BY SAVING OTHER LIVES

Sulaya's eyes followed the eagle as it soared into the morning's harsh blue sky.

"Mindaza, my lovely daughter. This is my final adventure with you."

"Mother, I don't understand," Mindaza said.

"You will, when the time is right." Sulaya's smile was gentle. "You have to find your own way, how to survive. Our home is waiting for you."

Mindaza cannot say anything to her mother. In her mind, she just wanted to live peacefully.

"Time is up, we were moving," Sulaya said. She tapped her sword meaningfully.

"Remember what I told you. Courage and fate will always do, to survive!" Sulaya told her.

"Copy that," Mindaza said, as she nodded. For the final close, Sulaya hugged her daughter and whispered "I love you, sweety."

The path was narrower than the width of a finger, but not as wide as the hand. It was also really steep, with roots and sliding stones all over the place. Sulaya trotted ahead of them, overcoming obstacles as if she were a young lady of twenty, not a middle-aged mother. As they climbed the incline, the others followed, losing the weight of their years.

They reached a plateau at the edge of the cliff, scattered rocks over a sea of scratchy grass. Sulaya did not lose time in absorbing the view of the hills in the immediate vicinity and the distant, angular blue mountains. She accelerated at a canter, slipping through the miles as she splashed across the land without stopping. She also leaped across fires that swirled down from the heights. Sulaya, the leader of the Spiral Warriors, trailed behind in a small column of women and men.

Sulaya lifted her right hand in the air. The column halted at once, with Khallel stopping Mindaza with a single finger on her forehead. Sulaya dropped her hand to touch her forehead, and together, all the Spiral warriors in the ship lifted their heads to sniff the air.

Mindaza and khallel stood on the ground while Sulaya waved ahead with her other companions. Not long after, the ship slowly drifted away.

Sulaya was nearly invisible amidst the blowing weather, like smoke.

So, Khallel and Mindaza started their journey.

Khallel crooked a finger to Mindaza and shifted to the left, toward the hills. He moved in a crouch and Mindaza followed.

The hills were ten minutes behind them before Mindaza saw a haze of blue smoke drifting into the broadening hills ahead. She tapped Khallel on the shoulder.

"I would like to ask something."

"What is it?" Khallel said.

"I just wondered how long it would take for this mission."

"It depends" Khallel responded. He kept quiet for a second and Mindaza understood if he wouldn't tell her the secret of this mission.

"What you see next, is the real mission that you never forget" Khallel explained. Mindaza sighed. Later on, Khallel asked her, "Do you think you are brave enough for this mission?"

"Yes," She nodded.

Khallel stopped from walking and Mindaza looked at him.

"What?"

Khallel stood, and he unfastened his sword in the scabbard across his back. Then he passed Mindaza thin gloves that were made of rubber.

"Starting today, wear these gloves and don't remove them until the mission last. That was a very useful one to grease your blade. Either you take it out and keep it in, the blade will easily be played with your hand in half a second."

"I understand, thank you!" Mindaza wore the gloves as she smiled at him.

After that, Mindaza makes a testing move to release her sword. She firmly grasped the sword's hilt and sent it spinning in the air.

"Assuming that I am your enemy, pay attention to my cheekbones and forehead," Khallel told her quietly."

"Okay" Mindaza sighed. Then she returned the blade to its scabbard.

Khallel dipped his hands into the mud and smeared the brown sticky soil over his face. Mindaza frowned at what she saw next.

"We have to do this, so that we don't get noticed or recognized" he explained. Mindaza took a deep breath and followed what he told her.

Then the two continued moving, going to a tiny crest where the heavy smoke hung.

They ducked as they came to the crest, keeping their heads beneath the level of the swaying green plants as they peered through the smoke. Until they found a village.

"If there are any people living there? We can ask for food and water," Mindaza said.

"Shhh, keep quiet" Khallel told her.

There was a house, and fifteen stone-built cottages roofed with heather. Now there were fifteen smoldering funeral fires, and a herd of cattle. But, there were scattered bodies, except for three whose butchered remains were roasting on long spits.

Mindaza unexpectedly witnessed that today a thriving community was now a place where corpses lay splayed out in crimson blood,

in the ground. There are three naked young women screaming in terror. They lay bound together by stout ropes under the grinning gaze of twenty men with blonde hair and long swords.

"What are they doing?" Mindaza asked Khallel.

"This is the work of northern men. In this land, they want them to be the most uplifted and feared by all the subjects of this kingdom." Khallel said.

"By killings?" Mindaza clarified.

"I am not sure, but it looks like a raiding part that found this settlement" He nodded toward the devastation.

Mindaza fought her nausea at the sight of the dead bodies and the blood.

One of the Northern men warriors grabbed the youngest of the captives by the hair and lifted her to her feet, laughing when she screamed. Three more of them began to give advice, their voices and language harsh against the background of slaughter.

"She must be ten years old," Khallel said.

"We must stop them," Mindaza spoke urgently. "We can't let these men kill them either!"

"They will be glad when it is their time to die," Khallel said. "The northern men are unforgivable to their slaves. They have no mercy."

Mindaza's eyes widened as she realized what fate awaited the three young women. "We have to help them."

"Only the two of us?" Khallel's tone was slightly mocking.

The young girl screamed again, and then once more, as the largest and most grizzled of the men lifted her by her hair and swung her over his shoulder, and laughed.

Mindaza shook her head and said, "We can't just watch,"

Khallel shrugged. "What is your plan for these twenty men?"

Although Mindaza merely touched the hilt of her sword for reassurance, the surge of power ran from the defender up her arm and thrilled her entire body.

"Mindaza!"

Khallel attempted to restrain her with a hand on her arm. Mindaza takes his hands off, and withdraws the steel and strokes forward, feeling a tingle of excitement, along with a surge of savage anger.

"Hey! I am Mindaza, and I order you to leave these young women alone!"

Her voices scattered around and the northern men both looked at the newcomers.

"Mindaza!"

Khallel shouted after her, but Mindaza was already a dozen paces closer to the Northern men.