Ch.11 Desert of Disaster
The airship pirates landed at their home town. The men scurried about placing individual bags of loot at each doorstep and lifting off once more to place the airships in their usual hiding place. The captain strode down the cobblestone pathway towards his home. He unlocked the door and shut it behind him. Leaning against the door in the shade and comfort of his house he could hear the town starting to wake up and find the loot that he had brought back.
He smiled at their happiness. Hearing the joy in their voices. He shuffled to a chair and sank into it, staring at the fireplace that was bare but clean. How he had spent hours making and perfecting it. He sighed leaning his head back on the chair, closing his eyes.
If the town was happy he was happy. Or so he thought. Beyond his sandstone brick house he could hear children laughing, everything was going to be ok for a while. There was stability back in the town again. Six months from now he would have to go back out and raid again but that was fine.
Whatever it took to keep them all happy and going strong. His eyes looked at the portrait of a woman holding a young child, keeping her from moving while the picture was painted. Her caring gentle eyes showing happiness. The child overly happy but showing slight annoyance of wanting to run around and play but couldn't. How he had worked hard painting that portrait of his wife and daughter, the pain it brought him made his chest tighten.
He felt water that was warm running down his face and wiped it away with his arm. He missed them, Sayatia and Nalyia. He got to his feet, walking across the half wooden slabs to the kitchen. Making thunking steps with heavy feet that were once lite. He got a bottle and filled it with water from the sink.
He leaned on the sandstone counter drinking the water, morning light filtering through the small rectangular gaps above him. He placed the bottle on the counter sniffing his nose and making himself clear his head. This was no time to get sad about the past. The front door was suddenly knocked on. He went to the slit windows and saw two of his men standing there.
"What are you two doing this early?" he asked opening his door. "What?"
The two men side glanced one another and looked at the ground, scuffing their shoes in the sand. "Babios and Rodios didn't make it back from the crash. We've sent some searchers to go back for them. They're riding the fastest camels we got."
That was disheartening news for such a morning of happiness to most. Two men who had families and children and wives, were laying in the sand dead some place. All from an attack by three people riding on horseback after them. He thought back to the young girl with the scythe. Where had she gone when she back flipped off the basket?
"Don't tell the families just yet. If they ask, tell them they've gone on a fishing trip. I'll have some men borrow a boat and head out to sea." The captain started to shut the door when one of the men stopped it from closing.
"Sir, what happened? Why did they catch fire?"
He looked up at them with tired eyes. "There were three people on horseback chasing us. The town or the village sent them no doubt. The woman that was in the group flung fire from her hand and attacked their airship. I could do nothing to help them but to make us fly faster."
"A woman that can fling fire by her hands?" the two men questioned looking at one another.
"If you'll both excuse me, I'm tired and I'm going to get some sleep." He shut the door with a rough shove knocking the man off balance and locking the door.
They beat on the door shouting for him to come back. "Jatios! Jatios! Hey, Jatios!"
The other man nudged the one beating on the door. "Come on, Tynios. He's tired. Let the capt'n sleep. Come on."
Tynios protested but was led away reluctantly. Jatios stood in the second floor looking through the wooden shudders, watching them leave. He turned away taking off his leather coat and wool shirt, tossing them on a towel rack in a window that was larger than most. Sinking into the cool bed, shivers went up his spine from the sensation that he got from cool sheets. Laying there on his back and drifting asleep he came to a familiar place and time.
A time that he cherished so much. Back when he grew his hair long and curly with dashing handsome features. How he was a young oil rigger, bent on finding the underground gold. How he wanted to be rich beyond anything else. He made good pay and a decent living doing what he was doing.
How he would spend his nights at a small bar in the middle of the village before it had turned into a town. He and his friends from the oil grounds would drink and sing songs. A beautiful sandy haired woman danced on stage for a bit before coming to bar tend. She was the gem that had wandered into town a few months back. Every man had their eyes on her but Jatios didn't really care for women since all he wanted was money.
That all changed a few months later though. Exactly two months to be exact. They had just struck oil big time. Money was constantly coming in from near and far to get the black gold. Life was really good.
That all changed one night during the months of Hazy Craft in the summer. Yet, it was always summer here in the desert. This night was when a large band of thieves had come into town, all on horseback. They wanted our women and gold. Every man fought for what he had, killing those and getting killed themselves.
