I'd start with those if I were you.  They grow applas and peots.  The ones in the center are laena trees.  You need to be really good at climbing to tackle those.  Leave the laenas for my son and me."

Don had to admit that the laena trees did look a good four or five times taller than the other kinds of orchard trees.  Applas were generally soft, green fruits without much juice, and peots were very juicy, but with a thick, orange shell that covered them.  Both kinds of fruit grew on trees that were only two of three times a man's height, but with very strong branches.  Laenas were different, though.  Laena trees grew much larger, and tended to be harder to climb.  Still, Don wasn't entirely sure what he was expected to do, at first, until Joel opened a box nearby, and pulled out a list, handing him a large wicker basket.

"This list is from the meal stand on the west end of town." Joel continued, "It's an order for applas and peots, and you're going to fill it yourself.  Gather fruit and put it in that basket gently until you have the right amount.  It says how much you need on the list there.  When you have enough, bring it back here, and put the basket just inside the house, to keep the fruit away from the bugs.  Brad'll deliver it later.  That aught to eat up an hour of your time, easy."

"One more thing." Joel added, just as Don was picking up the basket, "No matter what you do, don't let any fruit fall on the ground, and try not to knock any other fruit loose while you're picking it.  You can climb the trees if you have to, but be careful not to shake any fruit out of the branches while you're doing that.  You need to be gentle with orchard fruit.  It isn't about brute strength."

Don had a feeling that Joel wasn't going to tell him anything more helpful than that, but nonetheless, in a voice that revealed more than a little of his irritation, he asked "Can you give me any other good advice?"

"I don't think so." Joel replied, with a firm shake of his head, "At least not yet.  Show me what you can do first, then I'll see what kind of advice you need when the work's finished."

It was frustrating, but Don had faced much worse things in the recent past, so he read the list over a few times, and headed for the nearest appla tree, pleased to be training in a usable skill, in spite of his discontent over the form that training had taken.

Don was surprised, at first, by how difficult it was to keep the branches from shaking as he tried to pick the fruit. He'd been picking fruit from the bottoms of the trees for almost fifteen minutes before he felt that he had enough skill to try to climb into the branches, and then, it proved to be even more complicated.  The branches seemed to tremble more uncontrollably the higher he went, and he had to keep picking, while trying his best to stop the manic convulsions of the tree limbs.  It was a lot more difficult than he'd expected, and he knew for a fact that there was no way he could master that kind of tree-climbing in just an hour.  He needed more time.



Sure enough, when the hour was almost up, Don had nearly finished gathering the requested fruit, but he'd also shaken a appla and two peots to the ground in the process.  Joel seemed to have been watching him the whole time, out of the corner of his eye, and eventually stopped what he was doing, and walked over to where the boy was, calling him down from the tree.  When he'd climbed down, Joel took him aside, and spoke to him in a voice that sounded stern, but still a bit pleased.

"I'm pretty impressed, Don.  You've got a gift for this, and it's obvious that you're trying your best, but if you really want to work in an orchard like this one, you need to get the technique down.  Watch me."

With those words, Joel seized a nearby tree branch with one hand, and braced his other hand against the trunk of the tree.  In just a moment, the middle-aged orchard keeper had lifted himself up into the branches almost effortlessly, and his hand seemed to move up the trunk in short jumps.  One of his knees was frequently braced against the trunk as well.  Soon, he'd reached up for the branch above him and seized an appla from it.  Then, he braced his elbow and leg against the tree trunk again, and began his descent.  In another few seconds, he was back down at the ground, and handed Don the appla.  The whole time, not one of the branches had shaken.

"No way..." Don muttered in deep astonishment, which almost left him breathless, "How did you do that?"

"I just used my arms and legs to hang from the trunk of the tree." Joel replied, "It takes some practice, but you can shift almost all of your weight off the individual branches after a while, and balance almost diagonally on the tree.  That way, the branches don't shake when you're moving through them, and you don't lose any fruit."

"I have to learn to do that." Don said in amazement, "Can I come back again tomorrow?"

For a moment, Joel looked surprised, but at last, a new smile started to spread across his face, and when he replied, it was clear that he liked the idea.

"Well, I only made a deal with Bill for one hour of work today," Joel admitted, "but I guess it'd be alright if you really want to do more."

