Writer's Cramp Dec 15 - Homecoming

I checked my bags once more, and looked to the sky. The red planet was just over the walls, hanging there like a burning ember threatening to set the forest afire. I tried to ignore it and return to checking my saddle girth. It felt as though it was boring into the back of my skull like a malevolent eye. After a futile moment making sure that all was as it should be, I swung into the saddle trying to shake the foreboding that settled over me. I had stayed here three days, and regretted two of them.

I had ridden hard for the last two weeks, and was anxious to close the gap between myself and home with all possible speed. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to stay and rest my horse from time to time. In my haste, I had not rested Dasher properly, and he was looking the worse for wear. I would have traded him for another horse, but that would have meant my hide when I did arrive home. He was of the finest stock, a gift for my nineteenth birthday. My father had claimed he was the finest horse that ever had walked the earth. While that was a boast in truth, it did not miss by much.

With a shake of my head, I swung into the saddle, and settled myself for the last leg of the journey. I turned to my companion, pleased to see him already in the saddle.

“By Pluto’s beard, let’s get moving.” I said with mock gruffness. He just smiled and nodded. Lorne Yeuro was a shy but good looking youth that was just shorter than I was. His shaggy brown hair was tied back with a simple leather cord. He wore a simple grey coat and breaches under a green cloak. He did not look like the third son of one of the most powerful nobles in the area. I was likewise dressed simply. Our objective was to travel home fast, and that meant keeping a low profile.

“Lead the way, wise one.” He said with a small smile. I scowled at that. Lorne did not believe in the omens as I did, but I had seen too many of them come to pass to doubt them. With that, I put my heels to my mount, and we set off for the gate at the end of the street of this town. I had not bothered to learn the name of the place. All that mattered was that there was a stable for my horse, and a bed for me.

I heard a muffled curse behind me and rapid hoof beats as Lorne caught up. He pulled up beside me before I had gone 50 yards. We joined the flow of traffic headed towards the eastern gate. We passed under the walls as the sun rose just in front of us. That cursed red welt burned in the sky just of to the left of the rising sun, mocking me. I forced myself to keep my mount to a walk, hard as it was. It was irrational, but men are not always rational when they learn of threats to their home.

This whole business started two weeks ago when I was touring the outer provinces of my father’s sworn lands. We had stopped at the fort of the local lord, and he happened to have an oracle there at the time. He had been thrilled at having all of us there at once. We had bade her to tell our futures, and she had done magnificently with Lorne’s future, seeing a wife and several children, along with a prosperous holding for him. When it came to my turn, she recoiled visibly, and begged forgiveness that she was too tired to read another’s future immediately. I could see that she was hiding something, so I had pressed her mercilessly until she had cowered under my gaze and threats, and said that fire and pain would come upon my house when the red planet hung low in the east.

Lorne had laughed at that, claiming it to be nothing but showmanship. I had agreed with him, but as we were outside taking some fresh air, I saw it, halfway from the zenith to the horizon, a red sore, that was when the truth of her foretelling hit home. Lorne tried to cheer me up, get me back inside to the feasting, but I shook him off, heading back to my room, and telling him to be ready to ride at first light. We argued about taking the whole party back but I insisted, saying that I could travel faster and safer if I traveled anonymously alone or with a small party. Lorne had reluctantly agreed with me, and we had left at first light, with the others following as they could.

We had been on the road ever since, and now the end was in sight. The morning passed in a haze as my mind raced ahead down the road. After what felt like an eternity, we crested the final hill, and the castle that was my home came into view.

I stopped dead.

I looked across the intervening space, my mind froze at the sight. My home was a melted, bubbling mass of rock, some part of my mind said this was not the stone keep that I had grown up in, but a giant used candle in it’s place. Smoke billowed up into the sky, and I sat there in my saddle dumbstruck. I was too late. I should have pushed harder, been here sooner, maybe I could have done … what? Died with my family? I sat there silently in shock, trying to reconcile this alien sight with my last memories of home.

“We’ll find out who did this, and make them pay” Lorne said, putting his hand on my shoulder as he drew his mount close to mine.

“Indeed we will.”