The New World (The Last Delar) (2 page)

Loeau's face, which usually shines like light flickering on water, is darkened with doubt.  Noe embraces Loeau and rests her face against his chest.  She takes his hand into hers and Noe says his good-byes.  He rests an intimate kiss on Loeau's forehead and whispers, "Do not fear what must be done this night, for you will soon be in my arms again."

Loeau picks up a candle and hands it to him.  She glances around the home they have made together.  Loeau takes a knife from Noe's belt and cuts a lock from her hair.  She looks up at her love holding back her tears and tries to smile. She puts her hair into his hand.  "Be brave and without fear," she says. Noe looks down at his sons and kisses each of their foreheads and rests his head against hers. Loeau turns and quietly slips out into the night with that last seeds of his fathers.

Standing alone in silence, holding Loeau’s hair, Noe closes his eyes and breathes deeply.  The distance between him and his beloved is growing.  He understands that he must survive as long as possible to help his family escape. Still holding the candle, he picks up his axe.  Noe walks out of the hut and into the cool night.  Without looking back, he tosses the candle onto the roof.  Noe picks up a stake and pounds it into the ground.  He unties his loincloth and ties a foot to the stake.  Although banished from his home as a young man for loving a stranger, tonight he will die like a true Meno warrior.  Like his ancestors who knew when death was close, he will bind himself to the ground, showing his enemy his courage.  Noe stands up and faces the darkness, waiting, as his home burns behind him.

The distance between Loeau and her home grows.  Her destination is a place that she has never been, but has seen in a fading dream.  As Loeau hastily hacks through the thick forest brush, she hears movement and stops.  She crouches, hiding within the cover of the forest. She looks into the darkness trying to see who is coming. Her silver eyes glow reflecting the moonlight casting shadows on the tall grasses.  Loeau prays that her babies continue to sleep, unaware of the darkness that she has foreseen. Loeau lowers her head.  Warriors are approaching. They are spread out and moving swiftly through the bush.  Loeau curls into a ball, clutching her cloak tightly, disappearing in a veil of darkness.  The men carry sticks that glow an eerie blue.  She hears the rattling of bones and jewelry of one warrior.  She knows the tribe he belongs to -- he is a Yosemite from the west.  The other two warriors are like no men she has ever seen.  They are dressed in foreign clothes and have chest armor forged from ore.  They carry strange weapons and move awkwardly in the forest.

Loeau looks out from behind her cloak and watches as the Yosemite passes her by.  Loeau's nostrils sting as the faint smell of smoke rides on the night air.  Akelou, one of her sons, hiccups in his sleep, and Loeau hears a warrior stop.  He begins to speak in a foreign tongue, and Loeau grips her sword, ready for action.  A reddish glow seeps into her cloak, and she hears the men turn and run away.  With a sigh of relief, Loeau holds her babies tightly and breaks into a run.  She moves quickly through the forest.  As she journeys farther into the night, Loeau clutches her necklace, hearing her name echo in the forest.

"LOEAU!" The piecing cry of her love brings her to her knees.  It is Noe calling her name as death takes him.  In the darkness with tears streaking down her dirtied face she looks up through the trees and at the sky.  Loeau whispers a lament for Noe and takes out a small pouch from under her cloak.

"Your father rejoins the soil that bore him, my sons, with no shame or fear for himself."

Loeau quickly opens the pouch from her cloak and dips her finger inside.  With a finger covered in glowing ash, she dots her sons' foreheads.  Loeau wipes her tears with the same finger, leaving glowing streaks down her face.  A horrible roar fills the air, shooting her to her feet. Her trail has been found.  Time is now her enemy.  Staggering and clutching her children tightly, Loeau runs as fast as the forest allows.  Closing in, is a doom that Loeau cannot escape but one that she must delay.  Loeau stumbles down a gravel bank breaking through a thicket of thorn bushes that tear at her cloak.  She stops abruptly as she recognizes this place.  Loeau shivers and stares at the tree whose roots have grown wild.

"And so it is."

---

This will be the place of her death, and Loeau knows it.  She walks over to the tree and falls to her knees, splashing in the shallow stream. Loeau tears her necklace from her neck, breaking its chain.  Holding it with both hands, she shuts her eyes and speaks out into the night.

"My end is near, take whatever life still beats in my heart and save my loves and our last hope."

