Alqa was awoken early in the morning by Yesui. “Alqa, wake up please,”
“Why?”
“You are needed,”
“Fine,” Alqa said. She stood up and got ready. Yesui was waiting for her when she got outside, she seemed impatient and nervous. Alqa found that odd, never had Yesui been impatient in all the time she had known her.
“Come on,”
“Where are we going?”
“Just follow me,” Yesui said. She briskly walked to the north east edge of the War-Yisra and Alqa diligently followed her. They arrived to find a scene that seemed like complete chaos but at the same time orderly. “Find warriors who need help and help anyone who needs help,”
“Why can’t you do it?”
Yesui sighed. “I’m pregnant Alqa. And I’m going home,”
“Oh, congratulations?”
“Thank you, I wish I could be here for my children though,”
“But you’re gonna have another,”
“Hopefully it’s just one,” Yesui laughed.
“Are you scared?”
“Yes,”
“Are you excited?”
“Yes,” Yesui said. She paused and looked up to the sky, then back to Alqa. “Good luck. I will see you when you return,” she hugged Alqa.
“Bye Yesui,”
“Alqa, can you do me a favor?”
“Yeah, sure,”
“Work out whatever happened between you and Baatar before the battle,”
“I will,” Alqa said. They hugged once more and then Yesui left. Alqa wondered if she would ever see her again. She turned and walked towards the work area.
When she got there she wandered around until she found a couple warriors loading arrows into a wagon. She picked up a handful and started to help pile the arrows in. The wooden cart stood a few hands taller than Nergui. Its base sat a few hands off the ground as well and the spoked wheels were so large that they extended above the cart. The inside of the cart was completely lined with felt to protect the arrows. It had hitching to hitch to a horse and draped over it was a felt covering.
“Hey, thanks for helping. What’s your name?” One of the warriors asked. He was tall and had blond hair extending down to his shoulders. When he spoke, Alqa could hear his voice sounded sweet, he must be a good singer Alqa thought.
“You’re welcome. I am Alqaiia Qutuqäsa. What’s your name?”
“Khartii Qutuqäz. And this is my friend, Yaangirii Qutuqäz,”
“Hello, may the Stewards guide you Zegtai,” Yaangir said.
“May the Stewards guide you as well,” Alqa replied. She smiled to herself and looked away to hide it, nobody, not even Qotoiyan or Baatar, had called her zegtai before.
They continued the tedious task of transporting the arrows from the standing quivers to the cart. They had to lay the arrows carefully so that they were less likely to suffer damage during transport. It took a while, but they finished. They thanked Alqa and as she was turning to leave, the closure on her tsud caught on a corner of the cart and it ripped. She quickly grabbed it and closed it manually, laughing at the comedy of the situation. Khart clearly noticed what happened.
“Wait right there, I’ll get you a cloak to cover up with,” Khart said. He jogged away and came back a short bit later with an old grey cloak.
He handed it to Alqa. “This isn’t new, but you can have it. I’ll accept your aid as a gift so you don’t have to go out of your way,”
“Thank you so much,” Alqa said, taking the cloak and wrapping it around herself.
“May the Stewards guide you Alqa,”
“May the Stewards guide you,” Alqa said and with that they parted. Alqa retreated to her yurt and changed into a different tsud. Once she was changed she sought out Qotoiyan.
She reached Qotoiyan’s yurt without any trouble. “Qotoiyan? Are you in there?”
“Yeah, come in,”
She opened the flap and entered. He was packing items into a small cart. “Don’t tell me you’re pregnant too,” she said.
“Alqa, I am male,”
“I know,”
“Then I am confused,”
“Baatar’s mother told me she was pregnant and leaving this morning. I really wanted her here,”
“Oh, well my father told me that we are scouting ahead of the army so I am leaving tomorrow,”
Alqa’s heart sank, “when?”
“Before dawn. I’ll be gone before you wake up,”
Alqa sat down next to him. “Can I come with you?” She asked.
“I’ll ask, but he doesn’t know about you yet and I don’t think that he would take too kindly to a female hanging around with me,”
“Why not?”
“My older brother and older sister got chewed out when they started courting. I’d rather not get yelled at,” Qotoiyan said. He imitated his father. “No courting until you have a mate,” Alqa laughed. It was incredible to her that someone could be so against their children courting. Her parents had constantly asked her when she would start. “What’s funny?”
