by Chuck Black
“Leave him be!” Leinad spoke with the courage of a man.
“As you wish, slave,” came the sarcastic reply of the overseer. He pulled his whip back and released a lash on Leinad with all his might.
The whip struck Leinad’s left shoulder, and it fully encircled him until the leather tip sliced into his back. Leinad wrapped his left arm around the whip and yanked the overseer toward him. As the unsuspecting overseer fell forward, Leinad landed a full-force fist into his jaw. The overseer fell to the ground unconscious, and the skirmish brought the attention of three other overseers in an instant. They forced Leinad into the dirt face-first and called for Barak, the head overseer.
“So, we have a feisty one I see,” Barak said with a hint of pleasure in his voice. “Call for Lord Fairos,” he commanded.
Barak was a large man with equal amounts of fat and muscle on his body. He was the most vicious of all the overseers. He knelt down, wedged his knee into the open wound on Leinad’s back, and wrapped his whip around his neck. He pulled upward until Leinad was gasping for each breath.
Barak lowered his voice and spoke near to Leinad’s ear. “You have forgotten that you are a mere slave now. We will use you to show the rest of these knaves what a little insolence will buy them.”
Fairos arrived on the scene, already visibly angry from the messenger’s report. “What is going on here!” he demanded.
By now most of the work had stopped on this side of the castle, and the people were easing close enough to hear and see what was happening.
“It seems we have a rebel in our midst,” Barak said, and at last he released his noose from Leinad’s neck.
Leinad gasped for air but felt as though his throat had collapsed permanently. By now the unconscious overseer was stirring.
“Get up!” Fairos said to the overseer. “You should be ashamed to be so easily humiliated by a slave. How could you have let that happen?”
“He … he attacked me from behind and hit me with a rock.”
From the ground, Leinad saw the terrified face of Tess among the bystanders. He could tell she wanted to do something, but he shook his head slightly to restrain her from any foolish attempts at aid.
Fairos motioned for his men to lift Leinad to his feet. The dirt clung to his chest and face, and he still found it difficult to swallow, but at least he was able to fill his lungs.
“Why … it’s the slave!” Fairos scoffed when he recognized Leinad. “Your rebellious acts are more than a nuisance to me, slave. For striking an overseer, the penalty is death.” Fairos shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. “However, I am not a man without principles. To kill one who helped me expand my power would be barbaric, and yet you are far too dangerous to let live.”
Fairos looked over his land and into the faces of the people he had enslaved. “Tie him to the gates and whip him, but give him only ten lashes,” he said to Barak. “Then you will take him to the desert and stake him down. We will let the Moshi Beast finish him off.”
Fairos looked at Leinad with sadness and contempt. “I will not kill you, slave, but you will wish I had.”
Barak smiled a devilish grin as he nodded a salute to Fairos. Barak ordered two overseers to take Leinad to the gate and bind him. The other overseers were told to gather the people. Barak cracked his whip in anticipation of his pleasure.
As he was being led away, Leinad saw Quinn work his way to Tess’s side and place a consoling hand on her shoulder. She turned to Leinad, and the pain he saw in her face pierced his heart.
The overseers herded the people toward the castle gate, where Leinad was tied with both arms outstretched to the large posts on each side. Barak was anxiously cracking his whip and taunting his victim. Though he tried to control it, Leinad could not subdue the fear welling up inside him. He knew that Barak’s lashes would not sting like the one he had already received. They would tear. Barak would make sure of it.
When all the people were in place, Fairos spoke: “This slave struck one of my men and demonstrated a rebellious attitude, which will be punished. Do not make the same mistake, or you too will pay with your life!”
Fairos nodded, and Barak’s whip split the air with a thunderous crack that penetrated deep into Leinad’s skin. The pain was excruciating, but Leinad clenched his teeth and did not reward Barak with a scream. Another one followed—and another—and another. Each lash brought such intense pain that Leinad’s body convulsed in spasms. With his arms outstretched, Leinad’s gashes separated even further, adding to the unbearable pain. Barak sadistically reveled in the torture he was administering.