Don just nodded enthusiastically, however, saying, "Sure.  I just need to get better at this.  I'll be back the same time tomorrow."

"Alright." the orchard keeper said, "For now, though, you can keep that appla if you want.  Like I said, I can't really afford to pay you, but...  Well, I figure you deserve something."

"Thanks." Don replied with a nod.  Applas weren't uncommon in Troma, or indeed, in the country of Gram in general, but it was a nice gesture, and it had been a wonderful day, he decided, because he knew what he had to do next.  Don was planning to hold off on leaving Troma for a while, because he'd realized that there were still things he could learn in that small farming village.



As Don left the orchard that day, pleased by the knowledge that he'd finally become a free adult, having finished his last school assignment, he bumped into someone he'd been hoping to meet up with again for the last couple of days.  It was Vince, and he looked both curious, and a little disappointed, having seen the place that Don had just been working at.  Vince still had two classes that he hadn't quite finished yet, but he knew about apprenticeships, and he was curious about Don's selection.

"I guess I don't know what to be more worried about." Vince said as Don got closer to him, "Whether or not you've given up on trying to be a knight, somebody's gonna feel hurt."

For a moment, Don just stopped where he was, and looked at Vince sadly.

"You mean Neil and my dad." Don realized aloud, already understanding his best friend's words.

"Yeah." Vince replied quickly, "Those two could never exist in the same world.  Neil would love to see you keep following your dreams.  It'd give him more courage to follow his.  Your dad, though...  He wouldn't take it well if you did.  So, the question is; who do you want to hurt?"

"I don't want to hurt anybody, and I'm not going to." Don replied sternly, having arrived at that decision quite a while back, "If one of them feels hurt because they're disappointed by something I did, that's not my fault."

"If you know how it's gonna make them feel, then it is still your fault." Vince argued, however, "Who are you going to hurt?"

Under other circumstances, Don might have kept arguing with Vince all afternoon, but he was too exhausted from all the climbing he'd recently done.  He couldn't have put his heart into the argument when he was so tired.  Finally, he just decided to reply to Vince honestly, hoping that doing so would bring their little debate to an end.

"Vince...  I'm not gonna disappoint anybody yet.  I still have a lot to learn before I'm ready to make a choice like that.  Still, I guess I don't see any way to please my dad.  I can't be a pacifist like him."

That remark seemed to have ended their little debate very handily, and Don was too tired to start a new one, which Vince seemed to have recognized.  The two parted ways, just moments later, though neither of them was really satisfied with how the miniature argument had gone.



In the week that followed, Don worked in the orchard for six days; one hour a day.  After that, however, since his father didn't seem to be objecting to his activities in the orchard, he increased that time to two hours for the next three days, then three hours after that.  For the entire month that followed, he worked there six days a week, and every day, he got closer and closer to being able to perform the climbing technique, which Joel had shown him, until at last, near the end of his first month there, he managed to climb up and down the tree without any of the branches moving in the slightest.  It was, he decided, a step in the right direction.  As he headed back for the porch, however, with the fruit that he'd gathered, he could see that Joel was already there, applauding with both hands, and wearing a satisfied smile on his face.

"Good.  Real impressive." Joel said happily, his expression no longer mixed, "I didn't think you'd be able to master that so quick.  I don't thing you'll fall from any of these trees, so right now, I don't feel bad about letting you work on the laenas if you still want to help me out."

Don was thrilled by Joel's reaction, mainly because he was a hard man to please.  However, when he mentioned the laenas, the young boy knew that it would be a much bigger challenge.  The laena trees were much taller than any other trees in the orchard.  Laenas themselves were a lot like round bananas, with red peels, except that they grew individually.  In addition to that, the trees were somewhat rubbery, and shook much more easily than the other fruit trees in the orchard.

It was, Don realized, no wonder that Joel had held off on letting him try to pick those.  The great height and rubbery nature of the trees would have made them a challenge to climb, even for experienced climbers.

Don had noticed something else as he'd been climbing, however, and that was that how fast he put his weight on the branches seemed to make more difference than how well he balanced against the trunk.  Both were still important, but he knew that if he could shift his weight from one branch to the next at just the right speed, he'd be able to more than double his efficiency without shaking any branches, and, he realized, there was one more thing that he could do to challenge his climbing skills.

