FREE AS A BIRD


Seryes dreaded the words "Go to the dormitory!" Every slave did. Late in the evening, you were (usually) allowed to return to the sleeping quarters to get a good night's sleep, but when you were ordered into your sleeping room, it was only to wait for your punishment. Still, a punishment in the dormitory meant a "mere" butt whipping with a rod – although Seryes would soon reach the age of thirteen, after which the rod would be replaced by the cane.

Seryes shared a room with seven other slave boys, empty at this hour, of course. He used the toilet and checked his body to make sure he wasn't too dirty. With movements trained to automatism, he laid his pants, underpants, socks and shoes neatly to their proper places and stood in the middle of the room.

The waiting time was meant for contemplating your behavior. Today, there was nothing to mull over. Seryes had given milk to an ulpet, a young female who kept coming to Seryes and allowed herself to be caressed, making a sound between a squirrel's and a cat's. Seryes in turn let her always have some milk. He had never been caught so far. Everybody liked the cute furry ulpets, but you were not supposed to waste the humans' food on wild animals who (of course) contributed nothing to the welfare of the community.

This time, Seryes had been ordered to the dorm by Lady Zonje herself. He hoped she would carry out the punishment personally rather than send an overseer. Those hurt you a lot more. True, Lady Zonje could be utterly unpredictable at times, but she had seemed to be in a good mood today. The worst, at any rate, were the castle guards. (The execution of a punishment by another slave was forbidden.)

When the punisher came with the implement, they would ask you what you deserved a punishment for. If you knew, the punishment would turn out milder. If you didn't, you were told what you offense had been, and then punished harsher. It was a sensible policy – when the offender knew what they had done wrong, an attitude readjustment required less pain compared to when they had no idea they had even been bad.

Seryes wished the stupid punishment would be over sooner, so he could return to the festival preparations. Today was a big day. The legend said every year on the Summer Solstice, the World Spirit approaches one human being somewhere in the world and fulfills them one wish. However, no one could verify that it had ever really happened. That is, there were people who claimed they had met the World Spirit, but their rambling stories made little sense.

Seryes thought about the ulpet who would have to go without milk from now on. To repeat an offense for which one had already been punished was a very serious matter. He definitely didn't want to risk that. But the ulpet had seemed pretty big already. It would soon be time for her to meet a male ulpet, and they would dig a den in a well-hidden place together and have several baby ulpets. Seryes would no longer be her friend. That was the way of the nature.

All he could do now was wait. Just like every time, Seryes couldn't help wondering how much it was going to hurt. Would he be able not to cry? Punishers looked favorably upon crying, seeing it as a sign of remorse, and your tears usually caused the last strokes to fall out softer. On the other hand, it was embarrassing to be seen by the other slaves as having cried. And there wasn't going to be a chance to wash your face or anything. After you had begged forgiveness and promised to behave correctly in the future, you had to get dressed quickly and hurry back to your chores. Of course the girls always came back swimming in tears, but among the boys crying was considered a shame. That's why boys tended to get much harsher punishments than girls. Or at least that's what every slaveboy believed. Seryes had never actually seen a girl punished.

Do I have to be a slave? he thought all of a sudden.

Instead of reflecting upon his behavior, Seryes found his thoughts wandering heaven knows where. Imagine that all the slaves were allowed to freely leave the castle and go wherever they pleased. Could the society function like that? Would it somehow be possible to make the workers and servants in this castle and all the others, as well as in the villages and cities and whatever there was elsewhere, to work voluntarily? If it were, all the overseers could be made to do some productive work and the society on the whole would turn out more useful goods. And, well, no one would get punished. He shuddered in spite of himself.

Many people had pointed out that Seryes kept coming up with the wildest ideas of all. Such as:
Could it be possible for a human being to fly like a bird?
What is the light blue substance hanging above the colorless air and how come the two don't get mixed the way smoke always disperses in the air?
How could one be able to see what is on the other side of a high wall without physically going to the other side?
If the sun goes down each evening, then who or what lights it up again every morning, and can we be absolutely certain this will continue to occur for all eternity?

But now he heard familiar footsteps that appeared to be approaching the dormitory door. He took a deep breath. Will he be able not to cry?

* * *

Much of Castle Shepi's fortifications had been torn down on the king's orders a few centuries ago to deny a stronghold to a potential rebellion. Shepi of today was more a walled community than a castle. In daytime, even the gates were open and Freefolk could walk in and out as they wished. Far from the kingdom's border, this region hadn't seen any real troubles for a long time. In Seryes's lifetime, there had always been enough food and even the slaves' living quarters were warm. The biggest danger was one of the Freefolk picking on you when in a foul mood or drunk, and even that wasn't all that horrible. No one at Castle Shepi was ever really mean.

Seryes and his roommates had returned to their quarters after a tiresome but rewarding day. As always, it had been uncomfortable to run around wearing pants after his punishment, but fortunately there had been no other mishaps during the day and the evening, and the festival had been more jolly than ever, even for the slaves. As Seryes was searching for a comfortable position in the bed, hearing an occasional drunken shout and such from the outside, something made him suddenly open his eyes.