The women in the crowd turned away, and the children cried. The men watched silently, their faces reflecting both anger and fear.
Father, where is the vision now? Leinad screamed in his mind. Our homes have been burned, our lands ravaged, our families enslaved. What hope is there? Where is our King who demands justice? Are we destined to die as slaves?
Leinad’s pain was deeper than even the wounds on his back.
The torment continued … five … six … seven lashes. Leinad now hung limp from the ropes that held him. Eight. Leinad could contain his pain no longer, and a muffled scream came from his mouth.
He looked into the crowd and saw Tess bury her head into Quinn’s chest. She covered her ears to block the sound of the persecution. She had endured much throughout her life, but this seemed too much to bear.
Barak finished the final lashes, smiling with each moan he heard. The ropes were loosened. Leinad collapsed to his knees, and then to his hands.
Tess ran to him and fell to her knees beside him.
“Leinad,” she half-whispered. Tears spilled from her eyes.
Leinad tilted his head her way. “Don’t lose hope, Sunshine,” he said with difficulty, for he had.
“Get away, girl!” one of the overseers yelled. He grabbed her arm and pushed her back into the crowd.
“Learn from what you have seen,” Fairos said. “If you resist me or my men, you will be punished. Now get back to work!” He pompously turned and strode back to his castle.
With the prodding of the overseers and the castle guards, the solemn crowd moved back toward their work.
“Bind him and throw him into a brick cart,” Keston ordered.
Barak and another overseer loaded the horse-drawn cart with its battered cargo and left Fairos’s estate for the Banteen Desert. Leinad caught a glimpse of Tess falling to her knees and sobbing just before the cart rounded a grove of trees and Fairos’s estate vanished from view.
Leinad was an unwilling passenger on a journey to death … a death that was to come at the jaws of the Moshi Beast.
STORM OF SALVATION
The journey into the Banteen Desert lasted for hours. The pain from the wounds on Leinad’s back was almost more than he could bear. With each passing mile, the lush green landscape slowly gave way to dry, rocky desert.
They continued into the desert some distance before stopping. Barak and his man pounded four stakes into the sand. They stretched Leinad’s arms and legs to tie them to the stakes, and he nearly passed out from the pain of reopening the gashes across his back. Leinad was faceup, his wounds pressed into the hot sand.
“Hurry it up, man,” Barak said.
The other overseer was nervously looking at the desert horizon. “What dose this Moshi Beast look like?” he asked with apprehension in his voice.
“I don’t know. I just know that the last slave we left here started screamin’ not long after we left him, and I didn’t wait around to see why. Later, I came back, and the only thing left was his bones.”
The man’s eyes widened, and he quickly finished tying Leinad’s leg down.
Barak checked that each leather strap was secure and leaned close to Leinad’s face. Beads of sweat mixed with the dirt on his fat face to form dark streaks that ran down his neck. He smiled an evil smile, revealing black frames around each ragged tooth. The stench in his breath was enough to make Leinad
cough.
“I wish I could kill you myself, slave, but knowing the torment you’ll feel is satisfaction enough.”
He stood and kicked Leinad in the side. The pain churned Leinad’s stomach, and he waited for it to subside, but it lingered long.
There were only a few more hours of daylight, and Leinad could not deny the fear and isolation that enveloped him as he saw Fairos’s men mount their cart and return to the lush lands of the castle.
As they disappeared over the horizon, Leinad knew that he was facing his final few hours—maybe his final few moments. He pulled hard on the ties that bound him, but they were secure. After hours of pulling on his bindings, his only reward was a small crack in the soil surrounding each stake. He lay exhausted, trying to imagine what the Moshi Beast looked like. He wondered how long it would take for it to find him.
The end of the day approached and night fell. Leinad slept a few fitful moments, but his muscles ached from inactivity, and the chill night air made him miserable.
