The next day. Endal wandered around the village, observing and helping the village residents. He observed the warriors training the young bloods, although some of them seemed too young. As some were having difficulty raising a sword.
Many warriors at the defense were either dead or wounded, now they had to train whatever able bodied people they could find, as the mad raiders may come back to attack again. Endal noticed the female villagers delivering medical aid to a large cabin, he walked towards the cabin.
As he entered, the stench of blood and sweat in the air shocked his nose, Endal covered his nose with his hand. He noticed the shamans tending aid to the wounded, Many were covered in bandages, some were amputated and some were covered in blank fur sheet, this were the recently deceased.
Endal saw children, husbands and wives weeping at the bedside of the deceased. He walked further inside the cabin hall, glancing left and right at both the wounded and the deceased. Endal recognizes much of the faces that fought alongside him during the siege. Although most of the wounded warriors greeted him with a smile, some gave him a rather cold glare.
Endal could only guess the reason to their glares, they must be somewhat acquainted to the ones he accidentally killed. He felt guilt and regret to what he had done.
Perhaps there were better ways to handle the situation but at that time Endal could only come up with that strategy. He merely glanced at their gaze and made a slight regretful expression, he could not apologize to them despite wanting to, for should he even try to, there is a high chance he would only make things worse.
Endal kept walking straight until he caught a glimpse of a woman sitting beside a man who laid still on the bed and was covered in blank sheet of fur. he recognizes her as the archeress who aided him in defeating the leader of the raiders.
Her hair is red, similar to that of sunset falling into the horizon, untidy as if she hasn't cared for it for days, her skin pale yet slightly warmer in color compared to Endal's snow white skin, Her eyes were sunken on her sockets as if she had not slept for days yet the color of her eyes could still be determined, that of emerald green. Her body was thin but Endal remembers her before as having more slender and fit figure, it seems she had not fed herself for days.
She stared blankly at the man's covered body upon the bed, her eyes lifeless and her body still, if not for her eyes blinking sometimes she could have been mistaken as a corpse too.
Endal could tell that this woman is devastated for the death of her companion, he wanted to leave her be so that she can mourn, but remembers he would leave in two days, he may not get a chance to thank her after. He slowly approaches her and stopped at the feet of the bed.
Endal's lips moved but could not make out a word, not knowing what he should say that would be appropriate to her current condition.
"...May i sit near you?..." Endal politely asked but received no reply.
The archeress did not even budge or bothered to glance at him, she remained still on her position. Endal took a chair that was not being used and placed it two feet away from the woman. As he gently sat facing toward the woman's dead acquaintance, he stared at the deceased.
Despite being covered in a blanket of fur, Endal could tell that this one was a great warrior, not only because he saw the rather muscular form of the dead warrior through the blanket but also because he saw him fight during the siege.
Endal had no doubt of the warrior's martial prowess he displayed, he compared himself to that of the warrior and knew that this unknown warrior was far more skilled than him when it comes to martial might.
If they were to fight against one another with only steel weapons, Endal knows he would not win.
It is unfortunate that such a great warrior had fallen, he may have proven to be a great ally to fight alongside with in the future, but alas fate is often uncaring to anyone.
After a while Endal stopped contemplating about the warrior and glanced at the archeress, she still did not move an inch or even made a noise.
Endal had no idea how to start a conversation with someone who refused to even acknowledge that he was even there.
He wanted to thank them for helping him defeat the raiders but he felt like it was not an appropriate time to do so.
"...Your friend... He was a great warrior." Endal said while staring at the dead the warrior. "I only wish that i could have known his name." Endal said to her, yet still there were no response.
He glanced again at the archeress but it seems like he was simply ignored. Despite that the archeress refused to even reply, Endal did not consider it as an insult, for he knows that she was in despair.
As he was about to stand, he heard a shallow voice from his side. "Egon..." The archeress told him but did not look at him.
"Egon?" Endal asked. "...Yes...Egon.. The name of my brother." Replied the archeress.
As the archeress told the warrior's name, Endal also found out that the warrior was her brother.
He had always assumed that the two was related in some way but he could not affirm their true relation until now.
"I see...thank you for telling me." Endal said. But the archeress still did not looked at him.
Another moment of silence filled between the two yet again as if there were no progress at all. Endal let out a sigh of silent frustration.
"What will you do now?" Endal asked out of nowhere. The archeress actually flinched by the question. Her open palm turned into a fist that was placed above her knees. Her eyes widened, yet she was still silent.
Endal recieved no reply and so he decided to leave, as he was about to get up from his chair and leave, he heard another shallow voice coming from the woman beside him.
"I...Don't know..." The archeress said. Finally she gave a reply yet her reply puzzled Endal.
