Chapter 2
"The Peasant Girl Awakes"
Scenes flashing in her mind's eye…
Burning houses and fields…
Thunderous hooves of monstrous horses…
Distorted corpses hovering in an orb in mid-air…
Screaming…
Running…
Bleeding…
"Grandfather!"
Screaming…
Falling…
Bleeding…
"Come wid uss…"
"NO!"
"Come or die…"
Distant murmurings…
"Ďėŏ ŏū Ǎžǽŷś Šýù Ĵİį Ãήǐωǻςį Ęß Û ĭóĥģ äęķѓї…"
"A dream… nothing more…nothing more… RUN!"
"Help!
"NO!"
A hideous cold shrill laughter echoing in her ears…
The ringing clashes of blades, slicing into soft flesh, splattering of blood on the burnt ground…
"Help…Somebody…"
"Ďėŏ ŏū ģōę ěöñ εǎŦ Ёχτ řľŞ…"
"We sees ye…"
"NO!"
Faces of the dead swirl around her calling her name, begging her to deliver them from the torture they have for so long endured…
One face remained etched in her mind… crying out reminiscent words…
"Come! We must ride now!"
"May the Gods guide you on your journey!"…
"I'd be a blundering half-wit next to you…"
"I'll be well! GO!"
"NOO!"
A blinding purplish flash, accompanied by the whipping whizzes of darting arrows, heavy clashing of swords, a shower of blood, and screams.
Screams…screams…screams… in the darkness…
A flutter of large wings and a deafening roar…
A bright red star that gleamed brightly in the night…
"Run!"
"NOOO!"
And her eyes opened.
The vision she perceived was blurry and of vague dull colors, she felt as if she had just woken up suddenly from a hundred year sleep. She felt weak…very weak…
Her mind was blank. She knew not where she was, what day or year it was or even if she was alive or dead. Her vision puzzled her so as it begun to clear through. Her eyes moved languidly and blinked heavily yearning to seep back into slumber yet suppressed by her mere curiosity. Trying to adjust her eyes as her sight slowly began to come into clearer focus. She always pictured the heavens of Kannaham to be dazzling white surrounded by soft thick clouds and the air would be full of song and dance yet here she was staring at what seemed to be the dark outline of a low tent. Was she still a spirit of the living or was she now an apparition of death?
Looking down at her body, she saw many bandages and that she was dressed in what seemed to be a man's white undershirt. It was large for her that it covered past her knees and the sleeves covered her elbows.
With her senses slowly returning to function, the first nerve that shrilled and awoke her reactive consciousness was the swift blistering wave of excruciating pain. It surged down her spine, along her limbs and she felt it throb everywhere, like a raging forest fire through fragile combustible groves.
Succumbing to her involuntary responses, she groaned in pain and later screamed with agony, writhing underneath thick furs. Every breath she took made it all the more painful to take any more.
She understood that when you are dead and are no longer anything but a spirit, you neither feel nor sense anything anymore as you have been already detached from the mortal body but due to the fact that at the moment she was experiencing unbearable realistic pain, she knew that there was no doubt that she was still a living breathing human being dangling from the tip of survival.
The young lass cried out once more, as she felt her cold and clammy sweat form underneath her damp clomp of scarlet hair and trickle over her purple bruises. Shutting her eyes, she wished to have never opened, she prayed to be released from the torture she was barely capable of enduring. She was on the brink of suffocating entirely.
Just when all thought of deliverance escaped her sanity, a gentle smooth hand stroked her sweaty forehead and she heard soft murmurs in a foreign tongue. The pain ebbed away slowly till it grew dull and numb that it did not sore her as much but could still be felt. The young woman's breathing came in small breathless gasps and she moaned in pain. Her mouth was parched and dry and her mind awhirl. She opened her eyes once more.
And she found herself staring into a pair of dark cobalt blue eyes filled with the most depth she had ever seen in her entire life looking back at her with such stern focus, she almost forgot to breathe under their intensively trained gaze.
Just when she tried to utter a word, her tongue felt heavy in her mouth and her eyelids started to droop back close. The soothing monotonous murmurs filled her ears and she was able to catch a glimpse of light gray shaggy hair before closing her eyes completely and falling back into a dreamless slumber of darkness.
Arianna, a simple peasant girl of the Northern Town of Vasdenin, woke up once again to the hushed bustle occurring outside her enclosed surrounding. From the darkness, she realized that it was night and her soul so yearned for the comforting light of day. Turning her head slightly to her left, she made out a hunched figure, crouching over a fire from the shadow on the other side of the wall of the makeshift tent she happened to be residing in. The figure straightened up and turned around to approach the tent.
