Servitude: The Hydrangea Chapters

Chp 12: The First Lost Soul

While Elek would guide the braxl, now seeing that it was relying on him to lead the path while they would ride along, it wasn't long until the rising heat of the desert would make Englias harder and harder to see with the warping air. Even before they had reached the slain hekoska, Elek would place the scarf over his nose, able to see its carcass on the horizon. The closer they got, Marlina would see several more braxl crawling all over the carcass, seeming they were carrion creatures. While some would surround the hekoska with their fan-like ears close to the ground to hear for any shifting in the sand, they would hone in on Elek and the sled. Soon after shifting to a more defensive stance, Elek lets out a loud whistle, which his braxl would do the same. The others would then resume their meal, even allowing them to approach so Elek's braxl could eat a bit of the carcass to regain strength. The wrinkles around Elek's brow and the bridge of his nose showed that being around the foul-smelling carcass was unpleasant, but the braxl was enjoying itself as it would use its barbed tongue to clean off a few hekoska ribs. Stepping into the sled and gesturing for Marlina to stand, he opened a compartment beneath her and pulled out a pair of thick leather gloves that seemed long stained and a box. Approaching the carcass, taking one of the knives sheathed at his lower back, holding its grooved handle and the blade facing away from him. Carving a few feet from where his braxl was feeding, he'd carve out many chunks of maggot-infested flesh and put it into the box, food for the braxl during their trip. Once the braxl had its fill and cleaned itself off of blood, it would flick its tongue at the now sealed box Elek was carrying, him rubbing its nose.

Using a compass to make their heading to the west, things became quiet except for the sound of the sand shifting under the sled and the wind as it crossed the land. In the couple hours of travel, some distinctly shaped cacti that Marlina remembered coming across would pass by in moments compared to when she had trekked on foot. Seems the sandstorm had eliminated her footprints, so it was time for her to keep her eyes open to start checking their surroundings. Once she saw a cactus that had a portion of it torn off, she shouted to Elek.

"We're getting close to one of them, Sir Elek!" Pointing at a nearby low-sloping rock formation that jutted from the ground, it made a small shaded area beneath with a freshly shifted mound and a piece of cactus with a flower. 

Guiding the sled over, Elek would take a sip from his canteen, grab a rolled-up leather case, and follow her as she would start to crawl under the stone from how low it was to the ground. From how the rock rested, it practically hovered over the ground. Perhaps a half-buried stone slab. With enough weight at the top of the rock, this could easily be tilted and these remains would never have been found naturally. Fortunately, a group of braxl didn't use this as a morning perch. Remembering the disappointed look on Marlina's face from their conversation yesterday, Elek wouldn't dare say anything about her choosing to bury remains in an inconvenient place. Even if she was a lifeless construct, she had emotions, and he didn't want to upset her. So instead, he wanted to hear her reasoning. "Where did you find this one? And why did you decide to bury it here?"

"It was lying on the rock, or that's what it would have looked like. I saw the shine of the bracelet on its wrist as I passed by, and only saw its hand. The rest of it was buried, it took some time to get all of it out of the sand with just my hands and moved down here. It looked like they were tired in the heat and laid down on the rock, dying during their rest. I put their resting place in the shade so they weren't in the sun anymore, facing the sunset. It was sunset when I finished, so I sat with them and watched it, then moved on."

How bizarre, yet also empathetic, to have her sit there with them before she put them to rest. "Perhaps they had died of dehydration. Though we won't know for sure until I inspect the bones."

While Marlina would use her arms to push away the cactus and use the holes in her wrists as makeshift shovels to pick up the sand and move it aside, Elek would roll out the leather case full of neatly organized excavation tools. Knowing Marlina wanted to help, he would take a trowel and secure it to her arm with some twine. She was about to shove the spade straight down to get the greatest heap of sand when Elek would stop her.

"Shallow, level scoops. You could damage the bones. It could upset people when we return the remains." To show her the proper way, he'd use another trowel and show her. Though Marlina felt it would take a long time to do it that way, she also had to think how someone would like it if their loved one's head had a spade driven through it. Nodding in understanding, she would do it as he did. Once they found the head, Elek would have her start working lower down if she was a little reckless with her trowel. Using brushes to loosen the sand around the bones, enough became revealed for examining them, Elek would mutter as he inspected the bones like he had done yesterday. "Male... Colonial... approximately between 36 to 45 years old..." While Elek would start to dust off the larger bones before individually wrapping and binding them in cloth to protect them, Marlina would begin to dust off the clothing.

"Do you return the clothes and their things as well?"

"It depends. We do our best to respect their personal belongings since some items can be sentimental to those who still live. Sometimes we'll be lucky to be given permission to keep anything useful to us, which we negotiate with price. Help reduce the price for those who don't quite have the funds towards the delivery of the remains." Hearing the clang of tools from a belt that Marlina pulled out, Elek would gesture with his hand for her to let him see. Looking at the tools, they were pretty similar to the ones Elek had, but a bit more crude. "Seems this one might have been an archeologist..." Looking for one of the arms, he'd find the bracelet Marlina mentioned. With a little water to help get the excess grime, he would find a familiar engraving. It would show a broken column with thin leaves of plant fossils on either side, all within a mountain. "He was from the Seekers of the Forgotten guild." 

Marlina was not sure what that meant, Elek would explain. "Colonials at their core crave all kinds of knowledge, retrieve in any way they can. They use organizations called guilds, and this particular guild would search for long-forgotten ruins or civilizations and study them; what made them thrive, and what led to their downfall. And use that knowledge to their advantage. I was part of this guild years ago, studying the knowledge of bones from their only expert before they passed away. Until it became a teaching ground for grave robbers. I didn't learn what I did to steal from the dead, and I wanted no part of it when some would ask me to help identify lords and monarchs to see if their riches could be found." Colonial organizations were adamant about their conglomerates being identified by anything from a tattoo, to a family crest, to matching jewelry depending on what organization they were part of. 

Marlina soaked up the information like a sponge, it seemed a bit different than what she encountered in Urush. Urushians were grouped in various territories by one of the four elements they were born to control, almost every Urushian was separated from the families they were born into. To them, their spiritual family is where they belong, and they are content with it. These guilds seemed to concentrate on the pursuits and interests of the individual. "If I may ask, Sir Elek, why did you learn to look at bones how you do?"

When most asked that nature of the question, it was usually to mock or express distaste. By now, Elek had learned that her many questions come from a genuine place of curiosity. But that would distract them from the task at hand. "I don't find this the best time to discuss this. If you don't mind waiting until we have found shelter for the night?" 

Marlina wasn't without her disappointment to have to wait, but at least he didn't say no. She was kept to unearthing the rest since she had no hands to help wrap and tie the pieces. It was best since Elek did it meticulously, marking the individual wrappings with the names of the bones contained inside. Marlina did not know any of them, except probably 'skull'. Once everything was wrapped, Marlina would help Elek carry the packages to the sled, where he carefully organized them in one of the long compartments, leaving the bundle with the personal items on the top so Elek could catalog them later. The entire process took some hours, Elek would take a moment to eat in the shade and check on Marlina's form before heading west again.