Octavian

Octavian, Part 1

"Octurian please remember everything that I have tried to teach you.....cough." My mother coughed hard several times releasing some of the cold hard phlegm that was rapidly forming in her lungs and throat. Her eyes were starting to glaze over with a white slimy film. It wouldn't be long now. I knew but I continued to 'coo' at her side...hopeful.

"De tar favre Ailon". She praised her deity in our native tongue. A deity who neither she or I had seen, a deity who would take my sole family member from me.

Shephat came in hurriedly and looked over my dying mother. She pulled the old patched cloak over her body roughly only leaving her head exposed.

"it is time to go Octurian." She commanded. I stood to my feet reluctantly but I knew better than to argue with Shephat. She is my caretaker and for as long as I can remember Shephat had ordered every detail of my life in accordance with my mother's will.

I followed Shephat through the narrow corridor of our dwelling hut trying to keep up with her hurried steps. Soon the Gianza troops would be upon our village. They would destroy everything in their path as they always do. I wondered if my mother would have any breathe left in her body when they came or if they would spare her dead carcass from their destruction.

Shephat's steps moved smoothly through the swamp and I tried to place my little feet where hers rested in the mud. She brushed aside the tall gattail grasses with swift motions and I had to move quickly to avoid getting slapped in the face by the brash itchy blades.

"Remember everything that I taught you.". My mother's last words to me. What had she taught me in my few years of knowing her? I racked my brain as I fought to keep up with Shephat's swift movements. My mother loved and cared for me. She taught me how to speak and how to interpret the Okra of Favre- the words of her deity. Words that I barely understood but words that often spoke to me in times of danger or distress. My mother talked to me often of the old women that could see things that other Octavians could not. This often scared and mesmerized me....how can one know the future?

After what seemed like an eternity, Shephat came to a standstill. Unaware of the impending halt, I bumped into her and fell to the now hard ground. Shephat did not budge but scanned the horizon and implored her senses to ascertain our location. We had long left the swamp behind and were approaching a thicket of tall perambo trees and low lying bushes.

"We will sleep here tonight. Tomorrow we will continue to Triteos." That was all that I would get from Shephat and I dared not ask for more. As was our custom, we found a suitable perambo and proceeded to climb the tall thick tree clutching the trunk between our feet and grasping smoothly at the protruding branches as we thrust ourselves upward. Soon we found two ledges some fifteen feet above the ground. Shephat took the ledge two feet above me. We made our comfort and slept.