Grief

Lightning cracked open the darkening horizon, thunder rolling and growling upon the mountaintops. Anyone caught outside was prey to mudslides and rogue falling pines; a sure way to meet your end.

The sound of the rain rushing down the slopes of the valley was a dull roar, the rocks, tree trunks, and hills muffling the noise. From here the water gently wound down to a wide, flat tundra that expanded over most of the valley floor, exposing rocky outcrops and a wide lake that flipped and twisted and raged against its shores.

Deep in caves littering the mountain faces of the southern edge of the valley were several groups of disheveled warriors, their bodies beaten and battered and covered in fresh cuts and bruises from a recent battle. Here in the chilly shade of the caves, they not only took shelter from the raging storm outside but from the heavy memories of the end of an era.

In one of the smaller caves, a group of six young men shared what food they had amongst themselves, laughing and sharing stories; stories their fathers passed down from the time of the Blood Wars, a time of bloodshed that blanketed the valley in horror and misery, a time when brother fought brother. A time when little border disputes among rival clans were the least of their worries.

“Can you believe it’s been ten sun-cycles since the war ended? I was just a boy then,” one of the warriors spoke up, his voice trailing off as he looked out of the cave mouth and into the storm.

“Yeah,” another replied, chewing on a tough piece of stale bread. “Those were the days when our mothers were forced from our sides to fight.”

“Imagine that, a woman fighting,” another said, pausing to laugh loudly. “Ridiculous!”

“Well, you guys have heard the stories right?” A younger warrior who was barely more than 16 sun-cycles said. “The ones about the woman who went traitor, but then ended up winning the war for us?"

The man who had commented on women fighting frowned, folding his scar-covered arms. “Pfft. She didn’t win the war for us-”

“They said she was like seven warriors in one!” The boy interrupted, his dark brown eyes glowing. “She was ferocious, able to take on multiple men at one time!”

“Yeah right,” the man replied once more, his frown deepening on his red-brown skin. “No one can take on that many opponents at a time. What bullshit.”

“But it’s true!” The boy persisted. “My father was there at the Battle of Enchanted Rock when the war was won. He saw her…oh, what was her name again?”

“Doesn’t matter. The war is over,” said the man. “She’s nothing now, legend or not.”

At that moment, two more disheveled warriors came through the entrance to the cave, the rain soaking their animal pelts and leather armor. Their eyes were slightly closed in relief as they walked onto the dry stone.

One of them, another young boy covered in a long dark cloak, removed himself from his companion and flopped onto the ground at the entrance, his shoulders rising and falling with great effort.

“Hey, it's Bjorn,” the boy with the brown eyes said, his eyes filling with curiosity as the two filed in. “You guys just came from Eero’s camp, didn’t you? Anything new to report?”

The one recognized as Bjorn spoke first. “Hey, Kunan. Yeah, we got a new order. Eero has issued a valley-wide hunt. He’s put a bounty on the traitor, Hadiya," he said, his small stature and bright blonde hair dripping with rainwater.

“Hadiya! That was her name,” Kunan exclaimed. “So cool!”

“Shut it, Kunan,” one of his comrades muttered.

“You got to be kidding me. Even the Tribe leader has gone insane,” the man with the red-brown skin said with annoyance. “Hadiya is just a legend. She’s not real.”

“Eero was in the Blood Wars, Gunnar.” Kunan reminded him. “You would think he would know whether or not she existed.”

“Yeah, but why now? Why wait ten sun-cycles after the war is already over to hunt this Hadiya, down?” Gunnar replied.

Bjorn shrugged, his blue eyes tired and weary. He shuffled in place, adjusting the shield on his back. “I heard a rumor about warriors being cut down in their camps, their throats sliced wide open...could it be that Hadiya is getting revenge for Nathaniel’s death? I heard she blames Eero for it.”

“Nathaniel? As in the formal general of the clans Nathaniel?” Gunnar asked softly as if hardly believing his ears.

“Yeah. That’s him,” Bjorn confirmed.

“Humor me,” Gunnar spoke then, one hand going up to hold his chin. “Why does she blame Eero for Nathaniel’s death?”

Bjorn shrugged. "All I know is rumors, Gunnar." He then turned to Kunan, looking expectant. "What about you? Do you know?"

