The Three Feathers - The Magnificent Journey of Joshua Aylong (4 page)

The war horse turned his head and looked at Grey for a moment. There was hesitation in his eyes. It was accompanied by another image the three of them shared. It was of such brutality that the wolf got up suddenly, his neck hair standing up and his upper lip pulling back, teeth bared. Joshua let out a terrified rooster call and flew down from his branch. It was a scene from a war. There were dead soldiers everywhere and blood mixed with the dark soil in the ground. A group of eight horses huddled together near a barren tree on the vast battlefield. The tree was their only shelter. They had mud and dried blood all over them. Some of the blood was their own; some came from the soldiers who fought on them or whom they fought against. There were dead horses among the men; their bodies seemed peaceful as if they had escaped the terror of the battle at last. The few soldiers that were left took care of the wounded.

There was suddenly movement on the edge of the field. Something drew near. Through the fog it was hard to make out at first. But then the horses caught the scent and terror spread among them like wildfire. The pack of wolves that came out of the high grass looked like an image straight from the depths of hell. They were starved and starving, filthy, eyes red with blood lust standing clearly in them. Without warning they leaped forward toward the horses. The horses, worn and tired beyond comprehension from days of battle did not have the strength to flee. The wolves moved quickly and Joshua saw their horse. He stood on the edge of the group watching as one of the wolves flew toward him, jumping, mouth open wide with claws ready to rip into his flesh. The only thing the horse could do at this moment was move forward and meet the wolf in mid air. The horse stood up on his hind legs and jumped. He and the wolf met and for a moment, were face to face.

The image of the wolf’s face so close to his own was burned into the horse’s mind and even though now safe and far away from the battlefield, it took all possible control for him not to take off and run—run away from it and never confront it again.

“How did you escape?” Joshua asked after a while.

“I don’t remember,” the horse answered. “All I know is that I never saw the others again. I don’t know if they survived or what became of them.”

“I’m sorry,” the wolf thought into the silence. Then he walked over to the horse and lay down in front of it. His head on his paws he looked up at the large war horse.

“I can help you with your reins,” he quietly thought to him.

As the horse looked at the wolf, the moon broke through the clouds illuminating the snow covered ground and reflecting in the still pond. For a while the horse stood motionless. Then it went down on its front legs and lay on the ground across from the wolf. Joshua watched from a short distance as Grey slowly got up and walked toward the horse. Without hesitation he took the bridle in his mouth right between the horse’s ears and slowly pulled on the leather strip. It slid off and the horse was free.

“Thank you,” the horse thought.

“No,” the wolf replied. “I thank you.”

“What is your name?” Joshua asked after a moment.

“Krieg,” the war horse answered.

“What does it mean, Krieg?”

“It means ‘war’. Just ‘war’. I was bred for the war, born during the war and trained for battle.

“Is that where all your scars come from?” Joshua asked.

The horse looked toward the dark horizon, lost in its thoughts.

“I have seen death and too much of it. On the battlefields of Toloose where men fought men for land that belonged to neither. For riches that held no value other than a handful of sand that amounted to nothing. I saw blood there that ran like crimson rivers across the charred soil. It spilled from brothers and fathers and sons, from big hearts and small ones and the blood of each flowed into the others’ and in death they became one once again and they forgot why it was they had fought.”

He turned toward Joshua and the Wolf. “I just want peace. I do not wish to fight for my life anymore. I’m too old. Too tired. Soon. Soon, I will follow my fathers’ path into the great vast grasslands where the sun never sets and the water is plenty, and where there is peace for all living things. Until then, I am in your debt, Joshua. In both of yours. Until then, tell me how—”

“You are not indebted to me, Krieg. Not in the slightest,” Joshua answered. “Anyone would have done the same for you.”

“Be that as it may, red one, the debt stands until it is paid. To both of you. End of discussion.”

All was still after Krieg spoke. Joshua looked from the horse to the wolf, letting his eyes rest on each of them for a moment. He realized that the two creatures would probably not be friends under normal circumstances. But under normal circumstances neither of the three would likely be friends with either of the other two.

“I had a dream.” Joshua thought into the silence. “A dream of three feathers somewhere in the depths below the Storm Mountains. In my dream the feathers were so dear to me and I to them that I want to find them. I am not sure what they mean or if they mean anything at all, but I know in my heart that I must find them, even though I do not know why.” As he looked at the others, he knew that they saw what he saw—an immense cave with the three feathers resting on a black, polished cylinder of stone.

