kDira was of medium height, and muscular for a female. She walked with a purpose, never one to fall behind. Everyone that had ever walked patrol with her knew she could hold her own.
kDira dressed as a warrior would dress, with a leather vest, as well as stiff leather pauldrons and rerebraces forming armor sleeves that she added on later. Much of what krebs wore had had been passed down to them by senior krebs over the years. Such was the case with kDira’s attire. Clothing, as well as armor, was almost as hard to come by as breeders, so when someone was no longer using an item it was passed down ceremoniously, a sort of passing the torch. kDira’s upper legs were covered by a leather kilt, and her lower legs had thick shin guards above her old and worn sandals. On her back was her bow and quiver of arrows, and ready in her hand was her long knife.
Agis, kDira’s male counterpart was a kreb like kDira. Taller than kDira, Agis was strong and fit, and always looking for a fight. Agis wore a similar vest to what kDira was wearing, but instead of sleeves he wore an old dress coat he had found on one of his expeditions in a dwelling from the Olden Days. It was black with a red liner, and surprisingly well preserved having been stored with some sort of clear film tightly pressed around it when he found it. Agis also had a leather kilt but instead of shin guards he wore leather boots that covered most of his shins and calves. Agis carried no other weapons with him but a short sword and his large dagger.
kDira was a natural born tracker and scout, where-as Agis was more muscle and brawn. Together they made a great team and always looked forward to their patrols together.
kDira and Agis liked to work patrol duty together because they seemed to mesh well, having much the same curiosity about their world and its origins, as well as personalities that didn’t clash after many hours of serving duty side-by-side together.
Patrols could last days, sometimes weeks. It wasn’t uncommon for two tribemates to go out, but only one would return. At times one would stumble back into the village a day later badly beaten or even punctured with sharp objects. This was the way of the Blackhorn tribe.
The Blackhorn came into being sometime after the Great Cloud decimated the entirety of the world’s great continents of it populations. Hundreds of tribes found themselves with only a few survivors, no one to be king or queen, just krebs trying to find their way in a world that had little to offer them. Much of the animal population had vanished as well. Vegetation did manage to thrive, and was quickly reclaiming land that the great tribes had once called their own.
Mericana was home to the Blackhorn tribe as well many other tribes, but few ever grew very large, not like the Olden Days. In the Olden Days, people were shoulder to shoulder, eating food until they could eat no more, and drank the burning water that made them silly. That’s how the legend goes. The Interpreter within a tribe would sometimes hold theater and read the ancient scripts about the times of old. Only the Interpreter knew the symbols that make the stories of old come to life.
The Great Cloud came down from the sky, brought on by the great Mericana and the Rushiana Tribes and their hatred for each other. The Great Cloud made small tribes of big tribes. Then it cursed those that remained. It allowed only a very few of the females to bear children. Those with the gift of child became the queens of the tribes, and highly prized, enough so that other tribes sent out their wolfpack males to capture the breeders for their own. The only way that tribes could grow was to gain more breeders. Without them the fate of the tribe was doomed. This is why there are guards, and this is why they have the patrols.
kDira was not a breeder. Though Agis, being male had the ability to breed as all males did, only a hand chosen few are granted permission to mate with a queen. Queens can have ten to twenty offspring, but the females are rarely fertile. From the time they reached child baring age they are encouraged to begin preparation for testing. Testing is closely monitored and if three tests take place and no child is forthcoming, then the female is sent to join the males in training to become a kreb like kDira and Agis.
The Blackhorn tribe was thriving, only because Queen Dachraolene managed to have three child-bearing females. The first was Princess Jilleane. kDira was the daughter of Princess Jilleane, who in her time with the Blackhorn never had a fertile female child. Of her seven offspring, kDira was the oldest, and the only female. Princess Jilleane was taken seven years ago by a wolfpack from the Karn tribe. She was never seen again even though the Blackhorn searched frantically for their village and never found it. It was accepted in the tribe that she was no longer a Blackhorn, and therefore no longer a being. kDira found her peace with her mother’s absence in short time, as family attachments fade quickly once one becomes a kreb. The krebs are your family from that point onward, but it didn’t stop, kDira from shedding a few tears at the loss and dismal fate of her mother.
The other two Princess Mothers arrived later, and just recently started to bear children. Princess Abril and Princess Nepra were born to the Queen Mother less than a year apart, and have only bore one male child each thus far.
Tribes that fail to produce fertile females are forced to fight to gain control of at least one breeder. Without a breeder, the Karn tribe would die, and if they did have Princess Jilleane, she was their lifeline. Though she had already bore seven children, she could potentially bear many more, and hopefully a fertile female. Without breeders, they would send more wolfpacks. It was a vicious cycle, and a necessity of life. Because the Blackhorn tribe had three breeders they were a major target of other tribes. The Karn was not the only tribe that wanted their breeders, and word travels fast when a tribe has more than the average amount of breeders.
kDira looked at Agis. “Amazing how fast the vegetation grows over the path. We just walked this path six days ago and it’s already growing over,” she said swinging her blade at the thin vines and branches that were dangling in her path. The forest was green with life, green with moss, green with leaves. “The warm season and all the rain has really brought it to life.”
