Page 47 of Upon Buried Embers
“My bloodline will not continue from me.” A tense pause follows, and Kaldar sighs.
“I wish better for you.” He sounds somber when he says that.
“Wishes are pointless.”
They are.
Kaldar squeezes his shoulder and then rides off.
I wonder why he doesn’t want to fall in love or have children. Aren’t he and Darcia together? Or maybe that’s one-sided.
I’m yanked a little as Serah picks up speed, and I focus on the ground, trying not to fall on anything. I don’t want to be dragged through the snow, and I don’t think he would stop even if I did.
He’s angry with me, and I don’t want to make it worse.
A little while later, those ribbons around the trees grow in numbers, and we leave the thick of the forest behind. Tents lay everywhere ahead, going up to the mountain at its back. They’re white instead of the brown they’ve been using. Thicker and larger, seeming to have separate compartments with how they’re shaped with several pointed tops.
Mixed in are some wooden cabins, though far less than tents. I spot three at the bottom of a gentle slope, and then a single one higher up near the base of the mountain. A fire settles in the center of the camp, and there’s a large hill to the right.
As we get closer, I spot wooden poles sticking out of the ground, and some people are tied to them. They look worn down, tired, and I think some are even dead as they don’t move.
Shouts echo ahead, and I look to the side of Rohan, spotting a dozen people coming toward us.
“You’re home!” One shouts, running over to a man on a pale horse, smiling widely.
“Mother!” Kaldar shouts next, dismounting and going to an older woman.
“Calian, take the horses to the stables to rest,” Rohan commands.
“Already on it, Dragonbond, Tofa!”
“Coming,” the girl I saw with him follows, hugging another man as he approaches them.
Rohan dismounts Serah, and begins loosening the leather that wraps around her. I wait while he checks her over, watching Drogonah disappear to the mountains ahead.
“It’s good you’re back, Dragonbond, shall we feast tonight?" A woman asks, and I peek at her. She seems a little older, and her smile is warm.
“In a few days, Astrid. I’ll help hunt later.”
“Oh,” she flails her hands around. “You don’t have to do that, we hunted earlier.”
“Convenient.”
“Great timing.” She nods, and gives him another warm smile before she leaves, but not before looking at me curiously.
Rohan unties my rope from Serah and after a tap on her neck, she trots off to where Calian went, other horses in tow.
I follow Rohan as he greets others, questions in their eyes that he doesn’t answer as I’m pulled along through the camp.
Many must have stayed behind from The Pit because now there seems to be more Dragorie here, and my fear is ever present.
They head toward the traveling members, helping with the sheep and carts. Rohan doesn’t speak much, answering in grunts and nods, but they don’t seem to be too bothered by his lack of conversation.
I hear a man say he’s tired and to leave him alone to rest, and I guess he’s tired. Rohan doesn’t sleep much and he’s always on high alert.
It’s bustling with life here, and I take it all in. Children run around, mothers chasing them, others eagerly welcoming their partners if their heated kisses are anything to go by. My cheeks heat as a man pushes a woman inside a tent, her tunic already halfway off of her.
It all seems so… fine. So very… un-barbarian like.
