Chapter 1: Arrivals (Part 2)

***************************

The next morning, all the people were roused before daybreak, and the column was assembled and on the move by the time the sun began its rise through the autumn sky. There was a charged air around every single person; it took audible form.

“Our journey ends today! We have found our new homeland.” There was joy at this, but mostly in the form of muted nods, tired smiles and thanksgiving prayers to the gods. No longer were there laughs or shouts among the Erennin. Even the children, who only understood that something good was going to happen, no longer jumped and clamoured, but merely tugged at their parent’s dresses and asked when they could stop walking. No one knew what the exact nature of this sign was that Jodias had received; they only knew that late yesterday night the scouts had hurriedly entered his tent with all the other clan leaders, and that surely the scouts had reported the sign. But regrettably no one was able to speak to the scouts to find out what exactly they had seen; they were riding to either side of Jodias, leading him to the sign.

Advancing still within a box of soldiers, the Erennin nation slowly, slowly veered away from the Aresh’Erenn, south into the hills, seemingly for no time at all before they came into a wide plain, stretching into the horizon. And on the far end of it, the sign everyone had been looking for appeared, barely visible, but growing larger and larger as they got closer.

It was a plateau, almost identical in shape with the one in Mirynium. A ripple passed through the crowd as an overwhelming sense of déjà vu came upon them. Among these foreign landscapes, here was something that reminded them so strongly of the home they had left more than a hundred leagues behind that they could ignore the fact that Erennia had far more plains, far less hills and definitely smaller forests than what they had often passed by on their journey. Slowly, they entered the shadow of the plateau, spread out like a dark cloak westwards until it touched the Aresh’Erenn, running past the plateau a kara away. Between the river and the plateau the teeming mass of humanity gathered, milling about uncertainly.

“People of the Erenn! You stand on the soil on which will be built the new heart of our nation. On this plateau, the palace and citadel will be built, and in a circle around this hill the walls of the new city will curve. Around this city we shall build our new land, our new Erennia. Protected from the Ismaransi we can grow once again. We shall name the new city Yll'adelia—Southern Peace. And let us hope that we shall find peace here, for we sicken of battle and death. Let us cultivate the soil again, and multiply in numbers, and grow strong once more.”

There was a silence. Soft nods and murmurs that were blown away by the winds were traded among those who stood before Jodias’ horse. Slowly the word spread through the crowd out of earshot of the king, and presently scattered cheers were heard from those not so tired yet that they but longed for rest. It was almost anti-climactic as the crowd began to disperse to encamp, leaving Jodias alone with his horsemen and the clan leaders. He sat watching his people, reduced in numbers by war and suffering, for a while longer before he and the clan leaders pitched their tents in the centre of the encampment, there to discuss how best to organise the construction of the city. Work beckoned, and a sentimental delay would harm his people more than quick decisions.

****************************