The Ashes of Allmau: The Orfolk of Allmau

Chapter 3

Across the deadlands towards the rising sun the continent crumbled onto the coast. Over millennia rivers and winds had fashioned fangs and molar-like mesas out of the cliff edge. On that fine, near perfect line between the rising sun and the ending earth was one prominent mark. To the orfolk it was a compass point that marked the end of the world, to the humans on the other side, it was the beginning of the little-known lands of Allmau. Upon a stout mesa, the tower of Higard sat stoic between the two worlds, guarding two ravines either side that marked the only way upon. Along one of these narrow passages, her father had left long ago.

He had gone to find the source of the great fire, or to rediscover the orfolk, or proffer peace with the enemies of the broken Empire. The alibi she used depended on her mood and who she was talking to. But the truth remained she didn't really know his motives, nor his face for that matter. Never-the-less she maintained a vigil, waiting for his promised return.

"Ahna?" sat on the slopes of the common under the same sun that watched Kydd and the kilopede. Life in the Sounds was far more sedate, she could only imagine what adventures her father was enduring over the cliffs.

A large puffy hand-me-down dress swept aside the long green grass of the sloped common. A bonnet clung close to her round face forcing an explosion of ringlets forwards. All in all, she had the innocence and attitude of a decorated doll, that had swallowed a bee.

The common was a quiet place behind the Seven Sounds. The green slopes of the Sounds swept into a twisted, waterlogged forest of wild butcher brambles. Taller than houses and decorated with flurries of small, sickly-sweet, white flowers, the bramble forest was said to ward away the monsters of the deadlands, pyronauts included. Much of her time was spent here in the common, overlooking the forest and what was beyond, sitting, waiting, and watching with only a small straw doll to talk to.

"Ahna?" had two siblings. An older brother; Euol, and an older sister; Sybble, who was apparently looking for her.

She heaved a great sigh and placed the straw doll into her breast pocket, taking care to ensure it could see everything she did. She wiped clear her clothes and climbed through the tall grass into view.

"I'm here, I'm here," said Ahna, straightening her bonnet, "Calm down."

"Oh, there you are. Either the grass is getting taller or you're getting smaller."

Sybble was a stout, curved girl, filling into her figure with lengths of dark hair held together with a scaffold of hairpins. Though she had some height against Ahna, she'd not lost her round face that pinched at the chin allowing for a blissful smile, a trait of their mother. Her clothes were an odd patchwork that testified to her routine. An expression of art and necessity where she had exercised her talents in tailoring, only to be interrupted by her siblings.

"How is it looking today?" she asked, "Any signs?"

Ahna kicked through grass snares with a pair of heavy boots, "Nothing new." She marched by.

"Perhaps tomorrow."

The pair made their way through the green dales to the township of Concordance. The most southerly point of the Seven Sounds was little more than a dozen or so cubiform sandstone homesteads, carved into ancient grassed-over sand dunes and scattered throughout the dales. All under the watch of their iconic windmill. The Melody Mill stood atop the middle dune with its sails catching the offshore breeze, acting as a literal X on the map in vain hope of attracting someone. But that never seemed to happen. Below the singing mill, and in direct view of it, was the main valley itself. Palming a tidal inlet, it acted as the anchor point for the fishermen who called this place home. There wasn't much action in Concordance, but that which existed happened in the short distance between the waterfront and town square.