August Story Contest

Barren Land of the Oath
By: Keely
Age: 14

 The clouds writhed about the tall hills, twisting in ghastly shapes, none of the tendrils the same.

The pine trees attempted to stay tall and visible but the clouds covered them like a gray blanket obscuring them from sight.

Kehrilo looked for the sun, wanting to know the time but unable due to the gray sky. Kehrilo shivered as a blast of cold air hit her with a splattering of rain. She wrapped her green cloak tighter around her as her brown hair whipped in the wind.

She looked behind her towards a tall mountain, clad in grey clouds and grey rock. A more desolate picture you could never find, for about five miles before the mountain the tall grass just stopped, turning into a flat, plain where there was no sign of life at all. No one ever went past the line the grass formed, and those that did, they never returned.

But Kehrilo had been investigating, asking questions, walking along the boundary. She had heard many rumors and legends, some saying that the land was cursed, others claiming that it was stained with blood-thus un-able to produced life- while still others said it was due to a great evil that lived there, but others said that it was due to high concentrations of chemicals and the like.

Suddenly she heard an piercing cry echoing through the plains, she shivered as the cry seemed to pierce her very core. What had made that terrorizing sound?

Kehrilo quickened her pace nearly running. She came to a grove of trees and leapt around trees, briefly noticing that they where tall pines. She came up to Jaodfen, her small town.

She walked down the main street and she stopped by the blacksmith’s shop watching as the blacksmith lifted a bays fore leg, pressing a hot U shaped piece of metal to the horses hoof, then he put down the horse's leg and plunged the orange hot iron into a barrel of water.

"'Ello, Kehrilo! Looks like rain, eh?" The smithy asked
"Hello Geoffrey, and it's already started raining, good thing though," Kehrilo responded, she then gestured to the bay, "Never seen 'im before, Traveler?"
"Yup, Traveler to be sure, 'e's in the pub" Geoffrey responded jerking his head to the left towards the pub.
"I wonder if he 'as any news...” Kehrilo muttered.
"To be sure, 'e does!’E said there are rumors o' war." Geoffrey replied.
"War?! Against who?!" Asked Kehrilo, excited.
"'tis against Moshta, and 'is realm of Soufaxia." Responded Geoffrey calmly.
"Soufaxia? Is that not on the other side of the mountain?" Asked Kehrilo, not sure of her geography.
"Yes 'tis, why?" Asked Geoffrey, uncertain of why she asked that question.
"Oh." Kehrilo's mind processed the information, on the other side of the cursed land, or else in the cursed land lived the Soufaxians. "Well, I better be going." Said Kehrilo, escaping before Geoffrey could question her further.
"Fare well" nodded Geoffrey.

Kehrilo slipped away and once out of Geoffrey’s sight she turned and entered the pub. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the dark room, she noticed a group of people gathered around a man seated at a table talking and taking an occasional gulp of his frothy drink.

Kehrilo slinked through the dank darkness and stayed on the outskirts of the group of people. She listened attentively grasping to every word.

"The Soufaxians ya say?" asked the pub owner, Wolffe.
"Yessir! O’er the other side of your mount" Replied the traveler, his voice young sounding, his face obscured by shadows.
"How shall they attack?" Asked Sergeant, Sergeant wasn't his real name but everyone called him that, for his loud commanding voice and he also used to be in the country’s military.
Kehrilo wanted to see the traveler’s face, to place a face with the voice. She softly stepped around people, they failed to notice her, her steps soft there attention towards the man, If they do not expect, they do not see, thought Kehrilo to herself.

She felt a gaze following her motions and she froze. Not looking around, not moving, for to move was to show where you where. She waited then moved on. She reached where she could see the traveler’s face she looked at his face and saw he was looking directly at her. She met his eyes, defiantly. As he opened his mouth to reply to a question, Kehrilo slipped into the shadows and then out the door.

