Dragon Riders: Legacy(Book 2) Completed

Chapter 18:The Whipping: Moray

   It was the day of the whipping.
   Moray was in the kitchen with his mother, trying to calm her down. She was still upset over his father getting whipped for the accusation against the demon princes, who spun a web of lies to win the trial and get his father whipped.
   "Mother, it's ok." He tried soothing her, but it didn't help very much.
   "I know. But I just can't help but think about your father and the pain he is going to have to endure because of that cursed trial." His mother sobbed, burying her face in her hands.
   He got up from his chair and walked over to his mother, and gave her a hug, trying his best to comfort her, but his mother continued to sob with her face still buried in her hands.
   "Please mother, just calm down. Father wouldn't want to see you like this at his whipping. He would want you to be brave and strong for him." He said with a little force in his voice, trying so hard to get her to stop crying because he couldn't bare to see her like this.
   He was going to get those two demonic princes back for the pain and suffering they caused his family.
   "I want in on that plan." Riptide said, wanting to help get vengeance on Timote and Piri, even though he didn't seem to like vengeance unless someone hurt him or those close to him.
"I could use the help," he responded.
Then the sobbing stopped.
A soft, warm hand touched his cheek.
He looked up into his mother's sad, brown eye as she tried her best to smile in her depressed state; it didn't look like the one he was use to seeing.
"You sound just like your father. He would want me to be brave and strong for him and you. What example am I setting for you by crying for my troubles? I should be thinking and caring for you, not the other way around." His mother said with strain in her voice as she clearly trying hard not to cry.
"It's ok mother. You have always taken care of me. Now it's my turn, especially when you need me most. And that is now."
He could tell his words comforted her because the sadness disappeared from her eyes and her smile became the bright smile he was use to seeing.
"That is why I will always love your father because he would say the exact same thing you just said."
Then his mother pulled him in for a bone crushing hug, which he didn't mind since it made his mother feel better, even if it hurt a little. If it helped his mother than so be it.

A few hours later the whole village gathered for his father's whipping.
The villagers gathered in front of two palm trees under the slab of stone balcony that jutted off from the slab of stone the king's and the queen's hut was built on.
Moray and his mother stood in front of the gathered crowd.
Moray could tell most of the village was depressed about how the trial ended. About half of them believed that the princes should have been punished for attempting to kill him twice in one week. The other half of the village sided with the princes, believing that the princes and future heirs to the kingdom would never lie to their people.
Boy were they wrong! He thought to himself, laughing to himself by how stupid they were, not seeing the truth behind the web of lies the princes spun around themselves to make them appear as the goods one and Moray and his father the evil ones.
   Then he heard the soft crunch of sand, and he looked in the direction the crunch was coming from, and saw two guards leading his father to the palm trees, where two ropes hung.
   He felt his mother stiffen beside him as his father and the guards walked by; his father not even looking at them.
   The guards tied his father's wrist to the ropes, and one of them read his father's charges, while the other guard cut off his father's sack cloth shirt, exposing his father's blue-green tattooed muscular, tanned chest.
   His father's face was covered with an emotionless mask as he stared at the horizon, knowing that thirty lashes would leave him in terrible pain for weeks, while the lashes heal.
   When the guard finished reading the charges, the other guard put a strap of leather in his father's mouth to keep him from hurting himself.
   Then one of the guards picked up the whip and raised it and sent it whistling through the air and toward his father's bare back.
   He wanted to stop it but he couldn't do it without causing a riot for stopping the whipping. But he who would rather have the whip strike him than his father. This was his problem, not his father's, and now he was paying for it because of the trouble that started this whole mess: Timote and Piri.
   The sound of the whipping cracking drew his attention back to his father, who just earned his first lash.
   His father arched his back in pain and groaned, but he didn't cry out in pain to the twins satisfaction.
   He looked over at the twins, who were standing with their family on the other side of the front of the crowd. Their faces hiding their disappointment as his father refused to cry out.
   "Six," He heard the guard wielding the whip say, his voice strained as he continued, knowing this was wrong.
   His gaze returned to his father's strained but unbroken face.
   He admired his father for his bravery and strength, even though it cost him to be whipped. His father just wanted justice for what happened. And Moray did too. He wanted the twins to pay for this. He would find some way to make them pay for this.
   "Eleven."
   He saw blood drip on the ground from his father's back. That made him even more angry at the twins.
   "Thirteen."
   He clenched his fists as he saw more blood drip on the ground.
   His father wasn't even half way done with his lashing and he was already having blood dripping from his back. The twins were going to pay.
   A cool, soft hand touched his shoulder, and he looked up into his mother's soft, brown eyes.
   "I know that look," she whispered to him. "I've seen it on your father's face when he was going to do something reckless. Whatever you plan on doing don't do it or you will end up regretting it." His mother murmured to him, and pulled him into her side, putting an arm around him, comforting him as his father received another lash.

