Making his way along the stone-brick road, Beorhtric jogged ahead, passing by similar hills of long green grass covered in a declining number of oak trees as he grew closer towards the path's end- towards Orkneys port.
Woosh- a sudden gust of wind caused Beorhtric to raise his lowered head. Gazing ahead of him at the path's sudden end the island of Orkney appeared to fall off the map, giving way to the cloudy blue sky far above its peaceful shores – Much like how if you look out far enough, the ocean disappears behind a beautiful blue wall of sky. This drop- was Orkney's infamous cliffside. Standing high above the sea, Orkney sat hundreds of feet above the endless ocean below. Secluded from all sides by its rocky walls.
Resting on the edge of this cliff, a large wooden contraption, covered in a web of ropes and pulleys, sat stationary against the turbulent wind. This wooden mishmash, charged with raising Skara's inhabitants above the treacherous cliff side and lowering them to the port below- was Orkney's makeshift lift.
Slowing his jog to a walk, Beorhtric made his way towards this old lift, getting closer and closer until he was standing directly in front of the wooden platform.
Long thick ropes, rising all the way from the base of the cliff, attached to the lifts bottom. Along the edges of the platform, thin wood braces shifted about chaotically in the unyielding wind, emitting loud creaks as they rocked back and forth. Despite its flaws, this very lift was the sole reason Orkney could exist, allowing its few residents to live far above the sea, secluded from floodings and other disastrous events that would normally bring despair to the average unshielded town.
Looking down at the shaky platform, Beorhtric stood like this, still against the wind.
Until a thought came to mind.
Turning away from the lift, Beorhtric instead chose to walk over to the unguarded cliffside beside it, where the winds tried in unending vain to keep Beorhtric back as he pushed his way forwards- towards Orkney's skyhigh end.
Mere inches stood between Beorhtric and a thousand meter drop as he stood unyielding to the fear of it all. Letting out a heavy sigh Beorhtric lowered his body and sat down on the cliffside, letting his feet dangle over the scene below him.
Far off into the horizon, the grand all blue ocean once again encompassed Beorhtrics' vision, casting a floor of waves beneath the light blue, cloud filled sky above.
Below all of this, hugging the bottom of Orkneys north facing cliffside, a large area of land sat just above the oceans level. Observing from the cliff, Beorhtric could make out all the familiar sights he lived through everyday. At the base of the cliff, a small wooden shack sat beside the bottom of the lift, where an irritated middle aged man named Peter spent his days sleeping and glaring at the everyday errand runners waiting for him to send them up or down Orkneys lift.
In front of this shack, the cobblestone road continued thousands of feet below where it cut off at the top. Continuing through a flat empty landscape covered in a layer of short dry grass, the road soon approached the gravel filled beach. But before the road could disappear into the unknown depths of the ocean, the stone path transformed into a maze of wooden docks raised high above the sandy beach floor. Surrounding these worn walkways a number of small wooden houses resting on thick poles with triangle shaped roofs made of dead plants and forest brush lined the dock. In front of almost every house, small fishing boats tied to wooden posts sat on the water's calm surface. A few manned boats were even floating out further in the ocean, but not far enough out to lose sight of Orkney behind the horizon.
The people inhabiting this port sat idly on the docks, casting their passed down fishing rod into the calm sea surrounding them, with an unnatural level of patience in their lifelong task.
But despite having a view of the entire scene before him, in the entire time Beorhtric sat alone by himself – he never saw a single person move.
The Still Port of Orkney.
Beorhtric sat in silence on the empty cliffside watching as the inhabitants of the port sat lazily in their fishing boats and docks- tiny specks from Beorhtric's view.
Looking over this blissful view, Beorhtric felt the never-ending wave or boredom building up in his chest once again. Gnawing relentlessly at his dormant soul. Turning his head, Beorhtric glanced at the waiting lift to his right, and back to the calling port below.
In that moment one singular thought lingered in Beorhtric's indecisive mind.
One dangerous thought.
Silenced by the wind.
That he called out for the world to hear.
"--Where's the thrill in all this."
***
Surrendering to the feeling, Beorhtric stood up from his treacherous seat and raised his arms high in the air, stretching with all his might towards the distant clouds above.