I had just gotten off work from the oil rig platform and had just gotten a beer at the bar when there was a large commotion outside on down the street. There was shooting and cries of pain as the commotion got louder and nearer. The men in the bar got up to see what was going on and were shocked by what they saw.
Men hurtled past on horseback yelling out and stabbing those that got in their way. I watched as others prepared themselves to fight as they watched the thieves take their wives and money. I didn't have to worry since I had built an underground bunker. No one really knew where I lived because no one would ever follow me home. All I had on me were a few sticks and a pick axe.
I never carried gold on me. Just enough to buy a beer or two then head home. Thieves walked into the bar with their swords and pistols out, pointing them at all who made a move.
"No one make a move. All we want is your gold and your pretty women."
All eyes looked to one another when the back room door opened and the female dancer, who's name I never learned until later that night, came out with beer in her arms. She froze when seeing the thieves. The thieves however weren't surprised at the sight of her.
"Good afternoon, Sayatia. You're looking better than our boss thought."
Sayatia glared at them. "What are you scumbags doing here? Why did he send you all for? This is a peaceful town! Leave them be!"
It became clear then that she had left her previous life with these fools to live here in peace. She wasn't as clean as she had said previously when she arrived. This was why I hated women and only liked money. Money couldn't lie to you and could be easily made. It was your friend.
I watched as the thieves and Sayatia argue with one another even though it was very one sided. These guys were killers, they didn't give a damn about anything they did or the repercussions that it would have on the innocent lives that were being taken. The men took the beer from her arms and drank them, relaxing in the relatively cool bar while their friends were out killing people and ordering people around. Horses whinnied and some shot past shouting. I remained relaxed in my chair in the corner of the bar sipping my beer as they enjoyed themselves.
Thoughts ran through my mind as my eyes stared them down. As they drank the beer that they hadn't paid for. They laughed at sorry jokes about the town and its people. Enjoying the chaos that they had brought upon the town for the night. How they were taking things that didn't belong to them for free, by orders, by yelling, by force, by using fear.
'What am I doing?' My hand grasped the handle of my pick axe until my knuckles turned white. 'What's going on with me?' I felt the pick axe's familiar weight get brought up and swiftly flung through the air. 'Stop it! No!'
"You bastards piss me off!" I heard myself yell
One of the thieves were stabbed right through the head from the pick axe. The other thief stared in shock at what just happened to his friend. He looked up to see a shadow fall over him. The pickaxe yanked from the head of the thief and coming down upon him. His eyes full of fear.
"Go to hell!" I hissed as the pickaxe was brought down.
There were quivering sounds as a person was trying to stifle a cry. I found myself crouching on the body of the thief that I had just killed. 'Why did I just do that? Why? What was I protecting?' My eyes traveled to the bar tender and the dancer. She was frozen from fear at what she had just witnessed. I wanted to tell her I wasn't normally like this. I wasn't a killer. I don't know what came over me.
I stood over the body with cold eyes and pried the axe from the head of the second thief. "Bar the doors and the windows. Duck down behind the counter or get in the back. I don't give a damn what you do, just hide."
Who was this speaking? It didn't sound like me at all. 'I must be drunk. Yeah, that's it, I'm drunk. I think I had one beer too many tonight or the beer affected me more than it usually does.' I walked out of the bar staring ahead when a rider was riding full gallop to my left, his sword behind him, ready to swing down. I swung my pickaxe and took him by the throat and off his horse. Blood splattered me as I glanced down at the gurgling thief that had dropped his sword and was weakly grasping the head of my pickaxe, it protruding through his neck. I yanked it out as blood spurted out everywhere in an arch. I strode towards the oil rig platform, grasping a rider less horse and climbed on its back.
I kicked it into high gallop and stormed out of the town to protect what I cared for most. The black gold. The black horse stormed across the sand, it's hooves perfectly suited for this terrain since it was a native of the dunes. My black curly hair flying behind me like the horses mane, wild and free. My eyes burned with anger and a passion that I had never felt before. 'What's come over me? Why am I killing people? Why?' I couldn't comprehend myself at this time. As I galloped towards the oil platform I saw five of the thieves trying to destroy the pumping process. They were taking my love away. They were ruining my love, my passion, what I got up in the mornings for. The pickaxe flew, its head reflecting the afternoon sun, the sand getting splattered with blood as a pained cry split the air.
