„It’s silence there… in the world left behind us because... where we aren’t is always better than where we are. But… do those chased away from their lands feel the same? Or… maybe is this only an illusion born inside of humans like a hope to live better someday?!” A woman’s voice asked in a whisper and the echo of her voice trundled in a hurry, crossing the green field, studded with flowers, that was enwidening over dozens of kilometers. „I don’t know… I don't know what to say or what to think. But… a thing is certain: that we won’t ever be truly happy till not accept ourselves as we are,” the voice added and the echo lost soon toward the horizon.
Then, only the silence echoed around while the image of the horizon has been seen running toward the South, smoothly floating over the green field that was barely seen in the distance… of a yellow-brown, the color of the desert.
Also… with the view that was approaching the brown stain more and more, the sky started to lament and cries have been heard all over… a lot of women’s cries.
And… it was so much pain put in those shed tears, in those moans of sorrow that could make one lose his mind in seconds after hearing them, for, seconds after the women started to cry, the whimpers of the children had been also heard, followed by the cry of the men, forced to weep their pain.
But the shout of a hawk on high forced the horizon to keep silent. Soon after, eastward, on that dark-blue sky of the dusk, a dark point has been seen. Then, that point increased and increased in size, practically covering part of the horizon, and only powerful shouts, coming out of their beaks, betrayed the fact that it was a flock of hawks that was approaching.
And… along with those hawks’shouts, other screams were heard… of the men spurring their horses and approaching northerly, contrary to that dark-brown point of which the image and the hawks were quickly approaching, and that shout of „Ha! Ha! Ha!” while spurring the horses, summoned the Dirges at the border that was separating the green and full of multicolored flowers field from the desert of the Valley of Cry (Dirge-the personation of the painful laments for someone’s death).
The Dirges instead, contrary to what was heard around, weren’t only cries and laments, but were old women, black dressed, with grey hair, up to the heels and disheveled, and they had been suddenly seen all along that border as if being soldiers on guard at the Gates of the Country.
Yet… there was something weird about those old ladies: their eyes were completely blind, covered by a white peel. That peel however wasn’t that one seen in the eyes of Yātrīkars - it was only the punishment that they got for all the sins committed in their lives: to lose their sight.
Soon after, when the shouts of the hawks on the height became unbearable to listen to, behind the old Dirges, other Dirges appeared, as if strengthening the rows and… far behind them, forming other three rows of defense, were seen the men Dirges, that had the same long, grey hair, the same blind eyes. But, instead of bright yellow robes as the women Dirges were wearing, theirs were dark-brown, to perfectly camouflage their bodies in case of a battle, taking the color of that Valley.
„They are approaching,” one of the old ladies, named Dige, said, taking a step in front and revealing thus the fact that she was the leader of the group. „Let’s get prepared! We can’t afford to be attacked!” She added and, letting a painful and angry scream come out of her throat, she raised in the air, in the form of a small, air hurricane, which vanished along the valley soon.
The other Dirges followed the old woman’s example, leaving only the men behind them, to protect their land. But… they also vanished at the moment the hawks launched out over them, from above, intending the start a fight.
The hawks however didn’t follow the men Dirges when they vanished, but suddenly returned in mid-air and flew, with all the strength they were capable of, toward Dike and Island’s army that were approaching the Valley of Cry in the gallop of their horses.
„Come on, Navarro! Don’t stay behind!” Sephir demanded her horse when she saw that she was a few dozen meters behind her father.
The horse, as if also speaking human language, suddenly neighed. After that, he took the plunge and, so soon after, he got on the left of Tūfon (storm), Boor’s horse, which was galloping like a mad soul and was intensifying his rhythm each time he was listening to Boor’s command.
„Look! It’s Argol!” Āṇmai shouted, seeing the flock of hawks approaching them in a hurry.
„And they already measured noses with the Dirges!” Island said in a shout, keeping an eye on Argol, which suddenly screamed as if answering Island. „They are waiting for us! The Dirges!” Island added, this time in half a voice, but the other Titans heard, even if his words were barely heard in that mad gallop of the horses.
„Let’s wait for us then!” murmured Boor. „I’m not in the mood to lose in front of them today!” And he tightly grabbed the reins. But, seeing Sephir to his left, he looked at her and whistled.
Navarro neighed and approached Tūfon more. Then Boor stretched his left arm toward Sephir, she grabbed it, and, with a slight jerk, she climbed on Tūfon’s back, in front of Boor.
„Hide your face!” Boor told his daughter in a whisper and, suddenly, on Sephir’s shoulders, a dark-grey cloak appeared. Then she put the hood on her head later and also grabbed the reins that her father was holding. „When we meet them, not even breathe, Sephir. I don’t want to lose you among them!” Boor added.