"What do you mean?" Endal asked. "I do not know... I do not know what to do..." As she answered Endal's question, tears began to fall from her eyes. Her lips and hands started to slightly shake.
As Endal heard her words, he finally understood what she meant. It seems that she was too reliant on her brother, she followed him throughout and it seems to never had much decision for her own.
Now that her brother was gone, she is at a lost, not knowing what to do next.
"I see... and what would your brother tell you if he was here?" Endal asked. "...To live... but how? Ever since we were little, we always were together. I followed him always, where ever he go, i go. No matter how dangerous it was, i always followed him..." The archeress said.
"Now...now he is gone..." She said somberly. Endal only stared silently with a look of worry. He cannot claim to fully understand her circumstances but he does understand where she is coming from.
"I know that feeling...I cannot tell you what you must do... But you must make a decision nevertheless, whatever that decision may be it is entirely up to you and you must live with it." Said Endal. "Despite our loses... we must move on, either for our own good or for the memories of those we lost." Said Endal.
The archeress glared at Endal with a frown, her tears still running down to her chin. "And what do you think you know about me? about how i feel?... What do you know about loss?" The archeress slightly snarled at him.
"I know nothing about you... But i do know loss... More than you assume." Endal Looked somberly at her deceased companion. He knew nothing about these two, yet his words about loss felt true to the archeress as she sees his expression.
The archeress ceased her glare at him and gave a resentful expression, she seems to somewhat understood his meaning, she felt ashamed as he was here to give his respects and in turn she snarled at him.
"I'm... sorry. I did not mean to..." She could not finish her sentence as she did not know how to express her regret.
"There is nothing for you to apologize for. The pain of losing someone precious can make one's judgement cloudy." Endal said.
A moment of silence filled the space between the two.
"Tonight, the bodies of the dead shall be burned on the funeral pyres at the beach." Endal said. "Their ashes shall no longer be bound by the earth and shall not be buried beneath the cold ice or be entrapped in the bellies of the beasts. They will finally be free to roam the world and hopefully reach the halls of the gods." Endal said to her, attempting to give her some thoughts of relief.
She wipes her tears, sniffling and comforting her face. "I do not know your gods...How would i know if he will be allowed this hall of gods of yours?" She asked. "I do not know... But our gods do not discriminate. All are welcome to their halls should they prove themselves, and your brother, he has proven himself a mighty warrior. He has more than a fair chance to end at Faurgus's warhall." Endal said. "Faurgus's warhall?" The archeress questioned.
"It is the hall where individuals with the heart of warriors go to feast, fight and hunt great mythical beasts and.... a chance to tumble with other warriors." "Tumble? you mean.... Hehaha..." The archeress slightly laughed despite having the face of someone who cried earlier.
"It seems like a place my brother would definitely go..." She said with a gladdened grin. It seems her sorrow have somewhat faded. Endal gave a calm smile seeing her smile at last.
As Endal stared at her with a calm smile, the light from the open window lightened her figure and noticed her cool summer like beauty.
Despite becoming seemingly thin and her eye sockets sunk, her features was still noticeable to Endal.
her diamond like face, her glittering emerald eyes that reflected from the sun and her well rounded eyebrows. her dry yet perfectly round aligned lips, her asymmetric sunset hair that waved from the cool wind.
She had a athletically fit body and well defined muscles despite not having eaten anything for days was nevertheless still noticeable.
Endal only noticed then that she was beautiful, he was momentarily paralyzed by her beauty until he hastily looked away as he figured that it was not respectful to stare while she was still in mourning.
"Now that i have noticed...I do not think i have met you in the village before." Endal realizes. "No... i don't think we have... We are...at least were, travelers. We came from the south eastern coasts of Bulask, village of sunset." "Bulask village... I have not yet traveled that far. It would be good to one day visit there." Endal said
"...I'm afraid that is no longer possible." The archeress said with a sad expression. Endal saw her sad face and no longer asked any further detail about it, he only assumes something horrible had happened to her home.
"Still... i would wish to travel to the eastern reach one day. When my people are finally safe." Endal said.
Moments of silence had passed but with a calm aura of peace this time between them.
"...I will take my leave and let you have your mourning in peace..." Endal said to her as he slowly stood up from the chair. "Wait... Can i...ask for your name?" The archeress asked as she caught his hand.
"...Endal... Son of Medras and brother of Leah." He answers. "Endal...I will remember it... and thank you." The archeress showing her gratitude by bowing and slowly letting go of his hand.
"I am Sigra of Bulask, sister of Egon." She says to him. "Then lady Sigra, I must take my leave and hope that we would meet again." Endal says to her as he bowed and slowly made his leave.
"Yes... may we meet again." Sigra quietly mumbled with a slight smile on her face as Endal slowly made his exit from the building.
