Wandering Eternal: Brothers of War

The Other side of the Coin

The sounds of cattle and factories fill the air along with the smell of sweet cigar smoke. The man dismounts the horse and walks into a white marble column building.

“I hear you seek allies for a war to take command of all Europe no? But you wish to find something else besides allies, your presence knows...searching, peering, and trifling smell of cigars,” an old blind man walks toward him with his arms crossed.

“A seer? Here in Austria-Hungary? Odd, but pleasing. Yes, I am looking for something, special,” he says billowing smoke from his lips.

“You won’t find it here, you must travel to where you lost your last battle and climb a mountain that cannot be scaled. You will face death and death will face you. You must tell death what you want and you will not receive it,” the blind man turns around and walks away. The man scoffs and walks away towards a couple of large wooden double doors flicking his cigar away.

“How far do you plan to travel?” A female voice speaks up from the seat across from the man on the giant empty plane.

“As far as I need to. I’ve been to every corner of land on this earth. I’ve traveled across every sea, seen all of its ice, all of its green, and all of its deserts. Today we are going where the mountain touches the sky. It was the first place my brother and I fought. It is also where my weapon got its name,” the man says blowing smoke from his cigar. The woman smiles through her silhouette and lays back in her seat. “Weapon? Why do you need a weapon? We have plenty of swords and guns in Germany?” She says propping her feet up on the mans knee.

“This one is special, only I can wield it just the same as my brother is the only who can wield his,” he pushes her legs off and stands up walking to the back of the plane putting on a backpack. He turns a switch and opens a door causing the wind to howl through the plane. He flicks his cigar out and jumps out of the plane.

The mountain ahead looks as large as a planet and it reaches above the clouds. The wind and snow are treacherous, the lack of air is almost suffocating.

“You could die trying to climb it, only a few men have ever reached the top. And they were deathly sick when they came back,” a Sherpa says serving wine.

“I’ve been there twice, and I have to go there now if I’m ever going to succeed,” he takes a sip of the wine and then takes a long drag off his cigar.

“You will need a guide and a team of...” the man grabs him by the neck holding him into the air.

“If I wanted your opinion I would’ve asked for it,” he breaks the mans neck with a swift jerk of the wrist and drops him. The people around shudder in fear.

He reaches the top with ice and snow hanging from his extremities. He looks around and doesn’t see anything, “false information bullshit seer. I’ll kill them when I get back,” he says flicking his cigar. A woman dressed in black and green with sharp black antlers on her head going in several directions catches his cigar and throws it back at him.

“Do not litter on my mountain fool!” She says floating towards him, “I know what you seek and I have it, actually I have them both. You and your brother have eluded me for quite some time. I’m holding them ransom until I get my payment for your souls,” she holds out her hand to him.

“You think you scare me Hela? I want my weapon back, you’re going to give it to me,” he says slapping her hand away.

“Stay up here on the road, I’ll be right back,” Zee says walking and sliding down a steep slope in the dark of night. He finally comes to a stop at a level area and notices a creek nearby. He keeps looking around and spots a tree in a clearing that had grown sideways from the trunk and then upward from the hill. He walks along the slope looking for an easier way down for Vesper to walk on and comes across a trail after backtracking half a mile. He walks up it and back down the road to fetch Vesper and Ezma. He finally sees them both standing in the road and approaches them.

“Hey you! Stop right there!” Ezma shouts threateningly, “my boyfriend is real close and he will kick your a*s! Back off!” Zee gets worried that someone may be attacking her and runs toward them, “please don’t come any closer I’m warning you! He’s strong!” She shouts almost crying in fear. Zee finally reaches them and Ezma falls to the ground covering her head with her arms crying, “please don’t hurt me,” she says weeping. Zee looks around and does not see anyone beside Ezma and Vesper.

“Where did they go Ezma?” Zee says still looking for someone.