By the next afternoon, the sun was blistering hot, and there was still no sign of the Moshi Beast. Leinad’s lips began to dry and crack. He thought he might die from the heat of the sun rather than by the teeth of the Moshi Beast.
As the hours passed, his fear subsided some, and he became weary of searching his surroundings for this dreaded creature. Leinad spotted two vultures circling high above him. The sun was still blistering hot, but a few clouds invaded the blue sky to give him occasional relief from the direct sunlight.
Off to his left he spotted movement, and his fear immediately returned. Leinad was relieved when he saw a small animal with brown fur emerge from behind a desert bush. It was the size of a large squirrel, but its tail was short. Black stripes zigzagged up and down from the front of its body to its tail on both sides. Its ears were large for the size of its head. The animal timidly made its way to Leinad and stood upon its hind legs to get a better view of this strange sight.
“Hello, little guy,” Leinad said gently so as not to frighten him.
The little critter twitched its nose to smell him.
“You haven’t seen a mean ol’ Moshi Beast around here, have you?” he asked, thankful for the company even if it was a rodent.
The little critter chirped as if to respond to Leinad’s question. It moved closer to Leinad’s left side, under his outstretched arm.
“No, I didn’t think so. Well, I hope the Beast doesn’t like furry little brown critters … for your sake.” He smiled at his new little friend. Leinad could feel the moist nose of the critter as it sniffed him some more.
“If I were you—ouch!” Leinad yelled.
The critter chirped excitedly and ran a few paces away. “You bit me!” Leinad was bleeding from a pea-sized tear in his flesh.
The critter turned and ran off, chirping continuously.
“Some friend you are!” He wanted to coddle the new wound but was helpless to do so. Leinad could not remember ever being more miserable. The clouds in the sky above thickened to accompany his despair.
Moments later, he heard a faint, high-pitched sound. It grew louder with each passing second until Leinad recognized its source, and pure dread filled his heart. The sound of thousands of individual chirps grew steadily until he could hear no other sound.
The bright blue sky was completely gone now, obliterated by thick, dark clouds, and so was any fringe of hope Leinad ever had of living. The leading edge of a mass of brown chirping critters flowed toward Leinad like a wave rushing toward the waiting shoreline, anxious to crash upon its banks. The chirping was deafening.
The Moshi Beasts encircled Leinad. He yelled at them, and the beasts in front retreated slightly, but only temporarily. Leinad strained at the leather straps and stakes in near panic as he yelled again, but this time the Moshi Beasts did not yield in their approach.
He felt a small piece of flesh torn from his right thigh … then his left. He screamed as dozens of carnivorous teeth sank into his body at once.
All of a sudden, the sky exploded with sound as a lightning bolt ripped through the air, sending its thunder in all directions. The Moshi Beasts scurried for cover beneath bushes and rocks.
Leinad was thankful for the temporary reprieve, but he wondered how long it would last. He bled from two dozen bites all over his body. The thunder had silenced the Moshi Beasts, and the momentary silence was a relief.
A moment passed, and Leinad heard the first chirp, quickly followed by many more. As the Moshi Beasts regained their confidence, they once more surrounded Leinad.
Please … no … not again! My King … will You let me die this lonely death?
The beasts closed in again, slowly returning to their feast, but a few large raindrops pounded the dusty soil beside them and they hesitated.
Crack! Another lightning bolt exploded just a few hundred paces away, and the rain increased in intensity. It was too much for the Moshi Beasts, and they scurried back en masse in the direction they had come from.
The rain now began to fall in sheets and soaked Leinad in an instant. The water ran down his body and into the sores, painfully washing each one. He knew that the Moshi Beasts would return as soon as the storm passed. He opened his mouth to catch as much water to drink as possible. The cool, refreshing wash rejuvenated him, both inside and out. The provisional peace was enough, and he lay still, enjoying his final moments of respite.
