15th day of the 10th month 579th year of the 8th era

For a whole day the line of horses marched across the grasslands, Salvadore with Retha in the lead, the twins in the middle, and Akuchi and Mayu taking up the rear with the five supply horses trailing after. As the sunset, Salvadore called for a stop to set up camp.

Dismounting, Salvadore started to clear a patch of grass. The twins began setting up the tree tents, and Mayu and Akuchi tended to the horses.

“I can’t believe that I am on another scouting party with the twins,” complained Mayu as she rammed a stake into the ground.

“It could be worse,” said Akuchi.

Mayu’s head turned to Akuchi with a fierce look on her face. “How could it worse?”

“You could be doing it without me,” Akuchi answered, flashing Mayu with a large toothy grin.

Mayu’s face softened and she gave back a small smile to Akuchi. Akuchi turned and watched the twins set up the tents.

“They do work well together,” he admired as the twins quickly set up the three tents.

“I taught them that,” remarked Mayu. “Come, we need to secure the horses.”

Akuchi and Mayu affixed the horses to two stakes in the ground and gave them some food. Then, joining the group, Mayu and Akuchi sat next to each other in front of one of the tents. Yokoyama and Kono sat in front of another tent, while Retha and Salvadore sat hand in hand in front of the last tent. In the center was a small campfire that Salvadore had started.

“We will each take turns to keep watch tonight,” Salvadore ordered. “Retha and I will take first watch, then Akuchi and Mayu, then Yokoyama and Kono.”

All agreed, nodding.

“Ok, anyone know how to cook?” Salvadore asked.

“I do,” Retha, said standing. She wore a simple brown tunic and matching brown trousers. Her long hair was tied at the back with a simple band and she had a short sword hanging from her waist. She smiled at Salvadore and blushed as she strode over to the horses.

Salvadore sat in full-body leather armor, a leather belt holding his weapon on his side. He returned Retha’s smile with his own. He stretched out to his full length and placed his hands behind his head.

Akuchi sat next to Mayu.

Yokoyama and Kono sat closely and whispered and giggled as they waited for dinner. They were very much a solid combat couple; they spoke in low whispers-about what no one could understand.

Retha returned and started cooking the food, placing a cooking pot over the fire, and adding water and vegetables to the pot. The smell of stewing food tantalized everyone’s nose as the fire was banked to provide a strong consistent heat.

Salvador watched Retha with hungry eyes as she prepared the food. She would look up at him and push her hair back over one ear and give him a warm smile, before blushing. Salvador would then blush and look away with an infectious smile on his lips.

Mayu watched, then slipped into Akuchi’s arms and snuggled into him, pulling her legs under her chin. Mayu’s scent wafted up and engulfed Akuchi’s senses. The warmth of her body against his chest and the smell worked together to build heat in his body that had nothing to do with the fire.

Mayu felt Akuchi’s ardor grow behind her and press into her back and smiled contentedly. Once dinner was served everyone ate in silence, apart from exclamations of how great Retha’s cooking was.

“We should go to sleep,” said Mayu, stretching. She grabbed Akuchi’s hand and stepped into the tent.

Akuchi lay outstretched, hands behind his head and looked up at the darkness around him. It had been one amazing journey; he had been run off his feet since leaving Crece after training. Tareem, the God of Farming and Nature, had really blessed him since he had struck out on his own. Should he now worship the God of War? Plith or Mars. Would Tareem consider it abandonment and prevent him from growing good crops? Would not worshiping Mars or Plith get him killed while he was here? Could he maintain the worship of both gods? He was now a soldier, but he had only become a soldier to gather money to start his own farm. Since leaving Crece, he had been training, sleeping, or romping. Romping was the domain of life and hence the domain of Krite. Should he offer piety to all of them?

