Thursday, January 29, 2015

Exile's End: Day 25

Word Count: 150,002

Summary of Events:
Chapter 49:
As Thårijn's group journeyed they came upon another, smaller, group of people who they found out were also Iøsenräl and had set out earlier, suffering much more ill in their journeys than Thårijn's group had suffered so far. What they had suffered disheartened and even terrified Thårijn.
Chapter 50:
Æliyäu — having noticed Thårijn to be quite down — asked Thårijn about it and found out that Thårijn was on the verge of losing hope that they would be free, so he gave encouragement to Thårijn which Thårijn contemplated as they journeyed.

Excerpt of the Day:
"Thårijn turned in among the people before he reached his position and looked at the damaged wagons. Their occupants looked to be relieved, almost as if they'd been on the cusp of hopelessness and had been given hope beyond their wildest imaginations.
In some of the wagons he saw activity in the back, which he guessed was a doctor tending to wounds. Thårijn hoped that the entire group wouldn't take on the bedraggled, decimated state of these people, but he had a fear within himself that such might well be the case.
Thårijn halted when he came upon a wagon which had two children sitting on the driver's seat, both of whom were likely to be younger than twenty with their ages combined; their clothing was dirty and torn and they looked like they ought to be beggars.
"Where be your mother?" Thårijn asked.
The girl cowered fearfully.
"She be dead," the boy replied.
"Have you no grandparents?" Thårijn asked.
"Our grandmother is weak, our grandfather is dead," the boy replied.
"What ails your grandmother?" Thårijn asked.
"Age," the boy replied.
Thårijn wanted to cry. These children were both half his age at the oldest, and they had suffered the surely brutal loss of their mother. Thårijn swallowed and took a deep breath to hold his composure together.
Turning Græshädå, Thårijn rode over to Sönnä's wagon. Sönnä looked at him with curiosity and sympathy, as if it were highly obvious that he'd just spoken to a pair of haunted half-orphans — as he was sure that their father still lived.
"Helänä," Thårijn said.
His niece's head came out of the wagon. Thårijn pulled his foot out of his stirrup and sidled Græshädå closer.
"I need you to come drive," Thårijn said. "Feel free to bring the wagon up alongside your mother's."
Helänä took Thårijn's arm and climbed onto Græshädå with a touch of hesitation and managed to seat herself sideways and ladylike, her arms wrapped tightly around his midsection.
Thårijn turned Græshädå around and went back to the wagon where the children sat, drawing Græshädå closely alongside to let Helänä climb onto the seat. The children both looked at her warily.
"My niece Helänä will help you," Thårijn said. "As will her mother, and her mother's family."
Quickly the boy handed the reins to Helänä and the girl scrambled into the back of the wagon. Helänä caught the boy in an embrace before he could scramble away with his sister and looked up sadly at Thårijn.
Thårijn gave a nod and swallowed his sobs back down within himself again. He then turned Græshädå and rode back to his position. Æliyäu was already in place and Thårijn gave him a nod.
Æliyäu started forward and their group — now a fair bit larger than it had been before, started off again, heading for the border of this forsaken, wretched country in which far too many Iøsenräl had been laid to rest in Thårijn's opinion."

Helänä: hel-anna

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