Kunan thought for a moment before responding. “I think it was because Eero was the one who chose to fight at Enchanted Rock even though Hadiya told him over and over again that because of the location our side would suffer heavy casualties. Since Nathaniel was one of those casualties…”

“Ah. Well, we did lose more men that day than at any other battlefront," Bjorn said.

“Yeah but we won, didn’t we?” Kunan asked hesitantly.

“Yes,” Gunnar said. “The lives that we lost mean nothing compared to the outcome. We won in the end. That's all that matters.”

Another voice, a new voice, joined in then, its tones filled with such a deep and overwhelming coldness and authority that it froze all other conversation in its tracks.

“Those lives…meant nothing?”

The boy with the dark cloak who had sat at the cave entrance rose to his feet, his shadow silhouetted against the mouth of the cave. For a few breathless moments in the tense atmosphere, the sound of the rain slapping against the rock outside was the only response to his heavy question.

Gunnar laughed then, though his lips tilted into a slight grimace of unease. “Well look here lads, the mute has spoken.”

The other men in the cave joined in with his laughter. Kunan, however, was silent.

"Tyr?" Bjorn stepped forward, his gaze concerned. "It's alright. These guys are okay. Don't take them too seriously."

The lightning outside exploded then, pouring an intense white light into the cave, finally giving definition and color to the ‘mute’ Tyr who also slipped off the hood of his cloak.

But he was no boy.

It was a woman, her skin a rich, impossibly dark auburn, the shadows on her skin only broken up by the many pale scars that crossed her forearms and legs and face. She was completely bald, her head clean-shaven. Her clothing was the same as the other warriors in the cave, except at her hip she did not carry a sword. Instead, it was a short pale staff with carvings of strange flying beasts and flaming irises decorating its surface.

But what made her appearance stand out was her bi-colored eyes. They were polar opposites in appearance; flaming amber and watery blue warring for dominance. At that moment, they did not express anything more than a calm expectation.

The men took in a collective breath. The way she stood on the balls of her feet, the way her hand never strayed too far from her staff, and the way she scanned the room like a hawk seeking out a helpless rabbit…every man there could tell she was a survivor of the Blood Wars.

Bjorn jerked backward, his expression shocked.

“Oh, uh, I’m very sorry. I meant no harm by that,” Gunnar said, his eyes wide and apprehensive.

The woman named Tyr sniffed, the side of her mouth twitching slightly. “Tell me, again, why those lives meant nothing,” she said, ignoring his fumbling apology.

Gunnar swallowed thickly, looking to either side of him, hoping for some backup from his comrades, but there was none.

“Well…without their lives sacrificed for the greater good, we all wouldn’t be standing here right now under the protection of the tribe."

“You think you are protected?” Tyr asked, her voice scratching in the surrounding warrior’s ears. “Neither the Tribe nor its leader Eero could give a shit about any of you. You are just pawns; tiny, insignificant pieces in a giant game between two opposing sides. You can be easily sacrificed to a ‘greater good’ without a second thought.”

Kunan slowly stood, goosebumps lining his flesh. “Who…who are you?”

The woman’s hand went down to grip the top of her staff, her thumb pushing up on the end of it, revealing that the staff hid a long, thick black blade that looked more like a raw chunk of obsidian than steel.

“At the moment, I am one of the opposing sides,” she answered calmly.

Gunnar palmed his broadsword, unsheathing it and pointing the end at the woman in a hasty manner. “He asked you a question, bitch!”

Most of the men surrounding Gunnar followed his example, taking out their swords, axes, and shields. One man in the back of the cave pulled out a bow and notched an arrow.

The woman laughed then, her head tilting backward. She rested her free hand on her chest, clutching the clasp of her dark cloak which dragged on the cave floor. With a deft hand, she unclapsed it, and let the cloak fall. Beneath, with her armor fully exposed, everyone could see she carried several daggers that glinted menacingly in the low light.

“I think you know very well who I am,” she said, coming down from her brief moment of amusement. “You’ve been talking about me as if you know me; as if you know why I’m being hunted. Unfortunately, now, you will never know.”

Gunnar’s eyes widened, his grip on his broadsword tightening so much that his fingernails cracked on the leather-wrapped hilt. “Shit-”

But it was too late, for the stories were true, and the legend that slipped amongst them now in a raging storm of limbs, steel, and blood was none other than Hadiya herself.

