Traveling into Tribulation

JP with Voah and Gonyaul:

As their journey continued for a few more days into the Odsier plains, Gonyaul and Voah continued milking and enjoying their quality time. Both had enough experiences, as of late, to know to seize the opportunity before another unexpected turn snatches them away. Each day brought exciting new information about one another, and their very different worlds, whether it was through light hearted banter, physical touch, teamwork or private lessons on the Pillars.

When the first signs of the war and its consequences began to appear, it was a grim reminder of the seriousness of their present reality. Danger was all around, tribulation was where they were heading, and the scars of evil were becoming noticeable once again.

It was prudent to stay away from such things for safety and to not hinder their travels. Later that day; however, they saw the rising smoke of a large fire up ahead. There was a loud sound of crying and moaning reaching up into the evening air. Someone was hurt.

Gonyaul turned to Voah with a sympathetic look. She knew that look by now, he wanted to check it out. Gonyaul, directed an anxious Amu, and neared the sounds of anguish and pain with his head on a swivel. He was scanning the area carefully and remained situationally aware.

The last few days were interesting to say the least. Gonyaul was doing very well learning about the Pillars, in fact, the first night in the plains Voah was pulled out of a nightmare from her past and woke suddenly to the sound of Gonyaul’s prayers to what could only be Hoi.

It was so sincere and touching that it uplifted her spirits. She had done the same for him in one form or another increasing in accumulation since her natalday, though he was never around to hear it.

That moment would stick with her for eternity. She listened to him softly finish voicing his prayers to the heavens before she was able to slip into a much better dream.

The second day, a wind storm blew across the plains with spots of rain off and on, this made conversation difficult so they kept mostly quiet unless there was a necessity to do so. It felt only right to teach Gonyual about the Goddess of Sea and Storms that evening when the wind buffeted against their tent, forcing them to set it up better.

The third day, Voah taught Gonyaul the tenets of Kupen, God of Sun and Sky. The day was warm and clear like the first day of their travels and they must have had Kupen’s vigilance that day because their was no incident.

The fourth day, they witnessed the Odonine warriors leading cattle herds and slaves and they needed to either hide from sight or make themselves appear impressive enough to avoid. Voah suggested that Gonyaul take charge and appear more like a man in case they were confronted by the Odonine because women were not treated with the same respect as men. She would be subservient to him and if things escalated into a conflict, they would do what they had to do. He was understandably hesitant about this but agreed to try for her sake.

That day, Voah and Gonyaul had a recap of all that was learned and later that day, they would speak of Vastad.

The cries of pain brought Voah back to the recent memory of Aquilo as well as the nightmare from the other night. Both of them were concerned and curious enough to find out where the cries were coming from, Voah hoped it wasn’t some kind of bait.