Kehrilo was troubled, she had seen a face like that only once before, and it belonged to a falsely accused man, being hunted down for a crime he had not committed, a face haunted, wary and weary, for just a lie that his friend muttered under his breath.

Kehrilo felt a splattering of wetness and looked up, and watched as the clouds released there burden of rain. She sighed then ran towards where she lived, she still had to do some chores to do.

She ran around the puddles forming in the ruts of the road. Her cloak whipped back behind her cracking in the wind, her skirt wrapping around her legs attempting to trip her up. She leapt over a puddle and her foot slipped on the slick mud she slid and fell. She looked in disgust at her muddied clothing. Her mother would be very angry, at least it was just mud and not something that would stain it, Kehrilo thought.

She scrambled to her feet and started running to get out of the cold rain that she felt seeping through her cloak and she felt the heavily mudded skirt slap against her calves leaving them with a disgusting clammy sensation.

She turned to her farm glad to see the medium sized, wooden house, with a couple windows glowing with light. She quickened her pace.

She pushed open the front door and pulled off her soft leather boots and unfastened her green cloak and hung it up.

"Kehrilo! Where have you been?!" greeted her mother.
"Sorry, mum! But there was a stranger in town and he said that the Soufaxians are coming 'round the mountain, and that there was going to be a war!" Kehrilo explained in a rush.
"Oh dear! A war?! Oh dear! And the Soufaxians are on the other side of the mountain! They'll go right through town, and then they'll vandalize it and leave it in ruins! Oh my! We must start packing!" Her mother began to move through the house mentally choosing what items to leave and what items to take.
"Mum! Take it easy! It's going to be fine, soon Lord Gaorn's army will be here and when the Soufaxians come they'll turn right around."
"You think? I feel it in my bones, something wicked shall come out of all this!" Kehrilo's mother exclaimed.
Kehrilo felt a silver of ice cold fear pierce her heart. "Mum, it'll be fine! I promise you! Everything will be back to normal in a few days!"

 *****

That night Kehrilo's dreams we're plagued by fire, screams, cries, strange foreigners, close friends, and weird evil creatures.

She awoke with a strangled cry, the image still in her brain, the image of her house on fire. Kehrilo shook, biting her knuckles to keep her sobs of anguish to herself. She had to get her parents to leave, yet allow her to stay, no, that was impossible, she thought to herself.

She kicked her covers off and slipped out of bed she grabbed her bedside candle and a match, she struck the match head, it flared then became a steady flame. She held it to the candles wick and it lighted she shook the match out.

She slipped to her wardrobe and grabbed her brown riding skirt, a blouse, and a clean cloak; she put the riding skirt and blouse on and put the cloak over her arm.

She softly stepped downstairs landing on her heel and rocking to her toe, staying close to the wall.

She stepped into the kitchen she grabbed a piece of cloth she smoothed it out on the wooden table. She grabbed a loaf of bread, made the day before, some apples, several large chunks of jerky, and a can of canned cherries.

She placed the foodstuff on the cloth and wrapped the cloth around the food. She tied the corners of the cloth together. She slipped into the drawing room and opened her father’s cabinet filled with weapons. She grabbed a medium sized dagger, the handle wrapped in black leather, the metal blue and silver. She grabbed a bow, quiver, and several arrows, she put the arrows in the quiver and slipped the quiver over her left shoulder and under her right arm, she tightened the leather strapped so that the quiver rested against her right scapula.

She grabbed a sheath that fitted her dagger and fastened it around her waist she pulled her riding skirt up around it, concealing it from view. She snuck back upstairs to her bed and felt around under her mattress, there it was, her fingers closed around a soft leather bag, that was quite heavy.

Kehrilo opened it up and briefly glanced at the gold, silver and copper coins in it.