Groaning softly, Beorhtric mumbled under his breath, "Okay I got to get going."
Walking over to the lift, Beorhtric stepped onto the platform which shook violently in turn with his shifting weight. Surrounded by a thin wooden railing, Beorhtric grabbed onto one of the larger lines of rope connecting the platform to the ground below and pulled hard. A minute went by in silence before Beorhtric grabbed the rope again, pulling non-stop until a loud creaking filled the air.
"About time."
As the lift started to creak and ropes snapped in place, the stationary platform jolted awake and slowly began its descent towards the distant ground below. The perfectly vertical rocky cliff rose above Beorhtric as it gradually disappeared above his eyesight- While the strong wind that had pushed at Beorhtric with such unforgiving strength became nothing more than a soft gentle breeze.
A sudden jolt halted the lift as it hit the ground. Finishing his descent, Beorhtric stepped onto the continuation of the cobblestone path, making his way towards Orkneys port.
But before he could take five steps away from the lift, a boastful voice called out from his side, "How about you just pick a side and stay on like the others so I don't have to keep waking up for you."
Peter, a tall man with black hair already showing shades of gray, stood in front of his small wooden shack, crossing his arms with an irritated scowl.
"This is the second time today and it just barely reached noon. I can't be bothered with any more of this back and forth between you and Berht." Pausing for a second Peter added one last remark, "although I guess he isn't as bad with this as you are."
Completely ignoring Peter's gaze as he walked past, Beorhtric called over his shoulder, "Yeah, yeah dont worry I wont be going back up today."
"You better not or I won't be letting you back down."
Knowing that Peter was only bluffing, and that if he pleaded with him hard enough Peter would lift him up anytime of the day, Beorhtric mockingly called back, "See you soon!" Before running away in broken laughter from the now cursing Peter.
***
Running along the road surrounded by short dry grass growing out of the land's loose soil, Beorhtric arrived at the wooden docks, giving off loud hollow thuds as he stepped onto the wooden planks.
"Hey Beorhtric!, slow down before you scare all the fish away!"
Slowing down his jog until his steps were barely noticeable, Beorhtric waved his hand apologetically to the angry fisherman before making his way farther down the still docks.
Nothing but the occasional fishermen and unattended fishing rod accompanied the boredom flowing from this unchanging dock. Even the vast varieties of cats left by past ships, now adopted by the port's inhabitants, sat fast asleep against wooden posts, basking under the half hidden sun. The wake of the waves reflected this calming atmosphere barely rising more than a couple inches off the oceans surface.
Besides the man who had yelled at Beorhtric to maintain this bliss, no one else acknowledged his fast-paced walk as he passed by- lost in the trance of the ocean waves
But Beorhtric only had to deal with this familiar silence for a brief moment as very soon he arrived in front of a familiar wooden house lifted above the water by long thick stilts running all the way down to the shallow ocean floor. On a wooden rack standing against the house's wall, dried fish of all sizes laid unattended- drying in the mix of ocean air and sun. To the left of the rack a thin wooden door marked the only entrance to the home, devoid of all windows.
Walking up to the wooden door, Beorhtric twisted the cold iron handle and stepped inside.
Entering the quiet house, Beorhtric, wanting to break the silence, called out to anyone that could hear.
"I'm home!"
But no response came from the seemingly empty room as Beorhtric shut the door behind him. Looking around, the simplistic design of the room grew glaringly clear with the lack of people inhabiting it. Sitting in the middle of the space a small square table rested on a floor of wooden planks. Propped up against one of the walls, one lonely fishing rod sat solo, abandoned by its peers. Lining these wooden walls, beams of light flickered through old cracks, giving the dim room a glimmer of natural light. A number of counters and shelves also lined the walls of the room, holding old fishing nets, rusty metal fishing hooks, tangled fishing line, and all sorts of other miscellaneous items.
Realizing no one was home at the time, Beorhtric pulled out a chair and sat down at the wooden table. Letting out a sigh as the weight of his body disappeared, something on the table held down by a roll of fishing line caught his eye. Pulling out the object from under the roll, Beorhtric brought a white piece of paper to his face.
