Penthesilea's Wish [Vol.1]

Chapter Fifteen

(On the plains near the River Terme, northern Turkey, 1247 BCE)

Penthesilea and her sister "Hippolyte-the-younger" rode their swift horses into a dense thicket of poplar trees on a small plateau. The location was above the river Thermodon, known today as Terme in what is now northern central Turkey. While in their mid-teens and hunting alone, the two Amazon girls were anxious to find game in that stand of trees. They remained a great distance from their 'Sisters' but had learned how to produce a piercing whistle to summon help if they needed it.

On that day they were determined to bring back a plentiful supply of food on their own. Tied tightly in a bundle and positioned behind them on their horses were the carcasses of several pheasants and rabbits, freshly killed that day to be presented as an evening meal to their clan. From observing the flaring of their horses' nostrils they silently detected there was a large animal in the area, perhaps a deer or a boar. Their horses would have reacted differently had it been a lion which were known to frequent the plains and plateau of the area. And if it had been their perennial enemy, male nomadic warriors, the girls would have smelled them themselves.

Penthesilea at seventeen was the older of the two by three years and had a stronger build. On the back of their horses they sat comfortably on their saddle blankets. A stout spear, two and a half meters long was securely pushed through the heavy bindings of this saddle for easy access. The lance had a wicked working end-an iron 'delta' point with a ridged center for piercing and lodging inside flesh and bone. Across one shoulder they carried their ever-present Scythian-style bows and attached to their horse's neck, leather quivers of bronze-tipped arrows bounced quietly along as they rode. Each girl wore tight wool leggings-the last year they were allowed to have them-eventually preferring the more bare-leg dress in their eighteenth year, when they were eligible to fight in battles.

It would be the year after that when they were allowed to participate in the reproductive rites of their tribe. These juvenile leggings were dyed with geometric patterns particular to the individual girl, repeating with vegetal colors in diagonal rows from the ankles to their thighs. Their upper body was covered by a loosely-fitting tunic-sleeveless and open from shoulder to shoulder. It moved freely with their actions and periodically exposed their breasts as they rode. This light garment was gray, green, or sometimes tan in color, like the foliage they needed to blend into for more camouflaged security. It was gathered close to their body only at the waist by a decorative belt which each girl had personally and lovingly wove, incorporating an array of colored stone beads.

The waist sash of each girl was subtly emblematic of their individual identity and sometimes included strands of colorful threads, feathers and even bronze or bone-carved rings. It would stay with them their whole life. It had been created in childhood with the instruction of the older women to insure it was individual and like no others, past or present. This decorative item they called "tah edra"would be buried with them in death and had the purpose of keeping their characteristics in the next world for all eternity.

Dangling now freely from Penthesilea's belt, incased in a leather sheath, was a small, symmetrically shaped bronze sword, not large enough to be a burden when moving, but of lethal measure and weight to be used in close, hand to hand combat or for the effective killing of animals and enemies at close range. The blade of this sword was kept razor sharp, and like all the weapons the women carried with them on horseback, it too, was ever-ready for access and lethal when employed through practice and agility.

The two girls, comfortable in their garb and quietly controlling their animals through the dense greenery, were anxious to encounter any of the game which was the usual fare and abundant for their staple diet. They were, by age, already skilled Amazons-confident and moving as one with their horses. That they had been trained to be constantly alert-ready for any unforeseen attack or opportunity to be the aggressor, was what kept their culture alive and formidable as opponents for generations. The Daughters of the Moon were forever on the watch for nomadic males, known to them since their birth simply as "Ma tahl," the 'enemy' in their Amazonian dialect. With these intruders they were prepared to fight to the death upon any encounter in the wild.