Chapter 2
My return home proved to be no more comforting than my daylong stay in the blood-soaked battlefield. I had waited until the Avians left to retrieve my brother's body and begin the long walk home. It wasn't a simple journey, not because of the 150 pound body across my back; but for the fact that I was carrying the last brother's I had body. It was the weight of the understanding that now I was the only one left to hold my family together, to lead my people.
As I finally approached the gates to the Serpiente Palace, the two sibling guards who I had entrusted my life to many times before, rushed forwards from their post to assist me. Adelina, the female of the two, face broke with pain as she seemed to realize whose lifeless body was slung across my back. A small gasp of "Gregory," was the only sound that came from her mouth before she began to help her brother lower Gregory from my shoulders.
Sighing in relief as Ailbhe took Gregory from me, I took a step back and watched as he cradled my brother in his arms as if her were a child- which he was. Gregory had only been 17, his life had barely started, and all too soon this war has taken it away. An Avain soldier had run a blade through my brother's gut and torn open his soul, leaving him to bleed it away slowly in the soil. I nodded to Ailbhe that he could take my brother. He would soon be placed on an onyx table that too many before he had been set upon for others to grieve.
My anger was rising and a sickness was infesting within my chest, as each breath that passed through my lungs become a slow suffocation. Walking out of the entrance towards my quarters I ignored the passing faces as thoughts submerged my consciousness. This war had gone too far. This war had taken too many people from me, and there would be no more if I could stop it. I had almost made it to my quarters when I passed the room of my sister, Irene. Her long black hair was shadowed over her face and her head was leaning against the side of a baby crib. Would the pain of today ever stop? - It seemed not. The little bit of my insides that I could still feel twisted in a knot as I walked towards my sister and kneeled before her. Looking up, she stared straight into my eyes, the same ruby red as hers, and asked "Is this what it will be like? Will it never stop; will my child grow up as we have? Knowing her family only for a short time before they all begin to perish around her?" Her questions were like salt being poured into my invisible wounds. Cringing, I set my hands upon her shoulders giving her the only answer to the questions that I would allow. "No, she will never know of this except in stories of long ago..." Her hands were shaking as I stood and walked hurriedly out of the room.
I spent most of the night, and a good portion of the morning pacing and running solutions to this ancient problem. There would be no way to just suggest a peace treaty. The Avain's would be too suspicious, and rightfully so. Our people have been fighting each other for centuries, why would they believe we all of the sudden, want peace after generations upon generations of slaying each other?
"Why are you still awake? Zane," My mother asked as she entered my quarters. "You need rest; go to bed Zane, then think. Let the sleep come first." I shook my head in anger as I slammed my fist into the nearest wall with frustration. "How do we stop this mother? Are you not ready for it to stop as much as I! This war has taken a husband, four children, 5 siblings... what more shall it take from you before you realize it must end?" Her face was cool and calm as her sapphire eyes gazed towards me, seeming to douse the fire of my anger with in seconds. I felt like an eight year old child again, throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the floor for something I could have gotten with out a fuss. The desired object being: how do I stop this with out driving myself mad first?
"Your question has plagued me for my whole life. It has haunted me with each death, and has made me question life in it's own..." She began telling me with a look of fatigue on her face. "All the comfort I can offer you my son is that sometimes if you ground yourself to one piece of the puzzle, you will never see where it goes. Calm down, rest, and try to look at the whole picture; not just the piece you are holding in your hands." With that she kissed the top of my forehead and turned leaving me to myself. I shook my head again, but more in surrender than anger.
Sometimes it seemed that all life was made of were questions upon questions and unsolvable puzzles. Lying on my bed, I tried to clam myself. Closing my eyes I ran the question over in my mind but this time more slowly. Each piece of the problem drifted in through my mind until sleep began to pull its blanket over my head, leaving me to nothing but abstract dreams of past pain and future agony.
My return home proved to be no more comforting than my daylong stay in the blood-soaked battlefield. I had waited until the Avians left to retrieve my brother's body and begin the long walk home. It wasn't a simple journey, not because of the 150 pound body across my back; but for the fact that I was carrying the last brother's I had body. It was the weight of the understanding that now I was the only one left to hold my family together, to lead my people.
As I finally approached the gates to the Serpiente Palace, the two sibling guards who I had entrusted my life to many times before, rushed forwards from their post to assist me. Adelina, the female of the two, face broke with pain as she seemed to realize whose lifeless body was slung across my back. A small gasp of "Gregory," was the only sound that came from her mouth before she began to help her brother lower Gregory from my shoulders.
Sighing in relief as Ailbhe took Gregory from me, I took a step back and watched as he cradled my brother in his arms as if her were a child- which he was. Gregory had only been 17, his life had barely started, and all too soon this war has taken it away. An Avain soldier had run a blade through my brother's gut and torn open his soul, leaving him to bleed it away slowly in the soil. I nodded to Ailbhe that he could take my brother. He would soon be placed on an onyx table that too many before he had been set upon for others to grieve.
My anger was rising and a sickness was infesting within my chest, as each breath that passed through my lungs become a slow suffocation. Walking out of the entrance towards my quarters I ignored the passing faces as thoughts submerged my consciousness. This war had gone too far. This war had taken too many people from me, and there would be no more if I could stop it. I had almost made it to my quarters when I passed the room of my sister, Irene. Her long black hair was shadowed over her face and her head was leaning against the side of a baby crib. Would the pain of today ever stop? - It seemed not. The little bit of my insides that I could still feel twisted in a knot as I walked towards my sister and kneeled before her. Looking up, she stared straight into my eyes, the same ruby red as hers, and asked "Is this what it will be like? Will it never stop; will my child grow up as we have? Knowing her family only for a short time before they all begin to perish around her?" Her questions were like salt being poured into my invisible wounds. Cringing, I set my hands upon her shoulders giving her the only answer to the questions that I would allow. "No, she will never know of this except in stories of long ago..." Her hands were shaking as I stood and walked hurriedly out of the room.
I spent most of the night, and a good portion of the morning pacing and running solutions to this ancient problem. There would be no way to just suggest a peace treaty. The Avain's would be too suspicious, and rightfully so. Our people have been fighting each other for centuries, why would they believe we all of the sudden, want peace after generations upon generations of slaying each other?
"Why are you still awake? Zane," My mother asked as she entered my quarters. "You need rest; go to bed Zane, then think. Let the sleep come first." I shook my head in anger as I slammed my fist into the nearest wall with frustration. "How do we stop this mother? Are you not ready for it to stop as much as I! This war has taken a husband, four children, 5 siblings... what more shall it take from you before you realize it must end?" Her face was cool and calm as her sapphire eyes gazed towards me, seeming to douse the fire of my anger with in seconds. I felt like an eight year old child again, throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the floor for something I could have gotten with out a fuss. The desired object being: how do I stop this with out driving myself mad first?
"Your question has plagued me for my whole life. It has haunted me with each death, and has made me question life in it's own..." She began telling me with a look of fatigue on her face. "All the comfort I can offer you my son is that sometimes if you ground yourself to one piece of the puzzle, you will never see where it goes. Calm down, rest, and try to look at the whole picture; not just the piece you are holding in your hands." With that she kissed the top of my forehead and turned leaving me to myself. I shook my head again, but more in surrender than anger.
Sometimes it seemed that all life was made of were questions upon questions and unsolvable puzzles. Lying on my bed, I tried to clam myself. Closing my eyes I ran the question over in my mind but this time more slowly. Each piece of the problem drifted in through my mind until sleep began to pull its blanket over my head, leaving me to nothing but abstract dreams of past pain and future agony.
