| |
IT WAS AN HOUR BEFORE dawn when the Amazonian war cry pierced through the small sleeping village. The inhabitants were startled awake and most certainly caught off guard. Amazon warriors poured through the crude gates surrounding the town like ants on a sugar hill. They began grabbing the pregnant women left and right as the villagers scrambled to hide. They had come again to this village to fill their ranks with unborn children and young girls that could easily be molded into willing warriors of their tribe.
The Cerynians were no match for these warrior women. The poorly equipped farmers had no defense against the highly skilled daughters of war. For years, the Cerynians had endured these random attacks. Most of the time the village had ample warning to prepare against an attack, but recent Amazonian wars had made the Amazons more aggressive in their raids. This was the second raid in less than a week.
After the raid, Hon’hin, the village’s chief Raelisuir stood before the remaining villagers in a town meeting. His own daughter, Eunara who was recently wed and expecting, was taken in this raid. With tears in his eyes he addressed the villagers. “My people, we can no longer wait around for another raid on our children. It is time for drastic action. As your Raelisuir it is time for me to step into the twilight and speak to the Crythl.” He spoke slowly and smoothly as the morning sun poured over his ashen hair. Gasps emerged from the remaining few. Ila, a village elder, stood up and spoke.
“Hon’hin, I know you are in great pain. My child was taken in the first raid many years ago as well. Today was the first day in thirty years that I saw her and she held a knife to my very throat. It saddens me greatly that you have also lost your child but consulting the old ways cannot be a solution to this matter. The Crythl have been off limits for a reason.”
Although they were farmers now, the Cerynians were not always so simple in their ways. They were descended from a powerful tribe of dark magic wielders, the Emayth’i. The most ancient and powerful of the Emayth’i became a group called the Crythl. It was common place in the olden days for the village Raelisuir to consult with the Crythl to guide them, but the spirits had been abandoned years ago in favor of living a different kind of life; a life of peace and freedom from immortal rule of any kind. Most of the knowledge from this time had been destroyed to protect the generations from ever returning to this type of life of servitude. This new way of life is what made the will of the Cerynians so attractive to the Amazonians. A tribe that could group together and forsake the oppressions of the immortal world, even the ones with blood ties, would grow strong-minded women just as their tribe had. Now Hon’hin endangered all that the village had worked so hard to obtain.
“Ila,” Hon’hin began, “I realize what I propose is madness. We forsook the Crythl long ago to achieve what we have, but what good is having this way of life if we have to live in fear?”
“We could move, Hon’hin. We could start far away from here and continue with our common goal of life without immortals.” Ila pleaded.
“No, we will not run away from this area in fear. All we have worked for? We must stand and protect what we have created. My mind is made up. As the chief shaman it is my right to consult with the immortal shades if I desire. However, I will offer those against this idea one consolation. If you do not wish to go back to the Crythl then you may leave the village before the twilight and renounce your connections here.”
A young villager stood up and looked confused. “If we don’t agree and wish to leave, where are we going to go? You are not really giving us much of a choice!”
“Calm son. I will lead those that wish to stay away from this plan to a new land. We will start a new village away from here. The journey will be long and hard, but I have had a vision of a place we can safely travel to where we can achieve our desires. It is a land that lies west from here.” Ila suggested.
“Then it is settled, those that do not wish to consult with the Crythl may leave with Ila for the new area west. I wish you all peace and luck in your journey. For those that will stay, I will be back in the morning with the result of the consultation with the immortal shades.”