Chapter 2: Cradle & Grave

  As Leo and his mount approached the edge of their village, the humming of the jumping insects changed pitch to a low droning sound that blanketed the soundscape. His pride’s village was located within a sprawling, shallow indentation in the rippling terrain. He assumed that all villages were located in something similar. Space for the limited civilization that Rathanni allowed.

  The first meandering row of turges, homes made of tanned hides bound around a large log, defined the boundary of the village. Every Grangari that had ever existed lived in a turge such as these. Outside of every turge was a small bonfire, the heart of the home. This was where all meals were eaten, and where people connected with the pride. Leo didn’t much like being inside his turge. It was a welcome reprieve from the sun, but the walls felt like a cage. They strangled him. He preferred to be out in the wilds, horizon enticing his movement forward.

  A pair of middle aged Grangari waved at Leo, shaking him out of his wandering trance. His pridesmates, the people of his village, were hard to miss. The couple’s golden and obsidian black hair were accentuated by two pairs of blood red eyes. Grangari boys were born with shades of vibrant yellow hair, while girls were given a luxurious onyx. Leo smiled warmly and waved back. He had eaten with them many times growing up. Young Grangari were often encouraged to eat at a different family’s bonfire each night. The pride was a family in and of itself. Kash and Kera, he thought of their names together always. It was fitting, they were inseparable. Both of their children had died in Communion, so they eagerly accepted any young Grangari’s wandering interest.

  Towering above in the distance, a black ziggurat marked the center of the village. The Blood Temples looked like nothing else in Granger. The ordered mass of solid black stones, rising in perfect geometric order to meet a hollowed cubic chamber at the top, dwarfed the fragile turges below it. Rathanni’s influence was inescapable, Grangari would not even exist without his guardianship. They lived hand-in-hand with his will.

  Leo’s beast trudged on into the dusty dirt roads of the village. It was time to begin the final stage of their daily work, delivering fresh firewood to every turge. Leo would dismount at every turge and carry a bundle of coagulant wood to the familial bonfires. All along the way, he warmly greeted everyone he passed from atop his mount.

  As the sun began its slow descent back to Earth, Leo at last reached the inner core of the village. The matte black ziggurat rose up out of Leo’s vision. All around it, channels of blood stained midnight stone grew out of the temple. Some of these canals crept along the earthy brown streets, out of sight. These canals lead out to key points in the village, providing a certain vigorous elixir to suppliers who needed it. One of these channels led to the bone-smith’s workshop.

  The forge stood out from the collection of sloping hide turges that surrounded it. An open-air structure, seven thick white wooden columns held up a triangular log roof. Directly below the roof, a large patched hide was tied near the top of the logs, allowing it to slope inwards like a water droplet. Smoke coming up from the blood-pool would travel along this inverted bell and be carried out of the workshop.

  After giving his lowing companion a series of soothing head scratches, Leo pulled his labor-beast up to the side of the forge and dismounted. He came here often. The bone-smith Ajan was like Leo’s second father. In fact, perhaps Leo had a better relationship with Ajan than he did with Tavr. At one time, to the smith’s great delight, Leo considered becoming Ajan’s apprentice. The pair had forged a number of works together. Hammers, axes, maces, and shields were always needed in the village. In particular, Leo savored the forging of maces. Something about shaping the form of the weapon-polishing the ball atop its long handle and hammering out the dents-was so captivating. Bone-smithing was satisfying work, visceral and immediate. But, the forge was so small. It was suffocating.

  A portly man of about forty, wielding large muscular arms covered in wispy golden hair, clutched a small hammer before a cream colored anvil. He wore a tattered hide tunic and brown fur trousers. At the sound of the labor-beast’s approach the man looked up from his work. His sunken, blood-red eyes glimmered and he wore a broad smile upon catching sight of Leo. “Ah, my boy! Back from the wilds so soon then?”

