Destined

"I Went To The Gate"

As fast as we could, we were out of the castle. Nobody bothered us because the guards recognized me as Gaisgeil's destined. I rushed to my home. I couldn't leave on an adventure with an uncertain outcome without saying goodbye to my grandfather.  Besides, I needed a few things: clothes, a compass, my knives, medicine and medical supplies. 

Conor left to get us horses. He waited for me at the grand gate. It was heavily protected and the only entrance and exit to Gordan. Nobody would enter unsolicited....and everybody who wanted to leave was controlled. Outside of that gate a completely different world began. One of incredible dangers, risks and threats.

We didn't have the weapons, our ancestors had, like fire arms, who killed from a long distance. Those devices were gone. We only had knives, swords, poison darts, battle axts, spears, bows and arrows, sarissas, shields. They were only suitable for short distances.

This was the reason, why only heavily armed troops left for another destination. The Creachadair and the Dhaoine were members of the squads that accompanied and guarded those troops. While the Creachadair had physical characteristics of feline predators like strength, flexibility, claws and fangs, the Dhaoine were like human bulls: big, long hair, incredible bulky and immense strong. It was plain stupid and suicidal for Daonnachd to leave the big cities alone and not in a secured troop.

The big cities like Gordan provided warmth, food and security. Not only were the humanoid creatures partly hostile in Desa, the animals were too. I once read that there was a time, when humans had nearly destroyed the habitat of many animals. 

No natural predators, no big prey, no deep untouched forests. Humans lived mostly in big cities like today. The wildest animals you could face in the remaining woods were boars and foxes. As soon as a few wolves were seen, they were hunted and killed, because mankind was afraid of them. Humans wanted to protect their sheeps, bovines and horses on the grazing land. 

Today we were accustomed to share the lands with wild animals. If you stepped outside of a city you had to be prepared for an encounter.

Like the humanoid forms developed in different ways, the animals did too. Extinct races  resurfaced at one point of history on earth like aurochs, Amur tigers, Megaloceros (those were gigantic deers) and all kinds of wolves. The most dangerous wolves were the Anthropophagos. Their bodies were as big as a grown up bovine. The bite force of their teeth was deadly. 

Once all animal predators had a natural fear of humans. That changed now. They weren't afraid anymore of humans, they didn't flee when seeing other creatures like the Creachadair, Dhaoine or Cuan.  Oh no, on the contrary, they hunted us Daonnachd with special preference. We were on their menu.

But not only dangerous mammals roamed the lands but also birds of prey. Gigantic eagles hunted the sky. Their wingspread were 4 to 5 meters, beaks and claws deadly. They were able to kill a human and to carry the body away.

The sea was another dangerous space. Big predatory fish hunted the waters. The Cuan were very brave to enter their space. I am sure, I wasn't keen to meet those animals. Not at all. But I HAD to reach Bertaèyn. My gut told me, that all secrets could be revealed, that I would be able to find  the keys to the whole puzzle. Perhaps than I'd have all the solutions we needed for a better world. A world without elites. A world without antagonism but instead cooperation and collaboration. 

Conor and I had to be careful in case one of the guards recognized me. Time played against us. Gaisgeil was distracted....but nor for long. After the birth ...the birth of his child, he would realize very soon that I had not kept my promise: to wait for him. 

Gaisgeil - my heart broke speaking his name. I would betray him, abandone him, leave him behind. Call it what you want, it was a breach of trust. How could he ever forgive me?