Her hands begin to shake and the amulet radiates with power.  It illuminates the forest with blinding light that bounces off the water’s surface like brilliant white spears.  Loeau tries not to yell out, but the pain is too great.  The pain intensifies as the necklace sears the skin of her hands. When Loeau opens her eyes she sees something coming toward her.  Soaring in the night, it shimmers in the darkness.  Loeau smiles as she sees an Uluani, The Moon Shimmer, rarest of all creatures and an omen of hope.  It was in the darkest hour of her ancestors when evil had snuffed out all light that an Uluani shimmered on a moonless night.  The Uluani ignited hope where it was lost, leading her people out of the darkness. 

Distracted by the majestic bird, Loeau does not realizing the water has been rising, soaking her robes.  The brook that was barely a trickle has turned into a powerful stream with surging currents, and Loeau now kneels waist-deep in it.  The bird, the water, the dream: it is all as it should to be.  The Uluani hovers casting great shadows in the brilliant light that radiates from the amulet.  Loeau knows now why the Uluani has shown itself to her.  She takes Akelou from her shoulder and looks into his eyes.

“Akelou, my gift, we have only been together for a short time but you must now go and begin a new life.  Trust your instincts, for many in this world will not understand but fear you.  Remember, I will always be watching, for the connection between a mother and her child never dies.” Loeau quickly hugs Akelou tightly and kisses his forehead through tear-soaked lips.  Then, she looks into the eyes of the bird and speaks. 

“Take him to the one who will understand who and what he is.”

With these words, the Uluani snatches the child from her arms with its powerful talons and disappears into the night.  Loeau prepares quickly as she hears the sound of approaching footsteps.  An old petrified log that once lay in the mud bounces off her waist.  One more child to save before the end, she thinks to herself.  “Oskeau, my son, do not fear the darkness for it will save you tonight.  I sense that you will be a powerful leader of men.  Always remember that you lived because you were loved.”

Loeau kisses her son and lays him on the dry log.  As his body touches the log it transforms into a crude canoe.  The moment Loeau releases her son, the stream swells with one last surge before slowly returning to the small rivulet it once was.  The light from her necklace fades and Loeau rises to her feet.  She looks down at her dark, cold necklace and knows that her fate has been sealed.  She can feel her life force beginning to fade.  Loeau slides her sword from its sheath and holds it to her face.  Closing her eyes and speaking softly, Loeau whispers to the ancient steel in the tongue of the Delar. “
Long have you been in my family, but tonight others shall take you as theirs.  May we bring fear to those who stand against us.”

Behind her, warriors approach.  They stop once they see Loeau's back.  The native from the western tribe signals for the others to flank her.  Once the men fade into the bush, he raises his stone tomahawk and lets out a battle cry as he charges.  Listening to the forest, Loeau knows the moment has come.  She grips her sword tightly and opens her eyes.  They are consumed in a blue light, the last of her fading power.  She spins and opens her arms.  The Namid blazes to life, cutting down the charging warrior.  Seeing only a dazzling flash before his death, the warrior makes no sound before he falls.  Loeau raises her sword behind her head, lowers the blade, and points it toward the forest. She closes her eyes for a moment caressing the tarnished steel against her cheek.

The quickness and skill of the woman stuns the other two men, and they falter, confused by this new enemy.  Loeau senses their hesitation.  She opens her eyes and charges the closest warrior.  She attacks and the conquistador watches a light surrounded by caped darkness slay his comrade.  He raises his weapon and pulls the trigger.  The unnatural crack of his shooter disturbs the forest.  Through the smoke of his weapon, he sees the Namid gliding toward him, like a ship coming through a morning fog.  Mesmerized by the magical sword, he has no time to dodge the blow.  The Namid drives deep into his chest.  Unseen from above, Loeau lands, and grabs her weapon.  With her back facing the warrior, she lunges forward, powerfully kicking the warrior against a tree. She raises her blood-stained weapon and sees a new warrior emerge from the trees to face her.  He is calm and dressed in an ornate breastplate.  He has seen Loeau's skill, but is unafraid.  He draws a pistol and his sword, a long flexible blade, and slowly approaches Loeau.  With his sword drawn and his pistol aimed at her head, the warrior slowly circles Loeau. She stands in the shallow stream, sword raised and ready for her attacker.  The light from her eyes has gone and her body is getting weaker.  The man speaks in a foreign tongue, gruffly and without fear.

