Dak And Stell/The Travelers Trilogies

1.12 Aftermath

The farm was a mess. The barn and field still hissed and steamed, but the fires had gone out. The area that caught fire had been ruined but not destroyed. They still would be able to harvest a large part of the crop.

"Is everyone alright?" I asked

"Yes, but my family is very shaken by the whole experience." The man at the front of the group said.

"We can not thank you enough for your help. That fiery beast came out of nowhere, and then the Dark-Eyed-Ones attacked." Said the woman standing beside the man. "They had us at sword point before we could react."

"What did they want?" Stell asked. He had started getting some color back.

"They wouldn't speak to us besides telling us to stay still and quiet, or we would die." The woman said. Xalmia walked over to the woman and took her hand.

"This is Mediru and her husband Talic," Xalmia said as she introduced the farmhands behind them as well.

After that, the people started to clean up and begin repairs. According to Talic, raiding parties had been coming more often, but the older and stronger helpers we working in the pastures that were a long way from here. The raiding parties were hitting there far harder than here.

Xalmia was helping the women in the house get supper prepared. Talic offered for us to stay the night, and Mediru insisted that we must eat as well. I was exhausted after the day we had, I was almost ready to pass out on my feet, but then I noticed Stell was sitting down at the edge of the stream across from the large rock.

I walked over and sat down beside him. I looked around, and he had a very distant look in his eyes. We sat for a while before either of us broke the silence.

"I have never seen anyone die before," Stell said as he continued to stare at the stream.

"Neither have I, my friend, but I think this journey will only get worse from here. These dark ones don't want us to find out what they are doing. Bad enough that they killed each other instead of giving any a chance to leak information to us." I said, and then I turned to Stell. "I know you don't like this, and neither do I, but the universe seems to think we can handle this. We would not have been picked for this task if they didn't believe we could do it."

"That doesn't make it any easier, Dak," Stell said, hanging his head and sighing.

"It's not supposed to, Stell, we either fight for everything we are worth, or we are going to die," I said to him, looking directly into his eyes. "We will win, and we will stop idiots from being idiots. I'm not going to let you die, Stell. We will be together till we get to see what The End of Time looks like. Then we will continue on fighting when no one else can, and we will get these gods back for this."

He smiles at my last comment. I clapped on the back and motioned towards the house.

" I'd bet that Xalmia and Mediru have the food almost ready," I said as we got up.

" I almost forgot, I wanted to talk to you about her," Stell said.

"Who?" I asked with a puzzled look.

"Xalmia, you should have seen her, Dak. She was like death on the wind. She had disarmed and subdued four of them before I even caught up to her. I had to throw up a wall between her and the fourth one, or she would have killed him." Stell said, sounding worried.

"We are from a different place, Stell. We have no concept of the thing that these dark eyes have been doing to Xalmia's people before we came. We just had to stop some from attacking a helpless farm. I think these guys have her wrath coming." I said as we started to walk.

"But her eyes Dak, they scared me. She looked as if she would have just as sooner killed them, then look at them. All I'm saying is keep an eye on her." Stell said as we reached the end of our short walk and arrived at the house.

It was a cute little home, sparkling vines crawled up the right side of the house and on to the glimmering tile roof. As we walked up and opened the door, a barrage of mouth-watering scents filled our noses. The interior shined and sparkle like everything in this world, and as far as farmhouses go, it was pretty standard.

The front hallway opened into the dining room, and the kitchen was to the left. I could see the women cooking and decide to sit at the table. Talic was already seated at the head of the large table, so I took a seat next to his.

"We can't thank you enough great ones. You were able to stop the beast and put out the fires. We all thought we were lost." Talic said

"Do you know why they were attacking you?" Stell asked Talic.

"I'm not sure why they came. The Dark Ones seemed to want to destroy our farm," Talic said.

"Do you know which way they came from?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. The Dark Ones have been coming from over the mountains lately, destroying farms and villages. We have lost contact with a lot of the villages closer to the mountains." Talic said.

After we had supper, Mediru showed us to our rooms. As Stell and I got ourselves into bed, I sprawled out completely exhausted. The weight of the day bore down, and I closed my eyes.