  Leo ambled up to a table behind the open-faced front of the workshop and tossed his axe onto it with a rattle. “I need time to train with Tavr.” As Leo looked up, he couldn’t help but smile a bit at the beaming, bearded man in front of him. “Besides, the village is comforting. And the heat out there, it’s brutal these days. Summer’s going to drive me mad Ajan.”

  Ajan raised an eyebrow at the worn tool. “Working hard I see.” He chuckled as his eyes looked the axe up and down. “Who taught you to chop. You know, you’re supposed to cut the trees, not the axe boy.” Ajan laughed raucously at his joke. He picked up the battered implement and gave it a spin in one of his massive, hairy hands. “This ain’t even worth sharpening in this state. Like trying to polish dirt!” Without hesitation and with great gusto, the burly man threw the tool into a large blackstone pit in the center of the forge. Leo winced at the sudden demise of his trusty axe as it sank into the depths of the pit, consumed by a bubbling whitish-ruby liquid. “Oh don’t look so glum, boy. It’s a tool, they come and they go.” Ajan clapped his hands as he turned to the side and faced a wall adorned with an array of formed bone. “Don’t you worry, I’ve got another one ready for you. Can’t keep a young man from his work, can I boy?”

  “So, am I a young man or a boy then, Ajan?”

  Ajan ignored the question. He picked an axe off the wall and swept the side of the finely honed blade with his fingertips, examining the edge. Ajan frowned. “You know, For the life of me, I still don’t understand why you’d rather be out in the scorching sun chopping wood all day than working here with me. Nothing more satisfying than tool work, you know!”

  Leo gave a slight smirk. Every time he stopped by the forge he got the same lecture. “Lumber harvesting is important work! What would you do without wood for your bonfire? Besides,” Leo looked around the messy workshop as smoke billowing out of the pit filled the air, “all this smoke can fog up a man’s mind. You know what I mean?”

  With wide eyes, the portly man looked Leo up and down, flabbergasted. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous boy! A sharper man they couldn’t find in the whole village if they tried! In fact…” the large man trailed off into a fit of coughing and wheezing. Leo’s smirk widened a bit as Ajan looked back up at him with an embarrassed look, hands on his knees. “Well, I’ve survived this long haven’t I? Not just anyone can make it to my age you know.”

  Leo’s smirk disappeared and his eyebrow twitched at the thought.

  Ajan stood silently for a moment, an oddity for the vigorous smith, before seeming to be struck by an idea. He turned his back swiftly and returned the fine axe to its original mount.

  Leo started at the gesture. “Oh, come on Ajan, I’m just kidding around. You know I respect the craft! I’ve enjoyed the work we’ve done together. I just don’t want to be cooped up in a building all day long.”

  Ajan seemed not to hear. He walked over to his anvil on the other side of the workshop and grabbed a horned disk hanging off of it. Then, he ambled over to Leo and handed him the shield. “I almost forgot, made it specially for you. You don’t need a new axe right now, boy. Don’t distract yourself. Focus on your training.”

  The shield of hardened bone rattled restlessly at the side of the labor-beast’s saddle as Leo exited the village center and continued on his delivery route, sweeping through the far half of the village. Leo once again fell into a trance. A pair of giggling boys ran past him. One was wielding a small stick, holding it up like a weapon. Leo reflected upon what these roads used to feel like when he was younger. Back when his biggest worry was how much longer he had to play before the sun went down. Time marched on. How many more nights did he even have? How many more…

  The still, dusty air remained abuzz with the droning of the jumping insects. And they were getting louder. It sounded as if they were all around him, as though they must have covered him completely to make such an omnipresent noise. Their relentless hum seemed to burrow into Leo’s mind, binding him. The still air pained him. There was no wind to free him from the suffocation. Leo scratched at his hair restlessly. He was trapped within his body, trapped within this damn village.

  “Leo, hey Leo!” A bright, nasal voice suddenly wrested Leo away from his needling thoughts.

