Earthin A New Beginning

Agnes nodded off and her head drooped in front of her. Her chin nearly touches her chest as she breathed in and out. She had been up most of the night with Elgin. Clover had checked on them from time to time, making more tea for him and giving her more linen to wrap his wounds. She slept peacefully rolled up tightly in the blankets on Naomi’s mat. Amber slept by the fire in the Earthin lodge, and a soft snoring came from her withering body. Elgin awoke and looked around the interior of the great house. He saw the large wooden circle suspended from the ceiling and realized where he was and suddenly felt the excruciating pain of his wounds. He grimaced with pain as he tried to lift his head to see more clearly.

He saw Agnes seated next to him with her arms folded in front of her and she slumbered as he looked up into her aging face. He had not noticed the lovely shape of her lips before and wanted to trace them with his fingers. He realized he had made it to the forest people and reflected back on the grueling trip through the woods in the dead of night to warn them.

He instantly became frightened and panicked all over again remembering the raid on their homes, as he looked on helpless to stop it. A tear welled in the corner of his eye as he thought of grandfather Goudah slain and lying on the ground covered in his own blood. The gruesome picture rolled over in his thoughts again and again, as he wiped his cheek where the tear had fallen. He saw a pile of bags near the door and it registered that they were planning to flee, probably at dawn.

His thoughts were interrupted by a gust of wind and then a faint sound he thought that he had heard before. He tried to put the terror he was feeling aside. He tried to tell himself that it was not true and that it was his mind playing tricks on him because of his head pounding with pain.

He lifted his head higher and strained his ears to listen. He nudged Agnes and she awoke startled.

“I think I heard something!” He said in a frantic whisper. He heard it again.

She became alert. ” What do you think it was?”

Elgin did not answer her. He listened to the leaves outside blowing by the roundhouse, and then the shuffle of feet, and then the front door of the lodge flew open.

A figure of a man stood there with gleaming armor covering his chest, the fire reflected on the long silver blade that he held in his hand. His black leather gloves covered his hands and went all the way up to his elbows. His coal black hair fell from beneath his shinny helmet and it clung to his sweaty face. Soon another madman joined him and they both stepped through the sacred entrance.

Agnes let out a, blood-curdling scream as she stood to her feet. Her piercing voice was silenced as his blade came down across her neck. She fell to the ground. Blood gushed from her throat and she lay in a heap at their feet. He kicked her as he stepped over her toward Elgin. The one man talked to the other in a tongue he had never heard. It was fierce and impatient. He was terrified, tried to get to his feet, and swayed. When he got his balance, and he lunged forward.

Elgin tried to fight off the intruders and was cut deeply in his mid section. He bent over and fell on the pile of bedding clenching his abdomen. He tried to crawl forward and collapsed over the pillows. The other man pierced the blankets that Clover struggled to free herself from. She moved no more. He removed her gold headband and necklace. It dangled from his hand reflecting the flames as he walked. Amber screamed as she watched her old friend die right before her eyes and have her treasured jewelry striped from her dead body. With one swift blow of his blade, he cut Amber’s head from her screaming body and it rolled from her shoulders and stopped abruptly hitting the wall of the fire pit. It’s vacant stare toward the ceiling the firelight dancing over the decapitated body.

Blood splattered across the breastplates of their assassins. Their blades dripping crimson red. They striped the bodies of their gold bangles and finely detailed necklaces. Elgin held his breath and kept his eyes tightly closed as his own pendant was taken with one hard jerk. When their backs were turned Elgin pressed against the gash in his front, blood oozing between his fingers at a steady flow. They lifted the bags of packed goods piled by the door. The one man motioned to the other, leaving him for dead. They left the plank door standing wide open and swinging slightly in the wind.

Elgin lay helpless again in the dawn. He could hear the clash of metal against metal and knew a fierce battle was being fought just outside. He could hear the yells of his brothers and the animals being rounded up. He wept at the sight of the women dead around him. He tore off a piece of a sheet, wound it about himself, and cinched it tight around his stomach.

It became quiet and the only thing he could hear were the yips of the pillaging men setting fire to the long house, were once a great headman sat. He crawled over Agnes dead body her eyes vacantly open and staring at the stone wall behind him. He pressed her eyelids closed and traced her lips in regret for not being with her. He used the table to pull himself up, dragging his deformed leg behind him to the open door. He staggered and leaned against the frame. The bodies of his friends lay on the ground between the burning dwellings motionless. Dust and smoke filled the air and death was everywhere he looked. He moaned in grief.

The soldiers were driving their stock and carts full of loot into the forests edge. Elgin fell to his knees in disbelief and looking around at the onslaught. The homes were in flames and the smell of burning flesh filled his nose. He covered his mouth and pressed his psalm hard against his lips he breathed heavily. He was horrified at what he saw and the thought of them reaching the women and children. His vision went black and then he passed out from the pain. His body