18 12 Years Ago - Part 9

It took a half-day for the convey to get on the road again.

The caravan master had gone to every cart, carriage, and vardo inquiring about everybody's status. Four had been injured in the attack, all guards. The one death was a somewhat elderly and out of shape merchant who had been swarmed and overwhelmed by the goblins.

The injured were brought to the very same healer that Valk had visited the night before. Their wounds were cleaned and wrapped in bandages. For the more grievous injuries, a tiny amount of Emberstone sprinkled over them, the magic preventing the demons of infection from getting into the wounds.

The left behind corpses of the goblins were piled in a nearby clearing and set alight, producing a most unpleasant smell.

The body of the merchant who had died was covered in a white sheet and loaded into one of the carts. With that final act, the convey started up again.

Guards still flanked us on either side, but now they were a little more spread out. They had to compensate for the men who had gotten injured and could no longer fight.

Valk had offered to drive for the remainder of the day. My mother agreed and we both rode along in the back of the carriage where she sat next to me.

"Then the gods, angry with the giant's.... hu..... hu...." I struggled with an unfamiliar word in my book.

"Hubris," my mother informed me. "The giant's hubris."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Hubris is when someone has too much pride. They believe that they're the best and have no equal. In this case, the giants had conquered the world and felt like all of creation belonged to them. They started taking more than what the world could provide. This made the creators upset."

"Oh..." I felt like I understood some of what she said, but not all of it.

I continued with the book. "Then the gods, angry with the giant's hubris, hurled massive stones from the heavens. The giants cried out "Our creators, what have we done?" The gods answered, "You believe that you are above the world and above creation. To atone for your sins, you must become one with the world that you took so much from."

"Good," my mother encouraged me. "Keep reading."

"And the stones fell upon the giants. And their bodies collapsed under the weight. And thus under the head and pressure and of the newly formed mountains, their bodies became as stone. The magic that they once commanded sealed within."

"And that's why we have Emberstone… and magic."

"Emberstone… is dead giants?" I asked wide-eyed.

"Well, that's what the scholars believe, but I'm not so sure."

I didn't know how to react to that. It Emberstone might be giants.... but it might not be?

"I'll tell you when you're older. Keep reading."

"Now that the world had been cleansed, the gods were lonely. With the giants gone, there was nobody to worship them. Myar, the god of light said, "Instead of one people, why don't we create many? That way, no one will become too powerful and the world will remain in balance." The other gods agreed, and thus many races were made and spread across the Lystlands."

"Do you know who Myar is?"

I nodded. "Myar was in the first book. She was a good guy. Her and her friends killed the dark gods of the sky. And then they became the sky."

"Something like that."

"Then they made the world with the giants."

"That's what they say."

"But," I scrunched up my face thinking. "How did they become the sky if there was no world."

My mother laughed. "That's the big question. Let me know if you ever find an answer."

"Ok.."

I puzzled over that question for some time. I was only finally broken out of that thought loop when we parked the carriage for the evening.

As like the night before, a rough ring-shape was made with the carts and carriages. People unloaded and before long there was a small collection of tents and cooking fires scattered about the center of the ring.

A small crowd gathered on a nearby hillside. It looked like they were digging.

"What are they doing?" I asked, pointing the group.

My mother looked up from feeding the horses. "The man that was killed today, they are going to bury him."

I had seen death before today, mostly in the form of the castle cooks dispatching chickens, or a guard stomping on a rat. Today was different, today was a sort of wake-up call. Earlier, I had witnessed my mother ram her sword through the skull of a goblin, and that was shocking. I had not seen this man die, but I could feel... a sadness coming from the camp. These deaths were different.

I watched as a procession slowly lifted the shrouded body from a cart and reverently carry it to the top of the hill. Once there, they gently placed the body inside the hole that they had prepared.

I saw a man in robes raise his arms to the sky and say some words. They were way to far away for me to hear anything, but I could see that he was speaking. Afterwards, people walked up to the hole and bent down. It looked like they were each placing something in the grave. They then stood around with heads bowed as the grave was filled in with dirt.

Once the grave had been covered, the procession began back down the hill, the man in robes leading. As the approached, I could hear them singing.

"As we wait for the day.... to join the sky. We will walk everyday... with our heads held high...." The song was somewhat melodic, if not thrown a little off key by some of the members of the crowd.

When they reached the encampment, they broke off in various directions, and went about their normal routine.

Was that what death was? People leave you on a hillside, sing, and then go back to their lives like nothing ever happened.

I had questions.