Chapter 11 (From 11 to here tells the story well.)
Chapter 15
Many times the sun rose and fell as they walked ten miles behind The Created One. At all times two kept within seeing distance of him, yet out of sight of him, and at night they changed their watch with the main group following behind. Each night, midway, watches would exchange news of the day before completing the short journey to their respective placements.
One particularly lovely day, when the sun was warm and the breeze was cool, the party found themselves surrounded by a particularly beautiful green patch of land. They delighted in fresh water from a stream, and wild-growing foods to eat. They were grateful to not feel the need to kill lizards or birds that their bellies would feel calm.
Gendlebleth had been on his own feet almost exclusively for the past 20 days, and he was thankful toward the mercy of his current existence to find that when he had finished eating his fill of the local berries and plants, and had washed his throat of food and dryness with the cool water of the stream, he felt no urge whatsoever to vomit it back up. Even his nightmares seemed less filled with the blood of Abel screaming to him from the faces of small woodland creatures; all slept well that night.
. . .
In the morning, at the changing of the watch, rather than at the five mile mark, Ternaddain and Darwith were met instead before they had walked much past two miles. “Ternaddain, Darwith! Blessed be The Name we found you! Though he is not like to wake for three more hours, rush to where he sleeps lest our watch be lost!”
Ternaddain and Darwith glanced at each other in brief hesitation out of confusion between what they expected their morning to consist of, and this seemingly anomalous message they had momentarily ago received from their brethren.
“You’ll understand when you arrive yourselves, just be quick as we urge the others on closely behind you!”
Despite the inability to understand, Ternaddain and Darwith began in the direction of Cain as quickly as their legs could carry them. When they had reached the top of a particularly steep hill an hour later, huffing and drawing in air heavily, they gasped an extra time in disbelief.
. . .
Upon arriving shortly after alerting Darwith and Ternaddain, Handoroth and Caldas woke the others and bade them travel now as quickly as they were able. So spoke Warmoot, “Why do you bid us with such haste and urgency?”
So responded Caldas, “The breath that would tell you what you will not believe but heard through your own eyes would be better served catching up to Darwith and Ternaddain as quickly as our legs propelled by the wind in our chests will allow. Let us move at once!”
And so it was that a swarm of bodied angels ran toward the hills before them, save for Gendlebleth, Antagnous, Lousitous, and Casarta. As the others ran ahead it was agreed that Casarta’s size necessitated one stay behind with her pace, and Gendlebleth’s current infirmity necessitated not a companion to keep with him pace, but two to catch him should he fall. Casarta’s parents being the obvious choice to stay with her, they quickly decided to be companions to Gendlebleth, whom they wished not to leave alone with his own pain rather than Lousitous simply carrying Casarta on his back to keep time with the group as a whole. As a family they traveled to where they supposed the others would be not much more than ten miles ahead where they currently began their own journey toward re-coalescence.
Two hours later the band of four gasped in momentary disbelief at the top of the hill; they saw they would not have very many miles left to walk to catch up to the others.
. . .
Cain stumbled, tired, dusty, and weary from travel through the open door, and threw himself onto the wooden bar. As Cain looked up toward the man cleaning the cup in his hand with a scrap of cloth, the man looked back down at Cain and spoke, “Well now, if ever I saw a man in need of a drink . . . A traveler if ever I saw one; I’d recognize that mark on your head from a mile away if ever I’ve seen it before. Don’t suppose you can contribute to my existence as I get you washed up, fed and settled for the night, but we’ll figure that all out once you don’t seem quite so close to fainting from exhaustion. Looks like you arrived just in time. Welcome, stranger, to Nod!”
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