“My parents kept asking me when I would start courting,”
“We don’t have to talk about them,”
“Yeah, thanks. But I do want to hear about your family,”
“What do you want to know?”
“You mentioned that you have an older brother and sister,”
“Yeah, Narantui and Taben. They are annoying, but they’ve always looked out for me,”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Are you the youngest?”
“Well I had a little brother but he died during his third winter. But my mother is pregnant, so hopefully I’ll have a new sibling or two, or three. What is the limit that a female can have?”
“I know three is possible, if it’s any higher, I’m not sure I want to know,” Alqa said. Qotoiyan laughed.
“Why not?”
“I watched my mother give birth, that was only one, she looked miserable,”
“I try to avoid things like that, but I have heard it. My blood has never curdled so much in my life,”
“Why?”
“I honestly don’t even know how describe that sound,”
“You don’t need to,” Alqa said.
“Do you want to know anything else?”
“No but I do have another question,”
“What is it?”
“Do you have time to not be so serious?”
“Yeah, I don’t need everything. The rest will be packed up and brought with the army,”
“Good,” Alqa said. She leaned in and kissed him. Qotoiyan went with it and kissed her back. It took them a moment before they separated.
“I didn’t expect that,”
“Neither did I,”
“Alqa. Can I tell you something?”
“I know,”
“I know too,” Qotoiyan said and kissed her again. Alqa pulled away after a long moment and smiled.
“I should have just brought my ripped tsud,”
“You want two?” Qotoiyan asked, running his hand along her back. She tingled across her entire body and giggled.
“No, one is quite enough,”
“Alright, I’ll be careful,”
Alqa ran through a field, above her the clouds were bright and white, below her the grass was green and everything felt perfect. Nergui stood in the field ahead and she approached her. “Nergui! How are you?”
“I’m fine. I guess you are a little more than fine though,”
“You would be correct. But how did you know?”
“I know everything you do Alqa. I am your mother,”
“No Nergui, you’re my sister,” Alqa said.
“I am your mother, you are your mother,” Nergui said. A bright light, seemingly brighter than the sun emerged from her and only lasted a moment. When it disappeared Nergui was gone. In her place stood a tall female with a face familiar yet not familiar. “Come, daughter,” Agaa Iija said. She turned and began walking away, Alqa followed.
They passed through a wall of mist into a world unlike anything Alqa had seen. But she could recognize it as the steppe where they were now. It was night, the clouds swirled in the sky and the ground was constantly shaking. Storms raged, drenching the whole area and yet fires burned. Warriors fought all around, the water on the ground turned every small stream and lower portion into a river or lake of blood. And then Alqa saw the most horrific thing she had ever seen, huge and terrifying, Maisuya waded through the blood, snapping humans and horses in half as he went. She could see in the distance the stairs to the Upper World, the home of Agaa Iija.
Then she was back in the peaceful steppe, she sat under the very tree Dagan had been born under. Next to her, Qotoiyan leaned against her and in front of her children played. She felt the world was perfect again, but the stream next to them had drops of blood in it.
Qotoiyan shook her awake sometime during the night. He was already dressed. “I gotta get going in a bit and I need to finish packing,”
“Where is the moon?”
“It’s nearing the horizon,” Qotoiyan said. Alqa rolled onto her back.
“Qotoiyan, promise me you’ll come back,”
He stopped what he was doing and took her hand. “I promise,”
“Thank you,” Alqa said, standing up and putting her tsud on. She walked over and kissed him on the cheek. “I guess I’ll go,”
“Wait,” Qotoiyan said rummaging through his things, he took out a small silver medallion, on it was the visage of a fox. “This is a good luck charm Alqa,”
“Shouldn’t you keep it?”
“I can’t protect you while I’m away from you, least I can do is help with your luck,”
“Thank you and may the Stewards guide you, nirt khartai,”
“May the Stewards guide you, nirt khartai,” Qotoiyan said and kissed her again. When he pulled away, Alqa saw tears rolling down his face.
“It’s not goodbye Qotoiyan. We will see each other again,” Alqa reassured him. He nodded in response, but the tears kept coming. She turned and left the yurt. Her own eyes welling with tears, she didn’t fully believe her own words, no matter how much she wanted to.
