Prologue Previous Chapter

Shara

She had never travelled so far, so fast in her whole life. But every time she paused, took a breath, gobbled down a bite of food, she imagined she could hear, ever so faintly in the distance, the shrieks of pain.

It’s just birds. It must be just birds.

But in her heart, she knew that wasn’t true. And so she found the strength to keep going, stumbling up and down hillsides, wading through icy streams, plodding across grassy valleys. No one spoke, no one argued, no one complained.

Get as far away as possible.

It was well past dark before they couldn’t hear the screams any longer, before the driving fear slackened, and they all collapsed. No one set a watch… What could be worse than Jiant?

=-=

She gasped awake, images of a wolf lunging at her face burned into her mind.

“Don’t flash.. No golden flash.” she begged herself, the spirits, the stars, the earth, anyone who would listen.

The dream receded into the morning light.

Relief swept through her, and she sighed, deeply.

There was a grunting noise from not too far away. She sat up, and gasped. Overnight a blanket of fog had settled down over the valley, hiding the mountains from view. A shadowy, indistinct shape was stabbing with a spear.

For a moment, her heart quivered, searching for the enemy. Grabbing her spear, she padded quietly through the sleeping bundles. As she approached, the shadowy figure became a tall and muscular young man. Barak.

He was standing in the middle of a circle of grass, stabbing with his spear, whirling, blocking, punching, grunting.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

He started, jumping slightly, spinning around, spear in mid thrust. “Oh.. it’s you.” He said.

Shara fought to keep her temper in check. “What are you doing?” She asked again.

Barak frowned. “I was outmatched by the Jiant-men. Not just in height,” He added, seeing the question growing in her eyes. “But also in speed and accuracy.” He turned, and started thrusting the spear at the ground, and in a moment she realized he was targeting one blade of grass over, and over again. “If we meet them again, I want to be ready.”

As annoying as he was, he had a point. “Can I help?” She asked.

With a soft shout, Barak swung his spear at her. Instinctively, she backed away.

“No, no. Don’t step off of the grass.” He chided. She looked down. Sure enough.

The spear was swinging at her again, and she started to step back, and with effort held her ground instead, bring up her spear to block, flinching.

Barak brought his spear down mid swing, and tapped it lightly against her thigh. “Don’t flinch. Stay ready. I could have sliced open your leg if I had wanted.”

She sighed, heavily. “Okay”, and shifted herself into a fighting stance.

He swung at her again, but this time she was prepared, and swung her spear to block. The wooden shafts came together with a fine crack. He pulled away and swung again, and again as she blocked each attack.

And then he thrust the spear straight at her face. She shrieked, and jerked her head back. “Don’t forget the thrust.” He panted. “You have to defend against that too.”

“You could have put my eye out!”

“No matter, it would probably grow back.”

She stared at him. What an odd thing to say. “What?”

“Look at my back. Remember the claws?” he turned, lifting his shirt and exposing his back.

No scars.

“But those were deep wounds! They can’t have healed in just…” she mentally counted. “Ten days!”

He frowned, and chewed on his lip. “Do you see the scars?” he demanded, sounding a little exasperated. “They were deep wounds, and they did heal.”

She didn’t know what to say. This was very hard to believe. “Armis said you were lucky to be alive…”

“Armis? Armis is the one that should be dead.” Barak laughed. “The back of his head was smashed. Oola still has his blood smeared all over the front of her shirt. But he survived, walked for almost a full day and night, and barely has even a headache.”

“You’re right.” Shara said. “What is happening?”

“Guardian Mountain.” Barak said, flatly. “Something changed us.”

Shara blinked. “What about Kito’s hand.”

Barak shrugged. “I don’t know. Are you going to fight with me again?”

She paused, and took stock. Overall, she felt pretty good – breathing heavily, but her muscles were loose and strong. “Okay.”

He smiled, just a little. “Attack me.”

She shoved away the hesitation and swung her spear as fast as she could. He laughed, and danced away. “Stay on the grass.” she said, half-mockingly.

He nodded, and stepped forward. “Again.”

Try as she might, she couldn’t tag him. He’s very fast. Maybe a double, left, and then jab right.

“What are you guys doing?” A younger voice approached from behind.

She paused, mid swing, concentration ruined. The sun was up now, a dull yellow circle shining weakly through the fog.

Din and Pak appeared out of the mist.

“We’re practice fighting.” She said.

Barak lowered his spear. “Do you want to join us?”

“Sure.” the two boys said, in unison.

Thanks for asking me, Barak.

“Get your spears.. oh, you have them already. Okay. Din, you fight with me, Pak, fight with Shara.”

Pak approached her, trembling.

She smiled, trying to radiate encouragement. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

“The first thing to do is raise your spear. No, like this…”

Lam, Tohm and Mika soon joined them, and then Oola, and Armis. If he had a headache, he didn’t show any signs of it. And Oola did have a large bloodstain on the front of her clothes.

After a time, she noticed Kito and Reya perched on a nearby boulder, watching them. She started to invite them in, but then stopped. Reya is too pregnant, and Kito… Best not to embarrass them.

Finally, her breath ragged, muscles screaming, she raised a hand. “Enough. I need to rest.”

Armis nodded from nearby. “Yes, let’s eat and then get moving.” He looked up. “The fog won’t last much longer.

The others lowered their weapons, and walked back to their bedrolls.

Except for Barak. He fought on, sparring with the empty air.

Oola came over to her. “Does he have to resist everything that Armis says?” She murmured.

Shara sighed, and walked over to Reya. Kito was helping her down off of the boulder with his left hand. His right, she noted, was still gone. Glancng back at Barak for a moment, she looked at Reya. “Why does he have to be so difficult?”

Reya said nothing, staring at her for a moment. Shara could see anger smeared all over her face, before she turned and walked quickly away.

Shara watched her for a moment, turning back to Kito with a questioning look.

He shrugged. “She is mad that you didn’t invite her to fight with you guys. And then she said something like ‘they know I’m just a fat buffalo.’”

Shara felt a sickening pit open up in her chest. Not again!

“I didn’t want to embarrass her…”

He shrugged again. “You were getting really fast by the end.”

“Thank you.” She smiled. “It was fun. Let’s get ready to go.”

He grabbed her shoulder. “No.. I mean it. Really fast. I’ve never seen anyone swing a spear as quickly as you all did.”

Something changed us.

“Huh. I hadn’t noticed.”

They locked eyes for a moment, and then Kito shrugged again. “Let’s get moving.”

As she walked away, she could hear Barak grunting in the background, continuing his practice.

=-=

That night, she stayed back while the others fought.

If anything, Kito had understated the blurry intensity of the combat. The fighters strove with each other, spears singing in the night, dancing and twirling, almost too fast to follow, the clashing of spears like the sound of small rocks tumbling down a rocky hillside.

But there were other matters to attend to. “Reya… I–”

“Save it.” Reya snapped. “Just leave me alone.”

“Shara.” Oola called. “Come join us.”

Grateful for the excuse, she backed away, hands fluttering helplessly.

As she approached Oola, however, a new fear took over. All around her, the clan fought, dizzyingly fast. I can’t move like this. I’m too slow.

“Defend.” cried Oola, who swung at her. Raising her spear, Shara blocked and shifted left to prepare for the next strike. Now that she was in the middle of it, Oola didn’t seem that fast after all.

Glancing around the fighting grounds, neither, apparently, was anyone else – everyone was moving at normal speed.

Or did I just speed up?

For some reason, Barak’s words haunted her.

“Something changed us.”

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Saturday, May 27th, 2006 at 5:07 pm.
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