Jenkis knew it was killing his father somehow, but his father had accepted his decision anyway, and that was a blessing. Once it was agreed on all sides that the trip was going to happen, both his parents put him to work like he’d never worked before.

Jenkis helped his mother make some food for his journey to the Library of the Clouds.

“One of the most important things to remember when planning a trip is the food and water you’ll be taking with you,” she said, while putting him hard to work kneading bread dough. “It doesn’t matter if you get lost for days and weeks if you take the right amount of food. It’ll be a wonderful walk, instead of being a chance to starve to death on some lonely trail.”

“It’s also important to not get lost, don’t misread me. I won’t have my son wandering around like an idiot. You can get ambushed and robbed and slaughtered by some roadside bandits, but at least be on the right road, heading in the right direction when it happens.”

The most important part of any trip, according to Beatrie, was the preparation involved before a single step was taken.

“You’ll always regret leaving something. That’s no matter. You’ve just got to be resourceful. I’ve known so many people who have decided on some crazy impulse to go somewhere, and realized later that they forgot something like an ax, and had to go all the way back home to get it. If you forget something, just keep on going. Swallow your pride and keep on walking. If you get the notion that you can always go back on your mistakes, you’ll never get anywhere. You’ll spend your entire life running around in circles like a headless chicken.”

Jenkis had seen many chickens down in the villages, but up here in the mountains, they were always screaming for some mountain lion to come and eat them. Whenever he or his father brought chickens up from the valley, it was to eat them within a handfull of days. Any longer was just begging for trouble.

He’d learned more about kitchen work and food in the past four days, than he had in his entire life. It was amazing what he had been missing, spending all his chores chopping wood, hunting and hauling hay.

The first thing they had done was bake several loaves of seed bread. They were small, compact little things, but each one had enough substance to keep a man going strong for a day. They were also so fibrous that each mouthful would take several hours to chew. By Jenkis’ reasoning, this probably would help with boredom more than anything.