The Dawn of the Raven Omnibus 1: Episodes 1-5 (9 page)

And then, it was quiet.  Kiella looked at Bob there, laid
before her.  His face forever locked in that mostly toothless grin: what was
left of his face, at any rate.  Most of it was mangled and covered in blood,
with a large portion of his skull caved in from the might of the bear’s blow. 
The others lay motionless too.  Whereas just moments ago they had all been
laughing and congratulating one another, now there was nothing.  Complete
silence.   Kiella just stared at them, the ravaged bodies strewn about, not
knowing whether her fortunes had truly improved, or if now she was just doomed
to a slower, longer, more drawn out death.  Would the bear return for her? 
Would the wolves come?  Would the buzzards come down and tear through her flesh
with their beaks and pluck her eyes from the sockets?  Her bonds were too
tight.  She could not stand, she could barely move.  After a few moments of
haplessly trying to fight against her bonds again, Kiella began to give into
dark thoughts that she was still as equally doomed as before.  Just then, she
heard the soft sound of footsteps.

A figure in a cloak stood before her.  Kiella could barely
make the figure out as it stood straight in the direction of the rising sun. 
She could make out that the cloak was green, and that the figure appeared to be
a woman, but that was all.  Finally, the figure bent down, picked up Bob’s
knife, and approached her.  Kiella began to panic all over again, but the
figure quickly spoke. 

“No, it’s
okay.  I won’t hurt you.”  The woman’s voice had a strange accent, one Kiella
had never heard before, but her voice sounded warm and kind.

The woman cut Kiella’s bonds from her feet and her hands, and
the gag so that finally Kiella could speak.  However, for quite a while, she
found no words.  She watched in stunned silence, with all that had transpired
now slowly being processed in her mind, forcing an overload of both shock and
relief.  Kiella had to take this woman at her word that she meant them no harm;
Kiella’s psyche, at this point, couldn’t handle anything else.

The woman walked around, checking the men on the ground,
making sure that each one was no longer a threat.  Then, when she was
satisfied, she moved over to Raveena, and carefully inspected her.  She went
straight to lifting up the dressing over Raveena’s wound, examining it
closely.  For a moment, Kiella felt fearful and protective, and wanted to yell
out a protest, but she couldn’t.  She was still overwhelmed.  After another
moment, the woman returned and spoke.

“Your
friend, she is dying.  She doesn’t have much more time.  We must take her to my
village.  My people, they may be able to heal her, if we hurry.”

The woman offered Kiella her hand.  Kiella paused for a moment,
and then relinquished her own.  The woman’s soft but sturdy grip felt
comforting as she pulled Kiella up and helped her to her feet.  As they went
about reattaching Raveena’s stretcher to the mule, Kiella’s wits slowly began
to return.  She thought of the bear.

“Did you see
what happened?  Did you see the bear?”

The woman just ignored her, continuing to go about her
business carefully tying the straps and checking the strength of her knots to
make sure that the stretcher would hold tight.  Kiella continued.

“I’ve never
seen anything like that.  Is this its territory?  Why would it just kill them
and leave me like that?  Why didn’t it maul me?  Why didn’t it try to feed on
any of us?”

The woman just continued going about her business.  As she
secured the ropes and prepared the mule, Kiella noticed that the woman’s
sleeves were torn to shreds around her forearms.  As she looked more carefully,
she noticed that the woman’s flesh on her hands and above them was badly torn
and scratched.

“What
happened to your wrists and your hands?”

“It’s
nothing.  Just scratches.”  The woman continued her work and paid the wounds no
mind.

“Was it the
bear?”  asked Kiella.  “Did the bear do that?”

Again, the woman just ignored Kiella’s questions.  She
finished preparing Raveena for the journey, took the mule’s reigns in her hand,
and began to lead it into the forest.

“Come on”
said the woman.  “We must get moving.”

