Not sure what to do at this point, the two defectors decided to go over to where the encampment had been and see if there were any salvageable items or food. On their way back, they passed the four dead bodies that had perished at the claws and jaws of the blackber. They did notice several swords and bows that were strewn about, and were fortunate enough to find one bota bag of water, but no food. It was then that they noticed, in the distance, poor Fralek bound and hanging lifeless from a tree.
“Fralek. Fralek, are you alive?” Shamaya called out to him. Fralek did not move. As they walked up to him, Lyren picked up a stick and poked the helpless male in the ribs. They heard a moan come from the lifeless body, and slowly, Fralek raised his head.
“Please kill me now, have mercy on me,” he cried. “I can’t bear to live any longer.”
“Lyren, cut him down,” Shamaya said.
Lyren did as requested, and Fralek fell limp to the ground.
“I can’t feel my hands or my arms,” he whimpered.
“What do we do with him? He’s no good as a mule anymore,” Lyren said.
“Fralek was a warrior, and we need a warrior more than anything now,” Shamaya said with authority.
“Sylys will certainly have our heads for deserting the tribe, and even more-so for helping Fralek,” said the male warrior.
Shamaya bent down to give Fralek some water, which he gladly accepted.
“There is no going back,” said Shamaya, “so I suggest we find a new tribe. We didn’t know Hayden was going to change the deal, and we already swore our allegiance to kDira and the Blackhorns, I suggest we make our way to them and warn them of the impending attack.”
“How can we get to Blackhorn before Hayden?” Lyren asked. “They are already ahead of us, we can’t get past them without them seeing us.”
“Not if we take the Great Highway. We know he has a day or so more going west, then he will cut south on the road that will take him to Blackhorn. If we cut through the woods to the south and west, we might be able to beat them to the Blackhorn village in time to warn them.”
“That’s a good plan, except we will be trudging through the woods with no path, not stars to guide us, just a little bit of sun. No food and very little water. And we have Fralek. He’s not in much shape to travel, let alone trot though the woods at a steady pace,” Lyren said with a strong doubt to his voice.
“I will make it,” Fralek said weakly. “Or I will die trying.”
“Good. Can you get up?” Shamaya asked offering her hand to assist him to his feet. Fralek reached up and took her hand, and together they got him upright and standing on his feet.
“There were some weapons over here, you will want to get something for yourself,” Lyren said, pointing to where the dead Midlanders were.
They walked over to their fallen, former tribemates, and Fralek found a sword, bow, and a quiver of arrows. He fastened them to his body, and with a nod, the three headed out to the southwest though the woods.
The going was tough, and Fralek gave it everything he had to keep pace with his saviors. He did not want to be a burden on them after they gave him a second chance at living. After several hours, it was a great surprise when they came across a lone mollyberry bush, teaming with ripe fruit.
The three filled their bellies with as many berries as they could snatch from the bush, but Fralek was putting berries in his mouth faster than he could chew and swallow. The sweet fruit was a welcome meal after not having eaten for days. When the three could eat no more, they filled every pocket and sack they had with the last of the berries. With the bush picked clean, they continued onward. Fralek, with a new lease on life, had no trouble keeping up. His old warrior spirit was quickly returning to him.
“So, the plan is to rejoin the Blackhorn then?” Fralek asked.
“I think that is the best move, considering our situation,” Shamaya replied. “We did swear allegiance to the Blackhorn, did we not?”
“Yes, we did,” agreed Fralek, “but I owe someone there for a knock on my head.”
“We’ll see that that gets worked out,” the female replied. “But for now, we have to be committed to rejoining them and stopping Hayden.”
“I understand,” Fralek said.
Sylys Hayden and his number one warrior, Duard, headed eastward until close to nightfall, when they decided to set up camp, this time at the edge of the woods. Duard gathered several warriors and sent them out to hunt down some game so that the tired warriors could eat before setting watch and turning in.
“The tribe is tired and hungry, Sylys,” Duard said.
“Of course they are,” Hayden snapped. If they want to eat, they need to bring back some meat or this will be a long, long trip.”
“I don’t think the krebs are up to fighting a battle on an empty stomach,” Duard continued, “if we don’t find food soon, might we be better off going back to Midlandia and re-plan the attack for another day?”
“Do I have a tribe full of children? Are we not warriors?” Hayden scowled.
“Certainly we are,” Duard defended, “but the Blackhorn must know we are coming, and they will be rested and well-fed. They will have that as an advantage.”
“We will be rested and fed, or we will fight for our last meal. Enough, I do not wish to hear any more.”
“Yes, Hayden.”
As camp was set up and fires built, one hunting party returned with two chideer and a couple small animals with long ears, of which the Midlanders had never seen before. Several of the other Midlander immediately began dressing the animals out to put over the fire.
Within the next hour another party returned with a single chideer, but had a sack full of mollyberries.
The third remaining hunting party never returned.
Somewhere south of the Midlanders, Fralek and his two rescuers Lyren and Shamaya were also stopping in hopes of having a safe and restful night. Before they could settle into a resting spot, Fralek readied his bow and loosed an arrow into the woods. Lyren and Shamaya didn’t even have time to look at what the target was. Fralek ran out into the woods and quickly returned with a medium sized chideer.
