Creation Ranch 16

Edited. A few changes like almost an entire chapter added to this one.

Chapter 16:  Reach the Fort

 

 

 

It started small barely any wind at all, a breeze at best but not even that and yet not calm either; something was in the weather that is most difficult to describe, an occasional, brief hesitation that said it was about to cut loose and excite the forest to throw its trees at each other in a tangled, horrific mess.  Then it grew like it might just be a gust, but the gust had a gust of a greater intensity hit the first one, and then … the wind increased and the rain came building to a level everyone at the scene expected it to quiet down at least a little, but it did not; a straight line wind that felled trees like dominos in many directions, and not one here and another there, but throughout the entire wooded area between Ghalb and Dacica with some hail, but not a lot, as the Ghalbans reached the open area and sporadically spread out looking for shelter.  One Ghalban was to remark later, “The wind blew as if we were someplace else!” meaning they had never seen anything like it for the wind had always before on every occasion settled well before reaching such heights.

Amazingly no one at the scene was injured physically, but not one of them would ever again trust any storm, not to even mention a straight line wind of the intensity this had been.  Every Ghalban was shaken, every one of the ambush victims, even Eric who called out and I heard him, “Stop this before you cannot halt!”  I kept it up however, until even I scared myself.  So it ended, all at once and altogether everywhere at once.  I was there with them as truly as had I actually stood among them amazed at how close it had come to being a thing of its own, a thing that I had done beyond even my own control.

When the younger ones saw how the older ones reacted, they were suddenly gripped in a great fear,  for when the older ones searched their memories they could not even recall a single story that described even partly what had gone down around them and they could not believe they had survived, and I couldn’t believe they had all survived uninjured, and we all stood in amazement realizing as people, any people anywhere, that such things were possible, as even the animals seemed to sense something of a peculiar nature had occurred, something that would never happen again, for it could not and the world survive and yet be the way it is.

Sooner than one might expect those that fled the Ghalban army did so again.  Wet weary, shaken and worried they all drew their wits about them and began to make camp out in the open where at least the trees would not fall on them should it ever happen again.  To this very day people from throughout the region where the storm hit refuse to make camp in the forest if at all possible.  All were silent as they went about their duties to make camp, duties not explained to anyone but with everyone doing as everyone saw a need, and so as everyone did as everyone saw fit, the separate camps were made, as in the smaller troop a loud whimper could be heard.

It was Eric Ampers Havoll, the son of Alec Amperse, the surrogate father figure in Tess Havoll’s life who had married Zola last before he died at 62, who cried out there in the plain aside the forest and it appeared to be because of the storm.  In reality it was not.  He recalled instead how it felt following a raid by Ewodo wherein he alone awoke in the aftermath.  They had been slaughtered and those that survived, Ewodo intended it to be all survivors, but all who survived were taken back to the main headquarters and tortured until they signed over all of their property over to the wicked man, it being early into the war, except of course Eric.

When the boy awoke then in that place, he saw Tess, his mother’s nearly naked body with her womb sliced open lying in a bed of blood, but that was only the beginning for as far as he could see there at the battle site they were all dead, but murdered in gruesome awful ways, their party having been surprised by nearly the entirety of Ewodo’s followers.

Ironic his mind would go back to such an awful sight when here a veritable miracle had taken place.  Amazing he had healed, and even more amazingly his mind was healthy after such an event and soon he did not whimper as his mind walked through his difficult childhood with the Havolls before Zola adopted him and put an end to the attempts to punish the lad for not strictly being related to anyone at the ranch.

And, it was dark, very dark, and starless but it was warm where Eric was , and Eric felt as if he had only ever known it to be that temperature so he paid it little mind for there was something … something thicker than water… not as thick as blood, and it was pressing against him like a nice warm bath but it was all over, and the silence was deafening!  He was weightlessly floating in a tasty liquid that was ever so slightly salty, but had no smell; his sinuses were so full of the stuff it might have been unpleasant but the rest of the experience left that part unimportant.

