Spring Month: 1 
Day 
Flood
Schatten Waechter said:
Also-
how is chapter four looking?
Its about half way done...
“Valek!” she fell on her knees beside her brother, and just as she fell, she noticed a hole in his tunic. A hole that was covered in dark blood.
“Jaro…” he grabbed her hand, his face grimacing in pain at the movement.
“My sword…” Valek had made his sword himself after training with the village blacksmith, forged to be the perfect blade for himself.
“My sword- I want you to take it. Bring it back to Brenna” Valek coughed, blood mixed with the spittle.
“Give- give it to Brenna when its safe to return” tears streamed down her face as the pool of blood beneath Valek grew, staining the sand and dirt beneath them.
“Promise me. Promise me you won’t go home” he coughed again, this time more blood than spit, “don’t go home, not till its safe. You might be the last Kletchar, if you die, we all die.”
“Valek… No- I can’t, you can’t… you can’t leave me” this couldn’t happen. He couldn’t die, she’d lost enough already.
“Promise me-” Valek’s voice was coated in pain and he started shaking.
“No” she sobbed, “no, you can’t leave me. I need you. I need you!” she clutched his hand with both of hers now, squeezing, wishing her grip alone could save him, yet she knew. There was too much blood.
Somehow her words made him smile, though weak and pained, “I’ll always be with you, Little Acha. I’ll never leave you; but I need you to promise me” blood started leaking out of the corners of his mouth.
“I promise Abra, I promise.”
Valek smiled, just as he breathed his last breath.
“Abra… no…” she held his hand to her chest, tears dripping down from her chin.
She kneeled next to her brothers body, swaying ever so slightly as her tears mixed with the rain, not noticing the time passing. She’d lost them all. In one day, in one single fight, all her brothers were taken from her. Her father was dead, killed by a coward hiding in a tree. Asgar was dead, killed by a man too weak to fight someone strong enough. Kilian was dead too, murdered by another coward in the trees. She hadn’t seen Lysias fall, hadn’t seen him fight at all, but he was probably dead like the rest of them, probably dead like Valek was now.
Dead.
Jaro swallowed, then gently placed Valek’s hands on his chest and closed his eyes as the rain stopped.
“We need to burn him. His spirit needs to join the dead” her eyes were numb, her voice raw.
Jaro looked up to the man with the scars, Asterix, “do you have an axe? Something to cut down a tree?” she wiped her tears away as she got up.
“Aye, I have an axe, but why a tree? Can’t you burry him?”
“Its tradition. We northerners burn our dead, else their spirits can’t leave their souls” she balled her hands to fists to keep them from shaking and took a deep breath.
“The southerners bury their dead, so they join the earth and land…” Asterix hesitantly pulled an axe out of his horses saddle bags.
“The earth is too hard in the winters, and that’s when we have the most dead. Burying doesn’t work” she swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat, yet failing.
“How will you burn him exactly? There’s nothing dry for miles” Asterix asked, handing her the axe hilt first.
The axe was small, but the blade was thick and sturdy; it would be enough.
“As long as it doesn’t rain again it’ll be dry soon enough” she murmured, grabbing his axe, yet never looking him in the eye. It was all Jaro could do from collapsing and screaming, her hands were shaking again and the lump in her throat just seemed to be growing, making her voice sound scratchy and weak.
“Do you know how to use an axe?”
“I’m a northerner. Knowing how to use an axe has saved more lives than you would know” but it couldn’t save her family. She squeezed her eyes shut to stop from crying again.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“No.”
She walked to the closest tree. She was gripping the axes handle so tightly her knuckles were turning white, but she didn’t notice. Jaro just needed to cut down a few trees so at least one of her brothers could have a proper funeral
The tree wasn’t too thick, though with Asterix’s small axe it would take an hour at least.
She swallowed, flexing her fingers, and began hacking at the tree.
“Jaro, by the gods!” she froze.
“Vaska?” her voice was high and squeaky and the axe became much, much heavier.
