Chapter 4 - Deserters

"I didn't mean to cause you trouble," Eli told the woman whose hand he's holding. "I just cannot stand it when Alya cries. Mommy usually let her feed from her bosom when she was cried like that. It makes Alya sad that Mommy isn't here. Alya being sad makes me sad."

The woman sighed sadly. "It is alright, Eli. It's not your fault that there are bad men lurking about."

"They hate the king just like we do. Why do they hate us?"

"Because they are bad men."

"Like, really, really bad men?"

"Yes, Eli. Really, really bad men." She steered him into a direction, using the stars as her compass. "Why didn't you tell Steffen you were hungry?"

"I wanted to, but he wasn't there."

"And Alya?"

"I took her to her bed, just like you and Lani showed me."

Removing her mask and cloak, the woman released a plait of red hair that fell down to her hip and brushed the sweat from her pale forehead. No matter how long she has been in the Great Expanse, she could never tolerate the persistent heat as well as the locals do. Often times she needed a bath to rid herself of the sticky sweat, though it didn't help much that she had to cover her skin to protect it from the harsh sun.

"Don't worry, Eli," she told the dark-headed child. "Soon, I will make sure that neither you nor Alya will ever go hungry again, just like I promised your mommy I would." She ruffled Eli's short, black hair. "But you have to promise me to never go out on your own again, okay? There are bad men out there, like those men who wanted to take you away."

The boy regarded her with big, curious eyes. "I don't understand, Eluna. You look like them, but you don't want to hurt me. You are not bad. Why are they so different from you?"

Eluna stopped in her tracks. Oh, sweet Eli, if only you knew the reason why I was in the Great Expanse initially…

"Because they think to hurt other people is okay."

"You hurt them, too."

"I did, but I did so to save you and Alya." The red head continued to walk. "I hurt bad people for the greater good."

"Okay."

Relieved that the eight-year-old dropped the subject, Eluna and Eli arrived at the campsite, where a frustrated Lani and Steffen was busy having an argument whilst a baby was screeching in the background.

"Didn't I tell you to drop them off at an inn or orphanage?" Steffen, a blonde man wearing a green headband shouted at a woman shorter in height. "I find it hard to believe that we are in this cesspool because of Eluna's shortsightedness and impulsive decisions! Why did we ever heed to her instead of obeying the commands of our chief?"

"Because you actually have a heart, Steffen," Lani argued. "Nobody forced you to follow us, you did that on your own accord. Don't go on blaming Eluna about this situation when you willingly followed us and deserted your duties to the chief!"

"No one told her to tag along two barbaric children. Heavens, the screaming child is driving me insane!"

"She's a baby who is missing her mother! How would you have felt if your mother died in your infancy? You would have cried, too!"

"You could have left her with a wetnurse!"

"And where would that be? I doubt the beasts of this forsaken desert are known to take in and nurture human babies."

"At least we would not be kept awake from her crying day and night!"

"You heartless, son of a…!"

Eluna cleared her throat and folded her arms in front of her chest. "Perhaps, instead of you arguing as much as you do, you could have at least figured out why little Alya's keeping you awake at night!" She turned on her heel and rushed to the babe's bed and picked her up. "Hey, there, sweetie. How are you doing today?" The little one hushed instantly in her arms. Eluna knew at one-and-a-half-years-old, a child could still be nursed by its mother. It appeared to be the case with Alya as Eluna found her and Cassian amidst a torn-down house where the woman barely held on to life.

Eluna, Lani, and Steffen were instructed along with several other men and women to invade Emberland and launch an attack on nearby cities. Hell-bent on reclaiming annexed land stolen from the chiefdoms of the north, Eluna and Lani both were on chariots fighting off barbarians of the Great Expanse. It was when they invaded a sandstone-city, Claethorpes, that Eluna had seen the city was plundered by those serving under the chiefs of Esmor and Waevia, and innocent children were the majority of victims. When Eluna had found Eli and Alya with their dying mother, she knew she wanted to be part of the war no longer.