  At the sound, Leo’s labor beast chuffed and halted abruptly. From below, Leo saw a scraggly young man appear by his mount's side. “Ah, Pait! Hah, you, you startled me.” Leo took a deep breath and recomposed himself, patting his spiky golden hair down. His focus redirected, the frigid water was locked away once again. “It’s good to see you. Although… since when do you hang around the village in the middle of the day? Shouldn’t you be in the pasture?

  Pait shrugged his narrow shoulders, “My fathers got it handled for now. Too hot for the milk-beasts to be giving us much trouble today, they just want to lay around.” Pait patted Leo’s huffing labor beast on the flank. “Wanted to see you and the Big Chief as you came in. He’s not giving you any trouble I assume?”

  “Yeah he’s… oh you’re not talking to me are you”, Leo chuckled. Pait’s first concern was always the beasts. They hearkened to him even when they wouldn’t to anyone else. “Don’t worry Pait, I couldn’t make him do anything he didn’t want to anyways.”

  Pait cocked his head, “Well, yeah. He’s the Big Chief for a reason.” Pait looked over at the cart full of firewood and frowned. “Well, I’ll help you two finish up.” Pait climbed aboard and gave the labor-beast a big clap on the rump. The great beast snorted a large blast of warm air out of its flared nose and trudged on.

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  The newly formed trio went along from turge to turge, dropping a large bundle of bleached firewood at each. The task went more quickly with Pait’s help, but his pace was only half of Leo’s. Eventually, nearly halfway through the final arc of the route, a turge marked with an crimson symbol nearly a hundred paces behind the Blood Temple came into view. The blood priest Grath and his daughter lived here.

  Pait grinned sheepishly, scarlet eyes glimmering under his unkempt, moppish blond hair. “I’d wager Aella’s out there training right now. “Grath doesn’t even try to keep that girl to her duties these days! Every time I pass through here I can hear her.”

  “Ah”, Leo smirked. “Alright, Pait. I get it now. I thought your offer to help was strange. It’s not like you to volunteer for any extra physical labor. Why don’t you just tell me the truth next time?”

  Pait flushed. “Oh come off it. Not as if you can blame me Leo. Everyone can see you gawking at her during the ankhfires.”

  “Yeah well, don’t we all? At least I’m direct about it”.

  Pait gave Leo a soft punch on the shoulder before he walked ahead in embarrassment.

  Indeed, as the trio drew closer to the marked turge they began to hear repetitive, shrill grunts of exertion. Rounding one side of the turge, they saw the back of a young woman shimmering in sweat, pounding relentlessly at the air with her mace. Her long, glossy black hair swayed back and forth in a dizzying arc as she moved.

  Upon hearing their approach, Aella turned around and smiled wildly. Dimples formed to the side of her full lips. “Boys! I’ve been waiting for someone like you two to show up!” Her mace made slow circles in the air as she stared at the trio. Aella’s eyes opened wider, long black lashes accentuating her large scarlet irises. “Either of you up for a quick duel? You’d be shocked if you knew how long I’ve been out here. But, training with the air isn’t the most exciting thing.”

  Before they could answer, Aella had dropped her mace and approached further, making quick paces towards Leo’s labor-beast. The shining white disk hanging upon its saddle had caught her moving eye. “Ah! Is that newly forged?”

  Leo and Pait idled, struck by the whirlwind that had just approached them. Leo momentarily looked directly down from upon his labor beast to see the top of Aella’s shimmering chest, before righting his gaze forward. She wore what most every woman in Granger wore in the summer, a grey fur skirt and a strip of soft hide around the chest, but her clothing seemed especially tight on her. “Uh… yeah. Yes, it’s new. I just got it. Ajan just finished it.”

  Aella shuffled over to place herself into Leo’s gaze again and stared up at him, her smile holding wide. “Can I hold it? Please! I’ve never handled one this fresh, you must understand.”

  Leo fidgeted in his seat, ‘Go ahead.” He dismounted and walked over to his labor-beasts side, standing next to Aella. Leo took the pearly shield off his mount and handed it to the wide eyed girl in front of him.

