The Savage

Part 2: Chapter Fourteen: Llewellyn

Spring brought the rains. The gray overcast sky and wet drizzle mirrored Eava's tearful mood as she watched the five cloaked companions pack and saddle the horses from the doorway of the round house. Salty tears mixed with the raindrops on her cheeks as she clutched her oldest daughter tightly again one last time.

"You will bring my daughter back." She ordered Shae.

"I will be fine, mother." Galia said squirming out of her mother's grasp.

Eava turned to Brenn, "Don't ask too much of her yet. She's still young, Seer or not."

"You have my word, cousin." Brenn replied earnestly.

"I don't see that its fair that Galia gets to go and I don't." Cillian pouted openly.

"Hush!" Eava hissed at him.

Grainne cried into her mother's skirts as she watched her sister and her uncle ride away. Fia and Shae were cheerful and chatting happily despite the deluge, tears and gloom around them. Shouts and waving ensued as they rode briskly away through the rain.

Approaching the boundary line, represented with stones partially buried in the earth, Llewellyn turned in his saddle to take one last look. The flight from Daear had felt like escape, this felt like he was leaving safety behind with only the unknown ahead of him. As soon as all five traveling partners crossed the row of smooth stones, the village disappeared from sight. Now the little sloping valley appeared empty, the small village hidden from view.

"You'll be back." Shae said, riding beside him.

"You don't know that." Llewellyn replied, his worry bubbling to the surface.

Shae peered placidly at him and simply shrugged returning to his conversation with Fia.

The countryside remained the same as they went south along the muddy road with thick forest on either side. When the road turned east they continued south on a narrow deer path in single file. The barely budding trees offered no coverage against the rain.

"How long is it going to rain?" he asked near midday.

Shae laughed hardily, "Until summer." He replied.

The day had begun its end and dusk was settling in before the showers relented, although the sun had yet to make an appearance.

Reining in his mount to a halt Shae pointed, "Look!"

Against the darkening gray southern sky trailed a pillar of black smoke rolling upward. "What is that from?" Llewellyn asked.

"It's too big to be a camp fire." Fia said.

"It's a village!" Brenn said, swinging her horse around and taking off at breakneck speed towards billowing smoke.

The odor of burning hair and human flesh reached them before the wreckage of the settlement became visible. Nothing was left alive. The old, the young and all the livestock lay dead in misshapen heaps across the ground amongst the mud. Every building and home had been burnt leaving just remnants of the stone walls. All that was left of the skeletal remains was the round house, as a smoldering pile ash.

Llewellyn had never seen death like this, he wasn't prepared for the gruesome carnage. He stared in disbelief at the gore around him.

Shae openly sobbing in grief as silent tears rolled down Brenn's face. Galia stared in horror, her bottom lip starting to quiver.

"Should we burn them?" Fia asked, her throat thick with emotion.

"We should but I'd rather we go after the living then deal with the dead." Brenn replied.