“He will more than likely find a place where no sun can reach him.” Kenar stared straight ahead. With the sun now coming up, his sight was beginning to fade. He could only see the aura of light around people at night, or in the dark. If the moon was out, he could see even better than that. He gripped Rochie’s waist stronger, needing him, now more than ever, now that he was becoming completely blind again. “A cave would suit him.”
Rochie nodded with this. If a Blood Walker, any Walker for that matter couldn’t reach his home before daybreak they would search out a cave or a place like it—if only to sleep.
“Kenar is right.” He thought about what the Elders told them. “We should head south to the foot of the mountains. There should be caves there. We should find him there.”
“Or you could head to the next village along the river valley from the mountains.” A woman’s voice came out from the trees.” The voice made everyone turn towards it at the same time.
“My lady Sharlia.” Kenar knew who it was before any of them saw her. Deep within the trees, heavy within the shades, a red colored aura sparkled. The color told him it was a vampire. Her mind and thoughts told him who she was.
“Lord Satar is moving towards home. He is moving towards his birthplace.” She stopped by the last large tree just before the field, and there she stayed. She hated the sunlight. She hated the heat. She hated the brightness of it too. “He has already crossed the great valley.” This valley separated what would one day be England and France. When the ice finishes melting, it would eventually flood and become a channel of water, but not now. It was a different time, and it was a different place.
All of them saw her once she stepped around the tree. Some gasped.
Rochie being closer to her just gave her the simple gesture of a nod.
“You know where he is going then?” Kenar kept his eyes fixated on to hers. The shadows helped him see, but not by much. The eyes stayed brighter as the sun rose. They too would vanish, but they were the last things to fade, so he concentrated on them for as long as he could.
“How do you know where he is going?” Rochie had to ask. He even turned his horse some so Kenar could see her. He knew his friend well.
“I know but this is all I can say.” She bowed her head. Some of her still didn’t believe what she did, but the other part of her did. In some ways, everything made sense, but in other ways, it didn’t. She couldn’t explain it even if she tried. She lifted her eyes back up.
Kenar saw her thoughts as if they were his own. He saw the Seer standing by the fire. He saw the way she looked at her. He heard some of what she told her. It was almost as if he was there, standing right beside her when it happened.
“If our lady Sharlia knows that is enough for me to follow it.” He gave her a slight smile.
Of course, she knew what he could do. They all did. Being that he probably had already read every thought she ever had, read every memory, right there at that moment, she found herself thankful, very thankful that he did what he just did. In some ways, she respected him more for it too.
He gave her another nod, before he turned back to Rochie’s now ebbing darkness.
“We should head down to the great central river and follow it south. There are many human villages along the way. We should stop at all of them.”
Rochie nodded, oblivious to everything else that just happened. “Did you not just warn some of those same villages to watch out for him?” Kenar told him such when they left the castle’s main keep before climbing on to the horses.
Kenar nodded. “I did. They will be watching for him, but now so must we.”
Sharlia took one single step forward, but kept it at just one.
“I am going with you.” She put both hands in front of her and crossed them over her chest.
Rochie sat up straighter.
Patrice sighed.
Garreth did nothing but blink.
Kenar shook his head. “We would be honored to have you ride with us.” He nudged Rochie with his right hand. “We will have to keep to the trees. The central river road is well forested, so it should provide adequate cover for our lady to travel with us.”
Rochie didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing—well nothing of consequence. “Sure we will.” He turned to the others. “We will head through the trees.”
All of them nodded, and together, they headed into the trees and headed south.
10
He sulked some. He cried some. He raged even more.
“I will find you.” Satar sat high up into the trees. With the sun now beating down all around him he found some comfort by the shade of this grand oak tree. Being in his bat form, he hid in the branches. It felt good hanging like this. The leaves were still on it for cover. That made it even better, especially during this time of year.
“I will find you,” he hissed. His voice sounded high-pitched some. His breathing even winced. It was the nose. Bats never possessed a snout, at least he never did. “I will find you again my love and make you mine again.”
Now, he had to wait for night. Now, he had nothing else left to do.
11
Garreth led them. They stayed to the trees just as they had promised Sharlia.
For her part, she stayed with them, even though she could have already been there by now.
“How is it that you can chase so well Garreth?” She even took his horse by the reins and led it for him, as he stayed ahead of her on his feet.
He preferred the chase this way. He needed to stay close to the ground. He needed to see the air move. He needed to smell the scents. He needed to follow the ground and anything, and everything that would tell him about his prey. Hearing her question, he could only answer it with a soft laugh.
“Why do you find my question funny?” The laugh made her feel intrigued to say the least.
He had to laugh again before answering her, “Why do you breathe?” Whenever someone asked such a thing of him, this was always his response. It suited him well, and so did it the question. Finished, he now waited for the next response that always came.
