Chapter Five
Warrior
Zora was now completely out of sight and both Eshta and Kana turned their weeping eyes forward and brushed the tears from off their cheeks, as they focused on the man who was leading them across the Barrens.
Three hours passed and the group had covered a lot of ground, as bred by a life of survival, where few lived past childhood the young women of the group were strong and able to keep up with the fast pace that the former Hunter had set. Kana alone knew and could appreciate just how much less he was requiring of them all from what he could be making the pace to be.
Suddenly Loric stopped and put a hand to his ear and then he abruptly turned back to the group and yelled, “Get down! Hide!”
As one the group dove into whatever concealment the barren landscape of scattered stones and shrubs could offer. Kana heard a noise like the droning of a trapped insect and then the ground beneath them shook moments later to be followed by the sounds of explosions in the distance.
What were the Hunter’s blowing up and then it hit her and she turned her head back towards the direction of the camp, where she could see black smoke rising into the sky staining the early morning horizon with a sense of loss. She cried out and start to rise up, but Loric pushed her back down.
Kana’s gaze found Eshta’s across from her and she saw Eshta’s chin quiver with emotion as she said, “She must’ve known!”
Loric’s deep voice spoke, even as it was tinged with the sadness that both girls felt, “She did. So did all the others. The last registered position of my beacon locator would be the first place the Hunters would look for me. Zora knew that if the Hunters found the camp deserted that they would continue the hunt, until every one of us was caught.”
Loric got to his feet and looked around at the group of women that he had been tasked to lead. He spoke in a loud voice meant to address all of them, “Each of you is a survivor by virtue of your existence, but I need more than that from you now! I need you to be warriors! I need you to fight past the pain you’re feeling. I need you to fight as much as your need to keep surviving has kept you alive to this moment in time. Now get up and honor the sacrifice of those, who have given you the chance at continued life by giving up their own! Get up now I say!”
The young woman rose to their feet one by one, until they all stood. Loric then began to go to each woman, as they busily dashed the tears from off their faces. He took their right hand and bringing it up chest high he leaned forward to cross arms and into the face of each woman he shouted, “Warrior!” And then he would say, “Now you say it!”
“Warrior!” At first the women responded back timidly, but then their voices raised to match Loric in intensity. As each woman said ‘warrior’ he would step aside and push them forward toward the mountains that were in the distance. He repeated his actions with every woman and yet every woman felt changed after the experience, as if suddenly stronger inside for the word spoken and what had been demanded of them by a warrior they all respected.
They were no longer just survivors, but fighters instead; because they had looked into the eyes of a warrior and had seen the evidence of the belief in his eyes that they were, even so as he was, and in turn each believed it of themselves.
They walked for hours and the hours became days, until one day they reached the base of the great mountains and saw just how much farther they had to go.
They began to climb and climb and climb.
It never stopped, but then neither did the warrior that led them, with the coming of each day he attacked the mountain slope first breaking through the heavy snow for the rest of them to follow. In single file they followed him through the bitter icy cold up into the very peaks of the mountains.
It was cold, so very cold. Without Loric they would’ve died, but he always found the easiest of the ways to go not that there was an easy way. He always found shelter of at least some kind to rest at night and he inspired them every day to never stop fighting and so they didn’t.
Kana could see that the indomitable warrior was becoming worn out though and she glanced back at Eshta. Eshta read her thoughts and nodded before saying, “We have to do something.”
The two sisters slipped by the girls ahead of them in the line, until they reached Loric, who was lost to the world as he fought to make a way through the snow for the others to follow. Eshta and Kana darted around either side of Loric and fell into the deep snow ahead of him, but they fought their way to their feet helping each other.
Loric waking up to what was happening started to reach for them, but the girls behind him grabbed a hold of him and slid by him one by one, until he was the last one of the column and left to walk on the beaten path of forty pairs of feet. Eshta and Kana were the strongest of the women, but even they, as they side-by-side fought through the snow immediately became aware of the amount of effort Loric had been putting out to break trail for the rest of them.
They fought on and after several hours had gone by two more girls, who were able enough stepped in front of them and so on and so on repeated the cycle, as Loric walked at the back of the group for the rest of the day and well into the next.
The group was walking along a side slope that did not have much snow cover on it, when they all felt the ground shift slightly under their feet and then it shifted badly and they were all thrown off their feet and one of the youngest of them, a girl of sixteen called Solin, was carried on down the slope and over a sharp drop-off.
Everyone could hear Solin screaming for help, but she was out of sight. Individual girls started to slip down the treacherous slope toward her cries, but stopped at Loric’s voice, “Stop! We’re on a talus slope. We need to get as much weight off of it as soon as possible or we’ll all go over! Slowly make your way to that the jut of land up ahead of us at the end of the loose rock. Eshta and Shalessa, I need your ropes tied together, but keep one end of it.”
As the rest of the group made it to the safe ground past the loose rock of the talus slope Loric was making his way down the talus slope to the edge of the drop-off. Reaching the edge he peered over and saw Solin. The only thing keeping her from plunging several thousand feet down was that her hand had gotten caught between two rocks. She looked up at him, as her blonde hair blew in the breeze freely, “Leave me.” Was all she said.