   His father later passed out after the twenty-eight lash, and the guards untied him and took him to the healers' hut to have the lashes cleaned and covered up so they didn't get infected.
   He and his mother followed, wanting to be sure he was ok.
The guards laid his father on his stomach on a cot, and stepped away.
His mother got down by his side and stroaked his hair, casting occasional looks at the twenty-eight stripes that tore his back open.
"Lea, Moray just so you know, I took no joy in causing Akoni harm. I wish him the best of recovery." The guard who wielded the whip said sincerely, and then he left with his fellow guard.
Moray heard the scuffling of feet on stone, and the village healer cane rushing into the room, his arms full of healing supplies.
"Rakin. Thank Mulop. Can you help Akoni, please? I know Makani will let you do all you can, even if the council disapproves of it." His mother said, her voice full of strain as his father laid unconscious on the cot.
Rakin nodded, and set to work putting herbs and plants in a stone mortar and crushing them up with a stone pestle until the plants and herbs became a green-yellow paste.
Rakin dipped his fingers into the thick, sticky looking paste and applied it to his father's striped, ruined back.
After that, Rakin, with the help of his mother, wrapped linen around his father's torso, covering the lashes tightly.
"There, all done. Aa long as he stays off his back and doesn't twist side to side when he wakes up he'll heal fine." Rakin said, picking up his supplies, and he went back into the storage room became from.
"How long till he wakes up?" His mother asked, her voice full of worry.
"Sadly I do not know. It could be hours. It could be a day or two. It's not often I treat wounds from a whipping. But he should wake up in a few hours maybe. We'll just give to wait and see. But I advise that he stays here till he is better." Rakin said from the storage room.
Moray looked down at his father's sleeping face.
This was all his fault. If he hadn't punched Timote and Piri then none of this would have happened.
"Stop beating yourself up. They had it coming when they made fun of your sister." Riptide whispered in his mind because he was so far away he could barley hear or feel him.
"It is my fault my father got whipped because of my choice I made because I let my anger blind me."
"You were angry because of what those demon princes said. It's not your fault your love for your sister led you to want to defend her memory." Riptid faintly argued back.
He looked down at the stone floor, hating himself for the bad decision he made that resulted in his father being punished for his choice.
"Moray, are you ok?" He heard his mother asked him softly.
He nodded. "Ya. I'm fine." His voice cracked.
"Hey, it's not your fault. Your father wouldn't want you blaming yourself." His mother said gently.
"Ya, well look at him now because of the choice I made!" He said harshly, on the verge of tears.
"Oh Moray. This is not your fault." His mother said gently, cupping his face with her hands, making him look at her.
"It's Timote's and Piri's fault for talking about your sister like that. I don't know why they said those things about your sister, or what led them to do it. All I know is that it is not your fault you wanted to defend your sister's memory."
He looked into his mother's kind, warm brown eyes, feeling tears roll down his cheeks from what his mother said.
It wasn't his fault, it was twins.
His heart felt a little less heavy with grief now that he knew his mother and Riptide didn't blame him for what happened to his father.
Pulling her soft, warm hands away, his mother patted the empty spot on the ground beside her.
He got up from the other side of his father's cot, and walked over to her and sat down, and let her drape an arm over his shoulders.
He leaned into her side, glad for the comfort and company as they waited for his father to wake up.

P.S. Hope your are all enjoying and understanding the story so far.
   I'll reveal Timote's and Piri's reason for what they did later in the story, as well as what Timote muttered about his mother in the trial chapter.