When he had drunk enough, he slowly turned his head and looked at the stake holding his right arm. He saw a tiny rivulet of water flowing into the crack near its base, which had been formed by his earlier attempts to pull free. A sliver of hope softly landed in his mind.
He concentrated on that one stake. First he pulled toward him—then up—then down. With each movement, the soil loosened, and the crack grew bigger—and so did the river that flowed into it. He worked fervently to loosen the stake. But his arm grew fatigued, and he was forced to rest.
Leinad stopped only long enough to allow his arm time to recuperate. The crack was now the size of his finger … then his thumb. He strained at the stake to move it upward, but it did not give.
The rain lightened.
Again he pulled and widened the stake hole even more. He tried to lift the stake once more, and it moved! Leinad paused and garnered the strength for one last pull. He grunted and lifted with all his strength.
At last, the stake pulled free.
Leinad was expressly aware that the rain had stopped, and the clouds were beginning to dissipate. It took a monumental effort to reach for the strap that held his other arm. His muscles were stiff, and the sores on his back and sides resisted all movement. He loosened the strap and freed his arm, then worked on the straps that held his legs. Soon he was free and made an attempt to stand. He became dizzy and nearly fainted, but steadied himself until the blood returned to his head.
As the sun peeked from behind the remaining storm clouds, Leinad heard the familiar terrorizing sound of the Moshi Beasts. They were returning!
Leinad forced himself to move in the opposite direction. With each step, strength returned to his legs, and he remembered how to run. He moved as fast as he could, but the sound of the Moshi Beasts grew steadily in spite of his efforts. His lungs began to hurt, but he pressed on.
The ground rose slightly ahead of him, and he could not see beyond the crest of the nearby horizon. The brown mass of chirping Moshi Beasts was closing on him quickly. He reached the top of the rise and saw a large earth basin not more that a hundred paces away. The surrounding terrain fed water into the basin to form a temporary oasis whenever it rained. A large tree grew at the far end of the shallow pond.
Leinad knew he would not make the tree in time. He figured that the Moshi Beasts might be able to climb anyway, so he sprinted for the shallow pond.
He looked behind him, and the beasts were almost upon him. The last few paces seemed agonizingly long, but he dove for the water just as the Moshi Beasts reached his feet. He splashed wildly, expecting to feel
the searing bites all over his body once again—but he did not.
Leinad stood in knee-deep water and looked at the edge of the pond just a few steps away. The Moshi Beasts were gathered and chirping at the edge, but they did not advance past the waterline. Their incessant chirping seemed to scold Leinad for ruining their feast.
He fell to his knees, exhausted and sore … but saved.
The Moshi Beasts eventually left to search for other prey, but Leinad stayed in the water many hours beyond their departure. He quenched his thirst with the murky water, but his hunger grew. Weariness pulled at his limbs, and he made his way to the far end of the pond where the tree stood.
Leinad was exhausted, having gone two days with no sleep and no food. He was in pain, having endured the lashes of Barak, the scorch of the sun, and the bites of the Moshi Beasts. He did not dare leave the water, but he could not lie down and sleep either.
He fell to his hands and knees at the water’s edge, beneath the shade of the large tree. He crawled to the base of the tree and laid his head in the mud, just out of the water.
Other animals came to drink from the water, which would not last long, but Leinad did not notice. He was deep in the cavern of sleep.
A QUESTION OF FAITH
When Leinad awoke, it was dark, and he was cold. He did not know how long he had slept, but the cool night air indicated that morning was close. The water had receded beyond where his feet lay. Leinad was thankful the Moshi Beasts had not returned, for his protection would soon be gone. He knew the desert drank up any standing water within days of a heavy rainstorm.
At first, his arms and legs refused to move. He forced himself to crawl the remaining distance to the base of the tree and leaned against its trunk. He pulled his knees close to his chest to retain what body heat was left. Dried mud clung to his skin from his face to his feet.