When she made it back to her yurt she went inside and sat down. She held the medallion in her hand and stared at it, she finally let the tears come and cried for some time. Would he come back? Would Yesui be alive if she got back to the Yisra? Would she even get back? What if everyone she cared for died, all because she couldn’t just keep her mouth shut? Eventually she wiped the tears from her eyes, stowed the medallion in the folds of her sash and left her yurt.
She walked over to Baatar’s yurt and stopped outside the flap. She took a deep breath, why was she scared? Baatar wouldn’t hurt her, she knew that but the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach remained. “Baatar, are you awake?”
“Yeah,” Baatar said, Alqa was surprised he was actually awake but he just sounded defeated, like his whole world was ending.
“Can I come in?”
“If you want,”
Alqa went in, Baatar was sitting in the back of the yurt, his arms wrapped around his knees and resting his head on his knees. “Baatar, are you alright?”
“She left,”
“I know,”
“I need her here. With me. I can’t do this without her,”
“I’m here,”
“But you hate me,”
“No I don’t Baatar. If you ever need someone to talk to you, I’m here. Whatever plans I have, I will just have to do it another time,”
“You’re lying,”
“No I’m not,”
“You avoid me hanging out with that male. He’s a stranger Alqa,”
“I’ve known him longer than I have known you Baatar. If either of you is a stranger, it’s you,”
“I love you Alqa. He never will. Save yourself from the trouble and avoid him,”
Alqa felt the rage boiling up inside of her, she wanted nothing more than to hit Baatar, but she promised Yesui she would work it out with him. “Never speak poorly about Qotoiyan again,”
“He will betray you, all males are the same,” Baatar said. Alqa was done, she grabbed him and turned him around to face her. She was seething with rage and for the first time, she saw Baatar’s face shift to true fear. And then she hit him, right in the side of his face and she threw him to the floor. He stayed there, waiting for her to hit him again, but she didn’t. His words sank in. I love you. Alqa knelt down next to him, he was crying.
“Baatar I’m sorry. You are being very immature though,”
“I deserved it,”
“No you didn’t,”
“I shouldn’t have said any of that, you love him, not me,”
“Baatar, I just want to be your friend. I know it must be harder than I can fathom for you to hear that,”
“We can be friends, I would like that,”
“Are you alright?”
“I’ll be fine. I just need sleep,”
“Get rest,” Alqa said and stood up, she left the yurt and got her saddle. She saddled Nergui and rode away into the dawn, she just wanted to get away from everything and everyone for a bit. She stopped Nergui after a while and watched the sunrise, letting her mind run away. She watched as the birds fly by her, in front of the sun. Their black silhouettes seemed so beautiful to her. She waited there for a long time before finally returning.
She got back and got everything off Nergui and started packing. She put all her personal stuff in her cart first. She went to find Buqutai. She found him quickly, conversing with a couple Ärchgekui. She waited for a bit, just out of earshot so as not to eavesdrop. When the Ärchgekui left, Buqutai turned around and saw her waiting there. “Hello Alqa,”
“When do we leave?”
“At dawn, in two days,”
“Are you scared?”
“Are you?”
“Yes. There are people I care about, I don’t want them to die,”
“What about yourself,”
“I don’t want to die either,”
“That makes sense Alqa. I think everyone here is scared. Courage isn’t a lack of fear. Courage is the ability to face and overcome your fears,” Buqutai said.
It was late in the afternoon when Alqa decided to go be useful. She went to Qotoiyan’s yurt and stepped inside. Seeing it brought back good memories, but it had to be packed up. She set to work, taking it apart and stowing it in a cart. She carved a fox and an eagle next to each other on each side of the cart to mark it so she remembered it was his. She saddled Nergui’s and hitched her to the cart. She took it to the staging area and left it there. The rest of the night she helped warriors with odd jobs, all very boring.
The next day she packed up her yurt around dusk and slept in her travel yurt. Sleep did not come easily, she fidgeted with the medallion, was Qotoiyan even still alive? She worried about him until the moon was just about to reach its apex before finally falling asleep. She dreamt of a field, red with blood, the ground, rent and broken, the clouds, blood red, the sun and moon, gone. And drip, drip, drip, blood rained down slowly from the black sky. Nothing lived any longer.