Author:
Jadestar Iceblade
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Date Posted: 14:38:34 08/31/03 Sun
In reply to:
Jadestar Iceblade
's message, "Trying some stories...." on 12:42:31 08/31/03 Sun
Kylio crouched in the forest by the small glade. About a hundred people, all in the best leather clothing and jewel studded gold jewelery stood in the tiny natural clearing. The sun shone dappled through the overhanging leaves, casting a soft green light over the clearing.
Kylio fixed his eyes on the girl standing in front of the assemblage. She was dressed more grandly than any, with a tiger pelt draped over her and a surfeit of bejeweled gold jewelery. Her expression was haughty. The people began droning a ritual question aloud, in unison. Kylio waved his unsheathed sword in front of his face. Suddenly men with swords burst into the clearing. They grabbed people and held swords to their necks. Kylio snatched the girl, who was staring dazedly at the sudden surge of pandemonium.
A few minutes later the soft green light shone on bare grass in the empty ceremonial glade.
The captives were hustled to a rectangular box mounted on wheels, where the woodlands petered out and the plains began. Each person was made to strip completely and put there fine leather clothes and gold jewelery into a sack. Then they were given tunics of the coarse fibrous material worn by the poor. The tunics were a nondescript shade of gray-blue, with belts consisting of a strip of the same material.
The prisoners were silent, having been convinced of that wise course by the swords of the raiders.
The girl who was dressed grandly, though, refused to cooperate. She said a few words in her strange speech and thrust her chin forward onto the naked blade of Kylio's sword. Kylio withdrew his sword, grabbed her wrist, and removed a bangle. Thereupon the girl applied a flying kick to the side of his head. The raider dropped on the grass. The girl tried to get his sword, but was felled in her turn by the flat of another raider's blade. The raiders changed her into the garments the others were given. Then they began branding their new slaves. Kylio woke up. He took a knife and cut his mark into the girl's shoulder. Then he rubbed wood ash on the cuts. She now had a black tattoo that would never come off. Kylio bundled the moaning, still unconcious girl into the wheeled box. The last screaming slave was branded, sacks were thrown into the box, and ten slaves were harnessed to pull the cart. The rest were tied to it. Kylio snapped a whip, and they began.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Laenata woke up to a beam of sunlight peeping through a crack, right onto her face. Her head throbbed. She shut her eyes and didn't move.
'What happened?' she thought. 'I'm supposed to be at my banquet now... The ceremony should be over... Oh no! The raiders... They knocked me out... I must be in that box. That's why I'm bouncing like this. Why does my arm hurt?' Laenata felt her stinging shoulder. She inspected it in the sunlight. "I'm branded!" she shrieked aloud. "I'm a slave!" Her arm felt burned. This couldn't be happening. In a minute she would wake up and get dressed. She would go through the ceremony that would make her King's Heir officially. Oh, no! The king! He must have been captured too! "Father!" she screamed. "Father!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The man who was once the Lord High King of Telsud i Erendil stumbled along, harnessed to the cart. Beside him his Queen Consort and First Lady dragged at her harness. He touched her shoulder. "Tonight." he whispered. "Don't go to sleep."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At nightfall the prisoners were given bread and water and left to sleep. Their captors lay down around the fire and the wagon, bare swords close at hand. They slept. The prisoners rose and melted into the night, towards the capital city of Silmalidil. No one noticed that Laenata was not with them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Laenata woke to hunger. She'd never known hunger. She was the princess. She kept her eyes shut, hoping to feel the soft warmth of her silk sheets around her, and hear the quiet chattering of the morning maids. "I am hungry!" she said aloud, demandingly. "I am hungry!" No one responded.
Suddenly a loud, angry shout was heard through. Laenata gasped in fear. Then the trapdoor in the roof that was the only exit or entrance to the box swung open. A raider peered in frantically. He saw Laenata and smiled. He turned his head and shouted to a man outside. Laenata cringed as the gruff, clipped syllables assaulted her ears. He tossed her a small crust of bread and vanished.
