Chapter 27

Kenne the Entrail Seer emerged from his stinking tent. He was an old man though he did not stoop from the burden of age. He had long white hair falling on either side of a face that contained hallow cheeks and a flat broad nose. His forehead creased with deep farrows and the dark cloak he wore did little to hide his frailty. The old man approached the group before his tent, his wild eyes that seemed to glow green with a touch of youth his body had long since forgotten, glazed over those before him until they came to stop at Ishar.

Ishar shivered from the cold but when Kenne's eyes met his the cold suddenly dissipated, he could not feel it, instead he felt like a Yendw wolf roaming the Talisi hills and happened to stumble upon another Yendw wolf going about the same business. The sign of danger wasn't evident but neither was any semblance of peace. The boy and the old man stared at each other for what seemed to be an eternity and the rest of the men just switched gazes between the two of them.

"Uhmm.. Kenne?" Inquired Sergeant Goki when the silence had become uncomfortable.

The old man shook his head as if freeing himself of a daze and hobbled towards Ishar. "I was roaming the hills of Talisi, looking for something that I could not define." Kenne said while tilting his head up to meet Ishar's who was a head taller. "I roamed the hills in search of questions I had no answers to, I sought eternity in a closed space and I turned my eyes upon the land while looking for those who dwelt in the sky."

Ishar knew that there was something not right with him. Since his meeting with the God Ovek he had been losing pieces of himself and in their places he found feelings and thoughts that were foreign to him, as if they were fashioned to fit him without them being a part of him. But as the Entrail Seer spoke he realized that the Gods were indeed generous for before him stood one who was also batshit crazy. Ishar took comfort in the fact that he wasn't alone.

"As I was roaming the hills without a purpose but with a goal, I came across a sheep." Kenne continued. "It was alone and lying upon a hill in the dead of night after having grazed to its fill. It was during a full moon as I recall and I could see the silver white luminescence of the moon reflecting upon the sheep's wool." Ishar stiffened, a cold sweat broke upon his forehead despite the chill of night. "I knew then that I had found what I was looking for."

"A sheep?" Ishar asked.

"A question and its answer." Kenne replied.

"You're mad old man. Can you read this shit on my face so I can go eat?" Ishar asked

"Does a mad person know they are mad?"

"It depends."

"On what?" Kenne asked.

"If they have ever been sane to begin with." Ishar answered.

Kenne broke into a croaky laugh that sounded like a toad being castrated. The Entrail Seer turned around while still laughing and went back into his tent and from within he could still be heard laughing. The soldiers looked at each other, puzzles painted upon their dark faces.

 "I have absolutely no idea what all that was about. Any clue Nohj?" Memo said. The skinny man speared the ground with his weapon and leaned on it.

"I think the Entrail Seer fucked a sheep." Said the Tall Talisi soldier with unkempt hair whose name was apparently Nohj. At his statement there were a few snickers and everyone save Ishar turned to stare at him. Ishar instead had his eyes on Mairek with a smile spread across his face, Mairek shifted uncomfortably and seemed to take a keen interest in the night sky.

Kenne emerged from his tent with an egg in hand that probably came from a large bird provided its size. He took steady steps over to Ishar seemingly unaware of everyone else, "The bird droppings upon you signify the end. This," he held up the egg to Ishar's head, "Signifies the beginning, only through combining the two shall we know what the Gods say."

"Let me get this straight, it's not enough that I have dried up bird shit on me, you're also going to add a raw egg to it?" Ishar asked, annoyance traced in his voice. He was awfully tired of the meaningless charade that had been yoked to him since the bird shat on him. Ishar made a silent vow that he would shoot down the red bird with blue tipped wings if he ever saw it again.

"Yes." Kenne answered. The old man broke the egg upon Ishar's head and with his fingers spread the egg's contents upon Ishar's face, covering everywhere the bird droppings had touched with the contents of the egg. "I took out my knife and slayed the sheep where it lay." Kenne spoke as he worked, Ishar's face had contorted with disgust at what was being done to him. If I ever see that bird again by Ovek I shall kill it! He thought.

"I traced a line with my knife upon its belly and tore it open, revealing its insides." Kenne continued, he took a step back from Ishar with his eyes never leaving Ishar's face, studying the concoction of shit and egg upon the boy. "I saw something that I'd never seen before from the placement of its innards."

"What did you see?" Mairek asked, enthralled by the tale, several soldiers nodded at the question, showing a keen interest in the prophecy of the Entrail Seer.

"I saw Tabrimas descending into madness with the valiant ripping apart their hair in anguish and laughing in glee for they no longer knew the meaning of valiance. I saw amber fire spreading over the land, culling everything that made sense and was orderly and in its wake leaving senselessness and chaos." Tears streaked down Kenne's face as his eyes studied the layout upon Ishar's face, everyone looked on in stunned silence. Kenne pointed at Ishar, his finger trembling. "I saw an anomaly, I saw him. Sergeant Goki?"

"Yes?" Goki answered, his eyes glued on Ishar.

"Ensure the boy is clean and his stomach full for he goes before King Gans tonight." Kenne said.

"What? The King? What have you seen? What have the Gods said?" Goki inquired.

"Not Gods Goki, but a God." Kenne answered. "And he does not speak, he acts."

"Him?" Nohj asked, his eyes widening.

Goki and his men were obviously puzzled by the words spoken by Kenne judging by the silence that had blanketed them as he struggled to make sense of what he'd heard from the Entrail Seer. He turned towards Ishar and Ishar saw the confusion and..... fear? Within the man's eyes. "Come on, let's get you cleaned and fed." Goki started walking towards the clustered tents and everyone followed in his wake including a weeping Kenne and Ishar who shivered no more.

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