The Spirit in the Hills

I was raised in the old world where I lived with my family on the hillside overlooking our village. My pa was a water bearer on the water route to the desert lands. Many a time he came back home from an expedition with presents from the Fyros country. Once I got some fine desert boots, that was for my eleventh birthday. Another time I got a real Fyros axe which, as it turned out, probably saved my life.

I remember one day, in the autumn it was, I was getting in wood and ma was busy baking chestnut cakes for the winter store. All of a sudden I heard some rumbling like distant thunder and on looking up I could see a cloud of dust being kicked up in the distance. I first thought it was wild mektoub being hounded by a pack of gingos, and thought nothing of it. But the rumbling got louder and soon I could make out that it weren't wild mektoub but pa' and uncle Kegan galloping back home on their packers with the others galloping behind. I called my ma and she instinctively held me tight to her bosom like I was still a bairn, without a word we both sensed there was something seriously up.

Sure enough, pa, who was on his way back from a delivery of water, had got word that the Fyros were being attacked by hordes of monsters and we all knew what that meant. We'd learned from past experience that as soon as the Fyros were prevented from giving us protection in came the Matis to invade our lake lands. Well, I grabbed my axe and stood with pa and uncle with some other villagers expecting to see the Matis appear over the horizon, and sure enough, there came the unmistakable colors of an army of Matis cavaliers.

From the hillside we had a fair view of the main road and the surrounding country for miles around. It was my little sister who spotted it first. There, not a mile behind the Matis army another cloud of dust, but even bigger. We knew we were done for, my uncle said with such an army, we wouldn't stand a chance, that we'd have to give ourselves up or face certain death. My pa stood silently for a minute scrutinizing the second army. I will never forget that look of horror that spread across his face. “The second front ain't no Matis army, and surrender is no longer a viable option,” he said. “Watch, the second army's closing in on the first…”

The Matis were now well in sight and we could make out their proud march forward like they already owned the place. Then a most horrible sight made my heart sink and I stood frozen to the spot. The second army was now barely two hundred yards behind the Matis who still hadn't seen what was coming to them. My father took a step forward, I could see he wanted to shout a warning to our very enemies but they were too far away. Then a Matis soldier must have sounded the alarm for their mektoubs were suddenly set to the gallop, not to charge but to flea the dreaded mass of giant kitins now snapping at their heels.

It was appalling, the whole battalion before our very eyes became a mangled mess of kitin fodder, and the cries, the sickening smell brought to us on the wind… While the kitins were snapping through the bodies we galloped down to the village to give the alert. Some took the road west others went south where they knew of an opening in the great wall of the Zoraïs. Pa figured our best chance was in the highlands and we gathered what we could and pushed on up into the hills.

From our morbid viewpoint we could see waves of kitins pouring into the main roadway hacking through our village like it was made of cardboard. We trudged over the hills cross-country for days hardly stopping to rest for fear of kitin scouts picking up our scent. Lucky ma brought the chestnut cakes else we'd have starved. One night one of our mektoubs was mauled by a torbak and the others broke loose. Morale was getting really low when my uncle, who always went ahead to make sure the coast was clear, came running back.

Uncle Kegan said he'd seen a spirit who came to him in a vision and who told him to lead us east where we'd find a rainbow that would take us to safety. Pa thought at first he'd been puffing on weed again but he insisted so much that we could but follow on. Then, one afternoon as we came over a peak, there was the rainbow large as life. It was a sight to see I can tell ya. There was a group of homins, Trykers and Matis, and even a couple of yubos going through it and just vanishing. My ma weren't so sure about going through it then something appeared behind us which gave us no choice.

Two great monstrous kitin kinchers came lumbering up behind us with their great pincers snapping the air like they were testing their technique. My pa and uncle kept them busy with their arrows while I took my ma and sister by the hand and we ran as fast as our legs could carry us towards the rainbow. We weren't fifteen yards from the entrance when my little sister let out a desperate cry and fell to the ground in shear exhaustion. I picked her up while pa and uncle Kegan managed to hold the evil creatures off with their last arrows. We were nearly there when out of the blue came a third monster who blocked our way to the rainbow and just waited there like a provocation.

I admit I was petrified, I just froze senseless, couldn't lift a finger. Then pa's voice coming at me brought me to my senses : “Your axe, son, throw your axe at its eye!” Shaken from the nightmare, I took aim, flung the axe straight as a die. “Now run!” I heard pa shout, “don't look back, run for it!” I picked up my sister, took my ma by the hand and we ran round the monster's legs as it strived to rid itself of the Fyros axe embedded in its right eye, and the three of us made it through the rainbow. I know my pa saw us escape, I swear I felt his gaze upon us…