That morning's sunrise was surreal, but beautiful. I yawned and stretched before clambering to my feet. I was not prepared for what I was about to do, but I knew I needed to.
As I walked through the dewy woods the wildlife came alive around me. The bird song filled the air, and I could hear rabbits crashing through the undergrowth. It was very peaceful, tranquil almost, com paired to last night. I looked around, then suddenly the weight of what had happened. The forest reminded me so much Clare and our times together.
I stared down at the ground and tried to block out the sounds of the woods. It didn't work. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, for my people, my friends, my life. It was all gone.
As the palisade fence- or what was left of it- came into view, I loosened my sword in its sheath. I knew the village would be ruined, but I could never have prepared for what I saw next.
The whole village lay in ruin, smoke spiraled from each structure. The long house had caved in on itself. All of the crops were burned and trampled. The entire community seemed striped bare of any thing of use. From the evidence, it seemed my village people had put up a fight. And a good one at that. Bodies littered the ground. Most of them seemed to be human soldiers. They had armor that showed a yellow serpent imprinted on it. There were a few monsters scattered around, and two dragons. But when I looked closer I saw that every single person from my village was massacred. Most were barely distinguishable, but their cloths gave them away. Many had weapons next to them, men, woman, and children. There were easily double of the enemy dead, but the shear numbers had obviously overwhelmed my people.
I picked through the ruins, hoping to find something. It seemed the soldiers had not striped the town of all resources, and I found several crushed fruit, and two good fruit. There was an apple and a pear. I also found a messenger bag, flint, a canteen, and a cooking set consisting of several pots and a frying pan. I also found some bread, cheese, and a slab of ham. I put the food, cooking set, and flint in the bag, before slinging it over my shoulder. Then I went down to the river to fill up my canteen. Once filled, I tied it to my sling-come- belt.
Then I was finally ready to set off. I began walking down the river side, and made good time before night fall. I cooked a simple stew out of roots and what not I scavenged, so as to avoid breaking in to my rations. The next few days passed by fairly quickly, walking or jogging, then stopping to rest or eat, before continuing. On the fourth day I realized that it would be quicker to sail down the river. The only problem was getting a boat. Eventually I decided to make a simple raft. I stopped for the day to make it, and worked on it until the sun went down. The next morning I worked until lunch time, before estimating that us was water ready. I ate a quick meal then launched my craft. It was literally a square made from logs I had found, but it floated, and the current carried me faster than walking had.
That night I fashioned a fishing rod for my self with a springy stick I found, a few threads braided together from my own shirt, and a wire from the handle of one of the pots. The next morning I let the line trail behind me lazily, and I ended up catching a salmon for dinner. The days flew easily by. I had a lot of time to reflect on the events of what had happened, and plan for the future. My primary goal at the time was to reunite my self with Clare.
After a whole week of drifting down the stream, I found the first signs that Clare had gone this way. A wooden spar had broken off of the her boat then drifted down the stream before becoming intertwined in some branches. Feeling comforted that she had gone this way, I continued. There had been something bothering me for a while, and now that I had confidence Clare was alive, and I had the time to think, I realized what it was. When I had gone back to the village, there where no patrols, no guards, no evidence other then the dead, they had ever been there. I wondered where they had gone, then another though struck me. Where had they come from? How did they even know we existed? Why were they so far north? What were they doing even remotely close to our village? Hurrit, the country we were in, or so you humans call it, was inhabited only on the southern boarder by barbarians. Small scattered tribes of people with strange customs.
Occasionally they struck out against Kry. But the invading army looked organized. They had uniform. Squads. Platoons. Order. They weren't just a barbarian horde. In fact, they looked the complete opposite. Even the monsters- Minitors, Riglish, and such- and dragons- moontribe, changling, water drakes- had uniforms, or at least had the colors painted on them. I had been too distracted at the time to make the connection, but now that I was relaxing, I realized. All of the men did have the same uniform. The all wore yellow and black, with a hammer over a mountain blazed on every chest, and shield. I noticed that depending on the weapons carried, they had different armor, but the armor was universal between, say, archers, or spear men, pike-men, long sword men, short sword men- they all carried bucklers- they were all the same. So not only was this a organized army, it was a powerful one, backed by very rich people. I made a mental note to look out for such types.
