Chapter 20

Ishar and Mairek in the confines of Mairek's hut had formed a plan, they called it 'Save Niada.' The plan contained three parts, the first part was to determine where the Green army of Talisi was taking the girls they'd taken from the Jamou Village. The second part involved getting a quicker means of transport to catch up to the Green army and the third part of the plan was to save Niada.

Neither of them discussed exactly how they would go about the saving of Niada from the Talisi army but the confidence that came with a couple of steps to follow in order to implement a plan served as enough of a morale booster. Mairek then pointed out that the place Talisi and Binoria always carried out their meetings for various reasons ranging from war to the Gift giving ceremony was always the Ganidan plain. The Ganidan plain was a stretch of land that acted as the border between North Binoria and South Talisi.

The Ganidan plain would have been considered bare if it wasn't for the Centala flower that thrived in the plain. They say the Centala flower grew best in blood soaked ground and the Talisi avoided any contact with the flower considering it a reminder of the shed blood of their ancestors yet the Binorian women have been known to braid their hair with the jade colored petals of the Centala. Ishar clapped his hands with glee at Mairek's tackling of the first part of the plan, it was decided that south was the direction they would go.

The second part of the plan didn't go as well as the first. The pair waited for night fall in order to sneak into Mairek's father's stable and steal one of the three horses in it. They were to simply saddle the horse, pack their gear and ride into the night. The plan fell apart when Mairek indicated through his actions that he didn't know the first thing about riding a horse let alone saddling one, every attempt he'd had at getting onto a horse had resulted in him being flung off the steed's back and landing on the ground with his arse. He'd turned to Ishar for advice on the matter and the shepherd had pointed out that he'd never touched a horse let alone ridden one.

The pair decided that horses were overrated anyway and that they were young and agile enough to take on the three day journey to the Ganidan plain that would have taken them a day on horseback. Plus the racket they were causing with the neighing of the horses and the constant thud of Mairek hitting the ground would have drawn the attention of Mairek's household and put an end to the grand delusion of the rescue mission they were to undertake. Mairek took two bedsheets, rolled enough bread and smoked meat to last them three days in one and some clothes in the other and together they snuck out of Jamou in the cover of darkness.

The gentle patter of their feet was the only sound that accompanied them as the Jamou village slowly became a fading speck of light behind their backs. They were fortunate that Jamou was one of the

southern most points of Talisi and that the journey to Ganidan wasn't going to be tiresomely long. "Mairek," Ishar broke the silence, "when I placed my hand on your chest, did I leave a mark?"

"I don't know, it's too dark to see. Why would you have left a mark?" Asked Mairek.

"When I put my hand on your chest, what did you experience?" Ishar inquired instead of answering Mairek.

"What do you mean by that? You just placed your hand on my chest and talked to me."

"You didn't see yourself naked in a dark place and chained to the ground?"

"What? Ishar, have you been smoking the wangi plant? You seem a tad bit delusional. You came to my place talking about meeting a stranger who told you things and now you're talking about me being naked and chained to the ground! I'm worried about you Ishar, I think there's something going on with you, if it's the wangi plant you're smoking please quit it. I have an uncle who went crazy on that plant and started claiming he could hear the Gods." Mairek replied

Ishar laughed at Mairek's words."What did your uncle say the Gods were telling him?"

"He claimed a God had told him that the secret to the power held by the Kings of Binoria came from horse ejaculate." Mairek answered. Ishar started laughing uncontrollably, forcing him to stand, Mairek powered on past a laughing Ishar while still talking. "You should have seen him, Ishar, he was pleasuring horses and collecting their seed in a bowl in order to drink it and challenge Binoria. We had to tie him and carry him to the medicine man on claims of him being bewitched."

It took a while for Ishar's laughter to die down and in that moment Ishar felt happy. Sure, he was marching into uncertainty and the thought of facing Niada came with its own separate bundle of torturous thoughts but for the moment the emotion surging within him was happiness. He felt like the yoke that held him and Mairek down had been lifted and every breath carried with it something new. He'd never thought leaving Jamou, the only place he'd known all his life, would feel this good. A smile was plastered permanently to his face. "What did I say to you when I placed my hand on your chest?" Ishar asked.

"What? Ishar you better quit it if you've started smoking the wangi." Mairek replied.

"Just humor me, good friend." Ishar answered. A silence ensued with Ishar staring at the back of his friend's head as they each took long strides, climbing up and descending down hills. They each had a cloak wrapped around them to keep off the cold with their makeshift bags hanging from their backs. Ishar's forehead traced a bead of sweat as the effort to cover as much distance as possible within the night started to show. "What did I say to you? Remind me." Ishar insisted.

Mairek seemed to play back the moment he'd had with Ishar as they walked. "I don't remember the exact words you said neither do I remember any chains or me being naked." They walked in silence for a while. "What I do remember was a feeling, I've always had this feeling like I was stuck in a loop, you know? Going through the same phases over and over, thinking the same thoughts, feeling the same feelings. Nothing seemed to change, nothing was different, nothing was... "

"New." Ishar interrupted Mairek.

Mairek nodded. "Yes, when you talked to me I felt a new emotion, it was wild and free like a fire let loose in the grasslands. The emotion was something I thought must have existed but I never really had proof that it was there, that it was within me and that it could be felt. I felt it while you talked, this need to.. To... To rage, to abandon everything and all that I knew and just exist as this wild force of nature. Gods! I sound like someone on the Wangi."

"No, I understand you. I felt it too." Ishar replied.

Neither of them spoke and Ishar pondered over what Mairek had shared. Apparently the whole vision of a 'Naked Mairek in chains' was something he'd experienced alone though he'd thought both of them had shared the moment. Ishar struggled to understand how such a thing had been possible for his actions within the dark abyss with Mairek had influenced his friend somehow. He recalled the God Ovek calling the dark abyss Ishar had witnessed his domain. The whole setting must have only been accessible to Ishar and the reason that was so was entirely lost to him.

"You know," Mairek started, "when my uncle started pleasuring horses and collecting their seed, nobody actually stopped him, there was this brief moment where everybody suspected that he was crazy but the slight chance that he may not be carried with it hope, hope so great that when he drunk the horse seed we thought it might work. That he might actually receive the Jojoh Meena and lead a campaign against our oppressors. Well, that hope died when he started screaming that he could 'feel the power' and started humping sheep. Weird how desperate we are for hope that we'd let a man drink horse seed. "

Ishar started laughing again but Mairek's words had registered a deeper effect than they seemed to carry on the surface. Why had Mairek added that last statement about hope? Had hope been part of the emotion Mairek had felt when Ishar had placed his hand on his chest? Ishar wondered to himself as the sound of his laughter faded to the gentle patter of their feet upon the ground.

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