Of The Sea : John Murphy

Morning After

Deep breath through the nose, out through the mouth.

"How many." I muttered.

"Five dead, four are unaccounted for." Thore informed me from behind. "We think that the reapers may have taken three men and one woman."

"Who."

"Meredith, Gjord, Klaus and Áki."

I shut my eyes and repeated my slow breathing.

"Nine fine Warriors were lost last night." I growled. "We haven't been here a month and we already have casualties!"

"We should send three shields out in search of the living, the rest will stay behind on high alert, we will finish the walls."

I nodded. "I'm going out there."

"Chief, we need you here, you ordered us well in the battle, what will we do if you're gone."

"I'm sure you can take my place just fine." I told the bald headed man while pulling off the weapons from the reapers and tossing them into a pile. "Besides, you can't stop me."

Thore wanted to further convince me but I silenced him, distracting myself from the recent event by investigating into these bodies. "The reapers, they were all men?" I asked.

Thore looked around then nodded. "As far as we know."

I hummed a reply, tilting the head of the dead. "Thore look at this." I gestured, showing him the several highly infected bumps on the side of the reaper's neck.

He crouched down beside me, also looking over the body.

He pulled apart the man's eyelids, revealing a deep red circling the large pupils.

"I've never seen anything like this in all my years of battling." He mumbled.

"I don't think any of us have." I sighed, yanking off some of the clothing for our own people.

"Woods clan!" A watcher announced.

Thore and I stood and made our way to the newly constructed gates.

Anya rode through high and proud on her horse, her eyes glazed us over down her nose.

Her people greeted one another and like the day before, brought the injured to the designated area.

The leader only took a brief glance at the blood soaked grounds before turning back to me.

"There was a reaper attack. We're the losses great?" She asked.

"We had fewer fighters, but we took more of theirs."

She nodded slowly, gesturing in two warriors with the flick of her fingers.

They dragged in a limp body with a sack draped over his head and awaited their next instruction. I pointed to a hut and turned my attention back to Anya.

"Thank you."

"I'm glad to get rid of him, he was a waste of space." She drawled.

I nodded.

I gestured for Thore to deal with the whole reaper discussion while I branched off to clear my head.

I went to rub my face but the sting in my cheek prevented that.

I winced and wiped my hands off on my pants, walking subconsciously to the hut.

The two guards left giving me a brief nod, leaving me alone with him.

I crouched in front of him and tugged off the bag.

He flinched and threw his bloody hands in front of his face.

I frowned and placed my hand on his, pushing them down so that I could see his face.

"Why didn't you talk." I whispered.

His crystal blue eyes opened and looked up to me. It pained me to see someone tortured. My people never used that tactic, if people were willing enough to die for their own, we'd kill them. Inflicting harm on others like this wasn't something we practiced often.

He parted his lips to speak but he just sighed, lowering his gaze to the ground.

Sanna came through the door with a bowl and a rag in hand, kneeling beside me to clean my wounds.

"I'm fine, leave us." I pardoned her, taking the items from her.

When she was gone I turned back to the young man. "The reason I handed you over was because I thought you would."

"Well you thought wrong." He growled.

"I suppose I did." I breathed, dabbing at the blood staining his face.

His eyes, something I couldn't escape, would always be on me. Maybe it was the colour of it that fascinated me. Blue wasn't something that was scarce among my people, I had blue eyes, but his were brighter than anything I've seen. If they were any lighter you would think he was blind.

I finally cleaned his face as well as I could then handed him the rag, clearing my throat. "Clean up, I'll have some clothes sent for you."

An hour later, after sending off the woods clan for the hundredth time, I could finally sit and gather my thoughts.

"Chief." Thore interrupted my silence.

I nodded with my eyes closed.

"I spoke the leader about the reapers."

I nodded again. "Where is their lair."

"She doesn't know the specifics but she knows they operate within the tunnels."

I perked up and turned to face him.

"Did she draw us a map?" I asked.

"No, she said that whoever enters the mines never comes out alive. And in her words that we should 'suck it up and live with the inevitable'" He told me.

I rolled my eyes. "So she expects us to leave our people out there? Does she not have any love for her people?"

"It's clear that these people don't operate the same as we do, they create emotional barriers between each other to prevent any pain and distraction." His deep voice was well informed.

"Back in the day, you would have been a good psychologist." I told him.

He tilted his head with a frown.

I shook my head. "Something I read once."

He nodded and turned to leave.

"I'm still going after them." I muttered.

He stopped in his tracks. "As long as you come back, no one will stop you."

"Don't worry, I don't plan on leaving my child an orphan."

He nodded once more and departed, leaving me in the space to sift through my disorganised thoughts.