Written on the paper in a debatable attempt at handwriting the note read-
Beorhtric
we went fishing on thi back of Orkney, Be back soom.
love Mom & Dad
Letting the letter fall back onto the table, Beorhtric sat back in his chair and grimaced.
"I don't even have anything to to do now– why'd I have to go down so soon"
Thoughts of things to do flowed through Beorhtric restless mind
"I guess I could fish for a bit– I wouldn't catch anything fun."
"I could swim in the ocean for a while– they'd just get mad at me for scaring the fish."
"I might be able to find something to do back up at Skara– Peter would kill me if I came back this quick."
Despite so many ideas coming to mind, none of them could get past Beorhtrics' wavering doubt. So in the end once all of his ideas were exhausted, Beorhtric gave into his silent boredom and resorted to staring aimlessly around the room. Each glance of his eyes just seemed to make time pass even slower than the movement of the port. So lowering his head to match the mood of the room, Beorhtric sat at this empty table- wishing for something to happen.
A muffled noise came from the dock outside.
Raising his head at the uncommon disturbance, Beorhtric listened intently to the commotion outside. Voices called out frantically and the sound of rushing footsteps filled the air. Pushing his chair to the ground- a wide, childish, excitement-filled grin filled Beorhtric's face, beaming with a returning excitement he knew all too well. After all the only time that the ports inhabitants react like this-
Was with the arrival of a vessel.
Slamming open the door in a thud that would normally get him some stern looks, Beorhtric rushed out of his home. All across the wooden docks people were getting up from their unbroken rest, murmuring among another in all types of unanswered questions. "Is there really a ship? Who saw it? How big is it? What do you think they have?" But soon their questions transformed to mumbled rambling as the growing crowd left behind their belongings and made their way towards the edge of the docks. Unable to control his own excitement, Beorhtric began to sprint towards the open ocean view, dodging and weaning past the loosely packed villagers who besides a few distasteful glance- paid his extreme excitement little to no mind. Running further along the dock, passing by crates and abandoned fishing rods, the small wooden houses that had lined Orkneys docks in such a tangled design disappeared- giving way to the endless view of the open ocean. Standing alone with the wind, no one stood before Beorhtric as his excitement reached its peak. Letting his unwavering gaze scan the blue waters horizon a sudden brown speck far – far out into the oceans water caught Beorhtric's searching eye. Nothing more than a small dot in Beorhtric's vision. Yet it filled him with hope every single time he saw it. Slowly the rest of the crowd arrived behind Beorhtric, giving the horizon a quick glance before looking back to talk amongst themselves, their normally relaxed demeanor replaced with an urge of curiosity. Beorhtirc alway though the resembled a flock of birds jumping back and forth at a piece of food thrown to them. Curious, but too cautious to indulge their cravings fully. The flock of birds was chirping amongst themselves as the dot grew bigger with each passing minute. Fishermen talked amongst each other discussing the future business the ship would bring, parents asked excited children to retrieve their purses tucked away in their empty houses, untasked children ran about in a rush trying to find their equally excited friends, and even the sleepy cats sat along the edge of the dock watching the commotion with the eyes of a retired hunter.
In all this relaxed commotion no one noticed as Beorhtric slipped away, running back the way he came past unattended fishing rods and empty houses until he reached the end of the dock. Stepping onto the stone road leading back up Orkneys steep cliffside, Beorhtric increased his pace- sprinting past the fallen dry grass in a rush of returning exhilaration.
Laughing to himself in a combination of sheer disbelief and excitement, only one thought came to Beorhtric's racing mind as he neared the base of the cliff, "Ho- ly, I can't believe my luck – now I just need to find Berht."
Almost tripping over his feet, Beorhtric laughed some more as he barreled towards the lift.
Rushing towards Peter's isolated shack, Beorhtric slammed hard against the door and began knocking frantically.
Shouting in a desperate manner, Beorhtric shouted at the closed door, "Peter- Peter!, hurry up and get out here, it's an emergency this time!"
The closed door slammed open with a loud bang as it pushed Berohtric to the floor, creating a cloud of dust as he fell on the barren dirt doormat.
