The Tribes of K'haren - Completed

Chapter 27.1

Nume yawned loudly and stretched her arms. A sudden noise had ripped her out of her dreams which now faded away all too quickly and she felt rather grumpy already. The days in their new camp had allowed her to readapt to her usual sleeping rhythm which certainly didn't involve getting up early but with all the noise going on outside her freshly built one storey house, there was no way for her to sleep in today. Forced to wake up, Nume put on some clothes that were just lying around and hurried outside. To her further disappointment, she realised that not even the sun had risen yet. Though the sky was getting brighter, allowing everybody's eyes to clearly recognize the silhouettes of soldiers up above the cliff of the Open Wound.

'Kran!' Nume shouted, suddenly wide awake. His answer came moments later and she rushed towards where she thought it had come from just to be stopped on her way from a group of upset fauns. They were talking quickly to each other and some spoke to Nume but it was all too hurried and loud for her to understand much so she told them to calm down and pushed her way through the crowd, soon finding herself in front of Kran's house.

Her friend however wasn't there. Nume looked around and soon found him together with Tarlequin, Feyn and some others standing on a large boulder next to Zar'gno's favourite sleeping place. The dragon himself wasn't there, he was flying high above them in circles, roaring. Nume grimly realised that it was him who was responsible for most of the noise and chaos. Climbing up onto the rook, she shouted for Feyn to make the fool shut up. Panic was the last thing they needed now.

Once Nume stood on the rock, she looked over the valley, scanning it for enemies. Luckily, she couldn't see any. Perhaps they had not yet found the way down into the valley? But Nume also couldn't see Luthi nor Bay anywhere and all their umeno were running away, following the river. Great, the dragon's roar had definitely scared them away, maybe even for good. But that was a problem Nume decided to put up with later on.

'What do we know?' she asked in a tone that was so professional, she surprised herself with it.

'Not enough.' Kran replied, eyeing her up before continuing. 'The army doesn't seem to be too big but I get a strange feeling when I look at them and Feyn insists there are few Phraio among them.'

'Might they be escapees looking to join us?' Nume said sounding way more hopeful than she actually was.

'I don't think so.' Feyn said, landing next to them. Zar'gno had stopped roaring but was still circling high above, keeping an eye on everything. 'They are heavily armed, all of them, and they are shouting and screaming as if they'd all gone insane. I'm afraid we're dealing with something very serious here.' The harpy paused and looked at all of them, waiting for anybody to say anything.

'What do we do then?' a young frago asked. She was rather quiet and didn't speak much but she had insisted on sticking with Nume once she'd convinced her father to let her out of sight. Somehow, Nume couldn't shake off the feeling that Gaplae, that was the frago's name, was looking up to her and she didn't like that too much.

'We stick to our plan.' Tarlequin replied. He'd cut Feyn off who now shook her wings impatiently and hurried to say something herself.

'There are more of them coming. Also, there's one thing you all really want to know, trust me.' The harpy said eagerly.

'Well then, what is it?' Kran rushed her.

'I recognized at least two men in that row alone, one of them is an old friend of yours.' Feyn made a pause there just to make it sound more dramatic. 'It's Raf.'

Nume had known in the moment Kran had mentioned feeling something strange when looking at the army. She felt it, too. Now she kept scanning them but her eyes refused to let her recognise which of these men might be Raf. Her thoughts were racing. If he was indeed one of them, that meant that they were the army of the queen of the night, right? But Tarlequin had never sounded as if he expected them to return any time soon. He'd much rather seemed to hope to never meet Raf again if it meant facing the queen.

'I say we build up the barricade as quickly as possible, just the way we'd planned.' Profaen looked at the others, waiting for some kind of recognition.

'A barricade won't stop them.' Tarlequin's voice was dark and tireder than Nume had ever heard it before.

'Then what else can we do? So far, they haven't attacked and abandoning our camp now would only cause complete chaos. Look at them!' Nume said, turning around to overlook the frightened load that had gathered in their camp and were now running around in panic. 'We have to calm them down before they hurt themselves...'

'Well then, go ahead.' Profaen said, looking up at her expectantly.

'Me?' Nume hesitated.

'Yes, you, you're good with such things, they'll listen to you. Now go, no time to lose!' The dwarf insisted, shoving her down the boulder, ignoring her objection.

'Kran?!' Nume shouted while heading for the centre of the chaos.

'I'm on my way.' He replied, quickly running after her. Gaplae followed moments later.

'So.' Profaen said once there were only four people left on the boulder: he, Tarlequin, Feyn and an elderly phraio man. 'Is the path blocked?'

'It should be.' Feyn said with a short nod.

'Are you sure it's them?' Tarlequin said to the harpy. She nodded again, causing him to sigh and rub his eyes. Now he felt older than ever before. Looking at the man at his side, he thought it would only be fair for them to exchange bodies. After all, he was much older and yet looked way younger than the poor soul.

'Are they as bad as legend has it?' the dwarf wanted to know. Before Tarlequin could answer, the old phraio's rough voice could be heard.

'No. They are worse. In legends, they weren't alive, but right here and right now, they very much are. Good news is that everything alive must die someday.'

Well, that didn't exactly help, Tarlequin thought to himself. He tried to sound somewhat cheerful but ended up with even more depressing words: 'They already are nearly dead and there aren't too many of them. If we stick together, some of us may have a chance to survive...'

Feyn's hand landed on her forehead with a loud clap. 'Where's your spirit gone to? Listen!' she said, waiting for a moment so they could all hear Nume and Kran talking to the others thought their words were lost in the wind. 'They still believe in us, in our plan. If we're going to do this, without fighting, as you wish, then let's do it properly. No talking of losing, no talking of death. Nobody is going to die today. Until somebody proofs anything other than that, I'll stick with it!'

Tarlequin looked at the harpy, feeling even older than before. He wished he had the youth that gave her strength and hope. Then he sighed once more and decided to pull himself together, be it just for a few hours to his awaiting death.

'Alright!' he shouted with newly found enthusiasm. 'Let's do this.'

Then he got out his horn flute and started playing slowly at first. He was playing the song of the prophecy again, it had become somewhat of an anthem to them and Tarlequin could soon feel its effect on those who heard it. They regained hope and to him it felt as though it were surrounding them in colourful bubbles, reaching out for any living thing anywhere close. The faun sucked it all in, breathed it and soon felt young and alive again.

As his tune got faster and happier, he started dancing and even laughing at times, infecting others with his positivity. He was completely unaware of the occasional confused glares and stares as he cheered himself and everybody else up and soon his tune came to a quiet end. As if he'd just come to, he looked around and took in his surroundings. There was order now, nobody was running nor shouting anymore and except for a slight tension in the air, it seemed as though everything was back to normal. That is if you ignored the army still standing on the cliff serving as a grim reminder of this not being just another day but something else entirely.

// Sometimes, Tarlequin reminds me of a drug addict when he's playing... Did you get that impression as well? Also, here's another poem from @Tschike for you!

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