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The nation Chapter 78
From a spot down wind of the herd, a predator stalked unseen towards the watering hole. He was not picky, but he was shrewd, shrewd in a way that only a powerful predator could be, he used the distraction of the two-legs to get closer than he would have been able to get normally. The sleek black fur of this male leopard was not a detriment to him in the tall green grass, he moved like a shadow and looked like nothing out of the ordinary, just a shadow blowing across the grass. The leopard remained downwind, stalking his way towards the watering hole. He was a solitary hunter, he has a family; a mate, and three cubs. He was not the only hunter with responsibilities, other big cats were watching this herd to. A band of coyotes, too small to take down a buffalo, waited for the leftovers. A pride of female lions crouched low in the grass, they were upwind from the herd, and the buffalo had their scent, blown to them on the winds.Oblivious to the danger lurking around them, the caravan bu
The nation Chapter 79
“He must see something.”“Or smell something.” Said the second man.He had seen the herd and knew that there were cats watching them, he stayed with the traveler’s. Nothing happened as they began to pass the herd, the caravan made a few of the mighty animals raise their heads but garnered no further attention, it was a rather large herd and they had little to fear from the two-legs. Then time slowed for him, he sensed but did not see something that set the herd off. The huge and heavy buffalo raged from an attack by a solitary male leopard, the cat took down an adolescent near the watering hole. The one dog felt each moment as the buffalo scattered in every direction, a pride of female lions were flanking the buffalo before the leopard’s successful kill ignited the large animals. The huntresses were cautious and opportunistic as the herd trampled everything in their path. He didn’t smell the coyotes until they were in with the caravan grabbing some small dogs and harassing the people
The nation Chapter 80
The closer she got to the center of Ondu the more she stood out. She was a disheveled mess to the people of Ondu, but in the wild she fit right in, she was more a part of the wild now than she was part of Ondu. She could hear more people talking now, they talked about whatever was important to them until they saw her, every person that saw her either stared or turned their conversation to who this person was. Her eyes remained hidden, for now. Her tension level soared as she could see the meeting house right in front of her. She remembered being young with her mother, she remembered only the good memories and her eyes began to swim. She felt a connection here that she had repressed over the last three years, it was why she never spent too much time away from here, she always came back to check on the village. She never dreamt of being back here, standing so close to the meeting house where she laughed with her mother and Davyn.“Rollins.” A startled Harden spoke.She did not react at
The nation Chapter 81
“Father, what in Utoo’s name was that about? Dad, are you ok? Why did you push me down?” It was Briaunna and as she watched, her father’s eyes rolled back into his head and he fell flat on his back, unconscious. The impact with the ground was a solid thump, like how a cut tree would sound when it hit the ground.A proud and majestic eagle once flew over it, now the mountain range to the east unveiled itself to the caravan. It was always so far off that The People never gave it much thought, the group heading east were looking at it every day, it loomed large in their future as well as in their field of view. The slow pace that they were moving at disguised how large the mountains were, the range grew bigger with each passing day, the traveler’s saw it every day, all day. They should have been more impressed by the scope and scale of this mountain, but they weren’t because they had no knowledge of the scale of it. The mountain range they saw everyday was large, they knew they would see
The nation Chapter 82
“This child Rog, this child.” Lilly held the baby out in front of her, away from her chest, “it only wants to eat. I have no milk; did you think about that? No, you didn’t. Did you think to ask me about this child? No, you didn’t...”“Lilly,” Rognvald tried to butt in.“Don’t Lilly me,” Rognvald thought, who else would I Lilly? The thought put a smile on his face. “Why do you have a smile on your face?” Lilly was holding a naked, squirming, baby boy and giving her husband the stink eye.“I’ll send for Kaya.” Rog left his wife’s presence as fast as he dare.After two weeks of traveling with her cart and horses, Kaya was sore, she was tired of the slow monotony that was the caravan. They would roll along the prairies, climb the rolling hills, and went through the woods that dotted the landscape. The first few nights it was just Kaya, her cart, and the two horses: Percy and Gerard. She slept under the cart each night; her two horses were lashed to the cart for the nights rest. Kaya drape
The nation Chapter 83
“Kaya, this child is your responsibility now, hello,” Rognvald waved a hand at the dumbstruck girl, “do you understand?”Nothing could bring her out of her trance, almost nothing. “Thank you Kaya, if you need anything please ask Erek.” Rognvald was ushering Kaya out of the tent.The night air slapped at Kaya’s legs, chilly tentacles embraced her exposed skin, still she looked at the child in her arms. He had closed those deep brown eyes and softly slept as she held him. Kaya’s feet began to move, without her conscious direction they took her back to her cart. The chill made her skin react with goose flesh, a rustling went unheard from the west, and the wind blew gently between her legs. Kaya looked to the sky on her walk back to her bed, a single light streaked across the sky and she thought about the night she slept out under the stars with Callum, they were headed to Davyn’s Ah-yeez and her parents were still alive. She said a mental prayer for her mother and father and wished for