Do not be afraid for the lives of your children, she had promised the mother. I promise you that I will ensure their safety, even if I will be killed for it.

You… you are not… like them, she remembered the woman's words. Thank you.

Lani and Steffen thought her to be delusional taking in barbaric children, especially Steffen. But due to his scandalous affair with Miyelani, the Esmorian chief's daughter, he had chosen the path of a deserter to be with her.

Now, he's putting the blame on me, she thought to herself whilst watching Alya fuss around. All because he wished to selfishly satisfy his unrequited love. Eluna regarded her with concern and contemplated whether the baby was just hungry or catching a fever.

"Have you given her something to eat today, Steffen?" came the question from the red head.

"What do you take me for? A brute? Of course I fed her!"

"Says the one she will be better off with beasts…" Lani rolled her eyes.

"I was just asking of the possibility of someone taking them in, for goodness sake!"

"Why on earth I love a heartless fool such as yourself I will never know!"

"It's just fascinating, you know," Eluna begun, cradling the baby in her arms. "Eli said he was hungry and wanted to tell you, just to not find you. It makes me wonder of your competence of looking after them if Lani and I aren't around."

Steffen pouted. "I never asked to play babysitter."

"And I never asked you to desert your Esmorian duties, yet here we are!" She handed Alya to Lani. "I'm afraid that she might have a temperature," she added concerningly before turning back to Steffen. "All you have done since the battle of Claethorpes was complain! Running out of water, running out of food, no shelter, the desert sun is scorching your skin… Wake up, Steffen! You thought it best to abandon your duties to follow Lani! You must have known the minute you cleansed the vibrant paint from your skin that being a fugitive in an unknown world would be harsh!"

"Is Alya going to be okay?" Eli asked worried, forcing Eluna to reign in her fiery temper. Giving the blonde a last disapproving glare, Eluna schooled her features from into a soft expression as she knelt down to Eli's level.

"Alya's going to be all right, Eli. She just needs to get some medicine to make her feel better." Eluna guided the young boy towards the flickering campfire, over which three bird carcasses was busy roasting on a spit.

"When will she get the medicine?"

Couldn't Steffen just have waited to go out hunting for food? He's always thinking of ways to fill up his stomach!

Eluna glanced over to the blonde and shook her head, astounded by his sense of priority. You can't just leave two minors fending for themselves while there are not any other adults present!

"I'll get some medicine for Alya tomorrow," she said and held out the bread towards him. "Why don't you divide the loaf in four equal pieces, eh?"

"I do not think I will be able to do that," Eli confessed shyly. "Mommy never taught me how. Or… maybe she did but I forgot how…"

Eluna smiled. "It's alright. I can teach you, again." Eluna gently guided the boy's hands to hold the loaf, and to break it into two. "See? Now there are two pieces of bread. One and two." Next, Eluna helped the boy take one half and halved it again. "How many pieces do we have now, Eli?"

"One," he counted, pointing his little fingers at each piece. "Two… three."

"Do we have enough?"

The little boy shook his head. "No. We need four."

"Then, what are we going to do, now?"

His face brightened with realisation. "I know! We have to break the bigger part into two as well!"

"And you were telling me that you'd forgotten how!" She patted his head approvingly. "Well done, Eli."

The boy smiled widely, all whilst missing some of his baby teeth, and took a huge bite from his piece of bread. "Hm! It doesn't even taste like sand!"

Eluna could just chuckle as she rotated the birds on the spit, thinking about the time she was Eli's age and didn't have a care in the world. The image that displayed before her was nostalgic: plains upon plains of grasslands, dusted with willow- and eucalyptus trees as far as the eye could see; creeks feeding lakes that ended up in rivers that meandered their path down to the Azure Depths; her mother's cooking and her father's stone masonry where he carved images of various beasts from marble…

The Isle of Waevia was but a small piece of land compared to both Esmor and the Emberlandian empire, but it was home.

It was until the great mountain had rumbled violently and tore through the earth, taking apart homes and monuments, spewing ash and magma from its core down its steep slopes, engulfing everything in its path with fire.

