Lies, Chapter 17

They walked through the crowd, hearing the whispers of both the winds and men’s mouths, step after step the kids pushed through trying to peek a look to what lays there, “I bet they killed some knights of the empire and took their weapons,” said Jason
Laughs came from Doryon as he said,” It is good enough if they come back with some food supply this time”
“Will you shut up and walk forward” said Ferman the little ginger boy as he pushed the two of them until they fell out of the crowd, lifting their heads with a smile they saw the expedition, just for their bright faces to fade slowly, their heads lifting up slowly, they saw little to no numbers left from the expedition, in the front Seryon’s brother, Pharam the known skull sword walking with his head high, unlike who followed behind, the defeated looks on their faces, bags empty, although the injuries weren’t that visible or dangerous, their morals were broken enough
At the end of the path stood waiting the chief, Noor standing far away watching them with sorry eyes, both Baro and Noor had an overall picture of what laid behind the sharp looking mash Pharam was wearing walking through the crowd, no words were said, before Baro the old chief of the shelter could put down his grieves Pharam talked
“None is dead, as far as I know so don’t have stupid thoughts” everyone is confused Pharam continued
“They did ambush us, but we split different ways leading them away from the secret camps and from the shelter, no known deaths, yet”
Baro stood silent for a moment, his mind filled with all kind of different thoughts as the crowd’s whispers developed into loud conversations, he spoke
“Now now everybody, you may go back to your work, if there is anything serious, I will be saying it at breakfast tomorrow morning”
Pharam stomped down from his high horse walking beside the chief
“It is good that you told them that while everyone was gathered, every word that could keep their morals and production up is valuable,” said the chief
“Even some lies” said Pharam his eyes filled with sadness glancing half an eye towards the old man
“Especially lies” replied the chief with sharp eyes and calm voice
Pharam and the chief walked towards the leadership tent, it was in the corner of the shelter by the mountain side, the streets of the shelter were silent, everybody has finished their work and is going to sleep, the guards were the only ones holding the lights, Jason went out of a sleeping dorm built in the mountain for a drink, he saw the leaders walking towards the chief’s tent in the middle of the night
Curios he slipped through the guards one step after another, from behind one to distracting them with rock noises, when he finally reached the tent, he stayed hidden near its window he saw them surrounding a table map, just then a shadow covered him, scared he turned back fast trying to run before a hand caught him by the ear
“What do you think you are doing here” said Fara with an angry look
“I- I wanted to go take a drink” he replied with a face that showed this as he final resort as a lie
She stared at him with a bit of an open mouth, then pinching his ear she dragged him in front of all the guards who were staring at each other as he struggled to remove her hand
Back in the tent stood the chief, alongside the 3 commanders of his shelter and his bodyguard
They stood there looking at the map with sadness, Sarom a young tall haired boy spoke,
“How many did die” he said biting his mouth “Or captured”
Pharam raised his eyes slowly “the number of deaths is not confirmed, but to say it clearly, the missing is about 1 of every 4”
“What” said Sarom “You are saying a quarter of our warriors are dead!”
“It is not deaths we don’t know their fate yet said the chief
“Their fate?” replied Sarom “The fat I know in such a situation is 1! Either they are dead, or they got captured wish is worse and still leads to death”
“Isn’t there a chance for us to get them back?” said Noor “I mean, we have proof that breaking out of a slavery camp is possible”
“What you mean the child” replied Sarom “he is the only escapee in ages, and the only reason he got to do so, is that for some reason they tried to toy with that camp like rats”
Wanting to calm the conversation old Ramo wanted to speak before Sarom cut him
“Don’t you dare say we can make more, at this moment we aren’t nothing but fire wood”
“Then what do we do huh!” yelled Ramo “Do you think we should just give up? Or hide here till we rust away and die like the rest”
Sarom calmed down for a moment breathing in and out and said “I’m saying we should stop the lies”
“No! we will not “said the chief standing from his chair his eyes determined and angry” we will not abandon them”
Sarom looking at him laughed a quick laugh and said “Then what? Continued to build on lies just for it all to fall by a feather”
“The foundation is made of sand yes, but if we decide to build the second floor of steal it will crumble to dust,” said the chief
“Then we should continue pouring more till the mountains drowns us all,” said Sarom
“We should switch it with bricks a piece by a piece” said the chief Baro as he sat back down
“Bricks? Are you saying we should be scrambling lies and truths to the people” said Sarom with both confusion and shock
“It is the only way, the only safe way” said Ramo
“Better then seeing chaos break in to our camp too” said Pharam
Sarom sighed in agreement and then said “okay so what will we start by and when”
The chief replied “The forest northern camp has fallen, tomorrow morning this shall be announced”
The door of the tent opened as a very frail and old man, his eyes almost blind and his face filled with wrinkles walked in with a guard holding him and helping him walk forward
“Dad- I mean Old man Vonir what brought you out of your bed sheets this time at night” said Noor as he hurried to help him walk forward as the Sarom went to bring him a chair
“I saw a dream” said Vonir as Pharam sighed raising his hand
“You and your dreams again, they never- “said Pharam as Noor glared at him shutting him up
“Oh no, no boy this one is very interesting for you” said Vonir as he sat down
“So, what did you see?” asked the chief as was standing up out of respect
“I saw ice, very far away across the sea, empty of wind, life and sound, across it there was fire” said Vonir
“This dream has been repeating the same for years, everybody in the camp knows that prophecy “said Pharam “We know already about the fire that will burn our enemies and leave only the toughest of our men,”
“Oh no boy” said Vonir “If this was like all else, I wouldn’t have gotten up”
“This fire wasn’t like the others that helped us push forward, it burnt everybody, even itself,” they started paying attention to him more as he continued
“I only saw aches, none left to rule it, none left to morn about it, it burned friend and foe alike, “
“So, you are telling me the only thing leaving this camp standing, is now it’s doom?” said Pharam
“This is absurd, we fought for years waiting for its help, just for our hope to fad in a single night?!”
Noor replied to him “Stop it, what we need to focus on now Is a solution and not the problem”
“Did you hear or see anything else in there? A clue a word that you might have missed”
“If it is missed, then it is missed I can do nothing about it” replied Vonir
The chief then spoke “This, what ever this is must never leak out to the public, the old fire stories were the only thing keeping them sain, if it shatters, god help us all”
“The to lies we go back, in the end it is sand that will drown us all” said Pharam as everybody accepted it as the truth, it was wrong to start a camp on lies, but what can they do now, only move forward