The nation Chapter 84
The midwife was amiable and cordial with Kaya, if not a little annoyed. KT went inside and let the midwife breastfeed the baby. While she sat watching what would have been a typical scene for all new mothers, she wondered about her mother. Shortly after sitting down in the midwifes tent, Kaya fell asleep, she had been doing all she could to care for her cart and all of the belongings that it carried. She had her meager belongings as well as other people’s things to, every bit of available space was used to carry the necessities. Every cart, horse, and persons back would carry supplies for the journey. Kaya’s cart was no different, any space that she didn’t use was filled with food, water, or something needed to build a new settlement. Even her horse team was a pain sometimes, especially old Percy, but Gerard kept KT on her toes to, one would wander off and the other would follow or go in the completely opposite direction. When they weren’t pulling the cart Kaya would unharness one at
The nation Chapter 85
Kaya walked right passed the male leopard laying in the grass, he didn’t pounce when she was within a half dozen meters of where he lay, instead he followed her to the stream. Kaya kept walking angrily away from the safety of the caravan, she wanted to walk or to run anywhere but here. She was so far from home, so far from her normal life, the life she had when her parents were still alive. She had been through so much in such a short period of time, now she was in charge of two horses, a cart filled with supplies, and Rognvald was trying to force her to care for the baby. So much had changed, she had grown older but she didn’t feel like an adult, she felt cheated out of the last few years of her childhood. The leopard stalked her from behind, while Rollins crept parallel to the both of them. At the stream Kaya stopped, she bent down into a crouch and began to pull out the grass on its banks. She stayed like that for a while, pulling the grass and throwing it into the water. Her mind
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- The nation
Chapter 141
“Alright,” Rognvald said, “that was a good walk.” He pulled Lilly towards his chambers, she wanted to resist but she was ready for him, her body waited excitedly.Oren walked over to the wailing wife of Hastiin, he knelt down and put his fingers in the cooling blood on the ground, he never looked at the woman. Her wails fell on his deaf ears, as well as the rest of the caravan’s, after the commotion was over the people simply went about their business. Oren’s fingers felt the stickiness of the cooling blood, he rubbed them together feeling its viscosity. The urge to taste the man’s blood was too strong for Oren to resist, it tasted of iron and a touch of salt, he swirled the taste around his tongue to reach every taste bud. He didn’t put his whole finger into his mouth, just the tips touched his tongue, his eyes lit with some knowledge he didn’t understand. It gave him ideas, thoughts on how to do what he was born to do, rule. He thought about how to kill his father, for he knew that
- The nation
Chapter 140
Thewolf from the trees saw the one it wanted, it ran as fast as he could, but a two-leg gave his stealth away. He did not stop, he had to kill now, there would be no other opportunity. When the woman’s words registered in everyone else’s mind, they turned to see the wolf coming for them, they had all heard of the animal attacks but they had never been a part of one. Lilly and Claudia froze, Oren waited to see who would get eaten, Oscar and Hastiin looked for an out. The wolf leapt up and into the air, the man he landed on was bitten cleanly in the throat, the sound of his wind pipe being torn out was sickening. The wolf had torn out the wrong throat, Hastiin lay bleeding from a throat the was not whole anymore, a gasping whistling sound came from his opened neck wound, the man’s hands felt the deadly damage. The wolf looked quickly around, there was the one he needed to kill, the wolf moved so fast. Rognvald’s smile never once faded, the wolf charged at him, he stood, waiting.The wolf
- The nation
Chapter 139
“Thank you mother.” Said Talia.“Thank you as well,” Kaya’s eye’s pleaded for something, some miracle to save her friend. “Leave him here with me,” Sooleeaway said, she held an open palm towards Bram, “Talia will stay and help with his care. Let me look at you child.” But the healer paused before inspecting Kaya.Kaya did not flinch when Sooleeaway reached towards her face, she stood and respected the older woman, even after she was referred to as a child. Kaya’s younger self would have tried to correct the older woman, there by reaffirming her status as a child, on this day she merely stood and waited for the healer to look her over.“Pardon me,” said Sooleeaway, “you are grown now, Kaya Tasso Flistedt. You have changed, you are a child no more.” The healer spoke no more.Sooleeaway inspected Kaya, she found cuts healed, bruises, blisters, and a nearly mended heart. The heart was not spoken of, but her physical injuries were treated. Kaya left Talia with Bram, there was nothing for
- The nation
Chapter 138