She didn’t disappoint him at all. “I do not understand.” She watched him closely. His deep black hair blended almost naturally in with the shades of the trees. His dark skin, deeply tanned from living along the shoreline of the great sea between her homeland and his, undoubtedly gave him such a hue. For a human she was sure he would have been attractive. To a Walker such as herself it made him look healthy. It made him look good enough to eat.
Behind her and the horse, she heard Kenar softly laugh.
Garreth did too, but for an entirely different reason.
“For us Wanderers our gifts are like breathing. It is like seeing. They make us who we are.” He stood up from bending towards the ground, while still walking, and looked back to her. “It is no different than you seeing the heat of your prey. It is no different from you hearing the sounds of humans talking on the other side of a valley pass. It makes you who you are without having to think about it.” He gave her a gentle smile and turned, going back to the matter at hand.
She understood this. She had dealt with Wanderers, but only with some of them. She had never spent this much time with any one of them, and now being there, surrounded by them—literally—she felt the need to want to get to know them—if only to make her time with them that much more bearable at that.
Rochie listened to the bantering and had trouble grasping any of this. After all, they tasked them with finding Satar. With that being the case, he was having trouble understanding why a Walker, an Elder of the Sharlia clan at that, would be coming with them on such a directive. He wanted to know why but was having trouble in finding the words to question it. After all, the priest should never question the living god, should he?
Kenar heard the question, and unlike Rochie, he didn’t have the hesitation to ask it. “My lady, why is it that you have accompanied us? It seems odd that one of your statures, such as yourself, would come on such a quest.”
He nudged Rochie again with his right hand.
Rochie nodded to him ever so softly, thanking for him doing it.
“You mean an Elder going with Wanderers so ordered by the Council of Elders?” She smiled, and didn’t turn. She kept her eyes moving forward, but inside her, she was seeing the Seer again. What she said to her rang in her thoughts almost like an endless bell that had broken off from its perch at the top of a clock tower and now shattered down to the ground with a bang. It shattered the brain.
Again, Kenar only nodded to the thought.
She kept moving. She kept close to Garreth with every step they took.
“I went to see the Seer of Golan. She told me where Satar would be heading.” She kept that simple. She kept it plain.
Hearing the name, almost everyone gasped.
Rochie was one that didn’t. “He went to see her did he?” He nodded with the thought. Now everything began to make sense.
“He had. He is searching for something.”
“And that is?” Patrice now chimed in. She still found it rather difficult to say anything at all. Sharlia was an elder. She had power. Speaking to that power was like power in itself.
“He is searching for someone.” Sharlia answered her with bluntness.
This perked up Rochie’s attention fast. “Who? If we can find this person then we should find him. If he is searching for them, he will come to them sooner rather than later. He may stop his rampage and solve the Elders’ problems before they get worse.” Everything became clearer. Everything made even more sense. Hearing what he next would, it would shatter everything back down again.
“He is looking for his lost mate.” Sharlia again kept her answer blunt. She had no other way to answer such a thing.
This time, everyone did gasp.
“What does that mean?” Garreth even stopped, causing everyone to have to stop too behind him.
Sharlia sighed. She expected this, but at the same time, she now regretted it. It meant that she was going to have to explain, something that she didn’t want to have to do. Quite frankly, she didn’t really know how to do it, so she did her best with what she had.
“According to the Seer, he believes that he can find her again. He believes that she has been reborn.” She held her breaths for what was about to come next.
Rochie began first. “Walkers do not have the ability to pass on like that. They do not have a soul.” He looked back at Kenar and felt surprised that he wasn’t saying anything. He felt sure that he should have already known this, and seeing the look on his face, he realized that he did. He did already know it, and now he doubted him some because of it. He should have told me when he had the chance.
Kenar looked at him and nodded. “I did not.” He smiled after saying this.
Rochie shrugged before he turned back to Sharlia.
Sharlia looked at all of them, one at a time as she began to explain, “I have no idea why he is doing what he is. Sometimes we who live as long as we do can do things that are hard to explain. Sometimes we do not have the choice.”
Patrice had no idea what that meant so she kept quiet.
Garreth looked down to the ground.
Rochie did understand, somewhat. He did understand long life. He was the only Wanderer to have the gift of it, even though he had yet to use it. He just knew he would live forever. He has lived forty years and still looked like he was in his late teens. He wasn’t aging. He didn’t age. His sister possessed this gift too, so he understood some of what would become of long life. What he didn’t understand was the loss. He thought of Rana. Because of her, he never searched. He never did what she was now saying, so in essence, he didn’t understand her after all.
“What choice does he not have?”
She looked right at him. “He loved her for a long time. He held her for a lifetime that he no longer has.” She now looked down. “For one such as us, us Walkers,” she paused some and caught her breaths before beginning again, “it is a lifetime too long without her.” She looked up again.
