Chapter Ten

Rowan took a few steps back, staring up at her kill. By now it was just after midday. It was still early, but it was time for her to head back to her home. Her brother no doubt knew she was gone by now.

“Rowan?” a male voice called out from the woods just behind her.

Rowan turned swiftly around. Out of the trees, a young man stepped forth. He was about six feet tall, dressed similarly to Rowan, but instead of a bow, he carried a stone sword in a sheath on his back. On the belt around his own waist, he had sheathed a small knife on one side and a tomahawk on the other. He had long, brown hair, not nearly as long as Rowan’s, but it hung down against the back of his neck. On each side of his head, he had a section of his hair tied into a tail that hung down the side of his face. He approached Rowan and nodded as a greeting, and she nodded back to him. “Matheus,” she greeted him.

The man called Matheus stopped in front of her and spoke in the same language that she had previously used. “You should not be out here,” he said to her. “It’s dangerous. You know that.”

Rowan wanted to shrug off his words, but she knew he was right. She knew what kind of dangers now existed near their wooded boundaries.

“Yes, I was on my way back,” she replied fluently. “Delmar does not control me, you know,” Rowan remarked, referring to her older brother.

Before she could say anything else, Matheus put his hand up to interrupt. “He loves you, Rowan,” he rebuked her. Rowan’s brother Delmar assumed the role as the leader of their people five years ago when their lives were thrown upside-down. He was a good man, loved and well-respected by everyone. When there was nobody else, when there were no other options, he was the one who stepped up to protect his people and his family. Now he had devoted all of his time and resources to providing them all a home and safety. Rowan knew what Matheus was saying was true. She sighed and nodded her head. 

Matheus continued to speak. “There’s a storm coming in.” Suddenly switching to English, he said, “Delmar wants you to return to the Citadel immediately.”

What they referred to as the Citadel, it was where Rowan came from this morning. When she and her people were forced from their homes, Delmar led the construction of a safe-haven in the far western territories of the Dark Zone. They scaled to the top of a plateau amidst a range of rough and rocky mountains, and for five years since, they had dedicated all of their time and resources into fortifying the plateau into an armed and well-protected fortress where they could keep the remnants of their society safe. The Citadel was seen and known only by its builders and its citizens. There was only one way in or out of the fortress’s vicinity, and that was over a narrow head of a slope that acted as a natural bridge between the plateau and the surrounding mountain range.

Although Rowan never spoke of it, she knew that she was afraid of their enemies. She had never actually encountered them, but she had heard the horror stories from many of her people who escaped them. Her worst memory, however, was knowing that she was in her home in a great valley that sat near the northern borders of the Dark Zone when it was attacked. 

Despite how much she had grown, she was only a small child at the time. She remembered being woken by her mother in the middle of the night and rushed out of their home. She watched Delmar hurry to meet their attackers with their father, wielding nothing but a hatchet and a hunting knife. Those who could not fight followed Rowan and her mother to a wooded path leading up into the mountains. Under the unlikely possibility that such a horrifying event were to take place, they knew to take refuge in a series of abandoned clay mines running throughout the mountains’ underground. They had always kept supplies and weapons available in the mines in case of emergency, and it was there that they remained until the fight was over.

By dawn that day, only two men made it out of the fight and to the mine refuge. Delmar had been wounded, but when the fight was over he was helped away by his loyal friend, Malachai. They had spent a week hiding underground in the tunnels of the clay mines. To Rowan’s horror, Delmar suffered a sickening slash to the left side of his face. When he was rested and his wound was fixed, he revealed that their father had fallen in the fight and their home in the valley was burned and destroyed.

A seemingly endless period of despair followed as Rowan’s people were brought to their knees in the course of one night. She watched helplessly as her mother succumbed to the grief, leaving Rowan, a nine-year-old child, to be raised by her brother while they faced the trials ahead alone and looked after what was left of their people.

As they began to scatter and fend for themselves, Delmar took it upon himself to step up and keep their long-preserved civilization together. At first, the load proved nearly too much for him to bear alone. He saw it as his responsibility to pull his people back onto their feet, start over from scratch, and find them a new home while trying desperately to keep his sister, the only family he had left, safe from the same harm he had experienced. By the summer of that year, Delmar and his most trusted companions found the plateau in the west of the Dark Zone where, over the years following, they constructed the Citadel and drew all remnants of their society inside its walls.

Delmar became somewhat distant from Rowan, mainly due to everything he had been working for years to maintain. His duties included keeping track of the work loads throughout the Citadel, regulating who could or could not leave the fortress, and most stressful of all, making sure the people had hope for the future, no matter how dim that hope may have been. 

Delmar constantly restricted Rowan’s activities around the Citadel. She was young and it was his fear that she might grow too reckless. He rarely allowed her to leave the safety of the plateau and would always demand that someone accompany her. Most of the time, when she wanted to leave the Citadel, she had to sneak out. Delmar kept a close eye on her but he was not able to stay by her side all the time, so he always had someone standing by to go after her when she snuck out into the wilderness.

That is why Matheus was there. He was a close friend to Delmar, and the minute they realized Rowan had gone again, Matheus armed himself and set out to bring her back. It took him a few hours but he was more adept than Rowan when it came to tracking, and he caught up to her faster than she had found her deer.

As Rowan knew her brief time to herself had come to an end for the day, she withdrew her weapons. Looking back up at the buck that hung from the tree above them she said, “I have to come back for my kill. I cannot leave it overnight.”

Matheus smiled, looking up to observe the impressive prey. “I’ll see to it that it gets retrieved in one piece, Rowan. Don’t worry.”

Reluctantly, she nodded in agreement. “And do me a favor? Lay down the repellent so the vermin don’t get to it?” She did not say another word, but she looked at Matheus one last time, almost as if she wanted to thank him for coming after her, and then she walked past him and off into the woods toward the Citadel. 

Matheus watched until she was out of sight. He knew her well enough to know that Delmar’s fear would eventually be realized. Rowan was indeed a reckless girl. Ironically, considering what kind of life they were forced to live, there was something else missing from her life. She had not been allowed to grow up with a free and happy childhood. Their enemies made sure of that. Did she want revenge? Did she desire a chance to prove her strength and courage to her brother and avenge their fallen blood? A proficient hunter she may have been, she was still not a warrior. She had never seen conflict with their enemies, but Matheus had, and it was no laughing matter. It would be selfish of her to recklessly endanger herself like that after everything Delmar had done to protect her, but as young as she was, Matheus knew that it was not her intent. She simply needed someone to look after her, at least until this conflict was over. If it would ever end at all.