Then there was Mayu, what to do about her? She was from the people of Ishtaree and they followed the gods of love: Pierre and Aphrodite. Would Mayu want to settle down and become the woman of a farmer? With her father dead, she had only her wits to depend on. These thoughts bounced around his head like a herd of angry bees; though his body had tired, his mind needed to find a solution to these problems. He couldn’t find a way out of them by ignoring them. Tiredness crept to his eyes and soon the exhaustion of the day overtook him. Maybe sleep would find him an answer; maybe an unknown god would help him out.

A gentle cough at the tent opening roused Akuchi to wakefulness. Retha’s head stuck inside the tent. A faint glow from the fire outside lit the tent. Akuchi sat up and rubbed his eyes.

“Your sentry duty.” Retha smiled.

“OK,” murmured Akuchi, grasping for his sword. He nudged Mayu who awoke with a glorious stretch.

“Our sentry duty?” Mayu asked, sitting up and placing her head on Akuchi’s shoulder.

“Yeah,” he replied. He enjoyed her leaning on his arm, her body soft yet firm in all the right places. He stepped out of the tent. The warm air was still as Retha sat at the fireplace waiting for him outside her tent. Mayu climbed out after him.

“You two make a cute couple.” Retha smiled and slipped into the tent she was sharing with Salvadore.

Mayu sat in front of the tent flap and placed another log onto the fire. Akuchi strapped his falchion onto his back and walked over to check on the horses and their cargo. Turning back to camp, he settled down next to Mayu.

“Why are the horses carrying feed with all this grass out here?” Akuchi asked.

“I think it has something to do with the performance of the horses,” Mayu replied, laying her head into Akuchi’s lap.

They sat and watched the darkness outside of the campfire.

A gentle rustle of the grass caused Mayu to sit bolt upright and look around. Akuchi, seeing her tense, also looked around. Mayu rose and picked up her swords from the ground and began to move around the camp, trying to peer into the darkness.

Akuchi grabbed his falchion and walked around the tent opposite looking out, straining his ears and eyes hoping to catch a sense of what Mayu had heard. Suddenly, a troll, two meters tall with dark black fur and two huge tusks coming out of its mouth, rushed at Akuchi.

“Alarm!” Akuchi yelled as he blocked the first swipe from the troll with a loud crash. Retha, Yokoyama, Kono, and Salvadore emerged from their tents, naked, weapons at the ready, as trolls poured into their makeshift campsite. Steel clashed with steel as the trolls engaged with the soldiers.

Akuchi focused on the troll in front of him. The troll stepped back and then leaped at him, slashing, then stepped back again. Akuchi recognized the pattern and stepped forward with a deadly thrust to the stomach, impaling the troll. The troll fell backward off Akuchi’s blade. He turned and saw the others were engaged in similar fights.

Retha darted, dodging and slashing at the blue-furred troll that fought with her. Yokoyama’s nubile body moved with the grace of water stance, severing a green-furred troll’s arm, blue blood spurting. Yokoyama dodged to the side, avoiding the blood spray. Kono moved with more rigidity in a classic stone stance; it seemed the twins had different fighting styles despite how much alike they looked. Kono blocked another swipe from a red-furred troll and stepped forward, causing that troll to stumble backward. She skewered the troll in its heart.

Mayu, more accustomed to fighting nude, held two trolls at bay with her dodge-and-slash-swirl attack, a classic water, and air stance combination, stepping between a pair of grey trolls. Salvadore tried to take on two trolls but was getting sliced up. He was used to fighting in armor which put him at a disadvantage in this fight. He stepped forward with a classic rock stance attack and was sliced by the other troll. He stepped back into a water stance, stepping out of lethal range, and blocked the other troll’s attack. The trolls both split up and tried to encircle him. His body was covered with many gashes and he was bleeding.

