Excerpt: The Nomad

They came to me at day break. They never said this was where I would end up. They came to me with needy hands and open hearts. They took me far from the place I had learned to call home, and I ended up here. What they asked was simple enough; that I leave you, leave this world, leave this life, leave everything behind in search of something unknown, possibly unknowable. Go somewhere else, somewhere better and truly live.
Of course I went; the offer was irresistible. I loved you, but I hated you, too. I loved my life, my wondrous gardens, the lovely streams of the place we lived. But at the same time I was trapped, suffocating among the deadly content.
They offered me money, they offered me adventure, and they offered me freedom. I took it without a second thought, without a backward glance.
And so my journey began. A journey to a place I’d never heard of, through backwaters and low places. I went to places I’d never dreamed of, did things I thought impossible. I made the best friends I’ll ever know and the worst enemies, too. The thing is, they didn’t tell me I’d end up here because they didn’t know. None of us knew where our wild, whirlwind adventure would take us or how it would end. And if they had, they would never have let me on board.