"You are well trained, savage, but death calls your name this night."

The man maneuvers quickly, and Loeau says nothing. They both strike, their swords clashing, shaking the forest floor.  The warrior’s pistol fires and the small lead ball grazes Loeau’s shoulder.  He swings for her head, but finds only her sword.  Locked in battle, they push toward each other.  They continue their struggle, realizing how closely matched their skills are.  Their faces are close, swords crossed at neck level, eyes piercing into each other.  The soldier's strength becomes too much for Loeau, and he begins to push her to her knees, smirking at his perceived victory.  Loeau screams, using the dying voice of her Noe to fuel her strength.  Loeau breaks the standoff, shoving the soldier, striking him with her fist.  She spins, and the Namid spits in blue fury as the soldier's head separates from his neck.

Panting, Loeau leans on the Namid and hears a noise behind her.  Three needle-like objects pierce her back.  Her teeth clench, severing part of her tongue, and her eyes roll back into her head.  Loeau wails and falls to the ground, her face splashing in the water.  Her flesh burns as a toxin seeps into her bloodstream. Submerged in the water she hears muffled sounds above her. The water erupts, and she is thrown into the air and forced against a tree.  She looks out behind the blood stained water that trickles down her face and whimpers in fear. Loeau sees the eyes, the white eyes that have haunted her dreams.  Loeau is now face to face with the beast that was hidden in the forest. It has long rodent-like teeth and a grotesque body.  It roars at Loeau filling her senses with the stench of ancient death.  Loeau knows what this beast is.  It is one of the ancient warriors of the darkness, a Daboon of legend.  It stands taller than any man, its body covered with coarse black hair.  Like the trees of the forest its arms are long and powerful.  On the beast’s back poisonous spines rattle as it moves.  The beast hurls something at Loeau.  It strikes her hard, then falls and rolls into the mud.  She looks down and sees Noe's dead eye staring up at her.

“No!” she howls.

Loeau looks up and sees a man approaching her.  Her eyes go wide when she looks upon his face.  It's the man she saw in her dream.  He was deep within a mountain, surrounded by worshiping men and a rising fire.  There was a blade and a sacrifice, and then she saw the eyes.  He is the one, the foreigner from a distant land who possesses something ancient, dark and powerful.  The man dressed in his strange clothes kneels in front of her and Loeau can see herself in his silver helmet.  His skin is fair and his decorated facial hair gives him a look of arrogance.

The foreigner rubs his mustache and speaks in a foreign tongue, “Be gentle, General Ush-Ka, we do not want her dead yet.  I am the new lord of these lands, Indian witch, and I am here for your …," but before he can say another word Loeau lunges forward grabbing his head with both her hands.  His memories flash before her eyes in a chaotic blur.  Clenching her teeth tightly as she deals with the pain, she lets out an exhausted grunt and releases the foreigner’s head.  They both recoil and breathe heavily, trying to regain their senses.  Drained of spirit, Loeau looks up to the moon and speaks in the tongue of the Delar.  Then there is a flash of light, and everything goes dark.

CHAPTER TWO

The dim light of a dying fire illuminates a slumbering figure. It is a plump, homely woman who has seen many seasons come and go.  Her face is so carved by age that folds of skin conceal her eyes.  Her skin hangs loosely from her bones, and her back is bent from a lifetime of traveling.  Her name is Mia-Koda, and she is a Bruhaa of the forest.  Snoring close to her is a young forest Wicker named Tib. He lies on his back with his mouth wide open.  Tib is short and stocky and Mia-Koda often tells him, he smells of rotting fruit.  Wickers are small comparable to a child who has grown for three years.  They’re manlike in appearance, but have only one large eye centered on their foreheads.  Wickers have darkish hued skin covered in markings that change in color to reflect their mood and surroundings.  Tethered to a nearby tree sleeps a brown haired horse named Broomay.  Like Tib, Broomay has bioluminescent markings around his eyes and ears.  The horse stirs, lifting his ears into the air and listening to the night.  Twisting his head, Broomay jerks to his feet and begins stomping the ground.  The hair around his ears begins pulsing with bio-light.  Mia-Koda becomes annoyed at his unrest and shuffles over to the tree where he is tied.