Past struggles

A hospital would never pass by Zach's mind mainly because he had never heard of one. To him it simply seemed like a much bigger medicine tent. Dane's idea was good, but not something so simple to be free of problems. In this case, the obstacle was the inability to call for help or communicate in any way. The Turkish language, as well as the rest of that country, was unrecognizable to the boy. Dane, on the other hand, seemed to notice everything that was said, since, as she said, it was an angel's necessities.

One of the main functions of angelic beings was receiving newly arrived souls to heaven. Because the dead do not all speak the same language, a perfect knowledge of all languages was necessary. Unfortunately, this knowledge would not be helpful there. Humans, unless God permits, cannot see the angels, so they also can't talk to them. To solve such a dilemma another solution was needed and Dane thought she had the right idea.

When they entered the emergency room of the nearest hospital, which had at least ten people sitting waiting to be served, they tried to make the affair seem hopeless. They went running, the boy carrying the girl in his arms, screaming in their Hebrew language for help. When Dane saw a doctor, he warned Zach, asking him to show Esther's wound. The doctor, thankfully, was a good man and helped Zacharias to pick up Esther and took her quickly to a white room, which to Zach seemed to be equipped with a metal bed with lots of metallic arms to emerge at the top and all kinds of windows around, or to the regular person, an operating room. The boy was frightened, but had no choice but to rely on Dane and the doctor.

While they were waiting, Dane and Zacharias had the opportunity to talk and assess what had happened. Dane was the first to speak:

- You should not have come with me.

- Oh, do not say that. We couldn't have left you alone.

- But you should. I would eventually had noticed how dangerous it was and would have gotten away.

- Or you would have died. What we have done has been done, and we were lucky it was not worse. They could have spoiled your perfect face, and I would not know what I would have done then. – He jokingly commented.

- If your friend were not so self-centered, she could have accepted V's gift. Everything would have been much easier. – She said not knowing His gift was powerless.

- Actually I was thinking. Is there no other sacred power we could use?

- I cannot think of any right now. But I warn you if I think of something. It's not a bad idea.

- I feel like what we needed to win this was a better plan of attack, if any at all. You went there running, thinking it would be easy. I even tried to prevent Esther, but you know how she is. The funny thing is that this was not the first time something like this happened to us.

- Seriously? You have fought against demons?

- I don't think you can classify them has demons, but last year, just after my birthday ... - Zach started to explain a past adventure, coming to his head like a flashback.

*

Zach was at the top of Moses Mountain to observe the horizon, but more specifically the Lajita tribe. The boy had never thought that he would be at the center of the arch-enemy tribe invasion, but could not refuse the birthday gift of his best friend. The Lajita tribe had proved, over the years, to not welcome the entry of Jews in the forest. Initially they tried to, through sign language, ask them to leave, but did not obtain the desired result. Therefore, they decided to impose what they wanted by force. During some of the hunts on wild animals, Gade Semini were caught by Lajitas. From there the Semini were forced to prepare to face other people. For a few months they repelled the attacks, leading the other tribe to momentarily give up.

Several clashes like these have been going on throughout history, with peace treaties which were imposed as quickly as overthrown. More recently, a year before this birthday, the other tribe made a dominant attack, trying to bring down the Moses Mountain. They used various hammers and primitive axes, such as their most beloved animal, a white elephant. Being the only one of its kind that had survived, it was taken care of by the Lajita and treated as a deity. At that time it was used to weaken the rock of that location.

The Semini obviously noticed that and swore revenge for the attempt to exterminate an entire population. From there the mountain seemed to never be stable until eventually falling by a single earthquake. Esther's father began to prepare a plan, however, because of his condition, could never put it in action. Esther on the other hand decided to act earlier.

She asked Zach to accompany her, promising that it would be fun for them. He wasn't too keen on agreeing, but hated the other tribe, and was willing to do what he could to have revenge. Therefore he accepted the request and prepared for the day he would leave in secret with her. Esther also promised him that she had a perfect plan that would surely not fail, something he doubted, but was curious to find out if it was true.

At night, without anyone noticing, he slipped inside the forest and met Esther who guided him. She took him through the darkness, using her intuition as a map. After half an hour of running around in mud paths, the two young men, tired but still with energy to spare, managed to sight the Lajita tribe. It was filled with all types of tents as well as bamboo cages provided with weapons and resources (spears, hammers, blowpipes and warring garments, rock and wood). That tribe was immense. It was almost twice the size of the young ones'. Zacharias concerns came ahead, just by watching the tribe he thought that he might not even be able to make it back alive. So he asked Esther:

- Well, we have arrived. I've seen this tribe several times from the mountaintop, but it never seemed this great.

- Do not tell me you're scared now? You know I won't let you flee. – She answered, obviously annoyed.

- Please, don't sound so threatening when we are this close to a murderous tribe. Between you and them I might sink under all this opposing pressure.

- Come on, Zach. You know it's too late to leave now. After all, what's there to worry? You got me here, right?

- You're joking. You have to be. I know you are reckless, but even for you, this…

- If we follow the plan, nothing bad will happen. I promise you.

- Ok, then… what's the plan?

-Listen closely, because I'm not going to repeat it. You understand?

- Yes, yes. Say it.

- We enter from the right, through their beds while no one is in them. No one should be there due to today being their strange ritual day. They are all going to the inner fire to dance for their white elephant god or whatever. Got it?

- Wow, you actually thought this through. I'm pleasantly surprised.

- What kind of image do you have of me?

- If we are really going to do that, we will have to be silent, because I'm pretty sure they must have at least one or two people in the tents watching for outsiders, and we can't be seen so early. And then what do we do?

- Well… about that… - Esther had nothing else planned, attempting to look innocent so that Zach wouldn't verbally lash her, however…

- I knew it! The moment I complimented you on the plan, I knew something was up. You don't actually have any idea of what to do after we get there, do you? You idiot!

- The point is to kill their leader and capture their base. That can't be that hard. Not if we go together.

- I feel like you are skipping a couple of important steps there. – Zach couldn't handle her recklessness, conceding to his own fears. - You know what? Have fun. I'm going back to the village.

- No, you can't! After their ritual ends it will be impossible to attack them. You know that they only do this once a week, it would take forever until we can attack again. We have to go now.

- A week is not that long.

- If you are like that, I'm going alone. - Esther argued sulkily.

- No, wait. You're supposed to give up and come with me, and not actually go alone. You'll die once you get there. I can't let that happen.

- Then come with me. – She finally said, running into enemy territory.

- Ahhhh! If we die, I'm going to kill you. – Zach answered, accepting his fate as the unwilling protector of his best friend.

They ran to the previously mentioned site, going through the trees and into squatting, making it near impossible to notice them. Zach had in his hand a sharp stone and his sling, ready for Plan B (if anyone noticed them, they would run out, attacking as many Indians as they had to, to escape). He told Esther his plan A:

- Since you have no idea of what we are going to do here, I've thought of something up. We will aim for their resource cages. They don't seem to be too well guarded, and by just destroying a couple of their weapons, their weapon power will drop quite considerably. That way, if we attack their leader, their responsive defense should be much weaker in return.

- I knew I could rely on you. – Esther said with a gentle smile.

- It's too late for compliments. Next time, I'm actually leaving when I say I do. – Zach said afraid of his future beside her. However a kiss on the cheek from her, calmed him down, and for a moment, he truly thought they had a chance of returning alive.

As they walked deeper into the village, approaching the bamboo cages, they decided to investigate several Lajita tents, full of fur blankets and stone tools. Some of them even had people there lying, which surprised them enough, but not as much as the "guards" who held their children who were too young to take part of the ritual. Thankfully they were not prepared for an invasion, but the kids still needed to be cautious. Because of that Zach tried to choose the best paths to walk on, and found only danger on two occasions.

The first time, they had no choice. They got to a place in which they had to walk right in front of an awake but drugged man, or risk going around a big row of tents. The drugged man wouldn't be much of a problem to deal with, unless he shouted to warn everyone. They could not take that chance. Zach thought and pondered what to do, without reaching any conclusion until Esther said:

- I think we should just defeat him and move on.

- Star, I told you that we cannot. He would warn everyone in the vicinity.

- I don't think he will. He's too proud for that.

- How do you know that?

- The inner demon he has, has the look of a ferret.

- And what does that animal have to do with pride?

- The animal itself I do not know, however, after seeing so many, I have learned to associate this with pride. If we attack the guard, he will try to kill us alone. We will succeed.

- Okay, I'll trust on your demonic vision.

And so they stood in front of the guard, who, as expected, only lowered the spear to fight. In the first assault of the man, Zach turned away and grabbed the spear, giving an opportunity for the friend to crush his head with a club. They caught him before he fell and made noise, continuing their invasion.

The second time was when they blew it. On the accelerated pace of the walk, while crouching, the girl did not notice a protruding root in the ground. Her foot got caught in it, causing her to stumble into one of the tents. The fall was enough to wake one Lajita child and make her scream. Zacharias gave a big smack on his own face, then helped her friend stand up to flee from there. But it was too late, and ten Indian warriors appeared, surrounding them. Unfortunately they had no chance against so many. One of the Indians had a stone in his hand, hitting the girl in the head and causing her to faint. When Zacharias wanted to help her he was grabbed and the Indians shoved some berries in his mouth. They were poisonous, bewildering and disabling the boy. With both defeated, the Indians picked them up and went to imprison them.

*

- And, well, that was essentially how it happened. - Zach finished telling his story.

- Excuse me, did you say something? – Dane asked completely distracted during the tale.

- Wait, you did not hear anything I said?

- I was kind of lost in my thoughts and I think I have an idea.

- Seriously? - He said, with a sigh. - So what do you have in mind?