Page 2 of Sea of Stars

“There,” my mom said as she finished braiding my hair. “Now the sounds of the woods won’t bother you so much and you can get some rest. Clear your mind little one, and keep your dreams as dreams."

"I know, Mama," I said, a little defensively. Sometimes my dreams would transform into vivid nightmares and I'd awaken my parents with my screams. It hadn't happened for weeks though, so I wasn't sure why she was reminding me now.

My father looked up from the fire and gave my mother an encouraging smile. He insisted on never staying in one place too

long, but tonight he looked especially tired in the flame’s light. I wished we didn't always have to be on the move. He dropped his stick into the flames and the small fire sparked.

"Listen to your mother, Mahlia." He sat down beside us and wrapped his arm behind my mother's back. "My girls," he sighed. "The three of us have made quite the team."

I looked up at my parents and smiled.

"We both love you very much, Mahlia. Don't ever forget that. Now try to get some sleep. We have to leave here in just a few hours.” My mother sighed and kissed my forehead.

"Goodnight," I replied. I closed my eyes, so exhausted from our day’s journey that I could barely make out the crackle of the fire. Everything around me seemed hushed, but I still heard their quiet voices saying goodnight back to me. My father’s faint humming soon put me right to sleep.

I woke up coughing, the smell of burning leaves filling my nose. I sat up with a start. The campfire had spread, but I was far away, tucked inside some bushes.

“Papa?” I whispered. I couldn’t see anything as the smoke rose up into the air, but I heard a muffled voice, so I unbraided my hair and let it drape around me.

“She didn’t have any, Mortwar,” a large gray creature said to an even bigger gray creature, as they both walked out in front of the smoke.

I recognized that name. I had seen these ugly beasts before. “Brutarians” my father had called them. Back in the spring, my parents had known they were tracking us, so we had climbed to the top of the tallest tree we could find to wait for them to give up their chase. They were violent, vile creatures, and my parents had warned me to hide from them, so I sat still and stared at them from behind the leaves. I scrunched down as low as I could as they came into clearer view. The two brutarians both had gray, greasy skin. They were both so tall that their heads almost hit the branches in the trees, whereas I wasn't even as tall as the bush in which I hid. Most creatures were larger than me, though, so that wasn’t too startling. What amazed me the most was that the creatures had no hair on the tops of their heads. How do they hear a thing? I wondered to myself as I stared from behind the branches.

“What about the male?” the man called Mortwar asked.

“I’m sorry, master. Not a single marking on either of them.”

Mortwar pounded a nearby tree with his fist and leaves fluttered all around him. He grabbed something small and tossed it into the flames. I held my breath, squinting to see what was happening through the falling leaves. It almost looked like a body burning in the fire.

“A waste of time,” Mortwar mumbled. With all the leaves now settled on the ground, I saw him reach behind him and pick up my mother.

“Mama!” I shrieked, as he tossed her body into the fire. I ran out from behind my hiding spot, my fists clenched. My parents' lifeless bodies were withering away in the flames. Tears blinded me as I stumbled forward. I looked up and saw Mortwar staring at me. Unlike the other brutarian, his eyes were a piercing, wicked green. Thick furs draped across his shoulders, clasped together with some ornament that matched his eyes. Pieces of dyed green leather crisscrossed across his chest, strapping two large throwing axes in place on his back. A tattoo of an anvil was imprinted on his muscular stomach.

He turned away from me. “Kill her,” Mortwar said to the other man. “She’ll take after her parents, so we have no need for her.”

I turned to run but something caught my eye. The fire. The fire had turned blue! I wanted to run, but all I could do was stare as all the orange flames changed before my eyes. I had never seen anything so mesmerizing.

“You idiot!” Mortwar screamed as he stared at the blue flames. He grabbed the man and smashed his head into the same tree he had punched earlier. The tree broke in half and fell into the fire. It was instantly set ablaze in blue flames. Mortwar shoved the unconscious man into the flames and then the fire slowly returned to its normal hue. The air was filled with the horrid smell of burnt flesh.

I turned around searching for a hiding place, but before I even took two steps Mortwar had picked me up with one of his meaty hands.

I screamed, kicked his arm, and bit at his slimy fingers. But his grasp was firm, and he didn’t even flinch.

He held me up to his eye level and asked: “What is your name?” as he started to open up a basket with his other hand.

I glared at him and spit into one of his ugly green eyes.

***

Someone must have unchained my hands from the bar because I fell through the air and landed with a thud on the stage. The boards creaked below me. I moaned, feeling the pressure of the wooden beams against the new cuts on my back. A hand covered my mouth to stifle the sound.

“Shush, you’ll wake Mortwar,” a familiar voice croaked.

It was old Swishel. Her duty was to bandage the divinares after they were punished for wrongdoings. As the healer, she was the only one of us who never got whipped. I nodded my head and she removed her hand. I took a deep breath, ignoring the pain, and tried to stand up. My knees instantly buckled below me.

“Look at me, young one,” Swishel said as she grabbed my chin with her weathered hand and turned my head to face her. Her brown eyes were wild and filled with a strange intensity. “There isn’t much time. You must get up. I beg of you.”

I once again hoisted myself up off the ground. This time I took a step, but the stars in the night's sky began to whirl and I collapsed. Swishel grabbed me by my ankles and slowly started to pull my body toward her hut.

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