The girl ate the bread. It merely stimulated her appetite and brought thirst, but no water came. Laenata softly began to cry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kylio set a brisk pace. There was no telling when soldiers would be coming to reclaim the girl- obviously someone important- and kill the raiders. The girl was a noisy thing. She yelled and cried a lot. Best shut her up. But she must be thirsty, too. Let her drink and then gag her. Kylio immediately followed through on this plan, despite Laenata's shrieks of protest.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later, when the raiders made camp, Laenata was allowed out to relieve herself. Seeing no other prisoners, she realized they had run away without her. Tears flowed afresh.
As she sat eating her dry crust, the girl thought, 'I have to rename myself. I'm not the Golden Princess anymore. I am the Tear-Crown. Et-tir.'
Suddenly the raider guarding the girl decided it was time to make her useful. Perhaps his subconcious noted the resignation mixed with sorrow that had come over her face, but it was a wholly impulsive decision. He rose and stood over her. "Kylio." he said, tapping his chest. "Master." He nodded towards Et-tir.
The girl nodded. "Kylio." she tried her best to say the other word she had been given. "Chng." But she did not say her own name.
Kylio tapped her chest. The girl swallowed. Saying a name aloud gave it reality. But she could no longer be Laenata. "Et-tir." she choked out, then buried her face in the gray-blue peasant tunic.
Kylio told her, "Kylio master, Et-tir slave."
Et-tir did not respond.
Kylio repeated it.
The girl understood she must respond. "Kylio chng, Et-tir angchel." She didn't understand the words but she understood the basic meaning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That night Et-tir slept in the box as usual, but in the morning came a surprise. Kylio dragged her out of the cart. "Et-tir walk. Walk!" he snapped. Et-tir walked, but a guard was always near.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the end of the day Et-tir was carrying loads as well as walking. The coarse woven cloth of her tunic had ceased aggravating her skin, but now the rocky ground hurt her feet. She had been given no shoes. By nightfall she was breathing hard and was so tired she had stopped watching where she set her feet.
The ten raiders pulling the cart dropped the ropes and staggered over to the meandering stream they were following.
The young girl slept like one dead. She'd never had to walk more than an hour before, never on bare feet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They traveled in this way for over a month. Et-tir's feet grew tough, and she learned more simple words and phrases such as make fire, bring water, etc. She was always guarded, but one night, a dark, moonless night, she tried to run away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Et-tir softly picked her way through a pile of raiders sprawled on the ground. Her concentration was so intense, she failed to notice the furthest dark shape rise and slip silently behind a tree.
She gained confidence as she walked. She planned to hide in the forest until the raiders left. Then she would make her way towards home, and along the way her father's soldiers, coming after her would find her and take her home. The tattoo on her shoulder would be cut off, as doubtless her mother's and father's already were.
The girl was so absorbed in these fine plans she failed to see Kylio before he stepped out from his hiding place.
"Going somewhere?" he inquired pleasantly.
Et-tir gasped and stepped back, twisting her ankle and cutting her bare foot on a sharp stone. The girl thudded heavily to the ground, cracking her head on another of the wealth of riverbank stones.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Henceforth Et-tir slept in the cart, tied hand and foot. During the day she walked with her wrists tied to the cart.
Before she tried to run away, Et-tir had washed in the stream each night. Now she became filthy because she had no opportunity to do anything. Every night she cried herself to sleeep. She was only a child, after all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kylio saw Thanlo ahead. Never had he been so glad to see anything in his life. Three moons traveling to conduct the raid, three moons traveling back. It was pure luck they had stumbled on that glade full of rich people.
But now the capital city of Kylio's home lay a day away.
None of the others had noticed it. They trudged along, exhausted, eyes on the dusty ground.
Kylio took out a shell trumpet, one of the few things in this green inland from the ocean. He brought it to his lips and winded a long, clear, melodic call.
His men looked up, startled. Then they glimpsed for a brief moment the city in the mist, glimmering like a pearl under the rising sun. Then the mist curtain was again drawn shut. But the men's spirits had risen and they assembled in ranks behind the cart, the first rank pushing to make it go faster.
