The Caravan of Hope

Chapter 14: The Cold Soldiers

They had to walk far; at least across the border. Mary knew from maps that they were in Barren Waste.

Barren Waste was a frozen wasteland. Unlike Wald, magic was illegal here. It was also much colder, which Mary figured out after shivering a few times.

Hearthfell looked over at her, and said, "Ur! Wald is desert. Don't you want the caravan to live?"

Ur gasped. "Oh my, I forgot; they must be cold!" She snapped her fingers and two little boys brought them all blankets.

Mary gasped. The boys wore identical clothing: black pants and fighting gloves, and a white T shirt. She also noticed that it was the same clothing Silver and Tiger wore, and Hearthfell was missing only the shirt. But the thing that terrified her most was the fact that the boys seemed to be void of any emotion at all. The boys didn't even get excited or happy when Mary smiled.

One of them gave a white shirt to Hearthfell. He grabbed it, saying his thanks. As he was putting it on, he said to the little boy, "Hey, Fear, how's it going? You doing okay with your fighting?"

Fear just shrugged and went on.

Bella scrunched up her eyebrows. "Fighting?"

Ur turned toward her. "Oh, yes. You see, I find orphans and train them to fight."

That was when they walked and saw a despicable scene.

Children of all ages were in a small arena. Some were fighting, others were lying down, exhausted. But all of them had no emotion on their faces.

"You see," Ur continued. "Fighters these days have destroyed their chances of winning by letting emotions get ahead of them. That's why I took up children and taught them of the weakness of emotions. Now, they are perfect fighting soldiers! Hearthfell is one of them, and so are Silver and Tiger." She nodded to the three of them, but Hearthfell was the only one staring at the ground.

They are just emotionless, cold soldiers aren't they? Just like me... Alex thought. Then he realized something. "Why are you training at all? Is Barren Waste planning a war?"

Ur smiled at him. "Not right now, but when Master wakes up, he's going to need an army, won't he?"

And that is all she said.

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Silver and Tiger put them in a big cage.

Mary took her blanket, and bundled up in it, crying.

George put on arm around his sister. "Hey,  don't worry sis. You've got me; we don't need him."

She was still trembling. "Why would he do something like that? Just leave us to... Who knows what?"

George shrugged. "Men are jerks, like Mom said. Except me, since I lived with you and Mom. Forget about him."

"Who are ya talking about?" Hearthfell asked.

"You," George said calmly. It was only then did he realize who he was talking to, and he said, "Hearthfell?"

Hearthfell opened the cage with some keys, and Mary flew at him, hugging him. He stiffened for a moment, until she asked, "Why, Hearthfell?"

He paused for a moment, then said, "Ur did raise me. She took me and treated me like the mother I never had.

"One day, she let me visit Wald, to learn about a world where magic ruled, one that we could have.

"That's when I met Daiko and Alex, joined the caravan, and never wanted to leave.

"But she has never acted like this before; there's something wrong with her." He let go of Mary.

"Well, that doesn't mean that you scare us with no warning!" George was upset that Hearthfell hurt Mary.

"Hey, I tried to tell you!"

"Well, I didn't see!"

Then, they heard a soft giggle. "Master did say that you two fighting would distract you."

The two looked to see Ur, who had Mary with a knife at her throat. "Hearthfell, I've always been this way; you've just never noticed. And note I've got the upper hand."

Mary screamed.

Hearthfell and George looked at each other.

"Sure, we like to fight each other," George started.

"But when we have a common enemy," continued Hearthfell.

At the same time, they said, "We fight together."

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Sorry if you saw that I've downloaded this chapter again, app deleted a part of it.

Big fight scene next!