  Aella traced a hand over the shield and tapped its dull horn. “It’s so shiny. Guess it pays to cozy up to the smith, huh? You’re a lucky man Leo. But, shields are made to be used, not shown off like a trophy! You’d better roughen this thing up. So come on then, duel me!”

  There was a devious glint in her face. Leo got the sense that she was playing with him, testing him in some way. She looked at him with a piercing glance, masked with a friendly coyness, when she said certain things. She was thinking about something that remained an open mystery.

  Leo shuffled his feet. His arms ached. He was tired after this long day of laboring and he didn’t want to embarass himself in front of her. It was a risky game, dueling a woman like her. He got the sense that she wouldn’t play easy. “Well…”

  Pait suddenly appeared next to them with eagerness in his eyes and wrenched the attention of the whirlwind off from Leo. “I’ll duel you Aella! Leo’s tired, let him rest.”

  Aella flipped the large shield around in her small hands and looked back up at him excitedly. “Yes! Good! Let’s get started then, shall we?” She tossed Leo’s shield back to him and quickly strode back up to her mace. Its solid, round wooden head glimmered in the sunlight, promising a harsh impact to those too slow to dodge it. “Oh, well I suppose I shouldn’t use this. Wouldn’t want to kill you, would I Pait?” She chuckled and motioned the two to come around to the front of her turge.

  “One moment,” Aella briefly walked inside, before coming out with two large, straight sticks. “Here Pait”. Aella tossed a stick to Pait with a quick, fluttery motion.

  Pait fumbled it in the air for a few seconds before finally subduing it with his clammy hands. “So, uh, what exactly are the rules here?”

  Aella gave him a quizzical look. “We’re training for the real thing here. What kind of rules do you imagine you’ll have to hide behind when you’re down in that pit?”

  Pait squirmed a bit and gave a sheepish chuckle. “Well… yeah, sure. But, I’m not looking to go to the temple tonight.

  “Fine Pait. I won’t try to cripple you then. But you had better man up.” Aella’s large, black-lines eyes narrowed upon him. She looked at him the way Leo did just before delivering the final hack that felled a tree.

  In that moment Pait seemed to recognize the reality of the situation. The excitement in his eyes faded, but he held his head up. He knew he couldn’t back out now. Why must the whirlwind be so alluring?

  Both fighters took their places and began to circle each other slowly, large polished sticks held up to the shining sun. A bolt of vigor seemed to hit Aella suddenly. Her breathing quickened and her eyes began to dart about with an erratic fervor. Impatient, she charged the unsteady youth. Pait blocked the opening flurry of Aella’s strikes, pivoting a back foot back and forth to properly defend against the salvo. His eyes remained locked on Aella’s cruel stick; that which promised pain and humiliation. After fifty heartbeats Aella seemed to tire of his defense. She stepped back, legs jumping in place to maintain her battle intensity.

  Leo 's eyes remained focused on the form of only one of the fighters. Aella’s olive skin shimmered, the sharp contours of her jostling body on full display. Her stomach curved back and forth with each bounce, a different muscle rippling at every part of her springing strokes. A hot steam filled his head, numbing all his senses. Time slowed as a tension filled his veins.

  Aella looked at Pait with a mix of disappointment and morbid excitement. “I do hope you plan on fighting back at some point. Show a little enthusiasm!”

  “You don’t… whoa!” Pait began to respond, but was interrupted by Aella’s next volley. This time, Aella switched up her tempo. Pait tried to block, to pivot and weave, but he was getting overwhelmed. There was only so long that he could maintain his focus and energy.

  Aella unleashed an overhead strike. As Pait blocked it his stick reverberated into his aching wrists. He lingered as he moved his stick to his side with a pained look. Aella grinned predatorily before stepping back and performing a thrust. To this, Pait had no response. The hard stick hit him in the sternum, knocking the wind out of him. As Pait attempted to catch his breath, Aella went low and knocked Pait off his legs with a fast and fluid sweep. Pait fell and hit the ground hard. Encouraged by this, Aella rose her stick, preparing another harsh barrage.