Each hour Kylio winded his mother-of-pearl horn, loudly and sweetly. During the first two times it pierced the mist for an instant, then the mist came back. The men felt like they were moving in a dream, through a white mist tunnel. No one spoke.
Kylio winded the horn. The call was so loud, sweet, and strange, that Et-tir gasped. Surely nothing earthly could make that incredible sound. Unthinkingly, she stopped, listening for the sound again. She felt a hard jerk on her chafed, bleeding wrists and stumbled forward again, choking back a cry.
The sun had cleared away the mists, and Et-tir did not listen for the sound again. Such a wild, beautiful, unearthly sound belonged to the mists, not plain daily life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About an hour later Kylio's trumpet was answered by another. Then a company of people walked out of the distance to meet the raiders. In front walked a tall man dressed in heavy blue-dyed leather. He had a necklace of jade and turquoise set in mother-of-pearl.
Et-tir studied this man. He looked like a king. (Kings always wear the finest leather with the only jewelery a royal necklace.)
The king stopped within five feet of Kylio. Kylio prostrated himself. The rest of the men followed suit.
Then the king and Kylio talked for a while. Et-tir heard the word 'slave' several times and her own name once. The negotiations ended with the king being given half of the the jewelery each raider had stolen. He didn't get any of Et-tir's jewelery (which Kylio had) because Kylio gave him the head of Et-tir's tiger pelt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That night Et-tir was given the honor of serving Kylio at a royal banquet.
The next day Kylio left the hall, taking her, and began walking.
They walked for two days. They had brought no provisions, so Et-tir learned what forest plants could be eaten and how to cook them.
Now the final stone fell into place. When she ran away, next summer, she would survive. It was too late to run away now. Already the leaves were turning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On the morning of the second day Kylio saw something that worried him. Fresh tiger spoor. He called to his heavily burdened slave. "Et-tir!" she glanced up apathetically. "Stay close." the girl shook her head uncomprehendingly. So he opened her sack, pulled out the tiger pelt. "Hant." he said. He pointed to the spoor. "Hant. (Tiger)" By signs Kylio indicated that Et-tir was to stay close lest she be eaten by a tiger.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After being warned, the girl found herself very nervous. She trudged along under a heavy sack of her clothes and jewelery, so exhausted she was unable to enjoy the bright sunlight, the birdsong, or any of the day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that same day the two, master and slave, came upon a village. Kylio boldly turned down the main street.
"Hi-lo!" he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted. About a dozen women glanced up from the well, startled, or popped out of houses.
Looking around, Et-tir decided that it was a poor village. They were all dressed in the rough, woven peasant cloth-the same as her, she realized. But theirs were proper tunics. Hers was just a rectangle of the the gray-blue material, folded over and stitched up the sides. It also had a hole in the top.
Shouts brought her attention back to the scene at hand. Women and children rushed towards Kylio, shouting.
The women formed a sort of ring around Kylio, rather abashed. The children had no such scruples about propriety. They came to him and jumped around, asking about his adventures.
But the newly returned hero didn't notice any of these. His attention was fixed on a slender woman walking slowly behind the rest. She carried a bucket of water on her head.
Kylio ran to the woman and swept her in a fierce embrace. The bucket fell to the dusty ground, unnoticed. All the women stared at him and the strange girl. Then Kylio greeted them. He announced something in a loud voice which brought cheers and exclamations of delight. Everyone scurried away, immediately busy.
A few minutes later a large horn made of a hollowed out buffalo horn was sounded from a rooftop, followed about half an hour later by a bunch of men, just returned from a hunting foray.
But Kylio, Et-tir, and the woman weren't watching. They had entered a house and Kylio and the woman were both chattering away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Et-tir gazed around as she entered the house. Flat mud roof, square mud walls, the same as any other house.
The inside was spacious, but spartan. The girl looked around fearfully. It was one large square room, with a fireplace, an eating mat, sleeping mats, and shelves of bowls, cooking utensils, and other paraphernalia.
To be continued...
OOC: My fingers really hurt!!!!!!!!
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