Only a minority of the tribe managed to escape the disaster – children that were forced onto small galleys with the pirates – to the allied tribes of Esmor. The Isle of Waevia was obliterated before their very eyes. It was the last time when the red-headed Eluna had seen her mother and father, their cheerful faces as they hauntingly stood on the port bidding her farewell with a wave whilst everything behind them crumbled and burnt.

"Look at what you are doing!"

Eluna was pulled out of her daydream only to see Steffen douse the campfire's flames with water and cursed. The blonde hastily pulled the roasting birds from the spit, and it landed on the ground, the skin and fat sizzling.

"It doesn't mean that if you are angry with me you get to set our dinner on fire!" He attempted to pick up the roasted flesh only to hiss when the hot meat burnt his skin. "Do you know how long I have waited to just get enough for us to eat for tonight?"

"I'm sorry," the red head sighed. "I got lost in thought."

"To such extent that you didn't hear the boy's calls?"

Eluna glanced over to Eli who shrugged at her. "I did call you several times. The flames grew so big!" He demonstrated the height of the fire with his arms.

"Blimey, nothing of it is even edible anymore," Steffen scoffed and kicked at the blackened carcasses.

"You're just overreacting!" Eluna exclaimed as she bent down to take one of the birds and cut it open with a knife. "You kicking sand all over the place isn't helping at all! See?" She gestured at the cooked, white flesh on the inside. "Everything is not as disastrous as it seems to be if you take the time to reflect on it, now is it?"

"Not as disastrous? Eluna, have you seen the circumstances you have gotten us into?" Steffen gestured at the landscape around. "We're in the middle of nowhere trying to take care of not only ourselves but two children as well! A sick baby, on top of it, with no food, no fresh water, and no protection!"

"The circumstances I have gotten you into?" Eluna chuckled. "Steffen, you chose to abandon your duties to follow me and Lani. How am I, who explicitly told you that I wanted in on this journey alone, responsible for the hardships you are experiencing? Oh, please! The only one responsible for bringing hardships over you is yourself. Go take out your guilty conscience on someone else! I am not the one to blame for decisions you made."

She gestured to Eli to take a bird to eat after slicing into it, and without uttering anything further to Steffen, she left to go sit in darkness and solitude, her ire fuelled by Steffen's accusations. Sure, she brought this upon herself, but she asked neither him nor Lani to flee into the desert.

Gentle footsteps followed her to where she was sitting against a rock. A cooing baby's small arms reached for her as Lani sat down next to her. Eluna took Alya and sighed with a sad smile as the baby fussed.

"I have given her some juice from the fruit we harvested," Lani said and caressed the girl's soft fluff of hair. "I don't know how long it will last, though. I haven't seen harvestable goods for miles."

"The capital is not too far from here," Eluna said quietly. "Though I couldn't even scout the area well or get something to eat. Some big event occurred throughout the day."

"Well, I, for one, am glad we are nearby something! Maybe we can go scout the area by the next morn." A silence reigned for a few moments when both of them admired the display of twinkling stars in the heavens. "Something else is bothering you," Lani stated. "Talk to me. You know I am more than willing to listen."

Eluna shut her eyes, trying to erase a situation that could have happened if she was too late to rescue Eli.

"Eli had a run-in with some of the tribal scouts," she confessed and heard Lani gasp. "He stole a loaf of bread from them. They were undercover as peasants, yet their accents and hostility towards Eli had given them away." 

"What did they want with Eli, though? I couldn't imagine a tribal scout being so furious about a loaf of bread being stolen. My father ensures all scouts are well prepared for a journey into the wilderness."

"I don't know. But I might have heard something about them abducting children of the empire to train them with the tribes. Whether it is fact or bluff, I don't know." Eluna cradled Alya closer. "I couldn't risk it after I made a promise to his mother to take care of him!"

Lani frowned. "My father would never call for the abducting of children, no matter how cruel he is!" She shook her head. "No, it's impossible! He wouldn't do that. He's cruel, yes, but not a dunce. How did you rescue the boy, anyway?"

