The Never-Dying Man

Chapter 2 Tragedy

Chapter 2

TragedyThe Wolves got their supplies ready and set off the following morning, leaving by the Bluehaven gate. Grimmaldo accompanied them, too, after meeting them all at Carthinal's home the previous evening.

They left by the Bluehaven Road, it being the nearest way to where Grnff and Zplon had their cave in the Mountains of Doom.

It was mid afternoon when they reached a small farm. and as they approached, they were surprised to see it so still. Then a large black and tan dog appeared, barking and snarling.

With a little whistle Fero managed to calm the animal down, much as he had done once before with the dogs in the camp of Sandron's bandits when they had been captured. The animal then crept forward cautiously to inspect the others. He seemed to like and trust Asphodel, but was very wary of the others.

They were surprised that no one had come out to see what the dog was barking at. The house looked neat, but there were weeds growing in the yard and a generally unkempt look about the place.

I don't like it,' said Carthinal. 'You girls stay here. I'm going in to see what's amiss.'

'Maybe the owners decided to give up the farm. Perhaps they had debts and had to sell up,' said Asphodel.

Basalt and Carthinal entered the house carefully, pushing the door open and looking round before entering. When they came out, their faces were grim.

'Something has happened. The place is a wreck in there,' Carthinal said. 'We'd better look around. There's no sign of life at all. Either they left as you say, Asphodel, and someone has got in since, or they were attacked and either killed or taken.'

They went round the back of the house to the yard. There they found the farmer and his two boys, so alike they must have been twins, still clutching their short bows. They were all three quite dead. They also found the remains of two other dogs.

'Orcs!' spat Fero, recognising the fletching on the arrows. 'Damn their unholy hides.' His black eyes were like hot coals.

Then Asphodel said, 'There is no sign of the farmer's wife. Do you think she may be still alive?'

'They may have taken her, Asphodel, the bastards. By the look of the bodies, it was no more than a sixday that this happened.'

The others had not heard Fero speak so harshly before, but they understood his feelings since orcs had stolen and killed his little sister many years before, when he was a boy of thirteen.

'We must look though, in case,' said Davrael. 'Come, little Mouse,' he turned to Kimi. 'Let us look round other side of house.'

The others split up to search. Carthinal found himself with Asphodel. They wandered towards the barn where the family had stored the hay for their cattle and pushed the door open and entered. It was dim inside. At first they could see little, but as their eyes became more accustomed they saw the hay had hardly been touched.

Carthinal saw her first. A young woman was lying behind a pile of hay. She was obviously dead and a dark stain marred her fair hair.

Carthinal knelt down.

'She was struck from behind with an axe or something similar,' he said sadly.

He picked the body up and carried it out to lay it beside her husband and sons and he thought of the prophecy he had found in a book Mabryl had bought. It mentioned orcs. They had been driven from Grosmer hundreds of years ago but now seemed to be returning.

When Kalhera descends from the mountains.

And orcs once more roam the land, he thought. Orcs were indeed roaming the land again.

His reverie was broken by a cry from the barn.

'Carthinal. Oh, Carthinal. Come quickly.'

It was Asphodel and he ran towards the barn. She was standing in the dim light at the back of the building, looking down at something and sobbing.

'Carthinal, she's dead too,' she said and the elf flung herself into Carthinal's arms sobbing uncontrollably.

Carthinal held her and stroked her black hair, and at the same time looked down at the small figure lying at his feet. How he wished he could have spared her this. A little five-year-old girl lay in the hay.

She had been beaten before she had been killed, but she had tried to fight back. He could see some black hair clutched in her small hand. Carthinal gently pushed Asphodel away and knelt beside the child's body. He closed her eyes, which were staring up in terror, and then lifted her to lay her with her parents and brothers.

They buried them in the little cemetery by the house. They dug a grave and, after wrapping them in sheets brought from the house, they buried them together in the grave. Asphodel said prayers over the bodies and then sang a hymn to Kalhera asking that she take their souls, and release them for re-birth. She then began to sing a hymn in elvish. '

'Abren shinaren quarillishores ssillinareren

Giranon fro wama bror worrishinin

Allor, bra Vimar, so rellemorreres

Bra llinarisoen ssinaren sarsebbe

Branco na nellinor mrellienerol pronoriores

Branco na nellinor abrinisshi.

Kalhera, llo abren shinarin gentirrieres

Frinarom tinorish evro darimishi pronoriores

Bro geno qua, evro frantilishse,

Bra embatalisshi gellin evro rellemorrores

Inillar, genari, na rrallioen bressit

Alloranienerol quishi.'

Asphodel finished singing her hymn and turned to the others.

'I sang the Elven Hymn for the Dead.' she told them. 'I thought they might have liked it.'

'It were beautiful, Asphodel.' said Thadora. 'What do th' words mean?'

'It's a plea to Kalhera for the souls of the dead. It translates roughly as:

Take these souls we beg, Kalhera.

Give them rest from all their toils

Then return them back to Vimar

To the life they loved so well.

Let them meet again in happiness

To live in joy once more.

If these souls deserve, Kalhera,

Let them go to their final rest.

Give them back to she who made them,

To Kassilla's kind embrace

So they may evermore be happy

In the realms so far above.'

After they had buried the bodies, they decided the orcs must have taken the cattle, as there was no sign of them. Maybe this was what the raid had been about.

Then Fero looked at the dog. 'He's had nothing to eat for a long time,' he said.

'Why didn't they eat th' bleedin' bodies?' queried Thadora. She had lapsed once more into the speech of the Warren now that she was away from her father.

'That's disgusting,' said Kimi.

'Yes, but good question, Mouse,' said Davrael. 'There are tales of dogs guarding owner's bodies after death, even to their own death.'

'Oh, no!' Asphodel interjected. 'The poor dog. He must be starving. There's not much here for him to eat and he obviously wouldn't eat his owners, dead or not. We must give him some food and water.'

This they did, drawing water from the well. After tasting a small amount, Fero agreed with Asphodel that it was not contaminated, and so they filled their own water skins too.

The dog was indeed hungry. He wolfed the food they gave him from their packs and wagged his tail gratefully. When they came to leave, he followed a little way down the road then stopped, whined, walked a little way further, stopped again and whined. Then Fero paused and whistled. With a bound and a wagging tail, the big black and tan animal ran after them and from then on accompanied them on their journey.