  “Aella!” Leo barked.

  Aella seemed struck by a foreign thought. She lowered her weapon and turned away from her fallen pridesmate. Her jittering eyes normalized upon Leo as she walked up to him. She stared at him with a desirous gaze. “Ready for your turn then?” At her approach a sweet, intoxicating smell like fresh berries mixed with the anesthetizing vapor in Leo’s head. Aella’s scarlet eyes were locked upon him. It seemed as if she had forgotten that Pait existed as he moaned on the ground.

  The heady steam saturated Leo’s thoughts, but they focused past the girl in front of him and onto his friend's prone body. “Uh…. Not this time Aella.” He shook his head and walked past her.

  Leo stood above Pait and offered a hand. “You alright? Any broken bones? Maybe we have to go to the temple after all.”

  “No! No, I’m ok. I’ll shake it off.” Pait’s face was bright red as he took Leo’s hand and stood himself up. We’ve got more to do, don’t we? Let’s go.” Pait stared ahead and walked off towards the labor-beast.

  “See you boys!” came a high-pitched voice as Leo followed after.

  Leo and Pait finished their work in silence. The numbing droning of the flying insects continued to grow. After the last turge on their delivery route had been attended to, Pait waved Leo a goodbye before limping up onto the labor-beast and riding off up to the hills. Leo was left with one last bundle of wood, which he hoisted onto a broad shoulder. He had one final turge to visit-his own.

  As his turge came within view, Leo saw his father sitting on a large log by their bonfire, staring at the ground. His once dark blond hair was taken by white, a symbol that commanded great respect. A long, white beard hung from his square jaw. The color of his hair signaled his growing and earned resemblance to Rathanni, with his brilliant silver coat.

  Tavr looked up as Leo came closer. “Ah, son.” One of his knees popped as he got up unsteadily. Leo’s father had been known as a great warrior his whole life, you must be to reach the age of an elder. But, he was getting old. He was not nearly as mobile as he was when Leo and Sier were little.

  Tavr stood aside as Leo dropped his final bundle of coagulant wood next to their bonfire, adding to an ever growing pile. Leo and Tavr’s fire pit always had a surplus of firewood, proof of Leo’s occupation. “”Good harvest then?”

  “Yes. Hot though,” Leo said. He turned his back and motioned to go inside their turge as Tavr knelt beside the firewood to examine it. He didn’t ever find much conversation to be had with his father. Especially so since Sier died in Communion almost one year ago.

  “Leo.” Tavr’s tone arrested Leo’s movement. Tavr’s eyebrows lowered into their familiar furrow. “These cuts are unclean. They’re imprecise.”

  Leo let out an imperceptible scoff before turning around to face his father. “It’s wood, dad. It’ll burn either way. Or did you expect them to be in perfect rectangles?”

  Tavr ignored his son’s sarcasm. He had gotten used to it. Tavr held up one of the scarred blocks as he got up. Chaotic, shallow cuts were hacked into its faces, and frayed splinters entwined with bone shards stuck out at sharp angles. “This wood looks like it was mangled, Leo. It’s as if you cut them blind. What gave you such a panicked haste?” Tavr looked at Leo piercingly, his eyes dressing him up and down as if to discern for themselves the answer that would satisfy them.

  The still air remained abuzz with the low droning of the jumping insects. Leo wavered for a few moments. He looked away from his father, instead staring at the dormant fire pit. “Do you really want to know, dad?”

  Tavr said nothing, but his stare made it clear that he wasn’t going to let this go. Of course he wouldn’t.

  “Fine. A Sol killed a diner-beast in front of me. I wanted to get home.”

  Tavr tensed up where he stood, motionless. His brows remained furrowed as he looked away from his son. “Oh…”

  The tension further infected Leo. He waited a few moments for a response, but he knew that he wasn’t going to get one. He turned his back once more before drawing the hide entrance of their turge and going in. The dim light inside was a welcome sight, he’d had enough of this day.