Death

Lar Torvis was high in the Sky when I crested the ridge and my gaze took in the scene below me.

It was like nothing I had ever seen before. Like nothing I had seen before outside my Father's wagon.

The stripped white body of Oni lay on the ground in Lar Torvis. Juu was no where to be seen yet. But two of the boys were tied to a couple of the wagon wheels. The wagon had been tipped over and was now burnt to a crisp. The boys' charred bodies still upon the wheels. How did I know it was the boys? I knew no one would do such to girls. It just wasn't done. I began working my way low around the area. Someone had made a fire break around the wagon. Now as far as I knew only a Tuchuk would do that. Only a Tuchuk would value the grass even in such a situation. It was something to store away in my thoughts for later. I found where the others had left their kaiila. There had been eight kaiila here at one point. Now there were none. Had the three kaiila run? I did not have time to think about it now as I continued to scout around the wagon. It was then I found Juu. He had put up quite a fight. His body showed the ahns of fighting. Wounds tied off with scraps of cloth. The end had been harsh and swift. I bent to lift his lids to open them to the Sky before I moved passed him. In the grass I found another boy. An arrow deep through the back of his neck. Further on I found Juu's first son. Here I paused for the boy was staked out and ants covered his small body. A deep hole was opened in his belly, someone had run him through. I came closer and then I felt the bile rise in my throat for his eyes opened and he looked at me.

His lips were cracked and bleeding. He couldn't talk. I slid closer and placed my knee beneath his head as I cut through his bindings and the bota I had slung over my shoulder was opened and cool water trickled over his lips into his mouth. The look he gave me I will carry to my dying day. I don't know if you have ever seen someone with their guts torn open. You live sometimes a long time. A long agonizing time. There was no help for him here. He was almost gone as it was. He knew it ... I knew it. I spoke then and I prayed to the Sky he heard me. "I name you Juu,after your Father." I cradled him in my arm and he seemed so much smaller than the hunter's first son that had set out on this trek to earn his name ... I would not break a bone, I would not damage his heart or his brain ... he would need these things in the afterlife ... instead I cupped my hand over his mouth and nose and he opened his eyes wide to the Sky. He barely jerked at all in my arms as he passed. Another ahn in the Lar Torvis, with the ants and the loss of blood and he would have been gone. I have never had a look of gratitude for killing someone. It will haunt me.

I worked my way in towards the still smoldering wagon now. Oni. She had put up quite a fight herself. It was obvious she had refused to submit, choosing death over slavery. Her baby son was clutched in her arms and he did not breathe. I found the girls' clothes. the beads taken from their hair. They would be on their way to be sold as slaves. Naked and chained. It was the way of the land in which I lived. But what of Ani? I steeled myself to look at the wagon, breaking pieces apart with my boot so that I could attempt to see within. I saw nothing that appeared to be her body though it was hard to tell with all the ash.

I took several more drinks of water. Resting for a moment and listening. There was only the wind in the grass and a bird here or there. It would not be long though before the smell of death began to attract scavengers. I started then at the wagon, and I worked my way outward in slow spiraling circles. Intent now on finding Ani.

She had to be here, dead or alive.