The Path of Decisions Read Online Free PDF Page A

dirt splattered his clothes. He rolled over to see what
he had tripped on. It was a large root.
    He brought himself up off the ground and pulled on the root to see
where it would lead. The movement seemed to sift away a small portion of dirt a
few feet away from him.
    The rain began to soak through him now as he dug around the spot
with his fingers. A small hole opened up and gave him additional determination
to dig. The dirt turned into mud as the brunt of the storm reached him. Cold,
wet rain soaked him within minutes. He tried not to shiver, but he couldn’t
stop.
    Finally, he hit a large slab of rock. With muddy hands he pried
the stone up with a nearby moss-covered branch. A dark hole opened in the
ground before him. He grabbed his pack and jumped into the darkness. He fell
through empty blackness, dropping onto dry, hard ground below. The slab of rock
had fallen back down over part of the hole, but rain cascaded down through the
open portion. He used the stick he had brought down with him to reach up and
push the stone back over to cover the opening.
    Kelln sat down, breathing hard and listening to the muffled
clatter of the ferocious storm beating on the ground above. His face dripped
with a mixture of sweat and rain. He wiped his face off with his hand. His
muscles ached and his body felt weak, but it was dry in the small cave. As he
laid his head on his pack to rest for a few minutes, the faint echoes of the
storm above receded from his conscious mind.
     
     

Chapter 4
    A NEW PERSPECTIVE
     
    A n unexpected sound, like footsteps, jolted Kelln awake. He sat up
and tried to orient himself in the darkness of the cave. Instinctively he
reached to his side for his sword, only to remember that Alessandra had only
given him a small knife.
    “Hello, my friend,” a voice echoed in the cavernous hole.
    Kelln jumped and crashed into the wall of the cave. He brought his
knife out in front of him. “Who are you?”
    An odd and wild laugh sounded close by him.
    “Who?... What are you... doing here?” Kelln said as he backed away
from the sound, knowing he didn’t have much room if he needed to fight.
    Without warning a bright flame flared up in front of him. His
eyes, accustomed to the darkness, blinked in rapid response. In front of him
stood a wild-looking older man, his gray hair and beard uncombed and
disheveled. The old man limped toward him. His hands were gnarled and his
clothes torn. Kelln tried to think through his options.
    In the palm of one of the old man’s hands appeared a small ball of
light, not unlike the one Darius had produced in the library basement a year
before.
    “Don't worry. I won't hurt you.” The old man moved closer. Kelln
began to smell the man's woodsy breath. It was then he noticed the man’s eyes.
A solid milky color. Kelln let his breath out in a deep rush. The man was
blind. That was all. Nothing to be afraid of.
    “How did you get in here?” he finally got the nerve to ask.
    “How did I get in here?” repeated the old man. “I should be asking you that question, my young one. This is the back of my home. I was
trying to rest when I began to hear a lot of racket going on.”
    “You live here? Out in the forest? But, you can’t see!”
    The man laughed a loud crackle. “The eyes are only one way to
see.”
    Kelln was definitely confused. The man in front of him was crazy!
    The man stepped close enough for Kelln to smell his breath. “You
thought striking your flint to steel would be the only way to light a fire?”
    “I guess so.” Kelln answered, not knowing what else to say.
    “Then how do you explain this?” The man waved his hand around the
ball of light. “There are many ways to accomplish the same task.”
    “So you are a wizard?” Kelln surmised.
    “That’s a title people give those who do things in a different way
than they understand. I’m no different from you. We both see— you with your
eyes, I with an inner power. We both make fire— you with a flint, I