“Never!” Was all Loric said in return, before he climbed down over the edge onto some rocky projections. Loric got as close as he could before he leaned over and grabbed a hold of the girl’s coat, as her hand and arm were to bloody to get a good grip on. He lifted her carefully, until she was able to extend her other arm up to him. He took her arm and pulled her up the rest of the way and then holding her against him he made his way back up over the edge onto the slope of loose rock.
The rocks slipped out from underneath him and for a moment both he and Solin fell over the edge. Eshta and Shalessa were jerked off the bank onto the talus, their heels digging deep, with screams of panic the rest of the group piled on top of the rope trailing out behind the two girls being drug toward the edge. The slide toward the edge stopped and gathering themselves the girls began to pull and Loric soon appeared back over the edge with Solin held tightly against him. Within moments the two were safely past the loose rocks and on the solid ground that the rest of the group stood on.
Loric studied Solin’s arm and hand and came to the conclusion that they could be saved, but her fingers were shredded beyond repair. He glanced up at her and she met his gaze resolutely. She pulled a knife out and handed it to him the intenseness of her gaze betrayed by the quiver of her lips.
Loric took the knife and glanced at Kana, who nodding took it from him, as she unslung her pack. Loric moved around Solin and held her still, while a few of the other girls helped Kana.
Solin cried out grinding her teeth into the rope length she held in her mouth and breathed heavy for a moment before she passed out against Loric. Kana finished up with bandaging Solin’s hand and arm and Loric stood up and gently lifted Solin into his arms as the group started out again.
In the early afternoon they cleared the rise of a mountain ridge and the group stared in dismay at the endless stretch of peaks and ridges that lay out before them. Everyone stared in dismay, except for Loric. He was smiling.
Kana stared at him at a loss as to why he would be smiling. It was the first time she’d ever seen him smile and the effect was mesmerizing, but how could he be smiling at a time like this? All she saw when she looked out over the endless expanse of the tops of mountains was a death sentence. There was no way they could survive the cold to cross the barren mountain landscape in front of them.
“I know where I am now.” Loric said as if to himself.
Kana blinked and the group at large turned to look at Loric. Eshta put into words what everyone else was thinking, “You haven’t traveled over the mountains before?”
“No, I was only a boy, but I have been to this place before. Head for that dark rise of rock over there.” Loric said pointing off to the left.
Eshta looked mad and for a moment it looked like she was about to say something, but she held it back and started out for the dark rise of rock that Loric had indicated. They reached the dark sided cliff face towards dusk. It was so cold and this place unlike the good camps the group had stayed at before had no shelter from the wind.
Kana looked around and could see that the others looked as miserable and hopeless as she felt. Loric was the subject of many a dirty look, as he made his way through the group walking towards the dark wall, until he and Solin completely disappeared. There was a collective gasp from the group at large, who had surged to their feet at the disappearance of Loric and Solin. Loric’s voice called out for them to follow and immediately everyone felt better.
Kana stepped into the rock wall only to find herself in a cavern that was lit by light that came from a glowing ball of color on the ceiling. She had heard of such inventions from the time before, but she had never seen them. The group followed Loric, as he went progressively downward and they collectively realized with relief that they weren’t going to have to cross that impossible range of mountains, but rather they were going to go under it instead.
It was a welcome relief for the group, as they walked deeper into the mountain, that the air got progressively warmer. Kana could feel her feet and toes again, which allayed her morbid fear of having to have her feet cut off because of frostbite. After an hour they entered a great domed cavern, which was set up as a camp of sorts that even had wood ready to be fired within a ring of stones.
“When I was here before there were cave fish in that pool over there.” Loric said, as he started to light the fire.
There were fish and all of the group ate as many fried fish as they could hold and then collapsed about the fire enjoying the warmth and restful quality of the cavern room. Kana sat down close beside Loric, who was staring reflectively into the fire. He glanced over at her, when she sat down but then looked away back to the fire.
“How old were you when you came here before?” Kana asked inquisitively.
“Five or six, I’m not sure.”
“That was a long journey for someone so young to have undertaken.”
“My father believed in being prepared and he thought that as soon as I could walk and talk I was capable of bearing responsibility. This tunnel was meant as an escape route from Thunder Ridge to the Attorgron forest lands, but apparently it was never used, probably because of the firing of the forest that consumed it and all of its people.”
“What is Thunder Ridge?” Kana asked softly.
Loric was silent for a moment, “It was a castle that was built by my family long ago and it was a very beautiful place once. It was my home.”
There was a great sense of loss in his words and Kana reached out her hand and held his and squeezed it softly. He looked over at her and she said, “I’m sorry you lost your home.”
He nodded and she asked, “If it was destroyed why are we going there?”
Loric smiled a little, “A true fortresses’ strength lies in what is unseen, as opposed to what the eye can see.”
At her puzzled look he said, “You’ll see, but for now you need to get your rest. It’ll take us roughly three more days to get through the tunnel to the other side.” Instead of moving away Kana slipped down to her side and lay with her head on his thigh and after a while she fell asleep completely content to be where she was and he likewise.