Chapter Six
Lesson Learned
The last year of training
So which of the seven Kingdomer Nations are we headed for?” I asked, in hopes that Kuri would divulge the route he was taking. His answer shocked me.
“We’re not going to any of the seven Kingdomer Nations, as it is not yet time for that.”
“If we’re not visiting the seven Kingdomer Nations then where are we going?”
“Well, we just entered Ezon and after that Sarran followed by Portanisha and Orpital.”
“But those are all Nicationer Nations!”
“Precisely.”
I didn’t understand it.
Kuri glanced over to me, “Have you forgotten your own beginnings so quickly? Whether they are Nicationer or Kingdomer they are alike in that they all possess a soul. One is no better than the other in the eyes of El Elyon.”
“How can that be true? Kingdomers serve and reverence the name of the Most High, while Nicationers bow in reverence to any dark entity or simple aspect of nature!”
There was a sad note to Kuri’s tone as he said, “And yet I tell you the two are the same. In fact there are many Nicationers of higher regard in the eyes of El Elyon than those in the seven kingdoms. Many of those within the seven kingdoms say they worship El Elyon, but they serve another, while there are those among the Nicationer’s who have never heard of El Elyon. Tell me Benaiah, which is worse?”
“To say you know El Elyon and yet not serve Him,” I said slowly, as new comprehension dawned within me.
Kuri nodded and said, “Neither is good and both are in danger of Sheol, but those who have been given more chances to know and follow El Elyon’s ways will have more expected of them in return. Theirs is the greater guilt for not believing, while ignorance is the Nicationer’s defense against greater judgment than that received by the Kingdomer.”
“Why do we go at all, if things have deteriorated to such a great degree?” I asked.
Kuri glanced over at me, “I never said it was hopeless Benaiah. People can change. Whether they be Nicationer or Kingdomer they all have the ability to change and become something far better.”
As we rode along, I idly mused on why Kuri had chosen me to be his fellow messenger to a lost world. In a way I was, by blood, half of both worlds and yet Kuri saw me as just another man. Why should I be prejudiced against visiting the lands of my father’s heritage?
“What are we doing after we reach Orpital?” I asked.
Kuri seemed reflective for a moment and time stretched out. I didn’t think he was going to answer me when suddenly he spoke, “After our work is accomplished in Orpital we will head south into the Targon Mountains.”
“The Targon Mountains! I have heard that is a place of great evil where the monsters of the fallen Malachim have gone to live in great number!”
Kuri shrugged, “So? What are facing such beasts in open confrontation to you? Haven’t you been slaying such beasts for over the past year now?”
When he said it like that my objection to what he proposed didn’t make much sense. Nevertheless I said, “I’ve heard it's worse there.”
With a smile Kuri asked, “And when have you heard this Benaiah? You’ve been with me for two years now and we’ve seen no other in all that time.”
“In the towns where I grew up. It was a thing of common rumor,” I said defensively.
“Ahhh rumor. Rumors are tricky things, Benaiah, and most often not to be believed, as there is little truth to them.”
“You’re saying there are no monsters?”
“Not at all, rather I’m saying that it would be best for you to approach the unknown without preconceived ideas about it or else you will find yourself bound up by many fears. Every step you take in the mountains could be haunted by the fear of being discovered by a monster that may not even exist, while on the other hand you walk across a market yard of one of the seven kingdoms in blind trust that you are safe when really you are in the midst of a den of vipers more harmful than any monster. As you learn diplomacy over this coming year you will learn the value of approaching every situation you encounter with watchful caution, but also with a willingness for things to go right instead of wrong. If you do so you will not be motivated out of fear to engage in unnecessary actions as so many others are want to do. Instead, you will be the master of your own actions and able to chart the best journey forward regardless of the situation at hand.”
I shook my head as I stared out at the dusty miles that lay stretched out before us. Diplomacy and its accompanying attributes might not be such an easy lesson to learn after all.
It occurred to me then, as to something else that I had heard about the Targon Mountains. It was said that most of the remnants of the Yesathurim people lived there. Kuri’s people.
“Do you mean to rejoin with your people when we reach the Targon Mountains?” I asked, curious to see what reaction I would receive from Kuri.