To Be Continued

In

Episode 3:

Unexpected Friends

The Dawn of the Raven

Episode 3:

Unexpected Friends

As Kiella followed the mysterious woman through the woods,
thoughts began to flood through her mind.  Her wits had fully returned.  She
was no longer overwhelmed by what had happened.  She thought again of the
woman’s wounds.  They had looked quite bad. 

“Please, let
me see your injuries again.  I am a bit of a medic, I might be able to help.”

Somewhat surprisingly to Kiella, considering how she had been
mostly ignored before they left the clearing, the woman stopped and obliged. 
She pulled down the hood of her cloak and then rolled up her sleeves, exposing
her slender, ravaged arms and hands.  Kiella examined them closely.  There were
slashes and cuts all over them.

“Did you do
this?  They appear self-inflicted.”

The woman gave no answer.  As Kiella inspected further, she
saw that there were scars all over the woman’s arms and hands.  These were not
the first wounds of this nature she’d received, not by a long shot.

“You do this
often?  I can see all the scars.”

Again, the woman offered up no reply.  Then, Kiella noticed
that there were deep marks around her wrists.  She looked at her own wrists,
and saw that she had the same marks, the ligature marks from where the bonds
had been tied, where she had wrestled and fought against them.

“Oh.  They
had you too?  What did they do?  You escaped?”

Again, the woman stayed silent.  Finally, Kiella gave up her
inquisition and found her liniment in her pouch.  The woman did not ask any
questions, and did not resist.  She allowed Kiella to treat them, but as soon
as she had finished, without a word, the woman turned and continued through the
woods.

“Where are
we going?” Kiella asked.

“I’ve told
you: to my village.”

“What of the
exiles?  The Elken?  Shouldn’t we be cautious?”

The woman stopped and turned, and gave Kiella a scornful
gaze.

“I am an
Elken.”

Kiella didn’t know what to say.  Did the woman not recognize
that she was an outsider?  Did she not care about the truce?  Did she not
intend to help them at all, but to punish them for trespassing in the Forbidden
Forest?  Once again, Kiella found herself overwhelmed.  She wasn’t sure whether
to go along, or to try and knock the woman over the head, grab hold of the
mule’s reigns, and make a break for it.  Finally, she decided to focus on
staying calm, and trying to see if the woman would give her any more information.

“How did you
find us?  Did they have you?  Did you escape from their hide-out, and follow
them to us?”

The woman continued walking and kept her vision forward. 
Kiella stared at her, waiting for a response.  The woman was young, not much
older than Kiella was herself, maybe just a year or two.  She was quite
beautiful.  Kiella had never seen anyone like her.  Her hair was long and a
beautiful shade of light brown with golden highlights, with small braids
threaded throughout.  Her eyes were a gorgeous mix of green, much like the
shade of her cloak, and gold and they seemed to shimmer and glow, almost like a
cat’s.  The woman clearly sensed Kiella’s stare, and turned to her with a frown
and, finally, gave her a straight answer.

“They did
not have me.”

“How did you
happen to come upon us then?  Was it their screams when the bear attacked?”

The woman, as usual, gave no answer.  Suddenly, Kiella had a
thought.

“Wait.  Were
you following us?  All day, yesterday, I felt eyes on me.  Was it you?  Were
you watching me because I violated the truce?”

The woman seemed confounded.

“The truce? 
It is your people who enforce that.  They are the ones who will kill us if we
cross the line, not the other way around.”  She gave Kiella a look of
disapproval.  “I was watching and following out of concern for your safety.  I
know those men.  I know what they are like.  They live here too, and so we
leave them alone as long as they leave us be, but I knew that you were in
danger.  Once I saw you with him, I followed just in case.  I checked in just
to make sure you were okay.  When I saw there was trouble, I came.”

Kiella wasn’t sure what to say.  Finally, she spoke.

“Thank you.”

“Of course”
responded the Elken woman.

Kiella looked at her carefully again.  The woman turned and
glared, clearly upset with Kiella’s rude gaze.  Kiella quickly softened her
expression and offered out her hand as a peace offering.

“I’m
Kiella.”