“Oh Zee! It’s you! I thought you were someone following us trying to attack!” She says jumping to her feet still crying and hugs him tightly, “what were you doing coming from that way?! You had me scared to death!” Zee holds her and grabs the leader line from Vespers saddle.

“I found a place to set up camp, the hill is too steep for Vesper to walk down so I found a trail a half mile back and came up to get you two,” he says turning Vesper around and attempting to move forward but his movement is restrained by Ezma still hugging him, “you can let go now, we need to hurry and make camp. It’s getting late and we need to get a fire going before too long or the Wazyloks and Kujanoeds will come out and eat all three of us,” Zee says holding back a laugh.

“Oh ok, they sound nasty so let’s go!” She says letting go and grabbing his hand tightly. They walk all the way back to the trail and then back up towards the area Zee found, “hey, I can’t see a thing, how are you able to see when it’s so dark?” Ezma asks trying to keep up with him.

“I told you before I don’t remember. I just can that’s all I know,” he says and then stops, “we are here,” he leads Vesper over to the creek to let her drink, “just turn around and walk twenty steps if I don’t have a fire by the time you’ve quenched your thirst,” Zee says to Vesper then walks back over to the horizontal tree, “take a seat on the tree or you can help by gathering me some small sticks to feed the fire with,” he says letting go of Ezma’s hand. He walks over to another tree and peels some bark off then he sets them down on the ground. He grabs a few rocks from nearby and makes a circle around the bark. Ezma walks back stumbling around dropping the sticks in her arms.

“It’s so dark I really can’t see! I brought you some sticks but I think I cut my leg on on a briar bush,” she says dropping the rest of the sticks in front of Zee.

“It’s okay, just take a seat on the tree and I’ll take care of you when I’m done,” he says piling the sticks up over the bark. He loads his pipe and lights it up. He draws on it quickly creating embers, he then dumps the embers onto the bark and blows softly on them creating a small fire. He keeps feeding and blowing on it until he has a decent flame then he stands up and walks around collecting the sticks that Ezma dropped and finds some other dry wood laying around. He builds on the fire and it grows with intensity. Once he makes sure it is steady enough he stands up and walks over to Ezma and sits down next to her. “Where are you cut?” He asks looking at her legs.

“Over here on my left thigh,” she says pointing to it.

“Hmm, well I’m going to have to ask you to take your pants off so I can see it and try to administer first aid,” he says standing up and kneeling in front of her. She blushes then stands up and pulls her pants down then sits back down, “I’m glad to see you’re still wearing undergarments or else I’d have to this blindfolded,” he says laughing a little. He takes a close look at the cut on her leg and notices it is not too deep but it is bleeding and could get infected. He stands up and looks around the forest carefully. He notices Vesper walking back up and he walks over to her and leads her to the tree then ties the line onto a low hanging branch allowing her to lay down if she wants. He reaches into one of the saddle bags and pulls out the bag of oats and a black handkerchief. He hangs the bag of oats around Vesper’s head and she begins to munch on them. He walks over to the creek and searches around for some herbs, he finds an aloe sprout and some lavender nearby he picks all of it he can find and walks back to camp. He walks over to Ezma and kneels down in front of her. He sticks a couple of aloe stems in his mouth and starts chewing with a disgusted look on his face. He takes the lower part of his shirt and rips a long piece off of it. He spits the aloe into the handkerchief and then sticks some lavender buds and leaves in his mouth then he breaks some roots off and puts them in his mouth as well chewing them vigorously. His face starts to turn blue while he is chewing and finally he spits it out on the handkerchief and turns to the side and vomits.

“You didn’t have to do that if it was going to make you sick!” Ezma says patting him on the back.

