Gray Blade----Chapters 20 & 21

A Parable for Our Times

This is a time-travel fantasy that is a parable for our times. It’s about the importance of choice and courage in the face of overt threats of violence.

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The two young people run away after the spasm of violence, but the people who stay behind are left to deal with the consequences. The situation in YELLOW FEATHER TIME continues to be unstable and dangerous.

CHAPTER TWENTY----ESCAPE

The two figures who hurried east off the Hill before the massacre were Envis and Gavin. The occupation of the contested sacred site had dragged on through most of the second moon of winter. The initial group of challengers from Hidden Valley Village had been reinforced with a few sympathizers from Middle River Town who had news about how a religious fervor was being used to recruit and rally an attacking force. But, no one knew when the reprisal might hit.

         “I’m coming with you to protect you,” Gavin said as he followed Envis out onto the prairie. “But you know that the people who have joined us from Middle River Town claim an attack is coming soon.”

         Envis snorted derisively. “We haven’t seen any indication of a direct reprisal for the occupation. It’s all talk.”

         “I should probably stay here to help my relatives fight off an attack,” Gavin said as hurried to catch up.

“You do that,” Envis said over her shoulder and walked faster.

“No! No! I’m going with you,” Gavin said when he reached her side. “What exactly is this place that you are so determined to visit?”

         “It’s the location of Elanorah’s great-aunt’s home,” Envis said. “The old woman was one her initial mentors, but she died when Elanorah was about our age.”

         “You speak of this as if it had already happened,” Gavin said. “But this is a part of ‘past history’ in Black Feather Time and so it has not yet happened here in Yellow Feather Time!”

         “Of course, that’s right,” Envis, acknowledged peevishly. “But it’s a place that will become very significant in Elanorah’s life in the Sojourner tradition. I need to visit it in honor of all of the things that she taught me. And, it can’t be too far from here.”

         It was a hot day for late spring. They eventually found a small stream that was a tributary to the main channel of Red Earth River. Envis thought that the distinctive landscape setting closely matched Elanorah’s descriptions.

         Envis explored the area while Gavin went through the motions of maintaining guard, at least that’s how it appeared to Envis. She felt very close to Elanorah as she remembered the stories about the training provided by the elderly aunt. Envis was moved by the thought that she was herself now part of the Sojourner tradition.

         However, late in the afternoon as they started to walk back to Spirit Hill, they saw smoke billowing from the top of the landmark.

         “What’s that?” Envis said pointing to the column of dark gray smoke that lifted straight up into the clear blue sky. There was no wind at the ground level, but when the dense smoke rose to a certain level, the top of the column blew off to the north into a hazy, delicate cloud.

         “That’s trouble!” Gavin shouted.

         The two young people started running toward the Hill. They covered the distance in about half the time that it had taken them when they walked south and east in the morning. They both were light-headed and out of breath when they finally got to the top of the Hill and could see what had occurred. What they saw was appalling.

         “What’s happened here?” Envis wept. “Why are the bodies so mutilated? Wasn’t it enough to kill them?”

         “It’s a sign of ultimate disrespect,” Gavin said through clenched teeth. “I should have been here to help.”

         “Don’t say that,” Envis said somewhat recovering from the shock. “It looks like the fighting was futile. Our bodies would just be part of this grotesque pile if we hadn’t left this morning.”

         The smoke that warned them came mainly from the fire that raged in a pile of supplies and equipment that were part of the occupying camp. Another smaller fire sputtered in a funeral pyre where mutilated bodies were haphazardly stacked.

         “It looks like it was a really large attacking force,” Gavin said looking closely at the trampled grass and marked areas of bare soil.

         “You can see their wide track where the new grass is crushed down,” he said pointing off to the east and down the hill slope. “That trail points straight back toward Middle River Town. Those monsters will pay for this desecration,” he snarled.

         “But, why?” Envis said. “It looks like they just went crazy and killed everybody. And, why chop up the bodies so cruelly?”

         “I don’t know,” Gavin said. “Blood lust? Evangelical zeal? Guilt about abandoning traditional relationships? Frustration with hard changes?”

         “Maybe all of those are reasons,” Envis nodded. “But, what a horrible way to act out all those emotions.”