At first it merely seemed that a farther corner of the room was strangely light even for the lightest night of the year. He looked more closely. There had to be some kind of a light source there. Seryes sat up, winced and adjusted his position as an oblong sphere of white glow that almost reached the ceiling appeared. Although quite bright, the foggy light still didn't hurt the eyes. A quick sideglance verified that the other boys were fast asleep and then Seryes turned back to the unearthly shining oval, captivated. Somehow it didn't occur to him to fear.

Out of the matte white light appeared a woman in a white robe. Seryes knew, of course, that the World Spirit would appear to the males as female and to the females as male. She looked early middle age with a face that radiated benevolence and immediately evoked trust. Seryes hastened to get out of bed and kowtow. Then he rose to the kneeling position and chanced another quick glance at his sleeping roommates.

To his surprise, the woman knelt down too, facing him.

"Seryes," she spoke with a gentle voice. "You know who I am, don't you?"

"Yes, Illustrissima." Seryes could barely remember to put the deity's formal address into the right gender.

"I like you because you are curious about new things. I will grant you one wish tonight. What is it you desire more than anything else in the world?"

Seryes didn't hesitate long. "I would like to be able to fly, Illustrissima, if it pleases you." When the deity didn't reply for a second, he added: "I mean, not just float in the air and not really turn into a bird, but somehow still be able to spread my wings and fly like birds do."

The World Spirit nodded with the hint of a smile. "You will be able to turn into a bird and fly for two hours every night. Your body, your real body, will still sleep, but your mind will be inside the bird. Do you want to try it now?"

"Yes, please."

The World Spirit made a slight swiping movement with her hand and suddenly Seryes found himself floating in the air. Realizing he could control his movement, he flew around in the room, watching the deity and himself kneeling below facing each other. He played with the thought of flying out the window, but then didn't dare. He returned to his human body.

"You can fly wherever you want in the world. As long as a location gives you genuine joy and you're looking forward to seeing it again, you can return there."

"Thank you, Illustrissima," was all Seryes could think of saying.

"Better not confuse people by getting too close to them," said the World Spirit, smiled again and began to fade away. Seryes hastily kowtowed once and then waited until the last of the mist vanished and the room returned to darkness. He climbed into his bed and fell asleep at once.

* * *

Over the next weeks, Seryes found out that during the hours his roommates (and himself) used to sleep like logs, it wasn't necessarily the case with the other inhabitants of Castle Shepi. Peeking in through various windows, he saw people in groups of two, three or sometimes even more occupying bedrooms that were at best dimly lit. Very much awake as they may have been, it was hard to make out what they were saying and they acted so silly he quickly lost interest. (He knew a number of boys a couple of years older who would have probably spent all the time watching the passionate couples entangled in beds, and he wondered if he would turn like that too eventually.)

Neither were the surrounding villages too interesting, because it was dark and, well, most people were sleeping. It felt disappointing. There wasn't all that much joy in flying when everything was dark. But then he got lucky and found a city further east which seemed like a hundred Castle Shepis bundled together. Many streets were lit even at night and the merry goings-on were quite amusing for some time.

However, the real fun started when he traveled farther still and began to discover faraway locations where it was early morning, and later really strange and exotic lands where it was broad daylight at the hour Seryes could fly. Eventually he realized the sun didn't go out at all. It simply traveled so far one couldn't see it from Shepi, but the best Seryes could tell, it was always shining somewhere.

At the end of his nightly flying time (or even sooner when he so wished), he would instantly teleport back into his bed, and the next night he could also instantly return to any place which he had been fascinated with and wished he could return to. Since he practically always felt that way, he was able to teleport to any region, and thus kept expanding the borders of the area known to him.

Sadly, he failed to fly high enough to reach that strange light blue air, but he did, over time, find out that the world had to be round, because when he went very, very far east, he reached the lands west of his home. And the sun, moving incomparably faster than Seryes-bird, apparently circled it all in one day.

The World Spirit had warned Seryes not to try to make contact with any human being while in the form of a bird. But he couldn't help himself. He had to find out if it was all just dreams or he could actually fly and the places he had seen really existed. So one night he, as a bird, awakened his friend Bashkud. When the boy woke up, Seryes felt terrified and flew into the farthest corner. With horror, he saw how Bashkud tried to shake his sleeping body awake. So he returned hastily. Seryes woke with a headache and could hardly follow his friend's excited whisper. Evidently Bashkud had seen a most unusual bird about the size of a thrush that was very hard to see because it seemed to change its color to match the background.

Seryes never did that again.

Overall, the life at Castle Shepi went on as usual. Seryes did his chores during the day, stoically putting up with occasional difficulties and a rare punishment, and explored the world at night. The stories he told the other slaves at the moments of rest became increasingly vivid and kept drawing larger audiences. When there was something really important going on, he stayed home at night and spied on the castlefolk, surprising his friends by being so well informed about what their masters were up to.

Seryes was happy.



(C) Olavi Jaggo
First published: 2022-02-11
This version: 2022-10-08




back to the list of stories