Then I thought of Clare. She didn't know about them. What if they found her. She was still wearing her tribal cloths. They would think she was a barbarian and- No, I needed to look on the hopeful side of things. I saw my fishing rod curve, and I saw that I had caught something. After reeling it in I saw it was a bass. I steered my raft to the shore using a rudder I had put one a week earlier. I cooked it and ate it, then, unusually, I put back in. I decided that I needed to catch up to Clare as fast as I could. I slept that night on the raft.
Upon awakening I realized how badly I had slept. "I'm just lucky I didn't role off into the water," I said out loud laughing to myself. Then I started since when had I talked to myself? I had never done it before. Then I shrugged. "Oh well, I guess this comes with being alone for nearly a month now," laughing again, this time at the irony of talking to myself about talking to myself. "Wow, I've been on this river for a month. Even though this river runs nearly parallel to the boarder, it still angles towards it slightly." "I must be awfully close to the boarder." I was on a role, not talking in a month takes its tolls on your mental state. Finally being able to talk, I couldn't stop.
Then the river noise changed. At first I could barely hear it. The roar of the river was getting rapidly, but steadily, louder. Soon it was deafening. Then I saw the mist. A water fall! I hadn't thought of that. I quickly navigated to the shore so as to avoid plunging to my death. I reached the shore, sprung off my craft, grabbed all my gear, and started sprinting along the bank. I had saw some thin that had made my heart stop. There, just up ahead was Clare's boat. I rushed up to it, it was beached and rolled on its side. It was a larger craft, with a small shelter erected over it. It was shorter and wider then a long boat, but carried the same design.
In side was- nothing? There was not a sign that Clare, or any human for that matter, had been there in a long time. It was possible, she had a days head start, then I walked on foot for a few days, before getting a boat. But even then, I put to shore every night. It was highly likely she was a week or so a head of me. Now the problem was finding were in Gia's domain she had gotten to. I was not terrible at tracking, but I wasn't an expert either. I desperately cast around for a sign of her. After a good thirty minuets of searching, I found a thread from he tunic caught on a branch. I walked towards it and then face palmed. There was a arrow made of rocks, clear as a fresh water spring, pointing the direction she was going.
At least now I had a chance of finding her. As I started walking in the direction the arrow was indicating, I saw a slash mark on a tree up ahead. I knew she kept a small knife tucked under her sleeve. So this was how she was doing it. I began to fallow the slash marks. Every hundred yards or so, I would see another slash mark to reassure me I was going the right way. As I continued walking, I saw she had gotten a new idea. Now on every tree instead of a slash mark, she carved a arrow indicating the way she was going. The going was easy, with little under brush to slow me. Every now and then I would make a course correction according to the way she was going. I stopped for a bite to eat about an hour after sundown, then continued walking after the moon set, I finally slept, then at sunrise, only a few hours later, I woke and continued walking. I wanted to catch up as fast as possible. After going for five days like this I collapsed. I had been expecting it to happen, but was trying to last as long as possible.
I crawled feebly into a cave made from some tree roots growing strange. I slept until I was no longer tired. It was night time when I came back into consciousness. I ate some and then continued. This time I rested when I judged it was about five hours before dawn. I was still making good time, and I was likely to last longer like this. Days turned into weeks, weeks to months, months to years, years ti decades. Then finally- Okay fine, it was only another five days. The trees started to thin, and the going was angling up now. On the sixth day since I had recovered, eleven days since I started on foot, thirty two days after I separated from Clare, the trees disappeared completely. Now I was going completely by memories. I cursed myself again for not paying attention is class. I knew that I was on the border mountain range between Kry and Hurrit. I looked up. It was far above that earth and sky met.
It took a full two days to reach the summit. There was an almost visible line of the boarder, across the narrow, snow capped, summit. I reached one leg out, and then, I was in Kry, I has crossed the border. I camped the night on the summit, then prepared to descend. I woke up and started day thirty six. Now was the time for me to start a new life. I was ready to face the day, and world.