         Gavin had slipped into a vigilant survival mode. “We can’t stay here. Someone might come back.”

         “Where will we go?” Envis asked. “Do you think that we dare go to Hidden Valley Village?”

         “That would be hard to do, because it would take us right past Middle River Town,” Gavin shook his head. “Also, there may be some celebrating victors marauding around the country. We need to avoid them.”

         “But maybe we should try to talk to someone from Middle River to find out exactly what happened here,” Envis said.

         “It’s too late for that,” he declared. “Look around. We can see what happened here with our own eyes.”

         “But we need to understand the motives,” Envis persisted. “How can we look for a peaceful solution if we don’t have any insight into the issues?”

         “These men have hopefully found their peace,” Gavin said waving at the smoldering pyre. “Those of us still living now have a responsibility for revenge.”

         “No!” Envis shook her head. “The living, need to look for life, not become preoccupied with revenge.”

         “Think what you like,” Gavin shrugged. “Right now, I’m taking responsibility for getting us both safely out of this dangerous area. I think that we should head toward those trees,” he said waving off to the northeast toward a line of hills covered with new dark green foliage. The higher protective ground stood above the flat light green prairie that separated Spirit Hill from the forested hills.

         The twilight had deepened, even in the lengthening day of late spring. Gavin led Envis down the north side of the Hill in the gathering darkness.

####

         It was almost morning when they finally staggered into a rocky grotto along a small stream hidden in the woods. Both of them were exhausted, hungry, and thirsty and still could not believe the atrocities that they had seen at the end of the previous day.

         The sunlight of the new day barely penetrated into the shaded grotto. Envis and Gavin shared what meager food they had carried off from Spirit Hill and drank a lot of the clear water from the cheerful little stream. Then both of them went to sleep, exhausted by the physical flight from the Hill and by the emotional shock of the horrors that they had witnessed there.

         They slept throughout the new day and into most of the succeeding night. However, just as the next sunrise was glowing, they were roused by the sound of voices coming along the stream toward the grotto.

         “Those don’t sound like fighting men,” Envis whispered.

         “You’re right,” Gavin said. “I thought that I heard a women’s voice.”

         Suddenly, a child cried out and the sound trailed off into a stifled whimper, as if an adult had hurriedly quieted him.

         “Who are you people?” Envis called out before Gavin could stop her.

         Instantly, the grotto became sullenly silent.

         “Who are you?” a man’s voice called back with a menacing tone.

         “We’ve just come from Spirit Hill,” Envis said ignoring Gavin’s attempts to silence her.

         Suddenly, a group of mostly women and children emerged into the dim light. Two or three men stood protectively toward the front of the group and a number of old people huddled at the back.

         When the new arrivals could see that there were only two young people standing in the grotto, one of the elderly men hobbled toward the and said, “We are the survivors of Hidden Valley Village. There is a culture of cruelty that has taken root in this country. It is growing like an illness and will seep north to eventually engulf the entire valley of the Prairie Wood River.”

         Envis and Gavin understood perfectly well that he was right.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE----AFTERMATH

Middle River Town was where the cruelty was securely rooted and early in the last moon of spring, the aftermath of the massacre at Hidden Valley Village had settled into the town that had sent out the marauders.

The actual atrocities had been carried out almost a full cycle of the moon earlier, but now the perpetrators were starting to feel a wide range of reactions. However, a guilty conscience did not affect everyone in the same way.

         “Did you have nightmares again?” The woman was deeply concerned about her husband’s health. He was exhausted all of the time and had no appetite. His dark, despondent mood seemed to deepen every day.

         “I just can’t get the scene out of my head,” he whimpered and struck his temple with the heel of his right hand. “I keep seeing all that blood and all those bodies, even children and old people.”

         The man had been part of the fighting force recruited in Middle River Town that had attacked and crushed the people occupying the Hill on Red Earth River. However, he had resisted the blood lust that then drove many of the attacking fighters back to the east into Hidden Valley Village. Ardarook had personally led the frenzied strike force down into the partially abandoned settlement with a fury that frightened even some of his seasoned lieutenants.