Akuchi rushed across the encampment and slashed a troll in the back with his long falchion just as it slashed Salvadore across the back crippling him. The other troll seized the opportunity afforded from the distraction, grabbed Salvadore by the head, and bit hard, crushing his skull. Salvadore’s eyes popped out and brain and blood spurted over the troll’s fur. The blood-splattered troll fell forward on top of Salvadore’s body. Kono had run her sword through from behind. A piteous wail echoed through the night as Retha mourned her new paramour. As she gathered Salvadore’s body, tears flowed down her cheeks. She rocked with his body in her arms and sobbed. Everyone else stood silently and let her grieve.

Morning found the party heading back, Mayu in front leading the return to camp. Retha held her head low as she led Salvadore’s horse with his body wrapped in cloth strapped on its back. Yokoyama and Kono ran the rear guard, while Akuchi led the baggage train.

They had packed the camp up, working silently without talking, fearful of bringing another attack down upon them.

When the parapets of the fort came into view, they picked up speed. The gates opened without a challenge and the small group was led into the mustering yard. Oghenekaro met them as they dismounted.

“Retha,” Oghenekaro called, “what happened?”

Retha sat on her horse, her hands tied to the saddle so she wouldn’t fall off. She looked into the distance, her eyes, and nose red.

“We were attacked in the middle of the night by trolls,” filled in Mayu.

“We killed them all but Salvadore tried to fight two of them at once and was killed,” Akuchi completed.

At sunset, the fort turned out in full, except for a few sentries. Out the south gate, Salvadore had been set in the pyre. A frame of wooden logs, reaching above the height of a man, was filled in with wooden logs in a crisscross pattern.

Retha stood at the front with a blazing torch in her hand. She was dressed in a pure white, shapeless gown that ran from her neck to her feet. Akuchi, Mayu, Yokoyama, and Kono stood dressed in similar black gowns, hands held in front of them, heads downcast. Arrayed behind them stood the rest of the fort, somber and quiet. The wind rustled through the thick Bloodwood Forest that stretched up two hundred meters back from the fort walls.

“We come tonight to honor a fallen hero,” Retha intoned. “He died in battle defending the holy cause. This man we commit.”

“We commit him to the flame,” echoed the crowd.

“I,” Retha continued, “come to burn away his body and commit his soul to the Holy Fire.”

“The Holy Fire,” intoned the assembled soldiers.

Retha stretched, out her hand and threw the blazing torch into the pyre. The flames leapt up onto the pyre, burning quickly.

“The Holy Flame accepts his soul,” everyone chanted, the customary words for the followers of the flame. Then without a word, the crowd began to stream back into the fort.

Retha, Akuchi, Mayu, Yokoyama, and Kono remained in place. With the public ritual completed, the private ritual would begin. Once the gates closed with a thud, Retha stripped off her robe, scrunched it into a ball, and lobbed it into the pyre with a howl of grief that brought her to her knees. She knelt on the grass, bowed her head, and cried. Her tears streamed down her face. Her sobbing drowned out all but the crackling of flame and wood.

“This war with the trolls has cost much blood,” Kono chanted. “Defence of the flame costs blood.”

Mayu stripped her robe and hurled it into the pyre and knelt beside Retha, silent.

“The call of righteousness is a lonely path,” Kono continued. “Life and worldly possessions set aside for the pursuit of the holy life.”

Akuchi shed his robe and threw it into the pyre and knelt beside Retha.

“Another soul is taken to the Holy Flame and his soul is refined through the Holy Flame,” Kono continued.

Yokoyama peeled off her robe and chucked it into the pyre and knelt beside Akuchi.

“We send up our prayers, to speed his purification.” With these last words, Kono shucked her robe and tossed it into the pyre, and knelt beside Mayu.

Silence rose among them as they watched. The pyre burned low as the night came to midnight. All the mourners rose and turned back to the gate which had been closed for the night. Kono thumped the gate with her fist. A small door in the gate opened with a creak and a soldier dressed in a chain mail tunic poked his head out, a blazing torch in his hands. His eyes widened as he saw that the pyre was out and people standing at the door. He beckoned them in with a gentle gesture of his hand.

They all moved silently through the door and returned to their barracks without making a sound.