He pictured himself in the womb of his mother, Tess Havoll, fifth wife of Zola Havoll, so peaceful and yet surrounded by the war, the long deadly struggle against the evil Wallaby Ewodo, a seed of intellect in a melon, Tess’ womb, lying on a bed in a cabin where joy did abound deep within the bowels of a world seemingly filled with hatred and murder, and violence despite the peace he had only known.  And how his soul yearned to go back there, to that lovely abode away from the ambush, away from the hot lead in his breast, away from the meadow, to Creation; Creation ranch with its joyous safety against hatred, and violence, and … and there was something else but no matter how he would try he couldn’t quite get it to lie with him on wagon pulled by a mule beside the worried look of Lora’s horrid face gazing down at him wondering what he was thinking considering the plans she had, plans that went against her will to marry this man, if he survived, and be in a situation where she was forced to love him, forced to be happy against her will,  bound to be his wife by a single senseless kiss, there first kiss at the woodpile not that long ago, though right then it seemed a very long time since she felt her heart come alive, found what she had been missing with Tom, found the different way the world looks when the heart is awakened by love, not the sick perverted desires of Zoe and her fears of men, not the cowed submission Tom wanted or the need to control that so drove him … Love … the sunshine after the bitter storm in summer or winter, the warmth of an unexpected summer night filled with fireflies that like the stars reached out in all directions into a dark place  … Love … unconquerable by death, the only thing that mattered in life, and the driving force behind surviving anything even Eli’s little ambush. 

Never before had she been so angry at her friend Eli, and yet, never had she known such guilt, knowing it was absolutely against his wishes now that his heart had been tainted with love, a different sort of love her and Eric knew but love all the same where once such hatred abounded.

The wagon hit a hole, the home of a woodchuck and nearly fell in throwing the injured body of her love, Eric, into the air and bringing him to a silent landing that worried her.  As much pain as he must have been in, he certainly should have cried out.  Maybe he was too weak, and felt the horrible pain; perhaps, too out of it to feel anything even her hand on his muscular chest … bloody bandage and all … she doubted his pain was worse than hers, the pain she felt for him … and well, and all …

She never knew it had all been too much for her.  She never knew the strong hungry arms of her most persistent suitor gathered around her petite body, lifting it off the ground, into the air a moment and laying her down like so much precious cargo on the same quilt that the one he knew she loved lay upon in what was seeming to be his death bed, a thing the man Tom Havoll’s heart could not stand to think was a sure thing even now when it seemed so likely. 

I was moved.  It was incredible to me that the loyalty this man felt for this woman surpassed any rivalry even surrendering her to the love of another man, but not just another man either but the principle rival for her hand; perhaps, forever surrendering her by yielding to a bond of love he perhaps might never know personally but was moved in great sadness by its impending end.  And as he laid her there, his precious cargo, her head seemed to roll over toward Eric’s blood stained face and it was very tragic to think their lips may never meet again.  I had to step out of time for a moment and sob, for I too desired what Eric had, what Lora had, what Tom and the others now knew they had … what made all of the struggles of this life worth it.

When I stepped back into time I saw the fort coming into sight.  What a wonderful sight it was!  Not so much the fort as the return of hope and the glorious coming of safety as more than half the village and much of the people in the fort came out now to greet them.

‘That is odd,’ I thought, ‘who told them the troop was in trouble?  Was it gossip, or warning that spread the news so quickly?  Surely someone had traversed the swamp as Lora and Tom had in their quest for Lois’ mother!  Surely someone had trained pigeons to talk or perhaps a crow.  It wasn’t the weasel,’ that much I knew.

Lois’ mother began to bawl and Lois put her arm about the used up old woman’s shoulders shortly before they all ran with all there was in them for the throng coming toward them except Eric and Lora who quietly slept unconscious in each other’s arms as if conscious of every step of the mule, every creak of the wagon, and even the sound to the marauding army coming on their heels as the crowd, all but Lois and Eli ran for the fort.

When the wagon was finally reached by Lois and Eli boarded the wagon and the mule pulled them ever closer to the fort, ever nearer to impending death as the army from Ghalb had decided to attack early and now descended upon the wagon and the fort with bloodthirsty abandon when against all commonsense the gates of the fort swung open … Lora awoke in the sudden hush … Eric moaned breaking her heart … the wagon crashed into an old oaken stump and the wheel broke.

The mule couldn’t pull it anymore.  There was maybe a furlong yet to go to the fort.  The army neared and soon would be in range.  The men in the fort hesitated too long.  Now should they go out to help the wagon they would likely die; if they did not they might not be able to live with their consciences. 

I stepped out of time once more, finding it too real to watch from my place there on the field shifting from face to face; the marauding morons, and the worried families and townsmen, but most of all Eli’s fear, Lois’ panic, Lora’s tears, and Eric’s groaning growing attempts to get out of the wagon; and suddenly Tom’s strong arms pulling his wounded hero from the cart and rushing in a line with the others as they ran as fast as they could for the open gate, not long before the dreaded Ghalban army as the settled bandits were known descended on the wagon, and one of them even examined the quilt the couple had lain upon and wrapping it on his horse continued toward the fort; the promise of rape and pillage steaming around him like prairie dust in a slight breeze that fell as in a hush there in front of the fort.

Then it was as if I heard a single shot and . . . stillness.