“No, I should’ve thought of some medicine or at least and mortar and pestile to make medicine with,” he says wrenching and coughing. Then after composing himself he mixes them up with his finger and rubs it on the cut then he folds the handkerchief up squeezing it slightly to get the juice to leak through then places it along the cut and holds it there with one hand. He picks up the long piece of cloth he ripped from his shirt and puts it on her leg, “you’re going to have to open your legs so I can tie this,” he says still spitting bits from his mouth. Her entire face becomes red and she slowly opens her legs and looks away. He wraps the cloth around her leg and then ties it off tightly enough to cause the medicine to seep through the handkerchief but not too tight cutting off circulation. Once he is done he pats her on top of her thigh, “ok I’m done you can pull your pants up now. The next time you change I’ll fix the hole in them if I can remember,” he says then stands up and grabs a skin of water from the saddle bag and washes his mouth out. He takes a few swigs and then hands it to Ezma. Vesper huffs and Zee takes the bag off of her head and puts it back in the bag. He grabs his backpack and takes out the apron and his old shirt. He lays out the apron and folds the old shirt up into a pillow, “this will be our bed tonight. Up against this tree and you can use this as a pillow, you sleep on the apron,” he says pointing it out then he reaches into the messenger bag and pulls out one of the blank books and the pen.

“Hey Zee, where did that feather pen go? I thought the lady at the book store gave you one of those big white feather pens,” she says reaching into the bag for her book.

“I stuck it in my hat before we left, see?” He points to his hat sitting on Vespers back.

“Oh?! I didn’t even notice!” Ezma says sliding down onto the apron crossing her legs, “can you tell me what the story is of this book?” She holds it up to him. He reaches into his coat and pulls out the reading glasses and puts them on, “oh I didn’t know you needed glasses to read?” She questions him curiously.

“Well that’s because you have never asked, and I do not remember seeing any when I woke up. Things are a little blurry at times when I am trying to read,” he says flipping through the book she is holding, “this book has both English and mandarin words,” he says then turns it back to her. He sits down next to her leaning back against the tree. He flips the book back to the beginning and points to the words sounding them out for her letter by letter, “tomorrow I will show you how to write and read these words correctly when we have better light. For now just look at the pictures,” he pauses for a moment opening the leather book, “oh and the story is about a duck who is shunned by her family for being the wrong color. And in the end she finds out she is not a duck but rather a swan,” he says writing in the leather book.

“Oh that’s sad in a way. By the way, what are you doing?” She asks peeking over to see what he is writing.

“Some people call it a journal, others call it a diary. But you write your thoughts in it or daily activities. It’s just a way to record things so that you do not forget,” he says continuing to write.

“Oh! Can we get me one of those when I learn to write?” She asks excitedly.

“Yes of course we can, any sort that you want I will make sure you get it,” he says then he packs his pipe and lights it puffing softly.

“What are you writing?” She asks trying to figure out what he has on the pages and waving the smoke away from her face.

“Well I wrote our first day together on the first page, then I wrote about the second and third on the next page. Now I’m writing that I also forgot to get more tobacco while we were in town and I’m running low,” he laughs lightly. He puffs some more and then realizes the embers went out while he was writing. He sits it aside and finishes writing then puts the journal back into the bag, “we need to get some sleep, I can see that you are very tired and Vesper is already asleep,” he says motioning toward her. Ezma yawns and lays down on the apron. Zee puts some more wood on the fire then lays down with his back against the tree. A small breeze begins to blow and Ezma shivers and creeps backward slowly wiggling her way into Zee’s chest. She reaches back feeling for his arm and finds it then she pulls it around her and holds it tightly. Zee sighs and pulls her in close and tight making sure most of her body is touching his so she will stay warm. Ezma giggles a little then yawns again.

“Is there something funny?” Zee whispers lightly.

“Nothing, just when you pulled me in close just now your hand was on my belly and it tickled a little,” she smiles closing her eyes happily. She falls asleep soon after and Zee lays there quietly listening to her breathing and heartbeat.

“Something tells me I’m going to wake up in a different position,” he says to himself and then lays his head on his arm and falls asleep fairly quickly.

The sun peaks over the horizon and Zee wakes up and notices Ezma has turned around and her face is almost touching his. Her arms and legs are wrapped around him tightly. He starts to feel parched and licks his lips.

“Huh? Candy? But when did I...” he says to himself pausing when he realizes she had kissed him at some point in the night. He looks down to see if he can untangle her from him without waking her up and sees her shirt has opened up and her chest is bare, “what did she try to do while I was asleep?” He says to himself. Ezma stretches her arms and Zee quickly lays his head back down and closes his eyes. After a moment he opens his eyes to see if she has woken up and sees her face right beside his wide awake and smiling.

“Morning,” she says blushing, “did you sleep well?”

He pulls his head back and she follows him her eyes bouncing from his eyes to his lips, “yes, I...did, but then I woke up and found you like this...” he says barely able to get his words out.

“I got cold so I just used you as a heater, the fire went out and I woke up but you were still asleep. So I turned around to get warm,” she says smiling.

“What else did you do?” He asks seeing if she would tell the truth.

“Well, I uhh...I kissed you and I tried to do something else but I guess I just don’t know what I’m doing,” she says pulling her face back and rolling over to face up. Zee pulls her shirt together and sits up, “see what I’m talking about? I left myself open to you but you do nothing but just cover me back up and reject me,” she says turning bright red.

“You have the wrong idea, I knew you kissed me when I tasted candy on my lips. But you should not just throw yourself at someone like this. You should work at trying to build a love with them first and then when the time comes it will happen naturally,” he says standing up and dusting himself off.

“But Fa said that even when people aren’t in love they can have an attraction to each other and do that. So what is it? You told me you thought I was pretty. That’s attraction right?” She says crossing her arms pouting.

“Just because someone calls you pretty does not mean they are attracted to you...”

“But..”

“Hold on, I am not finished. It just means that they think you are a good looking person. Now when someone longs for you then you can see it in their eyes...”

“I do see it your eyes! I can tell by the way you care for me that you want me. Just admit it!”

“I do care for you, a lot. But I owe you a debt for saving me. It is not the only thing that makes me want to keep you around. I will admit that I am attracted to you but you are still so very young and innocent. You should value your innocence and life as if they were the most valuable things in this world,” he says packing everything up and putting his sunglasses and hat on.

“I don’t understand what’s so valuable about it. I don’t get what the whole big deal is,” she says standing up and fixing her shirt tightening her sash.

“It is hard to explain, it is just something that, when you first experience it, it leaves you in a weakened state and you will be emotionally connected to this person forever...forever...is a really long time,” he hangs his head low his voice fading off.

“Ok I think I get it. So if you really want to have s*x with someone you should be willing to marry them and spend forever with them together. Right?” She says smiling but her face still beaming red.

“Yes exactly, but you still want to wait until both people are absolutely sure and ready,” he says untying Vesper then he turns her around, “are you ready to go now...” he pauses feeling nature’s call.

“Not yet, I need to pee really bad,” she says bouncing back and forth while crossing her legs trying to hold it in. Zee grabs her by the hand and leads her over to the creek.

“Here lean up against this tree,” he says handing her a piece of cloth out of his pocket.

“Are you going to watch me?” She says laughing pulling her pants down. Zee turns around quickly crossing his arms, “you shouldn’t make a big deal about it, you gave me bath the other day and have seen me n***d plenty of times,” she says leaning against the tree letting nature flow. She finishes and pulls her pants back up handing the cloth back to Zee. He realizes she handed him the damp cloth and then moves it to his finger tips and walks over to the creek washing it and his hands. Then he stands up, moves his coat aside and pulls his pants down enough to relieve his own nature call, “hey that’s no fair! You get to stand up and do it?” She says walking over to him and peeks around him. His head in hung in the air with his eyes closed relief, “oh?! So that’s what they look like!” She says laughing and Zee surprisingly looks down noticing her looking at him and he turns quickly, “are they all like that?” She asks trying to follow him as he keeps turning away from her.

“Would you stop long enough for me to finish?!” He says with his face turning bright red, “and no but yes. They are all kind of like this but in all different shapes and sizes.”

