Alqa woke up in the morning to the sounds of yelling. She sat up, it took her a minute before she could make out the words. “Alqa! Where the ergz iyi yaamgiia are you? You are —”
“Iija, wait!”
“Alqa!” Alqa stood up, she exited her yurt and saw Yesui storming towards her. “You are dead!” Yesui screamed.
“No, Iija!” Baatar yelled, running to catch up to Yesui, still holding his stomach. Yesui reached her first.
“Explain why you stabbed my son, right kergz now!” Yesui yelled. Alqa’s stomach seized, she wondered if that was why Baatar was holding his stomach. She wanted to go look at her dagger.
“Iija, please let me finish telling you what happened!” Baatar huffed, finally catching up.
Yesui turned to him, “fine,” she growled at him, Alqa shuddered. She had never seen Yesui angry, but even so, she could tell that she was also scared.
“I made her feel unsafe, she only put her dagger in the way to protect herself, I didn’t see it. I walked onto it, please don’t hurt her. It’s my fault,” Baatar told Yesui, he was choosing his words very carefully to tell Yesui what happened, without telling her what happened.
Yesui turned back to Alqa. “Don’t ever hurt my son again, you understand me?” she ordered Alqa, who nodded. Contented, Yesui left. Alqa wanted to cry, she felt horrible.
“I’m sorry,” Alqa told Baatar.
“It's fine Alqa, I’m sorry too. I made you feel unsafe and uncomfortable, you just reacted accordingly,” He told her and walked away. She walked back into her yurt and unsheathed her dagger, sure enough, the tip was red with blood. Alqa set to cleaning it, which took a while. She spent the rest of the day and the next two after that keeping busy, she helped making gusui, going on hunts and making arrows. Alqa hadn’t seen Baatar at all and she was starting to get worried. She wasn’t angry at him, she didn’t blame him and she wished he could just talk to her again.
She sat next to the creek, watching the sunset. She held the dagger in her left hand, just holding it when she heard a horse approaching from behind her. Alqa stood up and spun around to see Baatar approaching. He dismounted and walked over to her. “I am here to apologize,” he told her.
“You already did,” Alqa told him. He walked over and took something out of his saddlebag. He approached her, Alqa stepped back instinctively and he stopped.
He extended his hands, he held a small silver eagle with its wings extended on a necklace made out of woven elephant hair. “I’m sorry,” he told her. Alqa smiled and approached him. She reached out and took the necklace, her hand touched his and as soon as it was in her hand, he pulled back.
“I forgive you, now I need a gift for you,” She told him. He smiled and quickly left. Alqa put the necklace on and sat down. Once she was confident that he was gone, she began to cry.
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The next day, Alqa was woken up due to the sounds of commotion. She stood up, put on her belt and boots and went outside. A rider, who Alqa had never seen before, was there and was talking to Buqutai, while warriors were beginning to assemble. Alqa joined the assembling warriors and waited until Buqutai finished his conversation. Once he did, the rider stood to the side and Buqutai approached the warriors. “It is time, Tuva Khan has called the rally! I shall now make selections for who shall accompany me to heed the call to war. But first there are some of you I cannot allow to go to war. Ilai, I need your wisdom to remain here. Though I know you are a great warrior, if it should go poorly, I can think of none better to lead this Yisra. Ogt, Yusiin is yet too young to lose her mother. I need you to remain. Erdentugalaa, Altaantseg is also too young for you to leave her just now,” Buqutai announced. The three warriors bowed and went about their daily tasks. “Now, we can get to the warriors who are going. Of course, Yesui, my mate shall accompany me to war along with her children, Baatar and Yid. Qara will come, Mongolkiina, Togntomar, Qaiyag, Alqa,” Buqutai continued on listing names and when he was done, those not called bowed and went about their daily chores.
The commotion in the Yisra was rapid and chaotic like when a waterfall hits the water at its base. Everybody rushed around preparing rations of food and water for the journey, readying their bows and cleaning their weapons and armor if they had it. Alqa put her bow in its case, loaded her quiver with arrows and sheathed her sword and dagger. Alqa stepped out and went to find Dagan, she found him building stone piles with the other children. “Dagan!” she called him over. He got up and ran over to her, “Hey, I gotta go for some time and I don’t know when I’ll be back. While I’m gone you’ll need to stay with Sugekui and Dokuz,” Alqa told him. He just shrugged and ran back to his friends. Alqa went back to her yurt and picked up the saddle. She carried it over to Nergui and laid it on Nergui’s back. She threaded Nergui’s tail through the tail strap and tightened it, just below Nergui’s tail. Next she put the strap on Nergui’s stomach and finally the one on Nergui’s chest. She packed a travel yurt in her saddlebags alongside her food.
They left around midday, forming a dual column, with Buqutai and their guide at the front, Alqa fell in somewhere around the middle. They brought their yurts with them, carrying them in wagons that they pulled behind them. On the third day of marching, Alqa realized that Qotoiyan would likely be there and that made her a little excited, but at the same time she assumed that even if he was, she would never see him. The journey was long, boring and windy. Alqa avoided both Yesui and Baatar, it was too awkward to try talking to them. Finally on the sixth day of travel, Alqa saw the War-Yisra, the sight imparted her with awe. Yurts stretched farther than Alqa’s eyes could see and hundreds of cooking fires sent pillars of smoke into the air, a constant stream of hunters were coming into the the Yisra, bringing with them bison, wolves, gere, eagles, hawks, hares, rabbits, marmots and all sorts of other animals. It was surreal and it felt like a dream, only it wasn’t a dream. Around her the other warriors looked around with the same childish sense of awe. Never before had any of them seen a War-Yisra, this was a once in a lifetime experience, but that fact didn’t seem to sink in. It was exciting to see all of it and then it dawned on Alqa that everybody was here to avenge her Yisra, she smiled knowing that they would be avenged, in her mind nothing could stop this huge amount of warriors.
A group of Ärchgekui approached the party, fully clad in armor and a few carried hooked spears, some more carried axes or swords, either straight or curved like her own, but most carried bows and kept their distance. The leader of the Ärchgekui conversed with Buqutai and the guide out of Alqa’s earshot for a while before the Ärchgekui escorted the party into the Yisra. They set up their yurts in a ring, inside of which they set up a couple cooking fires and fenced in their horses. The next ten days passed uneventfully, a few warriors from the Yisra went out daily to go hunting, but Alqa never went. It was all a bit overwhelming. As Alqa wandered around the Yisra, she thought that there had to be at least 10,000 warriors, and more came everyday.