Category: Raya

Three weeks scavenging the smoldering ruins of Ellakar proved to Raya that there were plenty of bandits prowling the defenceless still—she once had to hide in a roofless, ash-strewn shoe shop in order to listen to them thieving from, raping, and then killing refugees outside.  Between Benn, Dondar, and she… there was nothing they could do but wait until they were safe again.  It was worse than any nightmare Raya could imagine; when they heard the bandits stroll off down the street, she charged out to see if anyone had survived and needed help.  No one had. Continue reading Raya 20

Raya slept in again that day, though it was a restless sleep.  She had spent most of the day following their battle in a daze.  Half of her mental standstill was an emotional shock, and half of it a medical one.  Lotha spent most of the time at Dondar’s bedside, that day, while Erek nursed his broken arm in a sling.  Lotha later explained that Dondar had been bleeding internally, badly, but by the third day after the skirmish, he was walking around and swinging his arms fine.  Today, Lotha held Erek’s hand, easing his pain and strengthening his muscles with her imperceptible magic. Continue reading Raya 19

A few days before Raya and her companions reached Ellakar they began to see smoke on the horizon, and on one morning, ash fell on their makeshift camp.  They awoke under a dusting of the horrid stuff and began coughing and trying to clean themselves off to little avail.  Smudged and tired, they continued on their way.  Lotha said, “This isn’t good,” and they all knew it in their sinking stomachs to be true. Continue reading Raya 18

Raya and four others set out toward Vagren, knowing full well they might need to go further to find the source of the light on the horizon.  Throughout the day since, Raya had doubted what she had seen.  It must have just been lightning, or a trick of her eyes.  But Hemsten told she was wrong.  He had been on sentry duty and had seen the long flash himself too. Continue reading Raya 17

It was only on slow days that Raya thought about aiming her bow at an oryx.  The tall gazelle like mammals looked so majestic to her, and though many of the hunters from Olston slung them around their shoulders and hauled them home, Raya had never chosen to kill one.  She had once found an already slain oryx and it had fetched a decent enough price in the town market.  She eyed a distant herd as she briskly trotted across the hilltop looking for distant birds or rodents.  As Olston grew with refugee settlers, the lands around had become more and more scarce, and Raya had been forced to venture further and further out in search of the rabbits and pigeons she sought. Continue reading Raya 16

Weeks of hunting were only halted by another rainstorm—this one battered Olston for a whole week before the clouds let sunshine slip through once again.  When the rain finally let up, Raya had been helping her dad with some firewood behind the house.  She did most of the work of course, but she was cheerful despite getting drenched.  She hung those clothes to dry for a few hours, and then headed out after that.  In the market, only a few stalls had opened; errant drops of water still fell, and only a handful of people had left their homes. Continue reading Raya 15

Someone pounded on Raya’s door, in the early hours of the morning.  It was still dark outside, she saw through her window, as she stood up from her cot.  She strode into the main room of their house, to see her father coming out of his room.  Mister Ganner had a walking stick in his hand, ready for action.  She glared at him with a smile, and he set it against the wall nearby. Continue reading Raya 14

In the morning, Raya left her home as soon as the sun had surpassed the eastern horizon; it had been difficult to sit on her hands that long.  She wanted to run, hide, hunt… not wait.  Her parents had been up most of the night, sharing pleasant memories of Novar.  Of course, he had not treated them well in years either.  He had used their home as a roof and a food supplier, little more.  But his loss was still upsetting to them, understandably so. Continue reading Raya 13

Another rainstorm had swept the hills the day before, sending streams and brooks of water down into the northern savannah.  Most of Olston hid in their homes or worked in the mines, though even those began to flood in the storm, and Novar’s trial was postponed another day, like it was a meeting to play dice, not the life and death consequences of a youth’s mistake.  Raya sat in her house all day, listening to her mother hum or sing short stanzas of folk music from the Radregar northlands.  When she got too bored of watching rain through an slightly ajar window, she whittled wood into arrow shafts. Continue reading Raya 12

Novar’s trial was fast approaching—the Council had scheduled it for the 27^th—but it was a conversation that Raya overheard on her way out of Olston for a hunt that put the first twist into her week.  The guard named Tharin was on duty, speaking with one of the others.  She only caught part of their communication as she strode through the opening in the palisades.  The sky was grey and overcast, so she had been in a rush. Continue reading Raya 11