She managed to take out two men closest to her with a few clean swings of her unusual sword, including the bowman in the back with a thrown dagger to his head, taking the body count to three. Another surged toward her with a heavy axe swing, aiming to cleave her in two, but she twisted, her blackened blade whipping out and disabling him in a swift motion; a deep slice to his stomach causing blood to gush out onto the stone floor.

Bjorn yelled in response, charging forward with a sword and shield in hand, his blue eyes blazing. Hadiya met his steel by raising the empty pale staff at her hip. At contact, the steel in the boy's hand shattered, the echoing clinks of the shards of his weapon echoing in the cave.

He froze, shock and horror washing over his features. Whatever material the staff was made out of was something he nor any man there had ever seen before.

Taking advantage of the young boy's shock, Hadiya pulled her staff back and thrust her sword forward in its place, sinking deep into his gut.

Kunan screamed. "No!" Rushing forward, he took out his own sword and sprinted at Hadiya, coming at her from her exposed side where she was currently stabbing his companion.

Hadiya quickly withdrew her sword and fell backward, avoiding Kunan's lunge by mere inches. On the ground she rolled, getting back to her feet just as Gregas joined in, lifting a heavy broadsword over his head to bring down upon her head.

Bjorn slumped to the floor, his shield falling with a hollow thud.

"Get out of here, Kunan!" Gunnar yelled, missing his swing as Hadiya dodged again. "Go get reinforcements!"

Kunan shook, conflict warring in his expression, but there was no time to doubt.

He turned and ran, picking up his fallen comrade's shield as he went. Yet, as the skin of his face hit the sheet of rain just outside the cave, there was a sickening sizzling sound, and steam rushed up and around his damp clothes.

Gunnar froze his assault, taking on a defensive position as he watched bright red sparks ignite on the young boy's leather and fur wraps, his brown eyes glistening in agonizing pain before the sparks became flame and consumed him entirely.

Hadiya lowered an outstretched hand still gripping the mysterious pale staff, her eyes sliding to where Gregas watched as ash replaced flesh and blood.

"You...you-!"

Then she was upon Gregas, holding him by the collar of his fur coats with her pitch-black blade pointing at the soft hollow of his throat. No words escaped him as she spoke.

“Pawns should never speak of what they think they know of war,” she hissed in his ear, leaning down so her mouth was next to his cheekbone. “You are the first to die. You should be thankful you don’t live to see the true outcome.”

Gunnar shook in his bones, his hand releasing his sword, the sound of it clattering to the stone floor making him wince. In all of his life, he had never expected childhood stories and rumors to be reality. He always accepted what was in front of him, not questioning what he could see with his own eyes.

But what he saw before him defied all possibility. All logic. All reality. They should have all been wiped from this world.

“What is the true outcome, Hadiya?” His hand roamed up to wrap around her wrist which gripped his shirt like a plea. Beyond them, Kunan's ashes sunk in the rain, his life now nothing more than a memory of flame.

Hadiya's eyes began to change as they pulled back to glare into his. The two colors - blue and amber - melted away to become one, the irises settling on a bright shade of red.

A bloody crimson.

“Grief,” she whispered brokenly and then plunged her sword into his throat.

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THE SHADOW & THE EAGLE - "A common folktale in the FATE OF FIRE universe typically told to children around campfires. It's the story of how their people gained their shadows in the daytime. This version is told with dialogue only between an elder and a curious child."

THE HEART IN THE MOUNTAIN - "A short story telling the tale of how the clan's most sacred of areas was discovered by accident. This story is of a young warrior who found herself traversing the perilous Great Mountain in the hope of reaching her clan mates and saving those she had left behind. The truth of what she discovers is lost to history, but the place itself goes on to be used in many rituals and ceremonies."

THE MOUNTAIN IS ALIVE - "Referenced to in THE HEART OF THE MOUNTAIN, this poem explores the world-shaking secret hiding inside the Great Mountain over looking the valley."

I KNOW YOU - "A poem centered on two important ( and well-loved ) characters in the FATE OF FIRE universe. Observant readers will notice a connection to the story THE SHADOW & THE EAGLE."

Want to know more? You can check out my author page here to browse my projects and read the synopsis of the first book in the FATE OF FIRE series, EVERGREEN.

Thank you for reading. c: