The Broken Ones

Chapter 9:4 -Crossing the plains

-Jagger, it’s me Soi.
Jagger lowered her throwing arm an inch and spied into the dark.
-Soi? She asked with a skeptical voice.
Soi jumped down from the black horse and walked up to Jagger. She smiled in relief and hugged him tightly. This was not the Jagger Soi knew.
-It is you, she cried in his shoulder.
-Jagger, what happened? Why are you here? You’re supposed to be…
-The cottage is burned down to the ground. And so is the village.
Her tears wet his shoulder.
-Mack? Soi said, feeling his heart sink to the bottom.
-Dad’s dead. They all are. It was awful, Soi.
Her voice was barely a whisper.
Jagger sunk to the ground and tears run down her cheeks.
-Dad’s gone and… I didn’t get to, her voice broke, to say I love him, I just called him Mack and now he’s dead.
She sobbed and her body shivered. Soi sat down beside her and laid his arm around her.
-Jagger, I know what it feels like, I’ve also lost my father.
-I have nothing, nobody. I’m alone.
-No Jagger, you have Ana and me and Nibbles, you know that, that’s why you followed us. Come here, we need to move before the monsters get back.
-Monsters, Jagger mumbled and fainted.
Soi picked her up in his arms and watched around for any of her things. She had nothing but the clothes she wore on her body. He whistled and the black horse came before him and kneeled down. Soi put Jagger in front of him and the black horse rose and begun to move. Soi knew it would take him back to Ana and the others. It took longer to reach them than he expected, they had travelled while he had escaped to save Jagger. He rode alongside them and they wouldn’t have noticed him if he hadn’t called out.
-Ana!
-Soi. So you survived. Don’t expect me to apologies for leaving you behind, you left us first and you’re only a guard after all, she said sarcastically but her voice sounded hollow and some worry broke through.
-Ana…
-Who’s it you have with you, Ard intervened.
He was closest to Soi and could see Jagger’s contours.
-What! Ana screamed.
-The group stopped immediately.
-Ana, it’s Jagger, Soi said tired all of a sudden.
-I should have known… she begun lecturing.
-Mack’s dead.
Ana fell silent. They all fell silent, the realisation sunk in.
-He can’t be, Ana protested at last.
-The cottage is burned down. The whole village as well. They’re all dead. And she saw it, the corpses, the ruins, her whole life in ashes. I think she walked straight out in the plains without thinking, she didn’t have any food or blankets with her. She passed out after I found her. If I didn’t… if I hadn’t…
He couldn’t say it, didn’t want to think about the consequences if the black horse hadn’t shown up and led him to her. When Ana spoke again Soi could hear that she was crying. Her voice was thick.
-We need to move on, I… we need to move.

When they stopped for the night Jagger still hadn’t woken up yet. But instinctively she clung to Soi when he put her down on the bed made out of blankets. So he had no choice but to lay down beside her. She crawled up close in his arms.
Ana put her blankets far away from the group and they let her sleep all of the eight hours they decided to stay. Though Soi wondered if she got any sleep at all. He could only sleep some of them as Jagger woke him from time to time with screams from her nightmares. But his own mind kept him awake as well, he could feel salty tears run down his cheeks.
By lunchtime Jagger finally woke up. With a scream she sat up, calling for Mack.
-Dad!
Anxiously she looked around the camp until she recognised Soi and she relaxed. Ana came and sat down beside her too. She asked Jagger some questions to which Jagger either nodded or shook her head in return. During all questions she didn’t let go of Soi’s hand. She had hold onto him since they had met the last night, not releasing him from her grip one second.
They tried to get her to eat but she only ate a mouthful. This would be Ana’s opportunity to pester Jagger about the importance of breakfast but she let it slide. They all let her slide and as she clung to Soi they helped him as much as they could. Ard helped to saddle the black horse. It was as they had predicted, the saddle fit perfectly and in the daylight they discovered that the black horse was a mare, like Soi’s last horse. Nibbles packed Soi’s belongings and fasten them to the packhorse. Soi mounted the black mare first and with Nibbles and Ard’s united effort they helped Jagger up behind him. She put her arms around his body and hid her face in his back. Ana watched Jagger’s sorrow with worry but she didn’t say anything. Soi knew Jagger would be fine, she just needed time to adjust. Time to dull the pain, to dull her aching heart and soul. Just like he had needed time to forget about Spring Island.
In the corner of his eye Soi saw Nibbles watch him with a worried and strange look on his face.
-You two seen connected somehow, Nibbles said.
Soi smiled sadly. Unfortunately they were connected, in many ways.
Jagger fell asleep soon after they started the day’s travel and the rest of them could discuss what had happened. It was mostly Ana and Nebelius who discussed and the rest listened in sadness.
-It can’t be the monsters that attacked. They don’t do this sort of things, not even towards brokens.
-But, Ana, you forget that we don’t know much about them at all. It was just recent we learned what they really are, even if we have long suspected so much.
-All the same, it can’t be the monsters, they’re the dogs that carry out the simple orders. This is something different.
-You mean there is an organization behind the monsters, controlling them? Haz intervened.
-I thought they were wild animals, like wolfs, Ard said.
-They’re not, they are a kind of brokens, Nibbles explained.
-Mad, twisted and malicious brokens. Their magic has destroyed what’s human in them, Ana corrected.
-Humans? But what happened to them? Ard asked.
-They were so obsessed with getting their own power so they cut off a finger or two to get it, but the power they got possessed them instead and destroyed them.
-You mean, if you injure yourself you’ll get punished, Haz simplified.
There was something cold and distant in his voice, more than usual.
-Yes.
Ana watched him closely.
-Then I’m a monster.

To be continued...
By J.L.Frick