Used with author's permission
As the hunting had gone well on this trip we settled down for the night in our wind break shelter. The four of us hunted many times together and our methods were so well practiced we seldom came home empty handed. As the other three expected an early start tomorrow, they were quickly off to sleep after our meager dinner. For me though, I knew that sleep would be long in coming. Tonight marked, in my mind, the end of an era. As with the morning light something I dreaded would come. An event I had waited half my life for, but as I knew not what was coming, all I could only bank up the fire, trust to my Gods, and let the new day bring what it would.
As I lay awake, staring at the stars, I thought back to my youth and the start of my belief that in my life time I would experience the "Last year of our Lord."
When I reached the age of 14 summers and could finally be called to service for our King and Country, my father decided it was time for me to accept more responsibilities. With this new maturity I could finally take over a family duty that he himself had held for 17 years. On this morning my father called me into the storage room. He held in his hands a small bundle covered with an old rotting cloth. I could smell the dust and mold from the cloth. The odors sat heavy in my nose, but behind these smells laid another odor, one of fear. As he set the bundle on the table and uncovered it, I could see his hands shake and the cold sweat standing out on his face. He was terrified of what this box meant to him and his family. This change in my father was nothing I had ever seen in my life. I had seen my father kill and skin many wild animals, some of which could have just as easily killed and skinned him. I had also seen him deal with the thieves who occasionally make forays into our area and again he stood bravely before the enemy and made his family proud. Today however, his terror washed over onto me and very quickly I became more afraid then I had ever been in my short life.
The box was black with age and showed signs of having gone through many violences in its time. The black coloring on the box was not the original color of the wood but looked like the blackening that occurs when an object is handled by many hands for untold years. If my guesses were right then this box could easily have been the oldest item in our young country.
"Son," my father spoke, his voice barely above a hoarse whisper, "we all think of living a life of peace and safety and if we are lucky some of us actually do. We pray that times of war and famine will not happen to us in our lifetimes and that, perhaps, even in our children's lifetimes. What many of us do not realize is that there are many things worse than war and famine. One of these things is inside this box and you and your generation has no choice but to experience it in your life time. Inside this box lies the proof that in the year of our Lord 1601 the world, as we know it, will change forever."
"I do not know the nature of the change," he continued, "but I know that it is not the first time this cycle has occurred. From the information in this box there lies the possibility that the cycle has repeated itself as many as three times and perhaps more. The box may only show the beginning of its recording not the actual beginning of the cycle. When you are ready, open the box, make your own observations and then we will discuss it when you understand what you have seen."
My father closed the door and left me alone with "it". As he closed the door behind him, a cool draft ran down my back making me shiver. But even when the door closed the shivers didn't stop. I too was frightened by what I was going to find in the box. I sat for a minute while I readied myself. Although I didn't stop shaking, I reached for the box and pulled it onto my knees. It felt warm, as though radiating the heat of all the hands that had held it. The lid of the box fit awkwardly into my hands and I held it tight Then with a rush I slammed the lid open and looked at what the box held.
The light in the room seemed to take forever to fill the box. When it finally did, I could see four rows of coins laid out in cloth lined boxes. This was hardly something to scare me, never mind convince me of the end of the world. I reached into the box and took out the first container of coins. Inside were bright coins with dates on them from 1600 back to 600. Each coin was a sample of a coin covering a period of 100 years and each coin was slightly more tarnished than the once that came after it.
I placed the first set of coins on the table and picked up the second set. Oddly, it too was a set of coins from the period 1600 to 600, but this set was decidedly more tarnished than the previous. Almost as though they were older than the previous. Surely they were simply coins of the same time period but in worse condition. I laid this set down beside the other on the table and picked up the third. These coins were in obviously worse condition than the set before. I quickly glanced at the fourth set, without taking them from the box. They too seemed older that the others. Carefully I placed the coins back in the box and sat silently thinking.
The only similarity I could find in the coins was that each set had one marked 600 and one marked 1600. The coins in the middle were of mixed years, but still only one per century. The puzzling part was that each set seemed older than the others. My only solution was that the methods we use to count our years had repeated itself. Although I could not think of a good reason why this might have happened. What I did know was that the fear my father felt was finally full upon me. I knew the year 1601 would fall within my lifetime.
I closed the box and left the room. When I got outside, I could neither hear nor see my parents. This was good as I thought it best I were alone for a while to try to sort out my thoughts. Standing there outside my home I made my first decision regarding this problem. Returning to the room I packed the box up into my sleeping roll. Then without a word I began walking towards the low hills, west of my parents home.
For a long time I wandered alone, living off what I could catch and what I could earn working for my food on small farms. Eventually I came upon a small farming community where I settled in. I learned the trade of bowyer and fletcher and with these earned the respect of the hunters of the community. Each year I counted off the time remaining before I would have to add my coin to the collection. The year finally arrived and I was actually glad to see it come. Quickly I added my coin, marked 1600, to the box. Now all I could do was wait and see what would happen.
The last day of the year came and still I kept my box a secret. I was due to travel with some of the local hunters into the hills as local game had lessened with the cold. So once again I packed the box up in my roll as the three hunters and myself were off. In our searches we were hoping to find some animals in areas we seldom travel to. The day was cold and our traveling slow, so by the end we were all very tired. Quickly I built a fire as the hunters constructed a small wind break to shelter us from the worst of the elements. My partners fell asleep quickly but I knew I would have to wait, as sleep for me would be long in coming. Finally my eyes could not stay open and I drifted off.
The sun slowly crept over the low hills surrounding our camping position. Dawn came early, as it always did, for the scouts in the King's guard. The fire from the night before was just a low glow of embers but enough to rekindle for preparation of our breakfast. Whoever had banked it the night before had done a good job. As I eased out of my roll I found a painful kink in my neck. Just my luck being the last in I would end up sleeping on a root. I felt down by where my head had rested and found, slightly embedded in the ground, a small black box. I slipped the box into my pack and began breakfast. In this year of our Lord 600, when the King had sworn to retake the land lost to him, there was not time to puzzle over lost treasure. It would have to wait for later.
