Chapter 12 - Part 5

Bern had stopped crying, but only because he had run out of tears. His parents had found him, and they had hugged him and hugged him, weeping. Kruska’s mother had found her. Her father was dead. He had been in the Vadalis enclave when the conjured wall of fire had burst through a window, immolating him. Kruska’s mother had wept for a while, but had been pulled away from her daughter’s corpse. She was skilled with herbs and bandages, and her skills were needed by the living.

Kruska had been laid out in the center of town, along with many other dead. Several children and invalid adults had been given fans to keep flies away until proper, individual burials could be made.

Bern moved his fan slowly, like a sleepwalker. His small frame had been filled with grief, rage, and despair, many times, all within the past hour. He stayed by Kruska’s side, his dead eyes only showing emotion when a fly ventured near her face.

A hand fell on his shoulder. He looked up and saw a very tall man with jutting lower canines. A half-orc.

“You are doing a good job,” the man told him. He had a lot of weapons, including a very large bow.

“It’s all I can do,” Bern said. “I can’t fight the Aundarians.” His jaw set. “I wish I could kill them all!”

“Including the young girls that were her age who live there?” the half-orc asked him.

Bern didn’t know how to respond to that.

The half-orc crouched down next to him, and stuck his hand out. “I’m Delegado,” he said.

Bern stared, then shook the half-orc’s hand. “You’re famous!” he blurted out. Then he remembered his manners. “Oh, um, I’m Bern.”

“Nice to meet you, Bern,” Delegado said. “Although I wished the circumstances were better.” Bern sort of smiled, but said nothing. “What was her name?”

“Kruska,” Bern said. “She was the best girl in the whole world, and I loved her and I would think about marrying her.” His face fell. “And I never told her.”

“Did she hang around you and talk to you?” Delegado asked.

“Yes,” Bern said. “Whenever we could.”

“Then she knew, and she loved you back,” Delegado told him. Bern looked at the half-orc skeptically. “Trust me,” Delegado told him. “Half-orcs are creatures of instinct, and she could feel your feelings. She returned them.”

Bern felt a tiny bit better, but not much. “I couldn’t save her.”

“No you couldn’t, and that isn’t your fault,” Delegado told him. “There are a lot of people in this world that are more powerful than you, faster than you, and nastier than you. You found that out earlier than you should have, but it’s true.”

“So what do I do?” Bern asked.

“You stick to your people,” Delegado said. “You take care of them, and they take care of you. Got me?” Bern nodded. “Good. Now you keep that fan going, because preserving the dead is the only thing keeping some people together long enough to do what’s needed to be done.”

“There’s warforged coming,” Bern said. “I heard about it.” His eyes went to the strange warforged with clothes that he, Kurska, and Nuck had met outside of town.

“They aren’t like that warforged, and he’s not like them,” Delegado said. “You keep that fan going.”

“Yes, sir,” Bern said, renewing the waving motions. Delegado patted him on the shoulder and left.