"Can I have this basket?" Don asked, pointing to the container that he'd used for carrying fruit until then.

"I guess that would be alright." Joel remarked slowly, and almost at that very moment, Don seized a small knife from a table nearby, which had been used to peel an appla a moment before, and drove it into the bottom of the basket.  Soon, he'd driven it through the basket again, in another small section, along the edge, then grabbed a length of rope from nearby, and threaded it through the small holes in the basket, crossing the rope on the inside, and tying a knot in it.

In just a moment more, the sturdy basket had two loops of rope protruding from it, and Don had strapped it to his back.  Joel was amazed, as he watched what the boy was doing.  In seconds, he'd changed the basket, until he could carry it without using his hands at all.  Of course, carrying a whole basket of applas around on his back would only make Don's tree-climbing even harder.

Joel had never seen anyone so determined to continue improving their technique of tree-climbing before.  That determination was, the orchard keeper seemed to realize, a little inspiring.  If Don decided to tend an orchard, he could wind up becoming one of the greatest fruit-gatherers who'd ever lived.



When he'd first started using the basket to carry fruit on his back, Don had felt like he was on top of the world; like he could accomplish anything, but three nights later, when he got home from his apprenticeship, he didn't feel quite as good, not because of anything that had happened at the orchard, but because, for some reason, his dad looked happy.

In Don's experience, if Sal was happy, he probably wouldn't be.  His father loved to talk about things like the day's work, the people he knew, their problems, their discontents, his own chores of the day, and so forth.  Not only did Don have a hard time listening to all of that, but he got the distinct impression that his dad was trying to convince him to enjoy a life of peace, which was very much a lost cause.

That night, however, it seemed that what had really been making Sal happy hadn't happened in his life, but in Don's.  When they sat down to dinner, after the red-haired boy had had a chance to recover from the strenuous work he'd done for more than three hours that day, his father spoke up, sounding amazed.

"I talked to Joel today." Sal said, smiling as he handed Don a tray of beef from across the table, "He told me you've been working in his orchard for over a month now.  I kind of figured you'd taken an apprenticeship of some kind, but I didn't realize it was with him."

Don didn't say a word in reply.  He knew that it would be useless to try to speak anyway, until his dad was done talking.

"Joel and I have been friends for years." Sal said after just another moment, "He's very calm, and he's good at what he does.  You could learn a lot from him."

"That's the plan." Don replied at last, before sticking a bit of carrot into his mouth.

For a few seconds, Don's father didn't seem to know what to say.  He looked down at his food, then out the nearest window, then back at Don, and although he seemed somewhat proud, there was also suspicion in his eyes.  He probably knew that his son wasn't just going to give up on his dream, just like that.  Still, for the moment, he was willing to pretend that things would be that easy.

"I just don't get why you didn't tell me sooner." Don's father said, probing for the bad news that was sure to follow.  By that point, though, the boy knew that he couldn't lie to his father directly.  He couldn't tell his dad that he wanted to tend an orchard for a living, because it just wasn't true.

"Dad..." Don said in disappointment, "I didn't tell you, because I didn't want you to get the wrong impression.  Look, picking fruit and digging in the ground is great and all, and I'm not gonna say it's not important, because it is, but it's just not enough for me.  I'm learning how to climb, because I figure it's a skill I might need if an army of monsters comes along, and I have to hide in a tree like a coward."

That remark seemed to have cut Don's father almost to the bone.  For the most part, his own philosophy in responding to monster attacks amounted to hiding and waiting for them to either be defeated or go away; a faulty way of dealing with things, in his son's eyes.  The enemies of man weren't just going to defeat themselves.  Although Don had recently taken an apprenticeship in a relatively peaceful job, the tensions between father and son hadn't lessened at all.  It was just what Sal had clearly been afraid of.

"I hope that was just a joke." Sal replied, and with those words, he'd opened the floodgates of resentment and discontent that Don had been struggling to keep closed all evening.

"Dad, you know what's going on.  You know we've been under attack, and you know that if those monsters hadn't been killed by the knights, no safe house would be enough to protect us.  It's not peace-loving to act like there's never going to be another attack; it's just foolish."