A fuming Peter emerged from the dark interior, carrying a sharp scowl on his face as he let out his built up anger, "I know you're playing with me Beorhtric!, It's barely been more than half an hour and you're already back!
Waving his hands back and forth, Beorhtric hurriedly explained himself, "Wait! Peter, listen to me, there's a ship coming right now!"
"Yeah right! There's always a ship when you need there to be one, I told you before I'm not letting you back up so you're just gonna have to deal with it."
Now pleading, Beorhtric desperately called out, "Please Peter I promise you- No, I give you my word, there's a ship out there!"
Stopping in place Peter eyed Beohtric questioningly, not sure if the young boy laying in front of him was telling the truth or just wanting to annoy him one final time. But after what Beorhtric felt like an eternity, Peter scoffed and walked over to a system of levers attached to the base of the cliff. Placing his hand on a large wooden handle Peter turned to Beorhtric and motioned for him to move.
"You better not be messing with me if you gave me your word- I still hope you value that."
Scrambling up from the ground, Beorhtric's smile returned as he ran towards the lift- jumping onto the platform in a leap of victory.
Turning to face Peter, Beorhtric "Thank you Peter, really. But I'm probably going to be coming back down soon-."
Ignoring Beorhtric's thanks Peter pulled the lever causing the lift to lurch upwards.
Watching as Beorhtric rose up the cliff, Peter called out, "Yeah I know im not stupid and Im guessing im gonna have to lift Berht back up whenever he comes back up also!"
Calling down to the shrinking Peter, Beorhtric yelled back, "Thank you Peter! I'll get you something nice from the ship!"
As the lift rose further from the ground, Beorhtric could still make out Peter waving his hands and yelling his mouth out to little avail as the returning wind blew away any of the lost words from reaching Beorhtrics ears. Pulling himself away from the ledge, Beorhtric quickly raised his head to search for a tiny speck gliding over the ocean's horizon. Squinting his eyes to lessen the sun's rays, Beorhtric spotted the brown dot sailing directly towards Orkney- Its sundried sails beginning to take shape in Beorhtrics vision.
Glancing up at the cliffs ledge, Beorhtric began snapping his fingers to calm his excitement.
"Come on… Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!"
The wind felt stronger than usual to Beorhtric as he grabbed onto one of the lifts' loose ropes to steady himself against the strong bursts pushing against him from all sides. Rising higher and higher the lift maintained its steady pace as Beorhtric neared the top of Orkney's cliff, the familiar green grass appearing over its edge, pearing down at Beorhtric.
Before the Lift even had the time to steady itself, Beorhtric jumped for the grassy ledge, pulling himself up over the cliffside with a loud humpf. Not wasting a second to hesitation, Beorhtric broke out into another long winded sprint towards Skara. Running past hills covered in a carpet of long green grass Beorhtric gained even more speed as he barreled past the half-hidden trail leading towards their bench overlooking the ocean below. Rising over the crest of a hill, the black and white forest of birch greeted Beorhtric as he raced towards its jumbled treeline. Bursting through the outer layers of trees, the continuous rush of wind disappeared, allowing Beorhtric to hear his heavy breathing and pumping heart in the following silence.
His mind feeling heavy, Beorhtric thought with effort, "Almost there… Just the forest… then I'm there." He then groaned realizing he was going to have to run the whole way back once he found Berht and told him about the ship. Raising his head to the roof of branches, Beorhtric groaned in annoyance. "Why do ships always have to come when we're apart?" pausing for a moment, Berht coughed up a slew of flume, spitting it to the side before finishing his short monologue, "I feel like I'm always the one who ends up having to find him."
At that moment the thin trees gave way to a familiar clearing. Stone houses and dirt streets encompassed Beorhtric's vision, who lowering his pace, rushed past the few unbothered townsfolk meandering about the dirt roads, making his way towards an unusually large building located near the center of town.
"I'll check here first then his house… he could also be in the forest but I hope not cause at that point I might as well just run back to the docks myself." Stopping in front of a large wooden double door, Beorhtric looked around before slowly opening the door and sliding through, "lets just hope I can find him at all."
As the doors creaked shut, Beorhtric's new life was set in motion.