The Tribes of K'haren - Completed

Chapter 15.2

Once Bay attacked, everything happened too fast for Kran to fully keep up. The umeno panicked upon seeing the baymout and some tried to flee. Kran could hear some of the poor creatures howl in fear and the very disturbing sound of a breaking neck was a clear sign for Bay having arrived. When Kran looked up, he could see Luthi fly in big, low circles around the umeno, keeping them roughly together.

The rider who had been patrolling the caravan was still in control of his umeno and had drawn his sword now. When he passed their cart heading for Bay, Kran saw a dragon drawing on his forehead. The next thing he saw was blood. With incredible speed, Raf had drawn his sword, stuck it through the bars and cut the rider's hand right off. But Raf's sword fell to the ground outside and was now out of reach.

Chaos was everywhere now and there were so many voices in the air, Kran hardly even noticed the rider's scream. The man seemed to be in shock and his umeno now panicked, too. Its instincts were stronger than any loyalty it might have felt for the phraio when Bay came at them. The creature ran for its life, taking the rider with it, out of Bay's reach.

When the baymout finally found Raf, she had already killed half of the umeno and the others were now all too horrified to even try to escape anymore. They had burst and now gathered around Luthi, who, as Kran now noticed, had landed. They seemed to believe he'd protect them from Bay. The phraio, who were still caught inside the carts the umeno were dragging, on the other hand tried their best to escape.

Meanwhile Bay was busy breaching Raf's cart open. The umeno that had dragged them was already dead. Kran, Nume and Raf pushed themselves into one corner in order to not get cut in half by Bay's claws, she wasn't exactly careful while she forced a hole into the bars. Once she'd bent them open far enough, Raf slid through and the others followed.

While Raf ran for his sword, Kran made his way to Luthi. He looked back and saw Nume heading for the crashed cart in which there were still some phraio. For a moment, he considered helping her free them but without the key, there was no way to do so and he thought it was more important to calm the other prisoners down.

When he reached them, the first thing he did was talk in a low voice, trying to sound calm. He told them all to remain quiet and that they were safe, that Bay was not going to hurt them. Meanwhile, he unfastened the first umeno from its cart, tying it to Luthi's gear instead. He did that with all the other umeno as well to prevent them from running away with one of the carts and the people inside.

Kran tried to look into the phraios' eyes to show that he was trustworthy but they seemed to fear him, many were covered in dirt and some were even bruised and showed cuts on their foreheads. To his shock, Kran recognized the numbers that had been carved into their skin. He knew what they meant, they were a mark to who they originally belonged to, a way to identify slaves. Never before had he seen any fresh mark and the blood and loose skin looked horrible.

In one cart, he even saw a mother with her newborn child. She was hugging it tightly, obviously fearing for its life. He told her to stay calm and repeatedly said that he wasn't going to hurt her but she didn't look any less terrified than before. When Kran found a cart with goods in it, he quickly looked through them, found some water and food and shared it with the phraio in the carts, reaching it through the bars. Despite being terrified, they were all just as hungry and thirsty as he was and thus took it. Kran made sure there was enough left for the phraio in the other carts Nume had gone to and for themselves as well.

He promised the others to find the key or some other method of opening the carts and come back for them as soon as possible. When he looked around, he saw the complete chaos once more. All the remaining living umeno, except for the one that was still trapped with the crashed cart, were now tied to Luthi. The gseirut looked extremely happy with having found its friends and would have followed Kran's every step had the umeno not hindered it.

Nume was kneeling in the dirt next to the crashed cart, seemingly talking to the people inside and Bay and Raf were nowhere to be seen. Many dead umeno were lying next to carts scattered all over the place, in many of them there were still phraio so Kran took some more food and water and made his way there. These phraio looked even more terrified than the others and some even refused to take the food despite being in horrible shape. Kran left some with them regardless and walked over to the next cart until he was sure everybody had at least drunken a bit.

When he had finished his round, he joined Nume. She was talking to a little boy inside the cart. He was the only living phraio in it. Kran couldn't tell whether the dead woman next to the boy had died from the crash or might already have been dead before. But the young boy didn't look great either, he was very pale and stared at the woman with widely open eyes. Kran showed Nume the food, she took some and reached it in through the bars.

'Look, I've got something for you. Eat it, it will help you.' She said to the boy. He didn't even look at her. The poor boy seemed to be unable to take his eyes off the dead woman.

Kran walked around the cart to the umeno, it was breathing heavily, still trying to free itself from the cart. It was lying on its side, struggling violently. Kran knelt down in front of the creature, putting one hand gently on its neck so it could sniff him. Once it calmed down a little, he got back up and tried to unknot the mess the crash had caused. The ropes tying the cart to the creature were all muddled.

'I'll get you out of there, alright? But please, eat something.' Kran heard Nume beg the little boy. He knew there was no way to help her so he focused on freeing the umeno instead. The creature seemed to be in pain.

Once Kran finally managed to unknot the ropes on the upper side, he realised that that wouldn't suffice for the creature to get back up. It was still tied to a pole that was now buried under the umeno's own weight. So Kran instead tried to take its gear off. It took a while and he thought his fingers were going to fall off but then he finally managed to free the umeno. The creature immediately jumped up and, despite being palsied, walked away, joining Luthi.

By that time Nume had finally gotten the boy's attention. She'd managed to convince him to drink a little but he still hadn't eaten anything. Kran tapped on Nume's shoulder and whispered into her ear: 'If you help me, we can roll the cart back upright. I think the bars on the side it fell on might be bent open far enough for him to crawl out.'

She didn't look too convinced but she nodded and asked the boy to stay calm. Together, they managed to slowly roll the cart upright. Kran kept talking to the boy just to make sure he wouldn't look at the dead body next to him being shaken around violently. Fortunately, the boy kept eye contact and once the cart stood back upright, Nume swiftly ran around it, finding a place the boy might fit through. As Kran had guessed, the bars were bent and the slim body of the boy actually fit through.

Once he was outside, the boy stared at them, still in shock. Kran asked him for his name but he didn't reply.

'I'm Kran, this is Nume, we're not going to hurt you.' He said, feeling somehow guilty for the woman's death. Kran just prayed to the gods that she wasn't his mother. But, thinking about it, her death wouldn't be any less tragic if she actually hadn't been his mother.

The boy still looked terrified but he didn't make a noise and didn't seem to be willing to walk anywhere so Kran picked him up and carried him over to Luthi. He and Nume walked along the rows of carts, asking people whether they were hurt and needed anything and whether anybody knew the boy. By the time Raf and Bay returned, they still hadn't found anybody who could have told them more about the lost child.

// Here we go, this chapter was a bit darker than the previous ones, let me know what you think about it in the comments below and don't forget to vote if you liked it :)