As time passes, the sun rests from the horizon and night takes it place. Many of the villagers gathered to the beach, Endal and his family also attended. The deceased individuals, loved ones, laying on their backs on a casket of stockpiled woods, their weapons held in their hands. Much of the villagers held torches in their hands.
The torch bearers approached the laying dead, most of these were family members or close relatives that approached their dead love ones, for those who loved them the most must be the ones that lights their casket aflame as to honor the dead so that their ashes be spread to the winds and so that they can finally roam the world and reach the halls of the gods.
As Endal looked at the pyres burning from a distance, he noticed Sigra who lit her brother's casket. Her face filled with tears, her mouth moving as if saying something as her brother's body began to cover by flames. Endal could not tell what it was, for he was too far.
Leah grabbed his brother and mother's hands tighter in silence, Their mother looked at her daughter. "Worry not... They are somewhere in a better place now. We may say good bye now, but we may meet them again at the halls of heaven." Their mother tries to assure her daughter.
But to Endal... he struggled to believe his people's belief, he was skeptical. He asked himself if there really was a place for the dead. If the gods are even real. If so why let the people of Aesgar suffer such cruel untimely fates? Why would the gods not come down and help them from their suffering? What keeps them from aiding their own worshipers?
Is death the only way to enter the Halls of the gods and meet their loved ones? These were the questions Endal had for the gods. Yet despite being skeptical for the gods, he nevertheless kept it to himself. His people held fervent beliefs to the gods, to openly question them is to try to break the hopes of his people.
Perhaps the answers will approach itself along the way.
Two days has passed since the pyre funeral, much of the villagers still felt sorrow for their lost loved ones but kept their usual day to day activities, for even such tragedy, life must move on.
The bodies of the raiders were piled with one another yesterday and was burned far from the village. The villagers preferred to just let the beasts consume their rotting carcasses, but worried that so much corpses would attract too many beasts near their village. And so begrudgingly burned them instead, The raider's leader was burned alongside his cursed warriors.
The twisted beast however was too large and heavy to carry and it's meat was thought to be cursed so they did not try to preserve it's meat for consumption and burned it where it died.
Endal is at his home inside alchemy lab, gathering his tools and ingredients to his pouch, he thought perhaps that these may come useful in the future. He also grabbed his failed batch of the blue ivy. A potential cure it was not, but perhaps a potential poison should it become one day prove useful. Endal was not above using such dirty handed tricks, but rarely does he use it at all.
As he packed whatever items he needed and exited his room and locked the door, Leah and his mother was waiting at the front door of their house. "Do have everything you need?" Asked his mother. "Yes, everything i could possibly think of needing... and removed anything that would be dangerous to you and Leah." Endal replied.
"Good... One more thing" His mother said as she hands out a necklace to him.
The necklace was made of wool string and in the middle hanged a fragment of blue gem, Endal felt a familiarity to it as his mother placed it on his hand, but could not tell what it was. "What is it....and where did you get this?" Endal asked as he assumed that they had not have the luxury to buy such expensive looking item.
"It is a memoriam, i found it on the place of where you were born. A piece of a crystal that i plucked from. It is a remembrance so that you would not forget your family and a reminder that we are always with you in spirit." His mother said.
As Endal wore the necklace around his neck and let out a calm smile to his mother. "Thank you mother, i will always treasure it." Endal said, showing gratitude to his mother.
"Would you bring me a gift of something from the Ke-...Kenas- Kenaskin? Kingdom? when you come back" Leah asked as she struggled to pronounce the word Kenaskin kingdom. "Of course. I'll get the most beautiful thing there and give it to you." Endal said to Leah as he placed his hand above her head.
"Take care of yourself, and may Hauskut give you strength and wisdom my son." Endal's mother said to him. "I will." Endal replied.
He exited his home and headed toward the entrance gate, he noticed Buaros brushing the head of his war mount, a saber horn. Larger than any of the ones of his fellow warriors. The Kenaskin warriors are gathered near the gate as well as some of the warriors of his own village, to escort and guard him to the Kenaskin Capital.
"Ready to depart?" Buaros asked "Yes, let us go." Endal replied, as the guards opened the gate and they were about to leave, a voice shouted behind them. "Wait!" A female voice rang.
As they turned around, Endal noticed that Sigra was walking towards them. "Sigra? What are you doing here?" Endal asked her. "I wish to come along with you." Sigra replied. Endal was quite surprised by her sudden request and simply looked at Buaros, who was on top of his mount.
Buaros simply gave a nod to Endal, permitting Sigra to join them. "Very well, you can join us." Endal said and gave a wry smile. Sigra gladdened by the response and so walked alongside him as they head out from the village gate.
Finally a new journey begins.