She looked down at her clothing and realized with some ridicule to herself, that in her clothing she would never get very far. She needed the clothing of a boy, or young man. That meant cutting her hair. She fingered the brown strands then grabbed a pair of scissors which she used to cut fabric. She stuffed them into a pocket along with the bag she slipped downstairs and grabbed the food. She slipped on her boots and fastened her cloak around her neck. Kehrilo then softly opened the door and slipped into the dark night.

*****

Kehrilo opened the heavy barn door; one of the horses nickered softly while another shifted in sleep. A cow mooed. Kehrilo needed no light to guide her, she approached the far stall where a dark bay, almost black gelding watched her with intelligent, soft, brown eyes.

Kehrilo placed her bundle of food on the ground and then grabbed the horses halter and opened the stall door. The horse snorted and nudged her.

"Easy, Jacovy" she whispered as she fastened the halter around Jacovy's face. She attached a lead rope to the halter and gently pulled the horse out of the stall and into the aisle way. She lead him to the storage room where the tack and feed where stored. Kehrilo let the lead rope drop knowing that Jacovy would stay there.

She slipped into the alcove and grabbed a saddle, a saddle blanket, a bridle, a front saddle bag that went around the pommel of the saddle, a rear saddle bag which went around the cantle of the saddle, and a girth.

Kehrilo then burden down stepped to where Jacovy was waiting. She placed the items on the ground Kehrilo then grabbed the saddle blanket, placed it on Jacovy's back, smoothed out any wrinkles then swung the saddle on top of the blanket.

Kehrilo grabbed the girth and buckled it on, on one side, she then walked to Jacovy's other side grabbed the swinging girth and pulled it tight.
She buckled the girth to the saddle, she then squeezed her fingers between the Jacovy's barrel and the girth to make sure it wasn't too tight or too loose, it was just right.

Kehrilo then placed the bitless bridle over the halter and tightened the throat band and the noseband. She then unfastened the lead rope and swung the reins over her arm. She then placed the saddlebags where they belonged on the saddle. She put the lead rope, some grooming supplies in one bag, then her food in another, and she took 4 scoops of horse feed and place it in another. She led Jacovy outside and mounted him.

Kehrilo went to Jaodfen, she looked at the dark, leering windows, feeling a small bout of terror then she laughed at herself. It is only your imagination, she told herself, and those windows can't leer at you.

She looked around deciding where she should go. She decided on a house, where there where several boys and a couple of girls. She dismounted from Jacovy and slipped into the yard, she sneaked to the back and saw some damp clothing hanging from a clothes line. She looked at the clothing and located a shirt and a pair of pants which looked like they would fit her. Kehrilo swiftly unclasped the clothing; she grabbed the outfit and slinked to where Jacovy was patiently waiting.

She stuffed the clothing into the fourth saddle bag and mounted Jacovy. Kehrilo nudged him into a trot, she headed towards the mountain.

She reached a grove of trees and she quickly changed from her girl clothing into the clothing she got from the clothes line. She then grabbed her scissors and chopped her hair off attempting to get it about an inch long; she allowed the hair to blow away, maybe winding up in some birds nest.

She refastened the quiver then her cloak, glad that the cloaks were not only worn by girls, but also by boys. She wanted to look at her hair to see that it was worthy. She could not. She inwardly groaned and stuffed her riding outfit into the saddle bag, glad that she was a farm girl and not some rich girl with layer after layer after layer of fabric.

Kehrilo mounted Jacovy and nudged him into his smooth rocking canter. He gladly leapt into the pace gently pulling the reins asking to go faster. Kehrilo gently tugged back on the reins telling Jacovy, No, not yet, save your energy for speed that will be worthwhile.

She turned Jacovy towards the mountain going at a quick, ground covering lope. Within a few minutes she was feet away from the boundary and attempting to pull Jacovy on to the desolate ground.

"JACOVY! Come’ on!" She yelled at the horse. Jacovy just dug his hooves in harder.

"Jacovy! Please! We have to save Midaliate!" Jacovy shook his head shaking Kehrilo.


To Be Continued...