Renno laid in a crevice where the dirt had been hollowed out by water many years before looking up at the dimming sky. His head hurt, was swollen, and a little blood was coming from his ear. He was battered and bruised more than he had ever been in his life and more than he thought he could ever take. This was not how it was supposed to go; this was not the plan. His heart was sinking with the feeling of failure and as he laid there barely able to move, he thought about how this all began:


    It was a warm summer day with the one sun high in the sky and the other falling low. He had just picked the last of the vegetables and was resting on the side of the cart before taking it all home to make dinner for himself and his mother. The sound of horses coming down the forest road snapped him out of his day dreaming. The sound of soldiers shouting at each other was growing louder. When they came out of the trees, he could see ten soldiers wearing the Ministry of Science banners on their armor. They rumbled to a stop next to his cart.


    "Young man," the soldier in the shiniest armor said. "Have you seen a young woman come through here? She''s wearing a green and black dress and has dark hair."


    Renno cleared his throat. He didn''t talk to many people these days. "Uh, no sir. You soldiers are the first other than my mother I have seen in several seasons. Well, I mean that actually stopped by our land."


    "Where is your father?" the soldier inquired. Renno took this to mean he did not believe him.


    "He is up on the hill over there." Renno pointed to the hill a bit down the tree line. The soldiers bolted off in that direction. Renno picked up the yoke of his cart and started walking it to the house. He watched the soldiers riding hard to the hill and could not help but smile. He knew they would be back to talk to him very soon. He probably would not make it halfway to the house.


    As he neared the halfway point, he could hear the soldiers coming back, but out of the corner of his eye he saw movement. I girl matching the description the soldier had given was running from the tree-line to the shed by his house, just out of view of the approaching soldiers. His heart began to pound. He knew he would not tell the soldiers, but he also knew he was a bad liar. As the soldiers reached him, he could tell they were not happy.


    "Would it not have been just as easy to tell us your father is dead? Do you think it is funny to waste Ministry soldiers'' time?" the soldier glared at him.


    "No sir, it isn''t funny. I... I just... you didn''t ask..." His nervousness was showing, and he knew it. He took a deep breath. "Sir, my father''s death is still hard for me and I don''t like to talk about it."


    The soldier sighed. "It is never easy to lose a father. If you see the girl, report it immediately to the Ministry." The soldier rode on and his cadre followed.


    Renno''s anxiety dropped though his adrenaline was still roaring. He walked the rest of the way to the house in a hurried pace, dropping the cart by the door. He ran to the shed and opened the door. He could see the top of the girl''s head behind a couple of storage chests. "Are they gone?" she asked.


    "Yes. Wh-who are you and why are they after you? The Ministry does not just come for anyone like that." He was curious more than anything, but almost stuttering because of the adrenaline. It also did not help his anxiety that this was the first person other than his mom and the recent soldier that he had talked to in a long time.


    "Gia. I''m Gia. They are after me because the Minister of Science wants me found." She stood up and walked out from behind the chests and boxes. "Can I stay here for the night in your shed? I shall sleep on the ground and you will not have to see me after tomorrow. I have a long way to travel and I have a feeling most of my nights will be slept in the open, so if I can sleep under a roof every now and then it would be nice. Oh, and water would be great."


    She spoke very clean and proper, which he hadn''t heard since his father passed on. He knew she was important and educated, but in his mind, it really was not any of his business. "Sure, but we have a spare bed in the house. Help me carry in the food and you are welcome to dinner as well." He was finally starting to relax and stop shaking from the adrenaline.


    Gia nodded and they both walked out, though when she walked out, she took time to peek at the road before stepping out of the door. Together they grabbed the vegetables but neither spoke. He felt more comfortable not talking but he could tell she wanted conversation. With the adrenaline gone he felt a bit shy and less motivated to talk but he remembered how his mother and father used to tell him how to treat guests. After they put the vegetables in the kitchen, he poured her a glass of water, and one for himself. He took a sip, and after his mind telling him to talk a couple of times he finally asked, "How long have you been running from soldiers?"


    She gave him a slightly annoyed look. "It is not like I am a criminal. A couple of days, if you must know." She drank the water quickly but looked the opposite way. Renno could tell he asked the wrong question.


    After what seemed like a long silence he said, "I did not mean it like that. I just do not know what to say. I am not used to people hiding out, er, uhm, I.." he paused. Gia looked at him and he continued, "I am just not used to people. It is just me and my mom."


    Gia seemed to soften her anger. She smiled. "So, what''s for dinner? I have only had mushrooms from the forest since yesterday."


    "Dako root soup," he said, also smiling. "We''ll have to skin the roots, but most everything else just has to be diced up, so it won''t take too long to prepare. He sat at the table and opened the cloth bag containing the roots and pulled a couple out. He put one knife on the other side of the table and one of the roots and took another knife and root for himself and began skinning it. Now she looked a bit uncomfortable.


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Gia sat at the table and picked up the knife and the root. She looked at him and watched how he was skinning his root. She tried to imitate how he was cutting his and ended up taking of a big chunk of the root. She glared at the root and tried again. After a couple sloppier cuts she lightly growled at the root, got a determined look on her face and kept trying, getting better with each cut. While he was not an expert at people, he was pretty sure she had never cut Dako root and had probably never prepared food, and he also had a good feeling that this was a time they would both be comfortable not talking.


    During the long silence Gia became better at cutting the roots and Renno took note that she was a fast learner. They washed them together, diced the rest of the vegetables, and put them in the pot. As they put the last bit in Gia decided to break the silence. "You said you live here with your mom. Where is she?"