Agis was a quiet one; A warrior’s heart in the body of a young man of only 20 years old. kDira, roughly 2 years his elder, still thought of him as a boy. Agis had proven himself in battle alongside kDira during the last wolfpack raid, yet kDira couldn’t bring herself to call him a man. She did, however, trust him with her life. And they got along.
“I wonder why the Great Cloud didn’t kill the plants?” Agis asked, though he knew there was no easy answer to that question.
“I’ve asked myself that many times. How did the Great Cloud know to just kill the people?”
“Hmmm,” was Agis’ answer.
“Hmmm,” kDira mimicked playfully.
Agis extended his arm, punching her in the shoulder.
“Ouch, you kreb! Take that!” she said slapping him open handed in the chest.
“That’s it, I’m going to teach you a lesson,” Agis announced.
“Wait, quiet,” kDira said in a hush.
“You’re not getting out of it now, fiend!” he said moving towards her about to tackle her.
“I mean it, hush!” she said putting her hand up to stop him. “Listen.”
Agis stopped and checked his breath a moment.
kDira pointed into the brush.
Agis strained to see what she was pointing at, but it wasn’t until it moved that he finally saw it. It was a chideer, a small four-legged animal about knee high at the shoulders; this one was a buck with horns. Reddish brown in color, it had black spots around its shoulders and its mane looked like spikes rising from the back of its neck and continued down it’s back. It was cautiously looking over at kDira and Agis from about 30 paces away. It stepped slowly forward, as kDira readied her bow and arrow.
She held her breath, she imagined she could see the heart of the small beast beating in its chest, exactly where she aimed. She slowly inhaled, and then silently exhaled. Then loosed her arrow.
The chideer dropped right where it stood. Agis let out a cheer.
“Hoorah! We
eat tonight!”
“What do you mean WE? You get your own,” said kDira with a smile and a wink.
“How about if I clean it and cook it?” he asked.
“Okay, deal.”
kDira and Agis finished their meal of tender red chideer meat washed down with some of the mild fermented juices they brought with them. It was not uncommon for krebs to bring the bryne with them on patrol to keep them warm at night, but they were expressly forbidden to drink so much that the head could not control the body at all times. Bryne was made from any number of fermented fruits or berries. kDira’s favorite bryne was made from the fruit of the mollyberry bush. It’s sweet but slightly sour taste made a refreshing drink at the end of a long day.
Chideer was a much better meal than the dried fowl they had brought with them. Often kreb went days without a fresh kill for meat, but this was only the second day out for kDira and Agis. Chideer was prized for its tender back straps. Though small, they were a delicacy and little compared to the taste and tenderness. Chideer, though not a large animal is the largest of the game animals. When a hunter is lucky he can find them in herds, and might get two or even three, enough to feed a medium sized family, before the herd could run out of range.
“I have to say you do a great job on the chideer, Agis.” kDira said sincerely.
“Thanks to you, we had chideer to cook.”
“Too bad,” kDira continued, “you never learned how to build a proper fire.”
They both laughed.
“When I was a sub-kreb, my teacher always said I could build a really great smoke, but not a fire,” said Agis laughing.
kDira laughed and nodded her head in agreement.
“That, you can. That, you can.”
After finishing their meal, kDira set on task to pitch their small tent and lay out their bed rolls. Kreb, when traveling in groups of two, often pack only one tent as to not have to carry two. Especially when two krebs are close, and sometimes intimate as kDira and Agis were on occasion.
Males and females of the kreb class never took mates, but they still enjoyed the intimacy that comes with being with another. kDira and Agis enjoyed each other when it suited them, but were never exclusive to each other. Kreb were never expected to be loyal to just one other. The next patrol kDira could be with another male or a female, and there would never be expectations of any kind. Kreb live in the moment. This was the way of the Blackhorn.
As kDira tended to the tent, Agis stripped the bones of the remaining meat for their breakfast tomorrow, and set about to bury the carcass to keep other scavengers away from camp.
As the fire dwindled and the sky darkened, kDira and Agis sat together on a log discussing what they would be doing the coming day.
“I think,” said Agis, “tomorrow morning we should head out east and take the Ocheebee Pass north for a day or so and see what is out there.”
“Ocheebee Pass?” kDira said surprised, “I heard that could be dangerous if you’re not careful. Patrols have gone in but many have not come out.”
“But don’t you want to know why? What if there are ruins from the Olden Days that have never been explored? Don’t you get tired of doing the same thing all the time? Wouldn’t you like to know more about this world we live in?”
“Sure, but…”
“Then let’s do it. We’ll go north for a day or two, but if we don’t find anything we will turn west and head back to Blackhorn,” said Agis excitedly.
“Okay, two days. But if you get us killed I will never forgive you.”
“Deal!”
Agis was as excited as a young boy starting pre-kreb. He’d wanted to take the Ocheebee Pass for some time now, but never had the courage to ask kDira, or anyone else to go with him. Tomorrow would be the day.
kDira and Agis put the fire out as their training had taught them. It was not wise to leave a fire burning as one slept so as to not draw attention to the camp, and most simply, to not start a fire that could not be tamed.
