Gaia

Chapter 3 Echoes of the Fallen

As they traveled deeper into the forest, Shay started to realize that she was now in charge of her little brother Shiloh and they were on their own now. She sucked in a pained breath and thought of all the happy memories that she and her family had in the village and how in a blink of an eye that was all gone now. A tear streamed down her cheek, she still couldn't understand why Gaia killed everyone in the village and how she was not dead like the other women who had drank the purple potion. More tears came and stung her eyes as she remembered waking up and seeing them all dead around her, then she remembered something, Gaia had looked right at her, only at her! But why? Gaia could have killed her just as easily as she had killed her oldest brother and all of the men, why didn't she kill her? Part of her wished she had, the sadness and loss she was starting to feel as the shock wore off was almost unbearable. Shiloh wrapped his little fingers a little tighter around her waist in a loving hug as they rode deeper into the forest. Shay realized she had to be strong for both of them now, there was no use in crying and falling to pieces, but she would find answers and she would find a way to keep Gaia from ever hurting her and Shiloh again!

Ahead there was a small clearing with a beautiful babbling brook flowing through it, Sir Damian slowed his beastlike creature he was riding to a stop and dismounted. Gently he took a flask from his side and bent to fill it with the cool sparkling water. The beastlike creature that Shay and Shiloh were riding on had stopped in unison with Sir Damiens ride and bent its head to drink from the brook. Once the flask was full, Sir Damian offered it to Shiloh who took long gulps from it before handing it to Shay. Shay took a few sips being careful to leave enough for Sir Damian. Sir Damian said "there's a whole brook here, so please drink as much as you need". Shay felt silly, she nodded and drank more of the delicious cool water, quenching her thirst from the journey and then handed the flask to Sir Damian. Sir Damian drank the rest of the water in the flask and then refilled it and fastened it back to his side. He looked ahead into the forest that lie ahead and then back to Shay, he said "this last leg of the journey will be a little tricky, but we will manage fine. Do you see what lies ahead"? He gestured into the forest he had just looked at, Shay looked ahead but only saw a tree line, nothing else. Shay looked at Sir Damian and laughing she said "all I see is tree's, they can't be that dangerous". Sir Damien smiled and then said "close your eyes and smell the air". Shay thought he was crazy, but did as he asked, she slowly closed her eyes and breathed in the air, all of a sudden a stench of dirty, rotten trash and food filled her nostrils, she quickly opened her eyes gagging and covered her mouth. "What is THAT smell"?! she said Sir Damian smiled again and mounted his ride, they started to cross the brook and head towards the forest line that lay ahead. Shay put her hands on her hips "WELL?!" Sir Damian said "that smell is why our last leg of this journey will be tricky, ahead is a village..." Shay cut him off "don't they bathe in this village?!" Sir Damian was patient and waited until she was finished and then replied "no, they don't bathe, because they are known as the Brothers of Three". Shay shook her head "the Brothers of Three" ? Sir Damian nodded and said "yes, the Brothers of Three are the Cyclopes born from Gaia and Uranus, named Brontes, Steropes and Arges. They created the thunderbolt for Zeus and are known for their trade of building the Cyclopean walls made of enormous boulders". Shay thought about this, she remembered the stories of the Cyclopes but thought they were just that, a story. Shay panicked "wait a minute, they are the sons of Gaia?!". Sir Damian halted his ride and their ride again halted alongside his, he leaned over and put his hand on Shays hand and looked into her eyes "remember what I said? No harm will come to you while traveling through the forest with me. The Cyclopes are scary to look at but they aren't mean creatures, they are hard workers and if they get the chance they will talk your ear off but they won't hurt you, not intentionally"... Shay looked at him "intentionally"? Sir Damian removed his hand slowly "well a few years ago, a farmer wanted a wall built to keep out predators because he was losing lot of sheep and cattle, so he went to the Cyclopes and was going to ask them to build a Cyclopean wall for him in trade for some of his livestock. The Cyclopes were so busy talking and building they didn't take notice of the farmer until it was too late, you see Cyclopes are easily distracted and a big beautiful bird flew overhead as Brontes was handing a boulder to Steropes. Steropes was staring at the bird, thinking about how wonderful it must be to fly and didn't take the boulder in time from Brontes and it fell and crushed the man". Shay put her hand over her mouth "oh my! that is terrible"! Sir Damian nodded "Yes it is, but it was an accident, the Brothers of Three felt horrible about it, so they built the walls around the farm for free and swore to the farmers wife and children that they could call on them night or day for protection". Shay smiled "thats wonderful, so why is the last leg of the journey going to be tricky"? Sir Damian said "well because we are going to attempt to sneak around their walls undetected, we don't have time to chat and I don't want to risk any accidents, they will have just finished their breakfast and will have started their chores. So I'm going to need you and Shiloh to be very quiet as we approach their village, sneak through it and after we leave". Shay looked at him inquisitively "before we get there and after we leave"? Sir Damian nodded again "yes, they have exceptional hearing, I will give you a sign once we have reached the area where its safe to talk again". Shay looked back at Shiloh, who was listening intently to every word "we can do that can't we"? Shiloh nodding up and down excitedly "yes, yes, yes"! They rode the rest of the way to the tree line in silence.