“You’re doing it all wrong Trexah,” her father laughed as he walked over, towering over her small form as she struggled to hold up the axe with all her might.
Her father’s beard was freshly trimmed and his hair was just washed, she could still see the water droplets glistening in the morning sun.
“First thing, this axe is much too big for you. Asgar and Kilian don’t even use this one” her father grabbed the axe with one hand, lifting it up as if it were light as a feather, and replaced it with a much smaller one with a handle that wasn’t dragging on the floor, “Don’t even know how you got this one up!” he laughed, leaning the big axe on a tree twice as wide as himself.
“Now, what do you remember from yesterday?”
“Hold it here” she gripped right below the axe head, her hands were so small they could barely fully wrap around it, “And here” she wrapped her fingers around the bottom.
Her father chuckled and grabbed her hands, moving the top one a little further down the neck and the bottom one a bit further up, “Now, without hitting anything, show me how you swing.”
Her swing was met with another chuckle. “You need to use your entire body, there’s no strength if you just use your arms” her father lifted her up and carried her out to the edge of the forest, “now watch me, but don’t you dare come closer. Your mother would kill me if I accidentally hit you” he said, walking back to the tree she wanted to hit and picking up the big axe.
Even under his thick clothes she could see how his muscles moved. He had a wide stance, stood to the side of the tree and hacked up and down in angles, using his hips and entire upper body to power the swing. After a few more examples he stopped and walked back over to her, kneeling so that he was the same height.
“Think you can do that on a smaller tree?” he rested a hand on her shoulder and she nodded, swelling up her chest, trying to look as strong as him, “Yes! I’ll do even better than Valek!” he chuckled again and stroked her cheek with his thumb before getting up.
“Then show me how its done, my little tree cutter” he stepped off to the side, pointing to the smallest tree in the forest, barely thicker than his arm.
“Tree destroyer! That tree won’t see what’s hitting it” she said gleefully, swinging the little axe her father gave her in every direction as she ran over to the tree, she heard him sigh behind her.
Licking her lips she set up on the side of the tree, her legs wide and, with her hands gripping the handle as tight as possible, she lifted the axe and swung.
Wood chips were flying everywhere and there was already a large notch in the tree, she should have moved to the other side so the tree wouldn’t fall on her, but she just kept hacking down on it, screaming with every swing. She didn’t even notice herself start crying again, all she could do, all she could think, was hacking down this tree. Sometimes it sounded like she was striking a man when the tree groaned, breaking through armor and killing the cowards that had murdered her family.
She was shouting now, not even bothering to aim as she hit the tree again and again, tears streaming down her face and her throat was hurting, but she couldn’t stop. She wouldn’t stop. Not until all the southerners who’d killed her father and brothers were dead. She’d avenge her family if it was the last thing she did.
“Jaro!” Asterix grabbed her arm and pulled her away the second she got the axe stuck in the wood.
“Let go of me!” she twisted out of his grip and pushed at him before grabbing the axe handle again, but he grabbed her again before she could get it out.
“Let go!” she struggled, but this time he had both arms around her, dragging her away from the tree.
“Jaro-”
“Don’t you dare call me that, Southerner! if it weren’t for you they’d still be alive!” everything hurt, her head, her eyes, her throat, her heart, “he’d still be alive” she whimpered, looking over to Valek’s dead body.
The sight of her brother, lying on the ground, a dark stain beneath him, it broke her. She collapsed in Asterix’s arms and started crying as the man with the scars slowly put her down.
“He’s dead… They’re dead… Everyone’s dead” she lifted her hand to her chest, whimpering as she tried to ease the pain in her heart, instead she found a cold stone that fit just right in her palm.
Jaro didn’t know how long she was looking at Valek, or how long she’d been crying, but when she finally looked up the sun was setting, turning the grey clouds red.
Asterix had chopped down the tree she’d been hacking at and was de-branching a second smaller one next to a small smokey fire. She swallowed.
The feels-
I'm dying-
Help-
I'm dying-
Help-
