Chapter 18

After our evening meal, I returned to the small platform, high in the trees, where Jarraid and I had talked earlier. There was a small bench next to the guardrail; I took a seat upon it.

I was confused. Many things were happening, and I needed time to put them into perspective. Why were there so many orcs? Why was it so important to me that we find the Crystal Grotto? Most puzzling to me was, why was I somehow in the middle of all of this? These thoughts, and others, wandered through my mind. The more I thought upon them, the more confused I became.

I sat there, in the solitude of the early evening, watching the sun set in the west. Finally, I decided that these were questions I could not answer. I remained there, with the red glow of the setting sun casting its rose-colored light through the trees. I heard a slight cough behind me. When I turned, Alma was standing there.

“You seem to be upset, Donta.” He said, as he took a seat next to me.

I nodded my head, “Yes, there are many things I don’t understand.”

Alma chuckled, “Is that not the way of life?”

I thought about it for a moment, and then answered, “Maybe, but the questions I ask of myself are not those one would normally encounter.”

I turned more fully towards him, and then continued, “Alma, this quest is most disturbing for me. I feel as if I’m following a path in the forest that runs in circles. I have no sense of where I am, or where I am going.”

Alma stood and then looked at me for a few seconds before he spoke.

“Donta, sometimes the understanding of a thing only comes when the journey to find the answer is completed. Much can be learned because of the hardships and trials one encounters during the trip. It is only after you have reached journey’s end that the purpose becomes clear.”

I understood his meaning, but it did nothing to ease the uncertainty of the turmoil within me.

“Alma,” I asked, “why have I been chosen for this task? I am not a warrior or great leader. There must be many who are more qualified than I?”

Alma chuckled and then replied, “Donta, it is your destiny. Long before your birth on this world, indeed, more than a millennium before you were born, your charge was laid. It only remained for you to be born into this world for you to meet its challenge.”

I thought for a moment, trying to understand what he had just said. Finally, I spoke, “Alma, I don’t understand much of what you say. It certainly doesn’t unburden the worry from my heart.”

“No,” he said, “but then, life itself is a challenge and burden.”

He paused for a moment and then continued, “Make your journey, Donta; there is more at risk here than you can know. Take care and know that you are in pursuit of a goal that is right and good.”

I was trying to think of a response when Alma faded from my sight. In a matter of seconds, the only sound I could hear was the wind through the trees and the faint voices of the elves below me.