Avenging Death

As I slept in my cot, I twisted and turned while old memories hunted me.
I was eleven. I could barely breathe as a heavy figured lied on me pressing me into the ground. I remember the rough kissing on my on my body and a man’s sour breath of alcohol blowing on me. His rough and brutal hands grazed my body. A birthmark of a double headed serpent marked his arm. As pain shredded through my body, I closed my eyes and let my body go limp. When I opened my eyes, the house was engulfed in flames. My mother and my little sister lied next to me dead, across from us lied my older sister. As I crawled out my burning home, I found my older brother and father’s body lifeless outside among many other corpses. Burning scorch marks blemished my skin but the pain was nothing compared to the pain I felt inside.
“Danj,” Kye called as he gently shook me.
I shot up and gasped. I touched my cheeks to find warm tears. I looked at kye to see concern in his eyes. I must have been grunting in my sleep.
“It was leer,” I breathed. “and my family’s murdered bodies. Do you have them, nightmares of what happen to you?”
“Sometimes,” He said and leaned toward me to gently wipe the tears still falling. “It used to be hard for me to sleep.”
I looked at him quizzically. He never told me this, when we were kids he seemed to sleep so peacefully. I was the one always waking up full of screams and he and Brail would try to console me back to sleep.
“Before Kashon took me in and I met you and Kashon, I lived on my own. I guess knowing I wasn’t alone and helping others with their own nightmares stopped my own.”
“Brail made things better and easier to deal with. You all did,” I said.
“We all did. I don’t think we would have been able to cope with our lost if he hadn’t brought us together,” he said.
“We wouldn’t have,” I said.
“For that, I am grateful,” he said.
“So am I,” I said.
We smiled at each other and both went back to sleep.

When I woke up the sun was glaring in my face. I let my eyes adjust and found that Tronzey and Kye were missing. At first, I was frantic but realized that Kye must have taken Tronzey somewhere. I began packing my stuff, we would have to leave by noon if we were planning on reaching the kingdom in five days. By the time they had return, I had finished packing and sat on a log waiting for them.
Both Kye and Tronzey were laughing as he held her sideways with one arm and in the other hand he held a long stick with fish stacked on it. He had learned best from Brail how to catch fish. I knew inside he was still hurting as much as I was but he always comforted others first.
I hadn’t seen Tronzey smile before. I guess she deserved some kind of glee especially since I had made her miserable. Tronzey saw me staring at her and Kye and frowned. I probably look like a mess, I was still recovering from the news Kye had given me. Tronzey took off running behind Kye. Had scared her off. I couldn’t blame her, I had been pretty mean to her.
“Tronzey,” Kye called to her, but she kept running into the forest, and then he saw me and frowned. “you’re packing already?”
I nodded. “We need to leave by noon.”
“That’s still a long time from now,” he replied.
“The sooner the better,” I said.
Before he could say anything, Tronzey emerge from the forest and ran toward me. Her hands were behind her back and she was smiling. She held a crystal the size of a thumb. It was like no other crystal I had ever seen. It was fused with different crystals the color of red, purple, yellow, green, and blue.
“She found it at the lake,” Kye told me. “I guess she forgot it.”
She gestured for me to take it, but I shook my head. She frown a bit. I knew she was trying to apologize for the horse incident but really I should have been the one apologizing to her.
I cuffed my hand around hers with the crystal inside and stared at her apologetically. “Tronzey, I’m sorry I screamed at you. That was my fault. You didn’t deserve that, I was just so angry. I want you to have it, okay,” I smile at her and unclasped my hands from around her.
She smiled back, but still placed the crystal in my hand.
“Okay, thank you,” I said putting the crystal in my satchel. I could at least accept her gift if that was what she wanted.
Kye helped me latch the luggage to my horse.
“I will join you soon after I meet with general Kan and bring you details back,” Kye said as he handed me a bag.
“Okay, I will expecting you,” I said and we embraced each other. I mounted on the horse as Kye knelt down to fare Tronzey goodbye.
Tronzey’s eyes were a bit teary but she didn’t let any tears fall. He gently brushed an escaped strand of hair behind her ear.
“Bye little flower,” he said, and pulled her into a hug. She tightly hugged him back. “I’m glad I got to acquaint such a nice little girl like you.”
They released each other and Kye lifted her up behind me and mounted on his own horse
“Danj,” Kye said as his horse started to trot. “Stay strong and protect both of you.”
“I will,” I promised and we also trotted away.

I looked back to see that Tronzey was staring in the distance as Kye begin to shrink in the distance as if she had just lost her best friend.
“He’ll meet us again,” I told her and she smile back at me.