Completely unfazed he said, “My people are scattered across all of Ayenathurim, but yes, there are many of my people held up in the mountains to the far south. I intend to gather them and lead them to a safer place. A place within the borders of my people’s ancestral land. The same place that we’ve just come from.”
I nodded, feeling somewhat more assured of a plan of action now.
“What then? What happens after your people are gathered in the valley of the Holy Mountains?”
“Enough with the questions for now Benaiah. Time will tell as to exactly how the future will unfold. Only El Elyon knows for sure when the end will occur. Now, are you ready for your reemergence into civilization?”
“What?” I asked, at a loss because of the sudden change of thought.
I glanced forward and saw the dim outline of a village taking shape before us on the plain. I swallowed nervously in sudden anxiety at re-exposure to society.
How had I fearlessly killed ferocious monsters in close combat but a few days ago to now feel fear at the unknown world of men?
It didn’t make sense and yet there was excitement to my fear as well. Idly I wondered if there were any pretty girls in the village ahead.
What if there were?
It was an uneasy thought and I viewed the approaching village with new trepidation.
*****
I dismounted and tied my horse off just as Kuri had done. Reluctantly I followed him into the poorly lit building constructed of mud and sticks that looked to be on the point of collapse.
As bad as this building was, it was still the best looking of all the shacks that the village had to offer. I found myself wanting to be free of this place and all of its squalor, but out of obedience to Kuri I sat down at the rickety table off to one side of the open room and mentally prepared myself to choke down whatever was put before me.
There were only a few others within the room and they stared at us suspiciously out of drunken eyes. I did not like the place at all and I certainly did not care for those present either.
My eyes found Kuri’s, only to see him looking at me with a censoring gaze. Immediately I felt that I had messed up somehow and Kuri, always the teacher, didn’t let me dwell in the question of my unknown trespass for long, “Do you think yourself so much above these people to look at them with such utter disdain and disregard?”
I ducked my eyes down to the table. To be truthful, I did think of myself as being better, but was I right to do that? Apparently not.
I looked back out at the room with a new regard for what I was seeing. Instead of seeing what I had the first time, I now saw beneath the drunken visages of the shacks’ patrons to their underlying weariness of spirit. It was as if everyone within the place could barely summon the strength to keep drawing in their next breath of air.
It seemed that the only solace anyone was finding came from the foul-smelling tankards of alcohol set before them. I felt pity for them now in place of the disgust that I had earlier. Something of my inner thoughts must’ve reached my face, because the hostility of the drunken onlookers seemed to dissipate away and one by one they glanced back to their tankards and took a swig as they resumed their usual business of hopelessly watching time go by.
This was diplomacy. My first lesson so to speak.
My attitude of dislike had been clearly evident to all within the room and I had made potential enemies of all of them, until I’d had the sense to really see them for what they were. They were simple, but tired out people with no hope of anything ever getting better.
Even as I now pitied them I found myself rather thankful to not be sharing their lot in life. What a change in perspective could make in terms of viewing a situation.
“Can I get you something to drink?”
The voice was feminine and youthful in quality and inwardly I girded myself against any sudden infatuation with a member of the opposite sex. My head turned to take in the speaker and I relaxed instantly.
No vision of temptation’s beckoning allure stood before me. It was just a girl of perhaps 10 or 12. She had a pretty face, but she was so thin that she appeared to be on the point of starvation.
Her features, stark as they were with the lack of food and meaningful care, echoed of something finer. What was it?
I glanced from her to Kuri and back again. She was a Yesathurim, or at least partly so. What was a girl of her ancestry doing in a place like this?
“We would like the best of what you can offer,” Kuri said, giving the girl his full attention.
The girl’s darker cast features blushed for a moment and she looked down before haltingly asking, “Can you pay?”
Kuri reached forward and pressed several coins into the girl’s dirty hands. Her eyes got huge and she quickly hurried off, I presume to get us the best that this place had to offer. That said, I wasn’t expecting much.
She came back quickly with two tankards that looked marginally cleaner than the others on display around the room, although the contents still stank of the same vile concoction of alcohol mixed with something that smelled like rotting fish that the others within the room had before them.
“I’ll just have water. Thanks anyway.” I said.
The girl snorted derisively at me and I glanced at her in indignation as I started to hand my tankard back to her. Kuri’s fingers closed about my wrist and the tankard stayed on the table.