„I know, father! Don’t worry! They won’t even feel me there!” Sephir said in a whisper too and bowed her head, and the edges of her hood fell on her face, practically hiding her completely.
A scary roar, heard behind them, made Dike and Island’s army look back, and they could see thus a huge black, dust cloud, raised in the air by the Aḻivu’s monsters’paws, which continued to follow them, despite the fact that a deadly danger was also waiting for them in that Valley of Cry.
And… along with those monsters, chasing them from behind, the sky became darker and darker, gathering a cold, heavy rain in its paunchy belly, that was threatening everything with killing and destroying them.
But the sky and the dust cloud weren't the only danger because Aḻivu’s monsters were also terrifying and terrible: they had Cerberus’heads, dog’s bodies, and impressive size, for each of them weighed probably half a ton. Also, they had big paws, with long, sharp nails that could hew their victim from a single hit, not giving the poor prey a single chance to survive. But the most feared at them were their fangs, well seen out of their mouth and which were completely covered by blood and saliva, and their roars raised the hair on the soldiers and Titans'backheads, making them shudder like hell.
And… when they least expected, the first victims fell: around 20 of the Island’s soldiers, the rearmost, who had been blown in seconds at the moment that dust cloud caught up with them and the monsters swooped over them, breaking them into pieces along with their horses.
„No!” Āṇmai shouted, taking his sword out of its scabbard and intending to turn his horse and enter that thick cloud to save his men.
Dike instead, sharp in thoughts and acts, spurred his horse and, from a slight jerk, he grabbed Āṇmai’s horse’s bridle, forcing the animal to keep the line.
„It’s too late, Āṇmai!” He shouted to the captain. „Do you want to endanger the others too?”
„And to leave the others prey to the havoc?” Āṇmai shouted, being in a thundering rage because of the big loss.
„And will you kill all for a few?” The Titan confidently told him, staring into Āṇmai’s eyes, who didn’t take his eyes off Dike.
But… he understood soon that Dike was right: he could lose hundreds for a dozen. So, he spurred the horse, continuing to run behind the others.
Gaea and Lodur, who also decided to clear off eventually, even if they tried hard to save the soldiers that fell prey to the monsters, caught up with Dike and, on both of his sides, they spurred their horses to keep the line.
The three had been actually the last who crossed the sandy border of the Valley of Cry. Then, a few hundred meters from the border, they stopped and turned their back on the others, who were already stopped and staring at the monsters that couldn’t cross the border and were roaring like mad spirits, as if, approaching that sandy line more, has been a fire that was scorching their skin. That’s why none of them dared to take a single step more in front.
Yet, a deafening whiplash, which has been heard in the distance, made the monsters hellishly squeal as if the tip of the whip bit from their skin. But… even so, none of them crossed the border. They only crawled aside, forming a kind of corridor between them, onto which a huge dust being was approaching the border.
And that dust monster had the body of a centaur and only his upper part: his neck and his head were similar to what we’ve seen at Kkāṟṟu - the bald head, of a giant, with crippled ears and hawk-nosed. The color of Aḻivu’s eyes, however, was different - of a dark red, almost of a wet bricky, similar to the burning sand in the hot stove of the sun.
This way Aḻivu appeared in front of his monsters and of the others, advancing on that corridor and whipping left and right and trying to make his servants pay this way for their disobedience of not crossing that border.
But… even if the whip’s tip was deeply biting from their skin, hurting them to the blood, none of the monsters took even a step in front, preferring the hits than to face the Dirges, for… if they had entered their territory, they would have suffered more than because of their master’s whip and even ignorant beings like those monsters were aware of that.
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And, being only two steps from that border, Aḻivu suddenly changed his form: his head became bigger and bigger till it got the form of a balloon with hot air, but three times smaller anyway, while his body also became longer, of about 5 meters in height, having the same body as his brother Kkāṟṟu, for not for nothing they were born from the same womb.
Yet, even if Aḻivu, due to his intense practice of Black Magic and always being surrounded by his monsters, found a way to often change the form of his body, becoming even scarier each time he was changing it, not the same happened to Kkāṟṟu, who preferred to keep his body, which, even without those monstrous changes, had a lot to suffer because of the past and he preferred not to cripple it even more with his own hand.
„Well, well, well, who we have here!” Aḻivu said in mockery, staring at the army in front of him. But his eyes suddenly stopped on Sephir, who was still on her father’s horse, with Boor behind her.
Sephir, feeling that harsh glance focused on her, bowed her head even more, and the edge of the hood completely hid her face.
„A bride!” Aḻivu murmured, slowly moving his head from one side to the other. „A precious bride that can bring me a lot of benefices if I have her close to me,” Aḻivu added and, bending more in front, till his glance was at the height of Boor’s glace, he said, grinning: „sell her to me, God Boor, and you are free to go!”
