Written for those we love far away, in miles or emotional distance.

Written for those we love far away, in miles or emotional distance.

Our loved one's travel far from the safety of their family, the only few who genuinely love them to search for treasure and wealth, earthly success. Travel far fair pilgrim but may God take time from his busy doings to guide those we love home one more time. 


obsidian hunters/ edited

fiction
edward w pritchard

Finding the valuable obsidian was not really the difficult part. Of course it is a long trek across dangerous terrain with wild animals and inclement weather. The real danger is coming back after we get the precious obsidian for the making of knife blades, spear points, and use as reflecting surfaces [mirrors]. The obsidian is very valuable and many fierce hunters, more cruel and cunning than any wild animal, lay in wait to rob and kill us once we have toiled to gather the scarce cargo.

I go from tribe to tribe, civilization to civilization, here on the central plateau [ now Turkey}. The year is 4500 BC on your dating system. I recruit solitary and odd persons and cast offs from each society to work with me to journey to the mountainous regions and painstakingly obtain a leather pouch full of obsidian. I tell their very few loved ones of the potential gathers I recruit the hard facts. Their family member or clansman may not return. Say your goodbyes now, for the journey is treacherous. However the reward is great. As long as we find obsidian and start back toward the trading points everyone who left the mountain area gets paid, and handsomely. Those who die coming back, I pay the relatives a full share; for I want to be welcome the next time I come to their homeland to recruit new obsidian hunters.

We are an odd lot and I am one strange person. I like my misfits who I recruit. People unable to stick around a camp and tend a fire or watch the wheat come out of the ground. We are the last great explorers. Every day we put our life on the line to provide the villages the latest technology. If you know of someone not fitting in send them my way and I will make an obsidian hunter of them.

Each human must take some risks if they are to make their way in an indifferent world. Travel far away from friends and family who love you, across mountains, through storms and earthquakes, find a handful of valuable mineral wealth, and then trade it, sell it, display what you have found; you will be a success, you will have made the grade and passed your quest. Travel far but return to those you love, wandering pilgrim.
end