"He called for me."

Lani's eyes widened. "By your name?"

"No, I'm not ignorant, Lani! Of course he didn't call me by my name! Could you imagine that after the paralysis wore off and the scouts informed your father that I was the one who attacked them?" Eluna took a deep breath. "He called for the White Hunter."

Lani snorted. "The mythical figure of the Isle of Waevia, known to have practices in dark forces? Eluna! They should have headed for the hills when they heard the boy even calling for the name three times in a row!"

"Yet, he didn't. He only called two times, and I happened to be near the vicinity to hear his call."

"Oh, bollocks. If only I were here early enough then he would have slipped away!" Lani made a clicking sound. "So, you just left the men there, paralysed?"

"Yes."

"Eluna! If there were empirical guards to patrol the area, do you not think they will hesitate to kill them?"

"Why do you think I left them paralysed in the first place?"

"Eluna?" Both the red head and Lani's heads turned in the direction of the eight-year-old calling out her name.

"I'm here, Eli," Eluna answered. "What's wrong?"

"Could you come sit with me until I fall asleep? It is so scary to be out here."

"I'll be right over, all right? I'm just having a conversation with Lani, okay?"

"Okay."

She shifted from her seated position after carefully handing Alya back to Lani, as if not to disturb her peaceful slumber.

"We are not done talking about this, Eluna!" Lani whispered. "I may not be a part of my father's tribe any longer, but you can't just leave your fellow countrymen at this barbarian empire's disposal!"

"Fine! What do you want me to do, then?" Eluna asked. "Go back and give them the antidote?"

"I don't care what you do, but as the chief's daughter, it is my responsibility to act out of interest for the sake of my people, even if I don't always agree with my father's views." She quietly hushed Alya. "Once everything has settled down here, I suppose I can stay and watch over Eli and Alya. You and Steffen can go see what there is to mend about the situation."

Eluna stubbornly protested. "After all the things he told me just moments ago? I think we'll rather murder one another than help your fellow countrymen."

"Is it not then the perfect opportunity for you to reconcile and talk?"

The red head rolled her eyes. "If it is what Her Highness commands?"

"You and Steffen have been together in situations since the Isle's doom. It's astonishing to see two people with similar backgrounds be so hostile towards one another."

"Very well, I'll try to make amends," Eluna stated. "But I am not making any promises!" She pointed a finger at Lani. "And if we were to be at each other's throats, I ask you to leave us be."

Miyelani, daughter of the chief of Esmor, mockingly raised her hand in a pledge. "I swear I'll then leave you to sort out one another."

With another roll of her ocean-hued gaze, Eluna headed back to the site where Eli was eagerly waiting for her return. Ignoring Steffen sitting in the fire's light, she scooted over to the boy.

"Tummy full?"

"Yes, thank you, Eluna."

"Oh, you needn't thank me. You should thank Steffen and yourself! You were being a big man today for getting something to eat!"

"Even if I stole it?"

Eluna was slightly taken aback. Though she did condemn stealing, it was rectified because those who Eli stole from were out to bring harm to him.

"Well," she began as he settled his head on her lap. "While it was not the right thing to do stealing from another person, because it's not right at all, the bad men wanted to hurt you while they had many loaves of bread left. You did it to help Alya cry a little less, so your little heart was in the right place." She lovingly stroked his hair.

"Kind of paradoxical, don't you think?" she heard Steffen chuckle.

"Oh, shut up! If you were just doing your job watching over them..."

Eli smiled, grateful that his wrong act was done out of love for his baby sister, which ultimately made it the right thing to do, he closed his eyes and drifted off to a slumber whilst the pretty lady with the red hair played with his just like his mommy used to.

Eluna regarded the sleeping child on her lap with affection, her will to argue with Steffen further vanishing. The little boy and his sister already nestled their way into her caring heart that she had no way of regretting deserting her position in the tribal forces.

 It was much more rewarding caring for people than wanting to ruin them.