„First, you have to kill me,” Dike said, spurring Shinar to approach Boor and face the monster thus.
A peal of hysterical laughter came out of Aḻivu’s throat, who bent a little bit on his back, allowing that laughter to roll toward the horizon seen behind him.
But Aḻivu suddenly became serious and, staring at Dike, he hissed through his teeth: „don’t you think that you are too old to be a groom now, master Dike?” and a scathing mockery was heard in those words.
Yet, this only sketched a devilish smile on Dike’s face: „And this told me the one who has the same age as Death has!”
„Bold as always!” Aḻivu said, focusing his glance on the Titan again, but it was clear that he disliked that remark.
„Tit for tat, as it is said,” Dike continued to tease the monster. „But… as you probably hadn’t been informed yet, I’ll have some pity on you and I’ll illuminate your mind, Aḻivu, for… that „bride,” you seem to have a crush on her, is already taken and, as long as she’s my daughter-in-law, I’m not that willing to give her to you. I’ll better keep her for my son.”
„For that dog?” Aḻivu scornfully murmured.
A fist, formed from a cloud, appeared from nowhere to the left of Aḻivu, punched him, and that powerful hit made him turn his head to the right with such a speed that bones’crack has been heard around.
The soldiers smiled, seeing the unpleasant surprise on Aḻivu’s face and the wide-open eyes of the monsters, that didn’t expect such a turn of events, after hearing Aḻivu's unpleasant growl, became even bigger. But this only made Dike smile while murmuring: „it had been well deserved!”
Deafening cracking his neck, which was heard as if a lot of pots had been broken at the same time, Aḻivu turned to Dike and the others, furiously staring at them.
„Who dared?” He hissed through his teeth, but none of them answered and not because they didn’t want, but because they didn’t know because they were surrounded by a lot of Titans, who had hidden magical powers, and any of them could come with such a surprise. „I asked who dared!” Aḻivu roared with all his force, making the horizon shake in the distance.
Dike only yawned instead: „Does it matter now?! Anyway, you fell into contemp already. So, don’t quibble and I also suggest you retrace your steps till the Dirges won’t get their hands on you and on your monsters, and then, yes, they’ll caress your snout and for long. And you know that they aren’t so loving people.”
„You!” Aḻivu shouted through his teeth, bending a little bit toward the Titan. „Do you think that you’re smart?”
„No, I don’t think so! I know that I’m smart!” Dike defiantly told him. „Why are you asking anyway? Don’t tell me that you want to measure your intelligence with me. If so, it’s up to you. Even if… I don’t take that risk if I were you. At the small brain you have, you’ll lose for sure” Dike finished his tease.
„Don’t provoke him, Dike! You know very well that he’s not a good friend with his head,” Dike heard Lodur’s telepathic voice in his head, but this only made him smile, hearing his brother speaking like that.
„Don’t worry, brother, for no matter how scary isn’t Aḻivu, he won’t ever have the courage to cross that border. Only if he looks for his sure death,” Dike answered, also telepathically.
And Dike wasn’t talking like that to Lodur just for the sake of talking: he was still aware of his sixth sense, the one which made him famous even in the time of his living in the Cosmos. Now instead, after recovering his old look and part of his previous power, he could deeply enter the soul of that beast Aḻivu and understand his feelings.
And Dike has been right, for Aḻivu suddenly took a few steps back, followed by his nippers when, all over them, the Tarantula wasps threw over them. And they started to retreat, for they knew well that the sting of those wasps was poisoned, and it was a true fact, known by all of those who ever crossed through that Valley of Cry, where was the hometown of the Tarantula.
Clapping and punching, and slapping to the left and to right in an attempt of protecting himself from the wasps, Aḻivu seemed so comic, and he for sure didn’t want to laugh at that moment, for each needle, that was deeply entering his skin, made him feel such a harsh pain that was burning like hell, and the place of the sting bloated in seconds, having the size of a nut.
The same happened to his monsters, for even if they were scary and pitiless for all of their victims, they were also afraid of those wasps and of small insects that could enter their eyes, nostrils, and ears, killing them from inside and, after about 5 minutes of fighting with the Tarantula, all of them looked as if they have just been bathed with boiled water.
And, to eventually escape from those wasps, Aḻivu finally opened the mouth of his sack with catchy winds: those, as if being thousands of air snakes, started to skillfully move through the air, forming tornados from the dust lifted from below and, the dizzy speed, with which they were whirling in place and all along that plain, made not only the small stones and dust particles spin in the air, but also the wasps, which started to be hit one of the other, whirl and spin, feeling dizzy and finally falling on the ground, dead.
Many of them instead managed to stick on Aḻivu’s and on his monsters'bodies, even if they tried hard to get rid of them. But they have been eventually forced to give up and run away, piteously scowling while losing from the others’sight in that black, dust cloud seen behind them.