“We have to get him to the bend in the river.” Talia told Kaya.“Can he travel?”“He will have to, we need to settle before the winter and Bram needs to heal, the best thing for all of us is to get to the bend.”Kaya knew Talia was right, she felt the urge to settle for winter the same as Talia did, Bram was a concern and she had no idea if he would make it. He remained unconscious fighting for his life.“I feel it to,” said Kaya, “we should go this morning, will you let everyone know that we are leaving?”“Of course.”“I’ll stay with Bram until you get back, then I’ll harness old Percy and we can get going before noon.”When Talia left Bram’s tent, Kaya looked at her friend, the burly man was lying on a buffalo skin blanket, sleeping fitfully. She watched his breathing, it was still labored and shallow, Talia said the venom attacked the victims muscles, making it hard to move or breathe. Kaya didn’t want to remember Bram as he was now, she wanted to remember him like he was in Ondu,
- The nation
Chapter 137
The force like no other was the will of the Land, it used the storm to discourage the travelers from continuing any further, the Land was exasperated by the nerve of these humans. The storm surged over the long butte, it tried to retain the water like the force instructed, but it began to rain while crossing the long butte. The water washed away all of the small animals on the ground, the animals in the trees did not fare much better, some fell and were also washed away. Then the storm saw its target, it was aimed for the humans on the ground, the Land did not like these humans, they were too far from home. The purple cloud roared with thunder and rained heavily on its course towards the humans. Everyone in the caravan raced to find the best shelter they could, they scrambled into the trees because there was nowhere else to go. The Land offered them no shelter, nothing strong and stable, some people sat under there carts, some went into the trees, others found a nook they could climb
- The nation
Chapter 136
Kaya ran after the girl, she was faster than Kaya and as she watched, Lisbet sped away towards the edge of the desert. Who was bit, she thought, who was bit that would make Talia want me? That thought led her mind to the worst possible scenarios. Was it Rollins? Or Erek? The last thought chilled her, what if it was Arun? Kaya ran as fast as she could after Lisbet. As she ran thunder echoed across the plateau, she turned her head towards the long butte, what she saw made her glad she was not in the north with the caravan. A humongous purple cloud rolled over the buttes flat top, it drug rain with it, Kaya could see the sheets of water pouring down as the titanic cloud crested the edge of the butte. So much water, she thought as she ran towards death.“Talia,” Kaya was out of breath by the time she reached the healer. Two men were carrying a third on a hastily crafted stretcher, “who was bitten?”No sooner than those words left her mouth she saw who it was, her hand went to her mouth.“
- The nation
Chapter 135
The horses pulled carts and wagons like they had for the last three years, they were thralls to these travelers now, the animals knew nothing of the Path of Life. All the animals knew was the cycle of life, and how nature gives and takes, without mercy. Now they were lashed to these heavy carts, they were penned up while not moving, something they never experienced before. Normally they were free to roam and came back to The People willingly, now they would most likely bolt at the first chance, a few had and the horses that were left had to work harder. It was miserable work but they endured, they pulled the future of the Land towards a place where a city will be built, it won’t be the one in Rognvald’s dreams, it will be tainted and immoral. These horses would not see the wickedly beautiful city of lust and greed, they would be spared those memories.The caravan stopped at a few sites that were indeed good places to settle, each time Rognvald baulked, he would not stop until he reach
- The nation
Chapter 134
“Only a few more days Percy, a few more days, then we can live for a while by the bend in the river.” She rubbed his cheek; he made no sounds only looked back at her and waved his tail.Over the last three weeks Kaya had worked at putting closure to that part of her life where her parents lived. She had their memories now and no one could remove those, she came to terms with their deaths, it helped that she knew what happened to them. When Erek told her what he heard his father say she was angry and hurt but that to was fading, she was not as angry with the big man now, his father was another story, Kaya prayed that she would never see Rognvald again. Kaya finished unhooking the horses from her cart, normally Percy would buck around for a few minutes before relaxing into grazing not today though, Gerard went right to grazing, Percy joined him without any fuss. How things change, thought Kaya, she watched the two horses feeding as most of the weight from her grief floated away on the e
- The nation
Chapter 133
Kaya’s hair had grown back over the last three years of travel, it reached down to the middle of her back now, she kept it braided in one long braid while traveling. The braid reminded her of her mother, of the time they shared together, just the two of them. It wasn’t that they had something that was better than anyone else’s mother daughter relationship, it was simply there personal relationship that Kaya remembered. When her father was hard at work, making one of his fanciful pieces of pottery, or out making deliveries, they would be together. They lived in the back of the pottery shop that had been in Tombold’s family for generations, it was one of the more permanent looking structures in Ondu, having poles that had been sunk into the ground over two hundred years ago. The poles in the center of the shop were so round that Kaya couldn’t reach all the way around them until she was twelve. The shop always had a fire going, whether in the kiln or not, the friendly smell of wood burni
