Chapter 16: Stumblings Upon

The sun rose to reveal the three horses and four riders continuing across the frail grassed plains of the inner lands. This forsaken country was known to most as Barakdethen or the Barren Death Haven as it was loosely translated. Its farthest borders were comprised of wastes, absolute wastes. They contained more water than the deserts but less life. The waster that they contained was also most often bitter or stale, and the dry, cracked, flat dirt continued forever often hiding the small waterholes from the view of thirsty travelers. Inward from these wastes were the deserts. This was the area where cities started appearing, for it was the place where drinkable water and life were both present. The deserts had less water than the wastes, but what water they had was comparatively clean and not static since it was frequently disturbed by blowing sands and refreshed by infrequent but heavy rainstorms. The rainstorms of the desert were quite as dangerous as its sandstorms were. Small lizards and mammals, as well as the rare bird of prey ranged these areas, and camels became a useful pack animal. Barakdethen had what could be considered 3 deserts, though in truth they were all roughly connected. The 2 main deserts ran the northern and southern edges of the country, on the inner borders of the wastes. A 3rd, long and skinny desert crossed the center of the country creating a z-shaped pattern or snake track as most called it. Between the wastes of the east and west and deserts of the north and south, excluding the snake desert, lay the inner lands. The inner lands contained the majority of the population as well as other life and water. Larger animals such as domestic herd animals and wild grazing animals roamed here, though the frail grasses often struggled to support them. The occasional mammals of prey also ranged here, such as occasional packs of wild dogs and hyenas. The inner lands were carpeted by frail and generally thing grasses, though occasionally lucky patches had thicker or hardier types. There were also occasional trees, though rarely were there groups of trees unless they had been planted and carefully nurtured. Farmers and ranchers somehow managed to scrape a living from the barely fertile grounds of the inner lands. Most of the country’s natural resources were also located in this area and long its borders with the deserts and wastes. Barakdethen contained only one body of water worthy of the title lake, and even at that it was a pretty sorry one. It was shallow, though somewhat long, but also fairly narrow. In essence the land of the entire country was starved, dry, harsh and despairing. Indeed it was often said that the name of the country had brought a curse down on the land.
Justice looked around at the grassed landscape. He and the others had just dismounted and were preparing to rest for the afternoon. Even though the inner lands were cooler, they were still hot and harsh in the day and a traveler could make better time at night. Justice stretched, he had forgotten how good it felt to be on the road, living the adventurous life. Settling down had been good too, but he still hoped to find a better land than this to settle in. He heard laughter and turned to see Zeal and Yevish helping each other to unsaddle Zeal’s horse. Yevish could almost unsaddle Justice and Zeal’s horses by himself, being as they were not as large or tall as Darkstar.
“Whoa Klack.” Zeal calmed his red coated, white hoofed horse. The animal was a bit upset by the semi-careless manner in which it was being unsaddled.
Justice shook his head as he started unsaddling his horse, Kloppit. He patted the horse’s head when he finished. “That a’ boy.” He and Zeal had enjoyed themselves in the naming of their steeds, indeed they had been the most uniquely named horses in the entire army. Justice looked over at Peace who was unsaddling Darkstar with that quiet and gentle smile on her face. She was quite beautiful, though her skin was worn from long years in the sun, just as his and Zeal’s were. He wondered how she had remained single, especially after all those years in the army. Perhaps after the cross-dressing stunt that she had pulled no one considered her an acceptable option anymore. He’d have to ask her sometime, as she had failed to mention her own love life in their earlier conversations. He couldn’t imagine her being without a single suitor for all those years. Suddenly he jerked his head to the right; something was making a hazardous sounding ruckus. Peace and Zeal also looked towards the noise. Zeal gently pushed Yevish behind him. Soon the clanging of swords and battle cries of men reached their ears. The fours travelers drew their respective weapons: Peace her two half lengths, Zeal his specially designed broadsword which had one wavy edge and one straight edge, Justice his long sword, and Yevish his small throwing dagger and large battle dagger. They were all standing on the east side of a small knoll opposite the sounds of the battle. There were two small knarled trees on their side of the knoll. The three siblings looked at each other for assurance. It was always frightening going into a battle which you didn’t know anything about. You could never be sure which side you ought to fight on or whether you ought to take a side. Any battle was frightening business anyway, you never knew when you might end up maimed, seriously wounded, or dead.
