The Slaughter

JP with mdman and Cindy

Cold, it didn't just feel cold but smelled as if snowflakes could just fall but didn't. The kind of coldness which only warmed so much during the day. Islana was familiar with this cold.

The frost met the Horde each morning as they moved forward, drawing ever nearer to the city of foreigners.

The Red Crows, who knew this land best, had taken up the job of scouting, moving ahead of the group, then reporting back.

The first days move was fairly as expected. Not much to report on, except maybe the extra amount of shine in the leader's eyes when she gazed upon one particular man from the swamp.

Day two came and more moving forward, when Raud, the leader of the Red Crows, came with message from the scouts. The look on his face spoke volumes. "Sister Locust, they're dead, slaughtered. It must be hundreds." The man was clearly distressed. "The animals - horses, caribou, and deer just slaughtered. " Raud hung his head, grief striken. "There are lugars, crows, vultures just picking apart what's left of the carcasses."

Islana put her hand up, the command to halt could be heard echoing through the ranks. "Slaughtered? Who.." On second thought there was no need to ask. "The Helians....they must have slaughtered them to try to weaken us." Islana having such a connection to animals, felt the sense of grief fully displayed by the Red Crows.

However, the Sister didn't have the option of lingering on her sadness for long, they needed a plan now. Food was critical and the lack of it was not good. She decided, "We'll go there and send out hunting parties. I don't think the Helians could have killed all the animals." It would be more difficult than planned but they would survive .

The Horde was told to make noise to scare off the scavengers which worked. An ever rolling landscape of animal carcasses filled the fields. This land had once been beautiful, in its way, it now just looked like death, the blood of the dead feeding the grass.

"Tell everyone," Islana said. "We need to work quickly, all of us. Build fires, destroy the carcasses in the fires. Let us get this land back to what it was, at least, as much as we can.”

The march was glorious for Ch’Truta. Not for the immense horde that was with them, but for the fact that He and Islana were officially bound together. The Sisters did not prevent it, possibly put in check by the Twin. He rode high upon the sturdy black stallion, full of joy at being bound to the most beautiful lady in Arcadia.

The night they shared together, he would cherish. So much was said between them without any words. It was a touch, an embrace, a kiss. He looked forward to more moments like that in the future.

But now, they were riding to do battle. As they drew closer to the goal of the city, word began to spread that there was a massive slaughter at the fore of the horde.

Ch’Truta rode forward and dismounted at the sight of the death before him. His mind shifted to the swamp, the place of death, as Ch’Truta knew it. This wasn’t supposed to happen here. There, yes. When the gasses came up from the bottom of the swamp, there was often mass death.

Ch’Truta knelt beside Islana. Tears came to his eyes as he mourned for the land. This is what the intruders would do. The land would suffer. This killing was not for food. It was a tactic.

“They mean to slow us down,” Ch’Truta announced. “They know we will properly pay homage to the land. The smoke will alert them as to our closeness.”

Islana put a hold on the fires, for the time being. "They know we're coming and fires will have to be lit tonight, but Ch'Truta, do you have another suggestion as to what to do with the carcasses?" She was drawing a blank.

The Horde shouldn't get much closer to the stone city, yet. It was too soon for that. The dead animals would continue to draw scavengers. The bodies would contaminate any water they were thrown into. The Helians had begun to summon Panolis with the slaughter. "Massive graves?" The leader proposed wondering if he had the same idea.

Ch’Truta knelt there, tears still streaming from his face. If their people handled the dead and decaying, it may make them ill.

Ch’Truta sighed. He looked to his Love, eyes reddened.

“We cannot risk our people handling the corpses,” he replied. “Death often follows the handling of death in the swamp. Decay is occurring. We must burn them where they are, but not handle them. He gave another heavy sigh. “We must also be more vigilant from here going forth.”

Islana nodded, "Tell everyone to burn the corpses where they lay but do not touch the dead animals." She sent the message through the Horde. A few guards started on burning the ones near her and Ch’Truta.

The young leader breathed and wiped her moisture filled eyes, allowing the grieving now that the decision had been made.

When Islana would hunt and before eating, she would thank the animal for giving its life so she could have sustenance. That was not the response to this. This killing had been brutal and without merit, even as a strategy, it was still without merit. Killing to show the opponent up. Islana knew that, was part of war, but the creatures of the field were the most innocent in all of this.

Closing her eyes, the words seemed to flow through her. "May their spirits lift towards the heavens
May they be embraced by the Twins and Erehuin and the Gods who truly belong on this land.
May their deaths be forever remembered as the brutality from the Helians that it truly was
May we make right, what the foreigners have so wronged
To the Twins "- she kissed the sleeves on her robe, once in each side.

The words came from her but not, as if the Sisters and Islana worked together to form what to say. The young woman blinked and wiped the tears which now flowed freely, as the dead burned around them.

Her tear filled eyes looked at Ch’Truta, this wasn't just hard because of the dead animals. "I can't believe I come from such brutal people. They claim to be so civilized, pretend under the guise of the Pillars and technology to be so advanced but they are the true barbarians of this land. I wish, sometimes, I hadn't been born to them.”

Ch’Truta gently wiped the tears from her eyes. He smiled to assure her.

“If you hadn’t been born to them, you would not be the lady I am bound to today. I am grateful for the past you have overcome. Use it to inspire those who follow you on to the victory we have foreseen. Remember, knowledge and trying to improve upon what we already have often pulls us away from our grounding to the land. Instead of living by the land, we seek more to become more powerful. We forget that the land itself gives us her gifts and power. I am grateful that you have seen that.”

Islana nodded, still the idea that she came from people that just took to slaughtering made her stomach turn. It would take hours, even into the night but they would get it done. "We must rid Arcadia of their pestilence." The Sister's eyes had grown eerily cold, her voice more gravelly.

Aguzul turned upon hearing the voice, "We need to get the Sister into her tent." It clearly wasn't Islana speaking.

Ch’Truta heard the change as well. He saw the eyes.

“Yes,” Ch’Truta agreed. “Let us go Sister Locust. We must prepare for dinner,” he spoke softly in encouragement.