“My friend has reconsidered and will be more than happy with what you have brought,” Kuri said smoothly and the girl, after sending me a condescending look, hurried off to what I presumed was the kitchen.
Kuri released my wrist and picking up his tankard he drank an unhealthy amount of the foul-smelling fluid. He shook his head at the taste of it for a moment before motioning to me to do the same.
I still had some stale water in a skin bladder out on my saddle that, although gamy to the taste, was, by comparison, a far better alternative to what the tankard before me contained. I shook my head and asked, “Why couldn’t I have had water instead of this?”
Kuri’s brow wrinkled good humoredly, “Have you ever had the tumbly grumblies?”
“Worms?” I asked, in verification of what he meant.
He nodded, still smiling.
“Goodness no!”
“Well, if you’d like to continue being unfed upon from within, you’ll drink the beer that’s set before you. The fermentation process of the alcohol kills off all the parasites and, while it doesn’t taste good, it’s the safest thing you’re going to find around here to drink.”
I stared at the tankard before me in revulsion. As revolting as it was though, it was less so than the thought of invaders twisting about in my guts feeding on me from within. I took a sip and about spewed it across the table.
The stuff was as vile as it had looked and smelled! I took a second sip and managed to hold it down and fight off the urge to vomit.
The girl was back with two steaming bowls in her hands. She sat them down with a flourish and I stared at the contents in the bowl before me. The contents of the bowl, for lack of a better description, looked like a grey mound of mud with lumpy twigs stuck here and there in it. No wonder the girl was so thin.
“Thank you,” Kuri said warmly, not at all put off by the sick looking porridge before us, which I wasn’t entirely sure was completely dead. Was that twiggish looking lump moving?
I glanced up to see the girl looking at me and I said, “Thank you.” I saw her smile for the first time and then she left us, presumably for us to enjoy our meal.
I looked back down to the bowl before me. I poked the one lump suspiciously, but there appeared to be no movement. My reintroduction to society wasn’t going well at all.
*****
With the meal finished, and feeling the worse for it, I rose to follow after Kuri, only he wasn’t headed for the door. He stopped and motioned me to go back out to the horses and obediently I did.
It was almost with eagerness that I slid into the saddle of the mare I rode. Eagerness to be gone from this dreary place. What was Kuri doing anyway?
Time stretched on and I was about to dismount and go back inside, when the doors of the shack opened and Kuri came out, only he wasn’t alone. To my consternation the servant girl was with him and she had a dirty sack hung over one thin shoulder.
No, it couldn’t be!
Kuri mounted up and then pulled the girl up behind him. He turned his mount to go and I couldn’t help the question that came from my lips, “Why?”
“Why not? Benaiah, when it is in your power to do good you should.”
“This is good?” I exclaimed.
Kuri gave me a censoring look and turned his horse onto the trail out of this little hole in the middle of nowhere. The girl turned her head back to me and, mildly shocked, I watched her stick her tongue out at me.
The brat turned forward and I turned my mount to follow along after Kuri. Kuri was making a terrible mistake in bringing this girl along.
*****
I don’t think I’d ever seen anyone eat so much before. Early in the day I’d ridden ahead and been fortunate to bring down a Roan deer with an arrow. I had it gutted and dressed out with a fire already made when Kuri had arrived with the girl.
All the while the meat had cooked over the fire the girl had stared at it in rapt focus. Hadn’t she ever had meat before?
As I watched her devour her third steak, I soberly acknowledged the possibility that perhaps she hadn’t. Whether she had or not she was certainly making up for lost time.
I’d had one steak so far and I’d been about to start into a second, but there wasn't much meat left as most of the usable deer meat I had packed in salt for the journey. I was still hungry, but it didn't seem right to eat more in the present circumstances. I laid the second piece of meat before the girl.
She stopped eating for a moment to glance up and stare at me intensely. She didn’t say anything and after a moment she went back to eating, but at a slower pace.
Why had I done that? I didn’t particularly care for the girl and from all appearances the feeling was mutual. She needed help though and it had been right to give her extra, as I had been far more fortunate than her as of late.
I guess I understood now why Kuri had done what he had in bringing the girl along. There was also the fact that she was of his people and he had already told me that he had plans of gathering them together.
The girl was likely going to still be a nuisance. A nuisance that was going to eat us out of provisions in short order. Where was she putting it all?