The pair removed their heavier articles of clothing, such as the leather vests and armors, and for Agis, the jacket he highly prized, and moved into the tent together.
“Ouch!” kDira yelped. “What did you hit me for?”
“That was for earlier. I owed you one.”
“Get away from me you kreb!”
Soon they settled down. Soon they were intimate. This was often the way of the kreb.
Though the night was warm, morning came with a chill as it often did in the forests around Blackhorn in the warm season. Everything was damp with dew and even the air felt wet as kDira and Agis readied to move out. They ate the remainder of the chideer as they worked and though it was not nearly enough, it was satisfying and tasty. kDira hoped she could manage to harvest another before the day’s end.
“Onward, kreb,” announced kDira.
“Kreb yourself, onward and away!” called Agis.
That path was slowly beginning to widen as the pair moved eastward. The green was fading just a bit, as plant life and trees were getting a bit fewer and farther between. The team stopped to pick some berries from a mollyberry bush, and though they were just shy of being ripe, the sourness didn’t deter them from eating them with vigor.
As they continued further east the path cleared into a rocky plain with little vegetation.
“Ocheebee Pass should be just beyond that rise in the distance. Are you still up for it?” asked Agis, looking concerned at kDira.
The temperature was getting warmer as they stood at the edge of the Urec Plains looking East.
“Going to be hot,” kDira said. “Good thing we have plenty of bryne with us.
“Probably die drinking that sweet juice you like. Maybe we’ll find some water along the way.”
“What’s wrong with my bryne?” kDira asked, “you didn’t complain last night.”
“I like my bryne a little stronger and not so sweet.”
“What kind of bryne did you bring?”
“Pongo,” Agis said.
“Pongo? How can you drink that swill?”
Agis laughed. “You’ll drink it and like it when that sugar water of yours runs out.”
“I’d rather drink my own urine.”
“Okay, we’ll see.”
“So, are we doing this or not?” asked kDira.
“That’s what we said we were going to do, let’s go,” confirmed Agis.
“Let’s go,” said kDira, heading off towards Ocheebee Pass. Agis took quick steps to catch up.
The closer they got to the rise, the less plant life they saw. Slowly the ground turned to sand and rock, mostly rock. Some weeds struggled for life from the lifeless ground, but there was very little life to speak of. Agis pointed out a small lizard to kDira, but neither thought it would make much of a meal, so they both continued up the slope to the crest of the hill that stood in the middle of the Urec plains.
At the top of the hill, kDira could see a shallow canyon heading to the North.
“Is that the Ocheebee Pass?”
“That would be it,” confirmed Agis. “I have seen it many times from here, but never entered it. Last chance to back out, kreb. Going to be dark again soon, we could make it back to the brush before nightfall if you’re scared.”
“Sounds like you’re the one that’s scared,” mocked kDira.
With that, she took off in a sprint towards the pass opening. Agis watched her go, laughed, and began running after her.
They caught their breath at the mouth of the pass. Looking north into the pass they could see sharp walls of the canyons grow taller and taller the farther along it went, finally snaking to a point where you could no longer see any further.
kDira and Agis looked at each other, and without so much as a nod, they headed into the pass.
The further they went, the quieter it got. They could hear the sound of wind from above, but the walls merely echoed the sound of the pair’s footsteps as they made their way deeper into the Ocheebee.
“Rumor has it even the Karn are afraid to go into this pass. Maybe some unknown tribe calls it their territory and don’t appreciate visitors?” asked Agis.
“That’s a great thought. You couldn’t have offered that theory before we entered the pass?” asked kDira, irritated.
“Sorry. Just making conversation.”
“Find something else to converse about, Agis.”
“Here’s a crazy question I’m wondering about,” kDira continued. “What if we do go a couple days northward, and decide we need to head west to home, but we are stuck with walls on both sides, like now. Then what? We keep going north? Or back south the way we came?”
“Good question, one you could have brought up sooner yourself,” Agis replied slightly irritated. “How about this… we follow this until end of day tomorrow. If we don’t find anything by then and we cannot go back west by then, then we will turn around and come back out the way we came.”
“That sounds like a plan,” agreed kDira. The last thing she wanted to do was to get stuck in here for days without additional food or water, never knowing where the Ocheebee Pass ended to the north.
As the sun descending in the western sky, the canyon was beginning to get darker and the temperature was dropping. There was a chill to the air that they hadn’t felt the night before. The rock held little warmth from not being in direct sunlight for very much of the day, so staying warm this night would be priority. Unfortunately, there was no wood to be found, so a fire would not be an option.
“Guess we should probably try to find a safe place to camp out,” said Agis looking around.
“There is a small cave up there,” kDira said pointing a short way up the east slope. It looked accessible enough, and the two skilled and trained kreb made their way up to the would-be shelter.
“This is perfect,” said Agis. “Good find, partner.”
“I am glad we found this spot, we’d never get tent stakes sunk into the rock in the pass,” kDira said.
The kDira's World Anthology Page 2