Pushing the tent flaps back, the figure was in fact a short gray old man clad in loose fitting robes that hung heavily on the old man's small frame. Arianna saw that the old man's face seemed gaunt and weary as if he had gone for weeks taking neither food nor repose, his long shaggy beard only made him look all the more older. He smiled wryly when he saw that his patient was finally awake and in a calm demeanor. In his hands he held two steaming bowls of broth and once the aroma of the thick potage reached Arianna's nostrils, it evoked a great sensation of hungry in her that oppressed her insides and made her mouth water.
The gray haired man stooped down beside her and laying the two bowls on the ground pressed his palms next to her abdomen, her thighs, her chest and her neck then he took her shoulders in his arm bringing her gently to a sitting position. Arianna absorbed in the pacifying of her ravenous desire, neither thought nor felt the tiny stings of pain that pricked her everywhere as she sat up. His hands fumbled around her as he checked beneath her covered wounds, scars and blisters as well as her bruises and bumps.
Then, taking the first bowl of broth, which was of a pale cream color and smelled of herbs and some kind of meat, the old man brought it just a few inches to her lips. Arianna took the bowl into her hands and felt the heated steam warm her face. She made a motion to gobble up the contents in one gulp but hesitated, her eyes glancing unsteadily at the old man. He made an encouraging gesture signing her to eat quickly. She brought the bowl closer to her mouth and tipped it slowly into her mouth, testing the temperature of the broth. To her astonishment, though heated steam arose from the bowl, the broth was warm and did not burn her tongue also it tasted as succulent as she could have imagined it to be as it warmed her cold empty stomach. With a quick dip of her head, she gorged down greedily on the bowl, taking in the contents as quick as she could, wanting to satisfy the aching hunger in her. She hardly took notice of the old man smiling with relief and approval as he handed her the next bowl.
Arianna, not bothering to take a second glance, dropped the empty one she had drained and snatched the second one right out from his hands. To her utter surprise, the flavor that reached her tongue was unlike the sweet scrumptious taste of the former; instead it was as bitter as dried roots and contained a certain kind of spice that burned down her mouth and throat like a wildfire. Arianna choked repulsively and sputtered the ill tasting brew out of her mouth. The old man quickly took the bowl from her hands and patted her back briskly.
Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, the spice still burned within her, reviving her senses fully and she felt a sense of renewed vigor and strength in her limbs and her emotions were running high.
Almost at once, her heavy tongue seemed to loosen and her first words tumbled out of her mouth like a waterfall, without her taking any notice. She didn't even try to consider that the man she was conversing with would not comprehend a single word she was saying.
"Ugh! What was that? The very zest of it burns like fire inside. Who are you? Where am I? Am I alive or am I dead? Is this the spirit world or am I yet still living? Where are we?"
As she spoke, her eyes wandered around the small enclosure, which seemed to focus more clearly.
When the old one gave no reply as he busied himself with keeping away the two bowls, Arianna cocked her head to the side and said rather curtly, "Will you not answer me?"
Still silence. It was as if he had not heard her at all. Arianna shut her mouth for a moment and felt the energetic dynamism slowly die down and resumed a normal state. Suddenly, the horrid pain she had felt before returned and she gasped in agony. The old man took her in his aged yet strong arms and carefully laid her back down where he started muttering long foreign incantations, making signs with his hands. The pain slowly ebbed away once again.
Then, with the recollection of her boorish outburst she reddened and said rather sheepishly, "I apologize greatly…err…sir… I did not mean to speak in such a manner. I don't know what's come over me. I should be eternally indebted to you for everything you've been through to keep me alive. It's just I have so many questions…."
But even her apologies were equally oblivious to her healer. Then, it finally dawned on her. Her reminiscent of what had happened those nights ago were vague and unclear but she knew that she had seen his face before… then she realized…she was no longer in Vasdenin and she was in the company of foreigners, of people who did not come from the Northern Lands.
"Oh! I am such a half-wit! You don't even understanding a word I'm saying! And here I am with endless questions and yakking and—"
"Hush, girl! Speak no more. Questions, ask later. Answers will be given…. In time. Hush now. Rest. Wounds are grave and…deep. Need care. I will give. Talk later. Now, rest." His dark cobalt blue eyes were stern and grim. His voice was hoarse and sounded heavy with exhaustion and his accent was strong and brisk.
When these words escaped the old man's mouth, Arianna did exactly the opposite; she never realized how beautiful it was to hear the speech of her land being spoken, immediately she pushed herself up on her elbows, her eyes wide with surprise and relief, "Oh! You do understand! You speak my tongue! You do! Oh, I am so relieved. I have so much to—"
A finger placed on her lips silenced her and she was made to lie back down.
"Questions, later. Now, rest." Was all the old man had wearily replied.
Arianna simply nodded and before she could speak another word or think another thought, her eyes had closed and she drifted back into her black slumber.