The Elken woman stared at it uncomfortably for a moment, then
stretched out her hand and grasped it.

“I am Shyrea.”

Kiella and Shyrea continued through the forest.  The woods
became incredibly thick, and the leaves of the trees above them were so lush
and entangled that there was very little light that reached them below.  If
Kiella had not stayed right next to Shyrea and kept her in her sight, it would
have been incredibly easy to get lost and lose all her bearings.  She kept her
hand gently on Shyrea’s shoulder, and Shyrea allowed this, understanding that
the woods of her home might be quite intimidating to an outsider.  Suddenly,
through light that passed through the breaks in the leaves and branches that
lay just ahead, it became clear that they were about to come upon a clearing. 
Shyrea told Kiella to stay put for a moment.  Kiella was a little nervous, given
the darkness around her and behind her, but she complied.  Shyrea disappeared
ahead for what seemed like a good while.  Just as Kiella began to worry,
though, she heard the crunch of a soft footstep and felt Shyrea’s touch on her
shoulder. 

“You may come
now.”

As Kiella entered the clearing, what she saw confounded her. 
It was nothing like she’d expected.  With what little she’d heard spoken of the
exiles over her lifetime, she’d expected a village soaked in blood and
darkness; savages who made sacrifices of all living things they’d encountered,
and used the remnants to practice the dark arts.  But, instead, what she saw
was something much closer to a paradise.  It was a small but dense settlement,
with houses that blended in so perfectly with the trees that they almost
appeared to have grown there naturally.  Most of the town appeared to be
oblivious to Kiella’s entrance, as small children ran and played, young people
laughed and frolicked about, and the adults went happily about their business. 
Two people stood there to greet them, however; a very tall elderly man in a
haggard, aged green robe with long grey hair that went down nearly to his waist
and a long grey beard that fell to almost equal distance who smiled at Kiella
warmly as soon as she entered, and a middle-aged woman with a stern expression
who didn’t seem to notice Kiella at all, and instead focused on Shyrea.  She
grabbed Shyrea by the wrist, whispered in her ear, and sent her away
immediately.  Before Kiella could say a word to Shyrea, she was gone, and the
old man spoke.

“Ah. 
Welcome friend.  Welcome to our home.  Your companion there, she needs
attention?”  as he said this, he pointed into the woods to Raveena and the
mule.

“Yes . . . 
yes, she does.  She’s severely wounded.  She has been unconscious for days.”

“Well then,
let’s just see what we can do.”  The old man motioned and the woman next to him
went into the woods to examine Raveena.  The old man made another gesture, and
three young men followed her in.  Within moments, they were carrying Raveena
back on her stretcher, and took her to one of the homes, with the middle-aged
woman following close behind.  Kiella started to follow.

“Oh no. 
Stick with me” said the elderly man, as he tugged on her arm gently.  “Trust
me, we’d only get in the way.  If she can still be saved, then they will do
it.  I assure you, Osthra is the greatest healer I have ever known.  She can
work wonders.”  He smiled an infectious grin. 

Kiella couldn’t help it.  He had such a warmth about him that
she instantly liked him and felt comfortable.  If this were all part of a plan
to butcher them, torture them, or otherwise abuse them, then Kiella would be
doomed, she knew, because she instantly found him impossible to distrust.  He
led her towards the center of the village.

“So, you and
your friend got caught up in a bit of trouble, I hear?”

“Yes.  Well
. . . I’m sorry sir.  I know we aren’t supposed to be here.  My friend, she was
wounded and delirious, and she insisted on wandering in.  I didn’t know how to
stop her, and I couldn’t just leave her alone, so I didn’t know what else to do
but follow.  I’m so sorry.  I didn’t mean to violate the truce.”

“Oh no, no. 
Don’t worry at all.  Truce be damned.  Those in need are always welcome among
us Elken.  Anyone who means us no harm is always welcome.  You may come and go
as you wish; just please, don’t bring anyone else from the outside here who
might not be as enlightened.  We Elken don’t care at all for trouble.”