    Renno looked at her, smiling and glad that she was the one that broke the silence so that he did not have to. "She is in her room. She is bed-ridden and has the Wilds."


    Gia looked at the soup with a sad look, which seemed odd to Renno. "I am sorry. You use Ministry fertilizer on your crops, right?"


    "Everyone does, do they not?" Renno replied. He thought that was a weird question.


    Gia looked very perplexed and a bit sad. "I wish no one had ever been affected by the Wilds. It is so sad. How bad is it?"


    "She does not know me most days and has terrible fits of rage. Some days she does, and those are the best and worst days because I get to talk to her, but at the same time she feels guilty for how she has been the rest of the time. She has not walked for about a year. My aunt is is coming today to help. She should have been here a week ago, but I suppose something happened and she changed it today." Renno paused for a moment. "Have you known someone with it?"


    Gia seemed to look beyond him as if she was remembering. "Yes, I have seen it a lot." She looked to Renno as if she were going to say something, even going as far as to open her mouth, but no words came out. She shut her mouth quickly and walked outside, looking a bit shaken.


    Renno sighed, having no idea why she was upset but thought that maybe she had someone she cared about that was affected by the Wilds. He stirred the soup and began setting out dishes. Finding himself in solitude he began to wonder who she was and why she was running from the Ministry of Science. He knew she must be special but could not figure out why. He gave up trying to figure it out. He reasoned that she would be gone tomorrow, and he would never hear from her again, so it really did not matter.


    When the soup was finished, she had still not come back in, so he made his mom a bowl and took it to her room. She was staring off into space, occasionally making odd faces. "Mom, I have dinner." Renno said calmly. His mother nodded. He moved the pillows and sat her up. He gently spoon-fed her soup, wiping what dribbled down her face as he fed her to keep her clean. About halfway through the bowl her expression changed quickly to anger. She spat the soup in her mouth at him.


    "You''ll never take it!" she yelled. "It is mine!" She started muttering and yelling off and on incoherently after that. He set the bowl down and sat next to her. He could tell she wanted to lift her arms and push him away, but her arms would not move. She went from angry to scared and started whimpering. Renno gently brushed her hair with his hand.


    "It''s okay mom, I am here. Nothing will hurt you and no one will take it," he told her soothingly. After a few minutes she calmed down and he resumed feeding her, still occasionally brushing her hair with his hand. "Aunt Mayza will be here soon, and she can help, too." After all this time, he still had no idea what anyone was trying to take from her.


    After feeding his mom and cleaning her up, he went back into the main room. Gia was waiting there. "I am sorry that I walked off," she said. "You have been so kind to me and that was rude. What I am about to tell you is even worse."


    Renno had no idea what she could say that was worse. Many things could be, but he did not see her saying anything mean. "It cannot be that bad. Just say what you must, and we can go from there." He tried giving a warm smile.


    Gia cleared her throat. "I know what causes the Wilds."


    He did not expect that. "No one knows what causes the Wilds, that is why they are still happening." Renno sat down in a chair. "But what do you think causes the Wilds?" He tried no to look like he did not believe her.


    "I do know. It is why I am going where I am going, and the Ministry of Science is after me. The Ministry is responsible. They have been poisoning the food through the fertilizer and it only affects certain people. It normally affects whole families because they come from the same line. I know a lot about how it works, and I cannot stomach it any longer. I have to do something." She got a strong and proud look on her face. "I AM doing something."


    "But the Ministry is searching for the cure. They have been working on it for years. This has been going on for a long time." This could not be so in his mind. The Ministry of Science was always helping those affected by the Wilds. "They take them in and take care of them. If my aunt was not coming, I was going to take my mom there, so she could get help. I love her, and I try, but she needs more help than I can give. My aunt insisted on helping."


    Gia almost looked astonished. "Never, ever, send your mom there. They do not help at all. They study and watch them die, only trying to make the symptoms worse." Gia shivered in disgust. "I have watched it since I was a little girl. Please never send her there."


    Renno was not completely buying into it yet, but now he was starting to think about the possibility. "If they did do this, why did they do this?"


    "That is something I still don''t know. They speak of the people affected with so much hatred and anger as if they are the plague and not the Wilds that affects them. I do not know why they are trying to kill off these family lines, but I know the name of someone who they have been looking for that they feel is a threat to their plan, and I am going to get some answers and find a way to make this stop. You will be affected too if you keep using their fertilizer. They made it so cheap and get rid of all competition just to make sure everyone uses it." Gia sighed. "They are the Ministry of Science. They are very powerful, and people think they are so benevolent that they do not see the evil I have seen."


    "People have been getting the Wilds for over a hundred years. How can they have been doing this for so long and no one find out?" Renno asked, then paused. He realized that his mom did not get sick until after they started using the fertilizer supplied by the Ministry of Science. After his dad died it was hard for them to afford the same fertilizer they had always bought, and he had made the decision to buy the Ministry fertilizer. "It''s my fault my mom has the Wilds?" he asked rhetorically. "I decided to buy from the Ministry. I did this to her." He was now starting to believe Gia. "Why would they do that? My mom has done nothing wrong her entire life!" He was raising his voice a little and realized it after he spoke. "Sorry, it is not your fault. I am just angry. I love my mom."


    "This is why it is so important I get to the man I am trying to find. This is not right. No one deserves this. I am so sorry." Gia put her head in her hands.