Dead bodies littered the oil rig as workers had tried in vain to protect the rig from the thieves. The black horse trampled the bodies as it's rider urged it faster, seeing the opportunity to take them by surprise. The black horse leapt through the air, landing on two of the thieves and kicking away a thief that was behind it, making him fly through the air before falling on the ground hard. A hoof print in his face. Blood flying through the air as I yanked the pickaxe from the head of a thief and slaying the others as quickly as I had appeared.
The sounds of retreating horses thundering across the dunes were all the sounds that could be heard besides the cries of wounded Minecraftians. The one thing that was seen before night fell was a lone warrior on horseback, slumped in the saddle with a pickaxe dripping in blood, the horse standing half alert in the sunset on the platform of the rig. Bodies all around them with puddles of blood seeping into the sand.
I was known from then on as Blyk Dythios Brygia, Black Death Bringer.
I gasped sitting up in my bed lightening quick in a cold sweat, breathing hard. I had dreamt of the past again. All the way at the beginning. I got to my feet pushing my black curly hair back that was stuck to my face. My skinned deeply tanned from the sun that beamed down on me. I walked out on my roof where I stood under the small shed that I built.
The grass under my bare feet as I stared out across the town, listening to all the usual noise that went on. I leaned on the post and looked up at the partially clouded sky. How I wished I could've saved you back then. How I wish I could've gotten a medicine to keep you from falling to the sickness that came. 'Sayatia.'
We were so happy. We had been dating for a few years and had gotten married. Our marriage had lasted for six years. Our fourth year we had a daughter that was just as beautiful as her mother. I smiled thinking back at the memory of the birth.
How me and my wife had been so excited and happy. Watching our daughter Nalyia grow up. Then notch, that cursed God, made a sickness that swept Minecraft by eating chicken or raw beef. There was no medicine to tackle the sickness. My mind recalling the time, our last time being together.
It wasn't long after that my daughter got ill with a sickness that no one knew about. It didn't take her but half a month to pass away before my eyes. Before I knew it I was all alone in a spacious home fit for a family of three or more. On my desk there were plans to expand but remained there gathering dust and getting warped and faded by the sun. All I did was sit about and drink, no will to do anything.
The wind ruffled my hair, blowing it about before dying down again. I can still recall her voice singing her sweet gentle songs while dancing at the bar. Her gentle voice singing their daughter to sleep. I sighed pushing the memories out of my mind and started back for my bedroom when there was banging of a door below. I peered over the edge of my roof to see the same two men from before.
"What do you want now?"
They looked up at me from below. "Captain! We can't –"
The other put a hand over his mouth making him shut up. "May we come in?"
I waved them in and turned away heading down the steps to the living room. We sat staring at one another across the table with water in front of us on the table. "What's going on?" I asked finally.
"Their bodies aren't at the wreck site. There's nothing but charred remains of the airship." They both replied together. "What are we going to do?"
I sat back resting against the long sofa staring out a window. There was nothing else but to tell the families about the wreck. "Tell them that they were eaten by sharks when a bucket of bloody fish were knocked off the ship and they were also knocked off with it when the rigging of the sail came apart."
The two members of his crew stared at him in surprise at the horrific lie. "Sir…"
"It's all we can do. It's more believable than us trying to tell them that their husband and father were part of a raiding group," I said knocking back the water and getting to my feet. "Get to it and don't bother me again."
"What of the other ship that burned? We can't find the bodies that went to that one either," spoke up Tynios still sitting there. "Do we tell the family the same lie too?"
I stood there in annoyance but feeling helpless at the whole situation. "I don't know. Do what you need too without saying the actual truth. That's all."
The two men clenched their fists as they stared at the floor. "What's with you? Why have you turned into this person for?"
I stood in the kitchen staring at my reflection in the sink water. I hardly recognized my own self. I placed the bottle on the counter and rippled the water with the tips of my fingers before turning away. "It's what happens when time took something that was most cherished."
They watched me as I headed up the stairs heavily and finally left leaving me in silence once more.