“Fralek, good shooting!” Shamaya said with a smile.
“Can I stick around now?” Fralek asked, laughing?
“At least until we run out of chideer,” Lyren joked. “I will get a fire started, Fralek, you dress out the chideer, Shamaya, if you could gather up some wood, that would be very helpful.”
“Hopefully, the blackber will leave us alone, or this might be our last meal,” Shamaya said, with an all-too serious tone.
“You had to bring up blackber, did you?” Fralek asked with a tone of fear in his voice.
“Sorry.”
cHAPTER 16
Two Days Earlier…
Once again on the Great Highway, the day was rainy and cool. Sometime in the night the sky turned cloudy and the rain began to come down hard. Everyone was soaked to the bone, and no one was happy about it. Especially Hayden.
“It had to rain now,” Sylys said as he and his tribe trudged along the Great Highway. Everyone was walking slower than normal and moral was very low. Despite having had a good meal the night before, and a decent nights’ rest, there was a feeling of dread throughout the ranks.
“Sylys,” Duard said in tone that suggested he almost wished Hayden would not hear him.
“What is it, Duard? Speak up.”
“I did a head count. In addition to the two in the hunting party that failed to return last night, somehow, we have lost four more, either in the night or early on the road.”
“So you’re telling me we’re down to about thirty warriors now?” Hayden asked, angrily.
“We have thirty-two, Hayden,” Duard confirmed. “That’s counting you and me.”
“Can I?” Hayden asked.
“Can you… what?” asked Duard.
“Can I count on you? Are you with me all the way?”
“Hayden, I am sworn to your service and com
pletely loyal. You have nothing to worry about as far as that goes,” Duard assured him.
“Then why do you question me and my orders?”
“I only want to offer all alternatives, what kind of number one would I be if all I did was blindly follow you without offering my assistance in decision making?”
Sylys thought about his answer a moment.
“A living one,” Hayden said with a sting in his tone.
Meanwhile, once again heading south and west, the three defectors were making good time. With renewed energy, they ran when they could, and always did their best to make good time. Breaks were few and far between. With enough chideer meat to keep their energy up throughout this day, and still having enough mollyberries left to snack on, their only worry was running into a blackber or two.
Sometime around midday they heard running water ahead. Excited, the three began to sprint to get to where the sound was coming from.
Suddenly coming into view was a large stream with rapidly flowing water. The three defectors stopped at the water’s edge and took in the view. Though barely as wide as a two krebs were tall, it seemed to flow a fair amount of water. The water glistened where the light managed to find its way through the trees above.
Shamaya opened her bota bag and poured the liquid from it, then bent down to get some cold, fresh water from the stream. Lyren did the same, took a big drink, then passed the bota to Fralek, who drank as much water as he could before handing the bag back to Lyren. The bag was then filled once again before being capped off. The river flowed from the northwest to the southeast, and it was obvious that the three would have to cross at some point.
“So, do we cross here?” Shamaya asked.
“If we follow this river west it will bring us closer to Hayden again,” Lyren said. “We should probably cross here and continue to Blackhorn.”
“Let’s to it then,” Shamaya agreed.
With that, they waded into stream that was at its deepest, knee deep.
“There are fish in here,” Fralek said.
“Do you know how to catch fish?” Lyren asked.
“Not with a bow or a sword. Did anyone bring a net?”
Lyren and Shamaya looked at him as though he’d lost his mind.
“Why would we have a net with us?” Lyren asked.
“Then no. I do not know how to catch fish,” Fralek said, somberly.
The rain was beginning to let up over Hayden’s head, but the clouds were still dark and the air cold. He could see a break in the clouds to the south, but it didn’t look as though it would make it over his head.
“Damn this weather,” he said to no one in particular.
As the day wore on he could tell his small army was getting more and more fatigued. By mid-evening they had found the path to the south that would lead them to the Blackhorn village. Hayden decided to set up camp, and sent out his hunting parties once again, but with the orders that if they did not find food then returning was not an option.
None came back. It was a cold hungry night for the Midlanders. Sometime in the middle of the night the rain came again.
Farther south, Fralek and the other two defectors began preparing to bed down in a small clearing in the woods. Sitting on a couple fallen logs, they finished off the last of their chideer and berries. When they could not stay awake any longer, the three bedded down. As krebs often do, they slept close together as the night air was getting cool.
“Do you hear something?” Shamaya whispered?
“I think so,” answered Fralek.
In the distance, they could hear rustling in the woods, not too far from the clearing they were in.
“Blackber?” Lyren asked.
“You had to bring that up, didn’t you?” Fralek asked.
In the dim moon and star light, they could see the tree line. With their eyes adjusted to the darkness they could see reasonably well, and they waited to see a beast come rushing at them from the edge of the clearing. Each of the three had their weapons drawn and ready.
Then, to their relief, they saw that it was two human figures coming into the clearing.
The three stood up and Lyren spoke first.