„We’ll see each other again, Titan,” Aḻivu told Dike, tarrying while he kept protecting his face from the wasps with one hand and scratching his injured body with the other one because each centimeter of his skin was burning, being beady almost entirely, and even the tip of his nose looked like a big potato because of a rounded bulb that looked like a soap balloon. „Don’t even think that it’s over here, for…,” but he didn’t manage to finish his speech, seeing the hawks reappearing on the horizon and, understanding that he hadn’t enough power to fight alone with them, he went away, having his tail down. Better to say he broke into a run, covering his body with that black dust cloud while the tornado snakes followed him like loyal puppies.
„We managed to escape one danger,” murmured Dike, looking at the others.”
„But… we still have to face the fiercest one,” murmured Gaea without watching Dike because her eyes kept staring at the Aḻivu’s cloud, which was losing sight at the horizon, and a slight gust of wind, that started to blow from nowhere on those lands, slightly moved the skirts of her cloak and her long, blonde hair.
The wasps instead, those which still managed to survive, didn’t cross the border to attack them, for even those insects seemed to be afraid of that Valley of Cry, even if they were the children of those places. But, in fact, it was because they weren’t attacking anybody without the Dirges’command, who seemed to look for another end for the Titans and their army than the one Aḻivu and his dogs had.
Yet… everybody shuddered from top to toe when pitiful and scary cries had been heard all over. And those cries and their sharp sound were usually deeply entering the bones of those who were hearing it, scratching their eardrums, and this made the Titans and the soldiers cover their ears with their palms, in a desperate attempt to protect their brains.
But… releasing the reins, they had been suddenly thrown off the horses’back, which, frightened of those cries too, raised on their rear legs, in the attempt of escape. Yet, as if caught in place by a spell, the horses stood next to their fallen masters, who were lying on the ground, powerless, and still covering their ears not to hear those deafening cries.
„Mother! Mother! Are you here?” Gaea suddenly heard whispers. But she only slowly shuddered as if being hardened while her eyes were staring at a blind point. „Mother, do you hear me? Why don’t you answer if you hear my voice?” Multiple whispers have been heard at the same time around her and it was so pitiful their call as if they were the voices of the real children of Gaea, those lost a long time ago and who found her there, at that moment, trying to make her remember them.
Then, suddenly, in front of her, multiple faces of children appeared: boys and girls, calling her „mother” and stretching their arms in front while desperately trying to reach her, summoning her to go to them and asking her for a bit of comfort.
But Lodur so suddenly appeared behind Gaea, on the same horse on whose back she was sitting, and his palm covered her eyes, not to see those kids in front of her, for even if Lodur didn’t see the same thing as Gaea, he still felt that the Dirges were trying to make Mother Earth kneel down, for the children were a powerful weapon against her - for each loss of a child, that didn’t get to be born into this world or didn’t get to grow up, was Gaea’s weakness, and those voices, that she was hearing, calling her „mother,” were the voices of all those souls that she summoned on Earth from Aeon, but who she could never help to remain here and have a body.
„My children!” Gaea murmured, slowly shaking into a powerful cry, that was fighting with all her body not to make her collapse.
„I know, sister, but… yet, it’s just an illusion. You know very well that those souls turned back to Aeon and that they can’t be in this Valley of Cry.”
„But… what if they got here, Lodur? What if those souls didn’t ever find the path to turn to their womb?”
„It’s impossible, Gaea because the souls that don’t have a sin always turn back home. The voice of innocence itself summons them to Aeon, which whispers to them all the time to turn back home, for they still have a chance at life and happiness thus.”
„But… Lodur, Life is nothing more than…”
„…illusion?”
„Aga!”
„Then, let it be only an illusion. That's why, close the Gate of your soul and never allow pain and remorse to enter your body and defeat you. At least while you are in this Valley, you should be blind and deaf, for… those who are still alive need you, Gaea. And, if you don’t believe me, look around: they are also your kids and they all need you,” and Lodur took his hand off Gaea’s eyes, slowly pulled the reins, and turned the horse, forcing Gaea to look at all those soldiers that were lying on the sand, covering their ears and suffering a lot because of the Digers’cry.
Only after minutes in a row of looking at each soldier and analyzing his face distorted by pain, did Gaea let a sigh escape from her chest. After that, she took the flute out of her girdle and blew it.
And that calm music of the flute managed to slowly-slowly stop the time around, only for Island’s people, for Gaea’s spell hadn’t power over the Titans while they were in that strange Valley of Cry.
Then, when the pain finally ceased in front of the magic, one by one, the soldiers snuggled, but still on the ground, next to their lying horses, appearing to be statues carved in stone while the air around seemed the void of a fairy-like world, of a world built with magic, of an unknown world where everything is possible.
But… later, the despair followed the silence and magic…