There was a fiery look in Sal's eyes when Don said that, and he could tell, in that instance, that the gulf between them was growing wider.  His father was getting ready to use the "because I say so" card again.  Don had seen the whole thing happen enough times before.

"Some day, when you get your own place to live, you can say things like that to me." Don's father finally replied, a fierce anger written all over his face, "but while you're under my roof, you're going to abide by..."

However, Don had heard enough already, and he wasn't going to let his father claim another victory because of the older man's power over him.

"In that case, you'll be glad to hear that I'm gonna leave town as soon as I can get a little money together for supplies." Don replied, doing his best to hide the burning fury he was feeling, "I want to travel, Dad.  That's the kind of training I want.  That's why I want to know how to climb.  I might not be able to defend myself, but I have to know how to run and hide."

Don was still hungry, but after making that statement, he knew there was no point in trying to finish dinner.  Quickly, he dropped his fork onto his plate, and headed upstairs to his room, leaving his father speechless in the kitchen.



For the entire week that followed, Don and his father barely said two words to each other.  The gap that had formed between them seemed to have become virtually impassable.  Even once they started talking again, his apprenticeship and plans for the future were almost never brought up, and he was focusing more on his training than ever by the end of his second month there.

A number of other things had been changing for Don recently, too.  Neil seemed to be losing faith in him just a little, since Don didn't go to his house to play with the toy sword anymore, and Sharon was still scared of what might happen to him.  Even Vince didn't seem as eager to argue with him anymore, since their last argument had ended so strangely.

However, in spite of everything that had changed for Don recently, he still saw all of his friends frequently.  They all attended church, one day out of the week; the same day that Don took off from his apprenticeship.  Six days out of the week, however, Don spent hours trying to master the ideal tree-climbing technique with a bag full of fruit on his back.

He continued his training, pushing himself to achieve a greater level of skill with each passing day, and soon, he found that Bradley had taken up his method of gathering fruit as well; putting a basket on his back, and simply gliding from branch to branch, gathering what he needed.  The extra weight made balancing in the branches more of a challenge, but before long, both Bradley and Don had mastered it, and although Brad was a good ten years older than Don, the two had many competitions to see who could complete their list faster.

Don won his share of those competitions, however, because he'd quickly learned to leap directly from the trunk of one tree to the next, then regain his balance again, making it possible for him to move from tree to tree without ever touching the ground or disturbing the branches.  In some ways, he resembled a little monkey, navigating the treetops with an ease which, he was convinced, very few others in town were capable of.  He'd been working at that orchard for almost three months, but he could feel that he'd almost reached the limits of what he could learn there.

It was the end of a three-hour shift at the orchard, and Don had worked hard the whole time, but the branches of the trees hadn't been disturbed by him in the least, and he wasn't even feeling all that tired either.  It was, he realized, time to make a difficult decision.

Quickly, Don walked over to the porch and put down his basket, removing it from his back, as he thought his choice over, but as much as he cared about Joel and Bradley, Don couldn't ignore the fact that at any moment, some ghouls or other monsters might come stumbling over the horizon.  If they did, there still wouldn't be anything that Don could do to stop them, and he wasn't satisfied with that at all.

One way or another, Don knew, he had to find the next step to his dream.  He had to keep training until he could protect the people he cared about.  His skills were already enough to escape from Troma before his father could do anything about it; he just had to plan it out well enough.

Don knew what the schools taught about children who ran away from home.  The schools insisted that childhood was a time of many mistakes, and that quite a few children made the mistake of trying to run away from home, only to return when they got hungry or thirsty, and realized that they could get what they needed from their parents.  He didn't want to risk being in that kind of position, which was why he was determined to plan things out well.  He had the skill that he needed to climb trees and pick fruit, but when it came to wandering on his own between one town of Gram and the next; alone for days at a time, he wasn't sure there would be enough fruit trees to support him.

Having lived in a farming village his whole life, Don also knew how to tell the difference between edible plants and poisonous ones, and between a good source of water and a tainted source, but he still didn't feel confident about his chances out in the wilderness, and he knew that he couldn't afford to just wander aimlessly.  Don knew that he needed a lot of information and quite a few tools to survive alone in the wild, and he needed to plan his trip in advance.  All of those thoughts were running through his head as he walked up to Joel one last time, and spoke to him, feeling a little sad, because of what he had to do.