Rochie could even see a tear in her eyes.
Kenar knew why. He could see the memory of Sharlia, the first and only female Blood Walker ever to sit on the council. She was a strong-willed being with such great strength and with such great beauty, that she stood second to no one, not even to a male. Her black skin looked like the silk of night. Her eyes sparkled like rubies. He, himself, had never met her, but her lineage had never forgotten. Her child now here with them, matched her wondrous self. Seeing all of this, he now understood what she felt from the Seer. He understood why she now needed to find Satar. They were both searching for the same thing. They were searching for something more. For Satar, this meant his lover Permona. For Sharlia, it meant something as great as the woman, her mother, was.
Sharlia felt her tears and wiped them strongly with the back of her right hand, and shrugged them off like someone would swat away a fly pestering your face.
“We must find him. He will be searching each village along the Central Great River for her.”
“Why the river?” Garreth didn’t see the tears. He wouldn’t have understood them anyway. The hunt was the only thing he ever wanted to have.
Sharlia turned her head only slightly towards him but did not look at him.
“Satar was born near Seva, an ancient ground near the central forest. Permona was born there as well. They were from the same clan. He believes that he will find her there again, as he did before.”
Rochie listened, but there was something else he didn’t understand, so he had to ask, “Why come with us? Why would you not take this information directly to the Elders? Would they not be able to stop him better than us?”
She looked back to his horse. “I cannot take this to the Elders. I have to know something for myself first. I have to know what he knows.”
Kenar smiled.
Rochie felt more confused than ever. “Know what my lady?”
“Why he feels what he does.”
This didn’t help him. He was about to say more, to ask more, but Kenar caught him off before he could.
“Our lady has her reasons Rochie. All we must do is to continue to follow her.”
Rochie felt the nudge again at his right side, and with it, he agreed to stop.
“Very well, we move on then to the Seva region.” He looked back at Kenar and saw his smile. He nodded, looked back to Patrice and gave her one too.
They moved on.
They would reach the area just before Dusk.
12
Dusk had come by the time the workers had finished tilling the field. They worked hard and long, making sure the crops were ready before winter’s cold bite came rolling through the valley. Their ritual was nearly complete.
Lina helped with the baskets to gather potatoes, a task every female in the village did. Being the daughter of the village chief Aldera meant nothing. She worked just as everyone else ever did. It was the way of the village. It was the way of her family. She accepted it without another thought.
“Lina?” a familiar voice came behind her as she walked along the path. The fields were just outside the village walls so the walk was short. “Lina?” the voice came again.
She turned around just as she reached the gate. The basket was heavy, but that felt good. The harvest this year was better than they could have ever dreamed of it.
“What is it Jameson?”
Her brother ran up to her without breaking his stride until he reached her.
He was a good three years younger than she was, but that didn’t stop him from being taller. He was growing so fast. He was sixteen years old and already a man.
“Father wanted to know if you were going with him to the calling tomorrow. You have not told him yet.” He was out of breath, so he had to catch it just after finishing the question.
“I have not told him yet because I have yet to decide if I am or not.” She let the basket drop to her side. She bowed her head with her arms. Quite frankly, she was t
orn with the answer she had. The calling was such a serious thing to do that it was a decision she could not made quickly. She had to take her time. She had to weigh her thoughts.
Jameson instantly looked disappointed. “Father will not like that.” As the only brother, thus the only male in the line, he was to be chief one day. That came with a lot of responsibility. Her being his sister, and the daughter of the chief, also did the same thing to her. It was her responsibility to make the decision. She had the responsibility to go to the calling when she reached the age that she now was.
She knew this too. “I know.” She looked to the gate and then to the basket at her side. She stared at one large potato that sat oddly on top of all the others. “It is hard for me.” Her deep brown hair slid down over her face. It helped to hide her eyes. It hid her fear and her doubt.
Jameson put his hands on his hips. He understood his sister’s concerns. He would too, if he were in her position.
“I know that this bothers you sister. It is tradition. You have to do this.” He knew this too. “The longer you wait, the harder it will be to be selected. You are not young anymore. You have a responsibility to marry. You have to go.”
She knew this. She knew the calling was the gathering of the eldest children of the chiefs of the area. She knew it was their tradition for those children to gather and find their spouses. She knew it was required to continue the bloodlines. She knew all of this, but she also knew that it was a choice. It was her choice to decide when to go.
“I have to be ready to do it. I have to be ready to accept someone else in my life.” She finally looked up.
With some of her hair still over her face, he found it difficult to see her eyes.
“When it is my time, I will do it.” He pouted some. He tried to sound forceful, but a pout definitely came out instead.
A Werewolf's Saga, The Beginning (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 5