Suddenly five men broke over the knoll. They were arranged so as to indicate a four on one battle, with the one doing exceptionally well to even be alive. Peace’s eyes widened; the four men fighting together were the ones she had fought at the inn. Their leader, Erlfag, recognized Peace just as soon as she recognized him. “Why bitch, it’s about time we ran into you again.” The tone of his voice assured Peace’s brothers that these four men were not on their side. The siblings and Yevish quickly jumped to the aide of the outnumbered man. The battle was quick, though somewhat indecisive. Two of the warlord’s soldiers were dead, Erlfag and Gart were alive. Zeal and the strange warrior had quickly disabled and bound them. Peace stood facing them, Zeal and Justice on her left and the newcomer on her right.
“Well bitch, this is familiar. ‘Cept ye had ‘elp this time. Did we scare ye last time?” Erlfag grinned up at her from his kneeled position.
“Why you!” Zeal stepped forward to hit the man for his words but Peace stopped him.
“We’ve had enough fighting and bloodshed for today.” She commented to him quietly. Then she turned back to Erlfag.
He spoke before she could decide what to say. “I see ye got yerself a ‘air cut. Didn’t like me pullin’ on it last time aye?”
“No, I didn’t.” Peace replied calmly.
Erlfag snorted. “Eh, ye all calm toned now that ye got some mutts ta watch yer back. I wonder ‘ow good they’re doin’ at that.” Erlfag meaningfully looked her up and down then and smiled cruelly.
Peace snarled at the disgusting reference. “I don’t suppose a family’s respect of each other means much to you.” Erlfag smiled and opened his mouth to speak but Peace continued before he could. “When you wake you’ll be unbound, supplied with one days supplies and equipped with your basic weapons. Don’t worry about your dead, we’ll have honored them already, since none of you would bother to do such.” Peace glared at the both for a moment. “Sleep well.” Peace took the hilt of her sword and brought it down across the back of Erlfag’s head. She didn’t care much if she caused damage at this point. The newcomer did the same to Gart. It was obvious the stranger held the same opinion of these men as Peace. Peace turned and suddenly her complexion softened. Yevish stood there staring blankly at his bloodied hands. He had delivered one of the killing blows. Peace turned to her brothers. “You know our arrangement. We should burn the bodies, the ground is too hard to receive them quickly.”
“And we need to move soon.” The stranger added. “I know there was more of these men, they’ll probably be here soon.”
Peace nodded. “I have a lesson to teach” she finished gently.
Peace walked over to Yevish and kneeled. She picked up his dropped weapons and gently placed them back in his hands. Then she pulled out two rags, somewhat stained from long ago battles. She handed one to Yevish. “You must clean your blades Yevish. The blood on them is from another. It does not belong to us, but to God, and we must clean it away from our blades. Watch.” Peace started to clean her blades with the rag and Yevish started to clean his own, following her every movement. Zeal and Justice and the stranger watched with admiration in their eyes. It was not an easy thing to help one through their first kill, especially one so young. Zeal and Justice turned to do what needed to be done and the stranger followed, an odd light playing in his eyes, as if of some long forgotten memory.
Peace continued her lesson. She knew that Yevish needed support and love, but he also needed to learn the significance of what had just occurred and what must yet occur. He needed to understand God’s perspective of killing and His forgiveness in such. Yevish also had to learn how to work through it, and the best way to do such was to continue doing the necessary tasks. Once his blades were clean Peace gently guided his hands to put them back in their sheathes. She took back the rag and carefully laid them by her side on the thin grass. It was best to let the blood dry before packing the rags again. “Now we must was the blood from us.”
Yevish looked at her, pain flooding his eyes and a thousand unasked questions swirling around.
“At certain times we would wash ourselves with water, but on a battle field water is not available. So we use the earth. Just as the dead bodies return to the earth, we will return their blood to earth with them.” Peace scraped at the dry dirt and dug up enough to fill Yevish’s hands, then she guided him in scrubbing the blood from his young flesh. Once his hands were cleaned she cleaned her own hands. Mostly only her fingertips were exposed, but the blood was on her gloves as well so she scrubbed with the dirt till she had removed as much blood as she could. She swiftly stuffed the newly soiled rags into their special pocket and then looked back at Yevish. She drew the boy to her and wrapped him in her arms, then she stood and looked over at the others. Silent burning tears begin to flood down the boys cheeks as he curled up in Peace’s strong arms. “It will be hard Yevish, and not all questions have answers, but we will help you work through it. We have all been through this trial. But for now, know this, we all love you, Justice, Zeal and I, and most importantly, Yeshua still loves you.” Yevish nodded his understands and reached out and grasped Peace.
Zeal and Justice nodded at Peace. They had done everything that had needed to be done and were just finishing saddling the horses. The smell of burning flesh wafted through the air. Peace walked over to Darkstar and Justice helped her and Yevish up, with Yevish still facing and grasping Peace as they sat on the horse. The stranger led his horse over and nodded to them. The three men mounted and all four riders spurred their horses onward casting doubtful glances behind them.