"Joel..." Don said slowly, "I'm sorry.  I don't want you to think I'm abandoning you, but...  I have to stop."

Joel didn't look terribly surprised when he heard that, however.  In fact, it was clear that he'd been expecting Don to say something like that.  Still, he must not have wanted to just leave things that way.

"You're stopping?" Joel asked, "You're one of the best harvesters I've ever seen, and you're still young.  You have enough time to learn all the other skills that a top-notch farmer needs to know.  Why would you stop now?"

"Sorry," Don repeated, looking a little upset over his situation, "but I don't really want to be a farmer.  I never did.  Farmers...  At least, the farmers I know can't defend each other very well.  I want to be able to protect people.  That's what I've really been training for.  I didn't want you to get the wrong idea, but...  I just can't stay here."

By that point, however, Joel didn't look the least bit upset.  In fact, he seemed a little satisfied, as if Don had just confirmed something that he'd suspected all along.

"I guess I can't blame you." Joel said after thinking over his words for a few seconds, "For wanting to protect people, I mean.  Some men just want that kind of thing, and it's a noble thing to want, in its own way, but I can't let you leave, just like that."

At first, Don wasn't sure what Joel was saying, but in just a second, the older man had stepped inside of his house, leading Don in after him, and opened a large trunk that was off to one side of his living room.  In moments, he'd drawn a small purse out of the trunk and closed its heavy, oaken lid afterwards.  The purse was made of smooth animal skin, and woven together with tough thread.  A thick drawstring held it closed at the top, and Don was astonished when Joel dropped the heavy purse right into his hands.

"What..." Don muttered, not sure what to say, but when he tugged at the drawstring and opened the bag in amazement, he found that the inside of the purse was full of beautiful, shining coins.  Don was amazed by the sum inside.  He swallowed hard as he closed it, and tried to hand it back to Joel, but the orchard keeper wouldn't accept it.

"Keep it." Joel insisted, "The money's yours."

"Joel, no." Don replied for a moment, but Joel, it seemed, wouldn't listen to any objections.

"You're not accepting a gift.  You've earned that money." Joel explained, "That and more, in fact.  Do you know how my orchard runs on the business end?"

Don shook his head, though.  He really had no idea.  The business end of things had never been his forte.

"Orchards and farms trade with other towns, as well as doing business within their own," Joel explained, "but the whole thing is managed by assistants to the town jerah masters, who administer a set amount of money to farms every month, based on how much they were able to make through trades the previous month.  We then use that money to support the farm.  Do you have any idea how much gold you've helped me save these past three months?"

Again, Don shook his head, though he was starting to feel just a little better, as he realized what his friend and teacher was saying.

"Something in the neighborhood of two hundred and fifty gold bits." Joel replied, "What you've got there is a lot less, but I wanted you to have it, because I knew you'd never accept more.  Those fifty bits are yours.  I won't hear another word against it."

In spite of the guilt that Don had felt at first, over the idea of taking the money, those words had made him feel much better about the whole thing.  He knew that he couldn't refuse to accept it, and he also realized just what his first purchase would be.

"Thanks, Joel.” Don said, a smile finally spreading across his face, “I...  I have to go.  I'll see you later..."

Then, with just those words, Don left the orchard-keeper's house by the front door, and Joel himself grinned.  It seemed, in fact, as if he was finding the boy's determination and enthusiasm contagious.



As Don headed for home that afternoon, he'd arrived at an important decision.  For the moment, he decided, he was going to hide his money somewhere, and take some time to plan out his trip.

He knew that he had to leave Troma soon, or he'd never get any closer to fulfilling his dream of knighthood.  Still, he was equally convinced that he couldn't just leave without a word to any of his friends.  He'd said about as much to his father as he'd probably get the chance to, but the other people in his life deserved a better kind of good-bye, he reasoned, even if they hadn't always supported him.

As Don hid his purse under the foundation of the deck in front of his house, and went to bed that night, he promised himself that on the following day, he was going to say good-bye to his friends, and finally get ready to leave home.