“Who are you? What is your business here?”
“Lyren? Is that you? I thought I recognized your voice!” one of the new arrivals answered. “I am Acetec, and this is Oleg.”
Acetec and Oleg were to make warriors, both a bit younger than many of the other krebs in the Midlander tribe. Both had bits of leather armor, and swords at their sides. Oleg had bright white hair that almost glowed in the moonlight, and a much fairer complexion.
“Did Hayden send you to get us?” Fralek questioned.
“Fralek! You’re here too?” Acetec said surprised. “I would have figured you were blackber meal by now.”
“Shamaya and I rescued him. He is with us now,” Lyren said. “So, what are you doing here?”
“We went out on a hunt, didn’t see anything,” Oleg began, “so because we didn’t want to become mules ourselves, we decided it would be safer to just not go back. They we got the wild idea to go join the Blackhorn tribe and hope they accept us as their own.”
“I don’t think kDira would take our heads for making a mistake,” Fralek said. “Or work us as beasts of burden. It sounded like a much more pleasant fate then trying to make it up to Hayden.”
“I am sorry we don’t have any food to offer,” said Shamaya, “we finished the last of what we had this evening.”
“Do not despair,” said Acetec, “we found some mollyberries a while back, and managed to take a couple fish from the stream with our net we had with us.”
Fralek looked at Lyren and Shamaya.
“They had a net with them,” he said. “Did you hear that? They had a net with them.”
“We heard,” said Lyren and Shamaya in unison.
In a short while the group settled down to try to sleep. Fralek, Lyren and Shamaya once again snuggled in tightly together to keep warm, and the newcomers Acetec and Oleg did the same.
cHAPTER 17
The Day Before…
Hayden, wet, cold and angry from lack of sleep and food, ordered everyone up just before dawn to head south towards Blackhorn. Since hardly anyone managed any sleep, it was not too difficult a task to get everyone back on the road again. Though the pre-dawn air was cool, Hayden could see stars in the sky, telling him the clouds had passed. He looked forward to a day without rain to dry off.
As the light of day peaked over the still hidden horizon, Duard headed backward to the end of the parade of Midlanders to do a head count. As he made his way forward to Hayden, he had a feeling of dread.
“How many did we lose last night, Duard?” Hayden asked without looking at his number one.
Duard hesitated. He considered lying and telling his leader that all were accounted for, but he felt the consequences of being caught in a lie would be far worse than the actual truth.
“Three unaccounted for,” he said, waiting for a fist to his face, or a knife in his throat.
Hayden was silent. He walked along quietly, keeping his anger and disgust to himself. Duard intentionally fell back a few paces, just in case the leader lost his self-control.
“You’re not going to try to talk me into calling off the attack?” Hayden asked.
“Hayden?” Duard asked, rushing up closer to his leader’s side.
“The attack. You’re not going to try to talk me out of it, now that we are almost even in numbers to the Blackhorn?”
“Sylys, you made it clear that you did not want me offering my opinion, so I kept it to myself,” Duard said, feeling as though he was being baited into a trap.
“I am asking for your opinion now,” Hayden said with a bit of anger. “They have twenty or so good warriors, if I guess right. We have thirty…”
“Twenty-eight,” his number one corrected him.
“Twenty-eight tired and hungry warriors,” Hayden went on. “Probably less by the time we get there.”<
br />
“Forgive me, Sylys, but you’re starting to sound like me,” Duard said trying to inject a little humor into the gloomy situation.
Sylys Hayden gave Duard a glare, then continued on without saying a word.
“To look on the bright side, the sun is coming out,” Duard continued. “Maybe we just want to find a clearing and dry out, warm up, and maybe prosper from a successful hunt. When we are truly rested and ready to go again, we will make our way to the Blackhorn village and fight them with true Midlander vigor?”
“For once you might be right,” Sylys agreed. “We stop at the first clearing we come to and bask in the warmth of the sun.”
Making good time the small party of defectors, now five in number, were already making their way through the Kaiba Forest towards Blackhorn. Rested and reasonably nourished, they were ready for the day’s travel, looking forward to their reunion with their Blackhorn friends.
“I am guessing just over a day more and we will be there,” Shamaya said.
“I bet Ari and Threg are now at the Blackhorn camp with the breeders by now,” Fralek said. “Unless they ran into the same blackber we did.”
“I thought we weren’t talking about blackber, Fralek,” Lyren asked with a chuckle.
“We’re not,” Fralek said, and continued walking.
Sylys Hayden had found his clearing and had Duard send out hunting parties once again, as everyone took some time to remove most of their clothing to lay them out on the grass or over tree stumps to dry. Several of the warriors went in search of dry wood for a fire. Hayden ordered everyone to rest and concentrate on lifting spirits. Some sat around the freshly built fire and sang old folk songs they had passed down for generations. Some took the time in the sun to nap, while others sharpened their swords, knives and arrow heads.
Shortly the hunting parties returned with fresh kills of chideer and wild fowl. One party found a stream and filled their bota bags, and returned to camp for more to fill.
The kDira's World Anthology Page 15