The Allegory Of Triberias: The Call Of Destiny .

A Great Loss

DENEVIUH
The Forest of Erydria,
2420A.A,

Jharey frowned at what she had just said to him.

"Tendrils?"

What was that even supposed to be? He wondered and even more about what had made her to think about it. He watched as she tried to look about him and his body shuddered once again against the whispers that caressed his ears and the cold fingers that dripped down his back leaving him feeling quite shaken. Was that what she was talking about? Maybe, after all, he assumed she could actually hear them.

"I don't see anything but I can feel it. I can hear the whispers and the foreboding feeling like cold fingers dropping down my back." He suddenly told her.

Havillah looked up into his face and frowned in that thoughtful manner that he had come to see in her. Something, that she seemed to be doing quite alot since he had met her earlier that day.

"Anyway let's get going. The sooner I finish this the sooner we can get back to my sister and Mima. " She nodded and he turned to continue walking, still grasping her small hand in his much larger one.

She was a weird one. He thought as he led her to the first house in the row behind the triple row of shops and away from the howling that was coming from the town square. He was thankful that they had not yet encountered any Sleepers so far. Jharey knew that he could defend himself, but he was not so sure about the woman who until this point, the only violence she had shown him was a slight inflection in her voice when he had goaded her.

Was she really a spy? And that cloak she was wearing. It was strange but beautiful with even more beautiful golden vines that had been embroidered on a rich silken fabric. How had she come to be on that side of the gate alone? He wondered. It was a side that they hardly defended seeing that the mountain with its rugged climb acted as a wall against any intruders that would come from the west. The ravine in the north kept them safe from the people in the north leaving the east and the south as the only points that needed defending. So, where had she come from? He did not cease to wonder even as they came to the first door and he lifted his hand to knock.

Routinely, he went around the houses to check on his people's condition and the head of the house would come out to update him on the matters concerning his own household. He would put forward his requests if he had any and Jharey as the mayor of Deneviuh would see to it that they were attended to.

On this day, in this particular house, all the members were awake and none of them had gone over to the Sleepers. It meant that everything was fine and apart from a grocery list that needed to be passed on to the town's grocer, no other requests were made from this house hold.

He moved on breathing out a sigh of relief as household after household reported no new casualties. Those that were in between sleep and Sleeper  state remained the same way however and it saddened him to see that most of these were children. After all growing children were the ones that needed their sleep the most, but not the nightmares that usually came with it.

As he moved on to the next house, his mind went back to Sophir. She was mad at him that he had not allowed her to see the woman, but how could he allow her when his duty was to protect her? It was partially why he had brought the woman along him, so that when he was gone, Sophir would not climb her away into the captive's room.

They quickly finished inspecting the first row with much the same result and with no Sleepers to accost them. On to the second row, he looked back to find that his companion was still following. She had been blessedly quiet during his rounds and even now, he found himself wondering what she was really thinking about.