Meeting Oliver

“Hi Soultide,” says Oliver. I look up at him with surprise because I realise he’s not as old as I first thought. He doesn’t actually have that much grey in his hair and his pleasant expression makes him look even younger. Could Oliver possibly be in his sixties like I imagine Beatrix to be? I realise I haven’t answered him.

“Hi Oliver”

Oliver comes to sit down on a chair between Beatrix and me and he’s not taking his eyes off me at all. I’m thinking that maybe he’s wondering whether to let someone so dirty and straggly-looking into his house. He was still smiling at me however and I got the sense he found me interesting, as in a scientist-looking-at-a-specimen sort of way. In ordinary circumstances maybe he would have second thoughts, but these were no ordinary circumstances. Oliver’s studying of my person was starting to make me feel uncomfortable. I looked at Beatrix who was looking at Oliver and in my tiredness and frustration I said to Oliver “What? What are you looking at me like that for?”

Oliver says to me kindly, “Soultide. You need to dig deeper.” I tremble at his words and stare at him in astonishment. He continues, “From now on, you will need to work harder to move forward. You will never find what you’re looking for unless you work the Alluvial Mine. You have the tools, now find the will.”

I look over at the bag of mining tools lying on the floor, that Mule had been carrying for me. I’d been ignoring them for the whole journey, imagining all kind of reasons for Enchanteur to have left them for me. Maybe she’d made a mistake? Maybe these were for someone else? I’d seen the others in my dreams and I knew there were people on a similar journey to mine. With Oliver’s words, came the reality of my situation and I could either run and hope for the best or dive in head first and see what comes at me.

As I looked at the kind, patient, determined expressions of Beatrix and Oliver, running seemed more and more like a remarkably attractive option to me.

by Soultide