Saeed sat in the aft seat of a 16ft aluminum boat his hand on the controls of a small outboard motor. The Druid Culkin sat in the forward seat facing Saeed. Just a few hours earlier Saeed and Culkin had left Gwenny's with the witch herself, Barry, and Shay and made their way to the delta system just a few miles away. Barry provided Saeed instructions on the operation of the boat. "How do I know where to go?" he remembered asking.
"Culkin will be your guide Saeed." Barry had reassured.
Saeed remembered how his face had betrayed his doubts of such a plan.
"I use the birds that fly over us, I see what they see. There will always be birds above us, I ensure it." reassured the Druid.
"You control the birds?" Saeed asked in disbelief.
"Sort of, as I did with the Percheron back at Gwenny's. We will have time to discuss this on the way.", and no more was said.
Gwenny was to take Shay and Barry and create false trails while Saeed and Culkin traveled down the delta to the bay. Traveling by water was the safest way to avoid vampires, and leave the most undetectable trail. Apparently the legends about vampires not being able to travel over moving water were partly right. It causes them pain or discomfort, and while they can work through it, few of them had the kind of control to be able to focus on anything else. Most of their powers were therefore compromised. This gave Saeed and Culkin the advantage. He was not told any of the details of what Gwenny and the others were going to do. They would contact Saeed with a meeting location once they were done with the diversions. Saeed checked his mobile phone to make sure he had not missed any communication. No missed calls or text messages, no notifications at all. He verified that he had service and power, the battery still had 87% remaining.
Saeed focused back on steering the boat down the river. The banks of the river rose high on one side forming a levy with a road on top of it. They occasionally passed another boat, mostly small fishing vessels. No one bothered them. The surface of this delta river appeared calm, but Saeed knew the water ran swiftly beneath them. He had at one point needed to maneuver upstream a bit to make a turn down a fork which caused the small engine of the outboard to labor against the current. It had been a while since he'd seen any forks.
"Give it a little more throttle Saeed. We have slowed." Confused he complied.
"Why have we slowed? I didn't change... "
"The current has slowed, it has been a couple hours and this section of the delta is more affected by the tides. We are approaching high tide and so the current has slowed." Explained the Druid.
"Oh." With the long silence broken Saeed opportunistically asked a question that had been on his mind since the boat launch. "Culkin, what did you mean about controlling animals? I mean, for one 'How?', and two... doesn't it break some rule or ethic of druids?"
Culkin smiled. "I don't control them per se. I establish a relationship with them, between my energy and theirs. Like with the horse, I never 'controlled' him. I asked for his help and he agreed, I then gave him ideas that he never would have thought of. I made him aware of you and to not fear you, reassuring him that you were a friend. Horses are fairly smart animals, sharing ideas with them is much easier than it is with birds or similar creatures. I prefer crows and ravens. They are quite smart among birds and do not cause as much alarm or notice as a hawk or eagle. With birds like finches I cannot get them to do much, they get confused too easily by my thoughts. At most I leverage their vision or other senses. So yes, to control them outright would be a trespass against the animal."
"Do you ever put them in the way of harm?" Saeed inquired.
"No, at least I never assure them that an action is without risk. Like with the Percheron, he understood that the vampires were dangerous, but agreed to the idea about kicking the one in the head. Horses are noble creatures, that one is protective of Shay and the vampires threatened her. You might say he was eager to oblige." the Druid smiled again, then chuckled. "After he kicked the one, I feared for his safety, which he sensed. But he still did the side-canter stunt, egging the other vampire on. I was even surprised. He taunted a vampire!" Now the Druid Culkin was laughing.
At this Saeed smiled, it was a little funny. After a moment or two had passed he said, "I never knew such things were possible, it does not surprise me, but I have never studied such things."
"Your schooling focuses on specific knowledge, how to manipulate energy and matter like a raw material to influence and shape your reality. While this is similar to what we druids study, with regard to energy, however, druids also place focus on the relationships we have with the natural world around us. All living organisms have this energy, which is in lifeless objects as well, but focused or more concentrated in living things. Hollywood science-fiction might call it "The Force", a decent analogy... where do you think fiction got the idea from?" the Druid paused and seemed to consider something, then let it go saying nothing.
"It is a different view of creation than I've been taught in Egypt." Saeed observed, "But I do not think that they conflict. You are describing something that exists within creation, within our universe, yes?"
"Yes." Culkin confirmed.
"So, if the energy of life, as you describe it, is part of the universe that Allah created, then it comes from Allah." Saeed reasoned.
"You could say that."
Saeed paused, he was not sure if Culkin was confirming his deduction, or reducing the deduction to a statement that one could neither confirm or deny.
A smile crept back into the Druid's face. It was not smug or arrogant, Saeed could see the smile was in response to Saeed working things out in his head. He decided to try a different route.
"Do you not believe in Allah, or 'God'?" Saeed pressed.
Culkin considered his response, "If you mean belief in a power and intellect that is beyond our physical universe and bears at least some of the responsibility for the existence of our universe, then the answer is 'yes'. But if you mean a deity that has been boxed into one idea by dogmatic principals and practices that assert that this one view and understanding of that divinity is the only correct view, then the answer is 'no'."
Saeed respected this answer, but for him it left too much open. It was a little deflected and he desired something a little more solid. "Do you mean to say, that, religions like Christianity and Islam..." Saeed drew the word 'Islam' out a bit longer, now smiling a bit himself as he prepared a trap for Culkin that the Druid no doubt saw, "got it wrong? That they are somehow false?".
At this Culkin's smile broadened, "Not at all, rather, I would say that religions such as those are one-hundred percent correct."
Saeed frowned a bit, such faiths had many similarities but differed on a couple key points, "this cannot be."
"They are one-hundred percent correct about less than one-hundred percent of the whole truth." Culkin said with a nod. "In my view." he added.
"That actually fits into some of the teachings of Islam, at least that God is beyond our comprehension." Saeed reasoned.
"Christianity teaches something similar." Culkin agreed. "But in other areas both faiths still attempt to frame the divine, limiting it to one set of ideas. I'm not persecuting your faith Saeed, I would never partake in such an endeavor, it divides people. Where I think that you and I are so different in such areas is that your faith and belief are separate from the science of your magic. The spirituality of a druid is intertwined with their magic. It is not lesser, nor greater, just different. The result is that we have a different reality or relationship with divinity."
"So if religions don't have one-hundred percent of the truth how much of it do they have?" Saeed asked.
"You're missing the point Saeed. No one has the whole truth of the whole Mystery, in order for me to say that one religion has, say, eighty-five percent, I would have to know what one-hundred percent was. I would have to have or know the whole truth of it."
"What if you did?"
Culkin laughed, "then I would probably be God."
"I see." after a moment, "Thanks for explaining all of this Culkin. You are very wise."
"I'm a fool." he disagreed.
The river began to widen, the levy banks had long ago disappeared and were replaced by shipyards.
Saeed's phone rang, it was Barry, Saeed answered.
"They are coming." came Barry's voice. It sounded labored, out of breath or in pain. Or both.
"What? Who?" Saeed interrogated.
"Humans, working for the vampires. They have boats. We're on our way, but we'll be an hour or more. Text me with where you guys go."
"Okay." Saeed responded and ended the call. He looked at Culkin, "They are coming for us, they know we're in a boat." Saeed began to look around for potential bad guys. "Humans" he added.
"Throttle up Saeed, head for deeper water."
"But they have boats!"
"Good" said Culkin. "But we need to be in deeper water. Gas it."
Saeed complied, the engine rev'd lifting the nose of the boat and Culkin a little as small boat sped towards the deeper bay.