“Oh?! I thought for a minute your arm was sticking out of your pants so I was concerned,” she says blushing and giggling. He finally finishes and pulls his pants up tying the drawstring tight.

“How about we stop talking about all of this and get back on the road? Shall we?” His face still red. He motions for her to walk back to the campsite and she lets out a big groaning sigh rolling her eyes.

“Fine lets go, are you riding Vesper today?” She says walking up the trail back to the campsite.

“No I believe you should keep riding her, we are going to be walking all day only stopping to eat and rest,” he says following behind her picking up more herbs as he walks. They arrive at the camp and Zee walks over to Vesper and puts the herbs in the piece of cloth he washed then into the saddle bag. Ezma puts her foot in the stirrup and tries jumping onto Vesper by herself. She attempts many times only managing to get close once. She takes her foot out and gives up.

“I think I’ll just walk with you...” before she can finish her sentence Zee grabs her by the waist and picks her up sitting her on the saddle, “I would’ve been fine walking,” she says huffing.

“I do not think you would have, but I am not going to argue. I do not want you to get lazy but I also do not want you to get worn out either,” he says leading Vesper back down the trail.

“What about you? Won’t you get tired?” She says reaching into her pocket and pulls out a piece of candy.

“Well yes of course I will wear down as the day goes by but it is okay as long as Vesper stays energized and that you learn to properly ride a horse,” he says smiling. They get back to road and start heading north. Zee walks over to the other side of Vesper reaching into the saddle bag and pulls out two fruit flavored tarts and one of the water skins that has a red rubber cork in the top. He hands one of the tarts to Ezma then he bites into the other, “these will help you keep your energy up and all three of us need to stay hydrated,” he says taking small bites of the tart at a time. Ezma finishes hers fairly quickly and looks down at Zee.

“Are there anymore? That was very tasty and I don’t think I’ve had one of those before,” she says wiping her mouth and l*****g her lips. Zee pops the cork off of the skin and takes a sip then hands to Ezma who also takes a sip. Then she drinks more and hands it back to Zee. He takes another small bite of the tart then holds it up to Ezma, “I didn’t mean give me yours silly, I meant another in the bag?” She says leaning back and over trying to reach the bags. Zee puts the tart in his mouth biting it softly but firmly enough it will not fall out and puts the cork back in the skin with one finger. Ezma tries really hard to reach the bag but loses her leg grip on the saddle and falls off of Vesper. Zee quickly catches her in a cradle position. He leans his head down to Ezma’s face still holding the tart and she looks up into Zee’s eyes through the sunglasses and then opens her mouth slowly. Zee puts the tart in her mouth and Ezma reaches up with her hand grabs it after taking a bite. Zee lifts her up and puts her back on the saddle.

“We do have more but we have to ration our food because we are still two days away from the mountain,” Zee says popping the cork off taking a couple of big gulps and raises it up to Ezma. She finishes the tart and starts l*****g her fingers and lips to get the crumbs and fruit jam off then she grabs the skin from Zee and finishes it off.

“What is this stuff? It almost tastes like milk but it’s a little sweeter and not as thick,” she says trying to get every last drop shaking the skin over her mouth.

“It is goats milk, honey, cinnamon, and tea. My own special recipe, I think,” he says trying to remember how he made it but comes up with nothing. Then he assumes he made it with no residual thoughts.

“Well it’s great! Can we drink that from now on instead of water?” She asks handing him the skin back.

“We can make some more the next time we are near civilization with a nice market,” he says stuffing the skin back into the saddle bag, “but that was just something for us to enjoy not something you want to drink all the time because it will make you sick,” he pulls out another skin from the bag with water in it and walks up to Vespers head holding the tip in her mouth and the back end in the air. Vesper laps the water drinking it but only for a few seconds, “are you finished already?” He asks her in surprise. She huffs and Zee walks back to the saddle bag and puts the skin next to the empty one. They carry on walking down the road talking about the different animals and things around them.