Kuri rose to leave the campsite, but before he left he leaned down to whisper into my ear, “After she gets some sleep I’m going to need you to help me cut her hair off. She has lice.” He left and I stared at the girl across the fire from me, who was eyeing me up suspiciously.
Oh this was just great. I had not signed up for this!
*****
“You’re not cutting my hair off!” The girl screamed, as she struggled against my hold on her. My hold was unrelenting though and about the most strenuous aspect of the whole endeavor was trying to keep back from the girl’s unkempt and greasy looking hair.
Kuri stopped the girl’s sharp head movements by grasping her face with both hands. He didn’t say anything. All he did was stare in that way he had that said he knew everything you felt and that he cared deeply for you. I’d been the recipient of that stare many times over the past two years.
The girl resisted the warm current of Kuri’s gaze for only a moment before her body began to shake in a series of deep sobs. I found myself hurting for her, because of the empty forlorn quality of her cries.
Kuri’s words were the soul of comfort, “There is no shame in this. Your hair will grow back and you will be even more beautiful than before. Now are you ready?”
Slowly the girl nodded and I felt a pulse of emotion course through me. The girl had courage. I admired that.
Kuri brought out a sharp knife and began to gently cut all the girl’s hair away. It was a humbling experience, as the girl I held seemed to sink within herself with the loss of more and more of her hair. Finally it was over and I let her go.
She instantly pulled away and headed down a path towards some boulders nearby that offered concealment. I watched her disappear from view, but I could still hear her crying. I hated the sound of that. It affected me like nothing else ever had.
I had no experience with women and every moment with even just this girl was a lesson on what the realm of being female was about. It was nothing for a man to be bald in life, but for her…… well, it was everything.
It made sense to me. It shouldn’t have, but it did. I found myself wanting to help her in some way, but to her I was the enemy.
I looked around the desert environment, at a loss as to what to do. It was hot and the sun was at full strength. Immediately I thought of the newly uncovered skin unused to the rays of the sun.
I went to my saddlebag and opened it, taking out my one and only change of clothing, which also happened to be my favorite shirt. It didn’t matter.
Unmercifully I ripped it up and retied the pieces of it together in a different fashion. Satisfied I approached the nest of boulders. The girl immediately drew back from me, but I pressed forward and backed her up against a boulder. Without saying anything by way of explanation, I reached out with the torn up shirt and began to wrap the makeshift turban around her head in the way that I’d seen Robanic tribesmen do.
She held still until I was done and perhaps the look in her eyes was a little less hostile. “What’s your name?” I asked.
“Mayrin.”
“Well Mayrin, we’ll be moving out in a little bit. It’s probably best for you to ride double on my horse for a while so we don’t tire the other one out too much. It’s cooler here in the boulders than out in the open, so stay here and I’ll be back when it’s time to leave.”
I turned to go, but stopped as she husked out emotionally, “You didn’t want me to come along with you and your friend. Why are you being nice?”
I had to think about it for a moment and when I spoke it was as if I was experiencing the reality of the truth that she was hearing as it registered for the first time within my own consciousness, “I was like you once. Alone, afraid and without any hope of things ever getting better. Things did get better and I……”
“You what?” she asked.
I looked back to her and finished my thought, “I hope things get better for you too.”
I watched her nod and then look down as if in contemplation of something. I left her to be alone and went to check up on the old mare. Kuri was there, already tending to his even worse looking mount. I didn’t say anything, but I kept my back to him.
“That was thoughtful of you to do,” came Kuri’s voice from over my shoulder.
I grunted in reply.
“Do you think I should have left her back there?”
I stopped fiddling with the saddle and stared vacantly over it at the distant horizon for a moment.
“No,” I finally admitted.
Kuri’s hand came down to squeeze warmly upon my shoulder, “Sometimes doing the right thing in life can seem to bring with it the burden of something unwanted, but it is often the case, in my experience, that the burden of the present is the joy of tomorrow.” Kuri moved off with his horse and was soon mounted and back on the trail.
Was that what I had been to start out with? A burden?
Looking to Kuri I once again thanked El Elyon for bringing him into my life when he had. The girl was beside me and I lifted her up to the spot behind the saddle that I had made for her, only to then realize it would’ve been simpler for me to mount first and then pull her up behind me. There was always something new to learn.