Starfall (FJ)

Unarmed

   "Let's hope we don't meet anyone the rest of the way."

   "Or anything."

     They sat next to their horses, waiting for the sun to dry them off. Zïâ was wringing out her hair, thinking. Finally, she said, "We can always make new weapons. Maybe not as good as our old ones, but better than nothing. She picked a rock out of the water, that had been worn flat by currents, and then another one, and started scraping the edges of the flat rock, sharpening it. Once, she could cut her skin on it (Hans winced), she dulled the bottom, and handed the crude knife to Hans. Hans looked at it, doubtfully.

          "It's the best we have until we meet some friendly Ash."

         "Ha ha. Now isn't really a good time for joking." Hans looked at the knife, weighing it in his palm. Looking up at Zïâ, he asked,"Can you make more of these? I would be able to throw them, like       mini-spears." Zïâ nodded, and started collecting more of the flattened rocks.

         "Now I need something to carry them in." Zïâ scowled, covered in dust and water from filing down and collecting stones.

         "You do something for once. All you've been doing is sitting back and watching."

         Zïâ felt thirsty the second they left the river. She consoled herself by remembering that they were already three fourths of the way to the grassy hills and cool streams of Ash. And the unfriendly natives. And burning bonfires in the center of every town. Ash towns were different than Glen towns. Ash towns were numbered. So the central town was One. The town directly north of it was Two. The town east of it was Three. The town south was Four, and so on. It went in a spiral shape. But Glen towns were named anything the people felt like naming it. Zïâ's town was just a village, called Vicus, village in Latin. The central town was actually a city, named Glori, because it was the most glorious city in Glen. It was made of marble, precious metals, and some important buildings even had diamonds studding the walls. It was covered with theatres, where actors, magicians, dancers, and singers came to perform. It was the heart of the arts in Helenia. One was just as crowded, but its crowd consisted of heavily-built invaders in thick furs from Glaceria, or thin, snake-like spies from Sàberhaüs. But most of all, there were the shadow-like masterminds, covered in soot like the rest of the town, with gleaming yellow eyes. Asha had red eyes, but that was from her evil. Her true eye color had been yellow. It was a town that bustled with the finest merchants, mainly sword-makers, or bow makers

              The main amusement was shooting competitions. They would line up all the contestants behind a line in an oversized stadium. The announcer would yell the call for the arrows to be pplaced. A second yell for the bows to be drawn, and then the second they let the wild animal, which was normally a hellhound, because they were the fastest and hardest animals to shoot, and if none of the archers could kill it in time, the crowd got a good puppet show with the bodies. If there was a winner, which was either the archer to shoot the wolf or the last one alive, he or she would get a slave as prize. And a weapon of their choice.

               Once they reached Ash, their weapons would look even more crude. And no one would look favorably on them, because they had such horrible weapons. They would either br captured and killed for target practice, or used as prize slaves in the arenas. And they couldn't get rid of the weapons once they reached Ash. That would be even worse. Zïâ wished they were taller, and older. Two small, young teenagers were not very impressive. And if they made better weapons, they were still small, and the Ash would steal the weapons from them. They would be unarmed.