         “I’m glad that I lagged back,” the man explained to his wife. “Some of us encountered people that had fled the village in the early stages of the attack. They were trying to escape north up the river and we could help them, especially the families with young children.”

“But, by the time we got to the actual village, it was too late. The damage had been done,” he groaned and struck his head again.

“There was nothing that you could do,” his wife tried to console him. “There weren’t that many of you and Ardarook was a threat to everyone.”

“Some men were frightened by him and just did what he told them to do,” the man acknowledged. “But, more seemed to be swept up in his berserk fury and followed his lead without thinking.”

The woman put her arm around the man’s slumped shoulders as they sat together on the edge of the bed, “At least some of the victims got away from the village,” she said.

The man put his face in his hands. “But, no one was left alive at Spirit Hill and some of those victims at the village had relatives right here in Middle River Town. It was almost like the violence was fueled by prejudices that had been festering for a long time.”

“That very well may be true,” his wife said. “I’ve heard people here in Middle River say some hateful things about Hidden Valley Village. It seems like they almost envy those who have resisted the Priest and Trader’s new ideas. It seems like they need the Hidden Valley people to agree with them in order to affirm the importance of the changes.”

“Talk can get so angry,” she continued. “It basically makes the Hidden Valley people seem like animals or at least outsiders that don’t deserve any respect.”

“It is speech that fosters hate and it’s the hate that has festered into this senseless violence,” she said in a low voice.

####

Later that day the woman encountered a friend in another part of town.

“Has your husband still been having bad dreams?” the friend asked sympathetically.

“Yes,” the woman nodded. “But I was shocked when one of my neighbors showed me bruises where her husband had hit her. She also said that he’s been beating their children for really minor infractions.”

“Do you think that abuse is the result of the massacre in Hidden Valley?” the friend asked. “I know a number of men who suffer with nightmares and who are violent with their families. And, all of them were apparently eager and enthusiastic followers of Ardarook.”

The woman nodded. “I’m afraid that’s true. The fighting back then seems to have triggered the things that are happening now. The trauma in battle seems to breed more trauma in the aftermath.”

“It’s almost like a frightening malignant disease,” her friend added. “The battlefield experiences come home with them to be acted out again on vulnerable loved ones.”

Both women sadly shook their heads and went their separate ways.

####

However, not everyone was troubled by the violence. Ardarook still reveled in the exhilaration even after the moon had completed a full cycle. He continued to talk about his victories even as his lieutenants fanned out to adjacent outposts to prepare for the next round of conquests.

“And, you really do believe that the Monocrat will send an army up the Roiling River from Two Rivers City?” The Priest could hardly contain his excitement.

“That’s the plan,” Ardarook spoke expansively, spreading his arms to the north up the valley. “This fighting force will sweep up the Prairie Wood River and clearly establish our control of the country around Double Bend Falls.”

The Battle Leader and the Priest stood in the central plaza of Middle River Town. They called the Trader over who only reluctantly got pulled into the conversation.

“We will re-enforce the army from Two Rivers City with fighters from the outposts on the Lone Rock and Cottonwood Rivers,” Ardarook boomed out confidently. “We’ve made good progress recruiting fighters and stabilizing those areas for trading benefits.”

“Things do seem to be going well in those outposts,” the Trader nodded. “But battles don’t help trade. The threat of the unknown terrorizes people who depend on trust to do their deals.”

“Trust again,” Ardarook frowned. “It’s not trust in a trading partner that’s important. It’s trust in the stabilizing influence of our complete command and control.”

“I seem to recall that we’ve had this same conversation several times before and I don’t like it,” he added darkly.

The Trader immediately became more wary and tried to turn the conversation in a different direction. “I know a healer who says there are a lot of people troubled by bad dreams in this town,” he said.

“Weaklings suffer,” Ardarook snarled. “Their problems are not my concern. It’s when their maladies affect their duty that has my interest. I require complete concentration on the business at hand.”

“And, that business is the conquest and subjugation of this river valley.” Ardarook turned abruptly and stalked away from the other two men.

“This is not going to end well,” the Trader said to the Priest.

But the Priest merely shrugged and walked out of the central plaza.

“The beast has been released on the valley of the Prairie Wood River,” the Trader said quietly to himself.