From then on, the peasant girl's awakenings occurred more often and every time she awoke but as they were very brief, Arianna grew more and more inquisitive and sensitive to the routines and activities around her whenever her eyes opened. First, she noticed that whenever she opened her eyes, the old man would immediately come to her side as if he knew the exact moment when she awoke. Then, after his usual checking of her vital wounds, which were in fact healing very well, she would be given the same two bowls; One, containing meat broth and the other containing her herbal medication. Arianna started to become accustomed to her medication's effects and tried hard not to do anything abrupt or surprising after she drank it. She would be coaxed to finish both the bowls no matter what the content and after a few exchanges of words, Arianna would be made to lie back down and she would fall asleep once more. The next thing that Arianna focused on was the bit of outdoor scenery she could see whenever the old man came in and would absentmindedly leave the flap half-open, Arianna heard and saw a lot of men walking to and fro busy with their matters and conversing with one another, but never any women or children. Arianna tried her best to keep awake for a little while longer after being given her daily meal but she couldn't fight the sudden drowsiness that overcame her. So far, after her first awakening, she had only been outside her small enclosure twice and that was to remove her bodily waste in a basket behind the tent where she was carried to by the old man despite his aged arms had managed to lift his burden with such extraordinary ease it was as if she was merely a sack of feathers. There was nothing much to see as there were only a few men about and they went about their chores without a single glance at her direction also and right after she had finished, she would be brought into her tent instantly. Another thing she noticed was that whenever she felt excruciating pain, all she needed were the old man's incantations and the pain disappears. The last thing Arianna took notice of was that whenever she awoke, which were a total of eight times so far, was that it was always night and Arianna missed the comforting light of the morning sun and the sounds of nature which accompany it. So it was that when Arianna awoke once again to her meal of broth and herbs, the old man started to ask,
"Child, what is your name?"
Pausing a moment, Arianna replied, "Arianna."
It was strange hearing her own name in her voice. She had almost forgotten what it was. It was like an alien name to her that at the same time brought echoes of her past which she couldn't vividly recall.
"A-ri-a-na?" he repeated her name in monosyllabic phrases.
Arianna nodded with a small smile.
"And yours, good sir?" Arianna asked in return.
"I am called Grêth but you must call me by Master Grêth."
"Musterr Gg-rrr-ii-thhh." Imitated Arianna.
"How many ages shall you be?"
"Sixteen… next winter solstice."
She didn't want to ask his age in return, knowing that whatever it was, it would overwhelm her either way. So, she started to ask her own questions,
"Why is it always night whenever I wake?"
The old man looked at her ins surprise, "Why you ask?"
"Because it's always dark when I'm awake and I do miss the shining light of the day."
He pondered a moment then said, "Because is only time I want you awake."
Not quite understanding or satisfied with his answer, she posed another one,
"Are we traveling?"
"Yes. We go back to West kingdom of Wruth."
"Is every night I wake up on a different night?"
"Yes. When we first take you, you asleep for two and a half weeks. Now, you wake two nights after last."
Arianna couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had been unconscious for more than two weeks and she only awoke every other night? It was more information than she bargained for but there was something else she was aching to know. It was the first time he spoke of the night they took her so she dared to ask.
"The night you took me…what happened?"
Master Grêth started to look stern but as if brushing the thought aside, his face relaxed and instead he replied wearily, "No more questions tonight. Sleep."
The following nights after, both the old man and Arianna grew more relaxed as they talked with each other in their brief conversations. He even opted to eat his own meal beside her as Arianna was already capable of sitting up and eating on her own.
"Shan't I have anything more to eat except broth and this ghastly medication?"
"Your stomach not ready for heavier meals." Grêth replied.
"When will it be ready for heavier meals then?"
"Soon."
"How soon is soon?"
Placing his own bowl down with mock frustration, he asked, "Why must you ask so many questions? Only little children so curious."
"Well, if you didn't have me cooped up in this miserable tent for so long, I wouldn't be as inquisitive." Arianna replied nonchalantly.
The old man sighed and shook his head, "It getting more difficult to converse with you in this foreign tongue. Soon, we will be in West territory and the captain asked me to educate you in our tongue."
Arianna's eyes widened as she looked up at him, "I-I? Speak your tongue?"
The old man nodded, "We start tomorrow evening."
And with that, he stood up, collecting the bowls and exited the tent.
Arianna lay back down slowly and pondered in silence. There was still so much she needed to know and she knew that Grêth was keeping many things from her and it wasn't just because he knew little of her language. She didn't understand why but she couldn't seem to recall anything before she first woke up in this old man's tent. Her dreams seemed nothing but a black void and though she knew she did dream sometimes, she could remember what they were. It was as if her past had just vanished into thin air after her…accident. Was it an accident? No. It couldn't be.
Arianna closed her eyes and tried hard to remember something…anything. But nothing but a large blank space filled her thoughts as she tried to think of her past. But then, some images and faces were floating in her head.
Vasdenin. Grandfather. Fields.
She remembered her homeland, her grandfather who cared for her and her house… but all so unclear.
Her head started to throb and Arianna decided to leave her past where it was. Someday, she will find the answers to it…someday…soon.