“I will help you,” Krieg thought. “Your peace is mine, Joshua of the Great Lake.”

“And mine,” Grey added.

The night held its breath for a moment. The moon stood low and clear in the sky and it seemed as if everything around them became a quiet witness to this pact. And Joshua, for the smallest of instants, had an inkling of what it means to have companions by his side.

6.
W
ATER

They walked for three days, crossing a valley that stretched out for miles before them, and passing through a densely wooded forest where the branches built a thick roof above their heads. They rested by small streams where they stilled their thirst. Grey caught a few large fish and there was more than plenty of food for Krieg and Joshua. And all the while, they shared with each other their stories and their lives as they remembered them. They shared their fears and joys, their shortcomings and their triumphs. But most of all they came to know what each of them longed for. Krieg’s deep wish for peace, Grey’s longing for the love of his dead companion and Joshua’s powerful dream that he felt he could no longer live without. On the end of the fourth day they knew of each other what seldom is known except in long and deep friendships.

As they walked, the weather changed. They left behind the snowy hills and reached an area where the sun lay on fields of grass that was just about to spring up through the frozen soil. Soon the first blossoms would be visible, pushing through the darkness towards the sunlight. The three friends felt that the spring around them that was about to meet the last days of winter, mirrored their own journey, their own leaving behind their past and venturing toward something bigger, still unknown but no longer completely hidden from them. Then the howling began.

They had just settled down for the night when they heard it. First it came from one direction. Then another and yet another.

“Wolves?” Was Joshua’s first thought.

“No,” Krieg answered. “Those wolves I encountered a long time ago were bred for the war, starved by their masters to feed on the fear of the survivors. I have not encountered them since.

“Krieg is right,” Grey thought. “Those aren’t wolves. I would know. What I do know is that whatever it is, it has by now completely surrounded us.

“What shall we do?” Joshua asked.

“Jump on my back,” the horse thought to Joshua.

Before Joshua could follow Krieg’s thought, he saw an image of a pack of Hyenas in his mind coming from the wolf.

“A dozen of them. Maybe two. I can take four, maybe five, but a dozen? I have no chance against them. We have to run.”

“Jump!” The horse thought to Joshua. As Joshua jumped, wings fluttering, onto the warhorses back, the wolf charged in the opposite direction.

“I’ll divert them,” he thought. “I can outrun them easily.” And he was gone—a gray shadow disappearing into the dark of night.

Three of the hyenas appeared and charged toward Joshua and Krieg who went on his hind legs and jumped forward. The hyenas changed direction to cut off their escape path. As they came closer, Joshua saw their large fangs and powerful jaws snapping at the horse’s legs.

“Hold on tight!” Krieg’s thought reached him just at the moment when the horse changed direction as well and went straight into the path of the two hyenas to his right. He trampled them, his powerful hooves crushing them and pushing them into the ground. The third one evaded the hooves, but barely. It held its distance knowing that the rest of the pack would catch up soon.

“Can you outrun them?” Joshua asked Krieg.

“I don’t know but we’ll find out very soon,” he thought.

The howling now came from ahead of them as well. The eerie cries of the hyenas made Joshua’s skin crawl.

“Don’t be afraid,” Krieg thought to him. “They will feed on your fear and that fear will come back to you twice as strong. It will make you weak.”

“I can’t help it,” Joshua thought. “There seem to be so many!”

As they galloped through the night, yellow eyes watching them from all directions and the cries from the hyenas coming ever closer, it dawned on Joshua that they might not make it.

“Follow me!” Grey was suddenly next to them. He turned to the right. Krieg changed direction and followed the wolf’s lead.

Through the pounding of the hooves and the eerie cries of the hyenas, Joshua suddenly heard something else. Something loud and powerful. It came closer fast.

“What is that?” He thought.

“Water!” Joshua caught the glimpse of an image from Krieg.

“Water?” The thought hung in front of Joshua for a moment and through the sheer blackness of the night Joshua suddenly saw a river next to them. It was flowing fast, almost as fast as they ran.

The hyenas closed in on them from the other side. The three companions were trapped between the pack of hyenas and the raging river.

“But why is it so loud all of the sudden?” Joshua was overwhelmed by the deafening sound of the water. The answer hit him an instant later.

“It’s a waterfall. We have to stop! We are going directly toward a waterfall!” Joshua cried out. In his panic he dug his talons deeper into the horse’s back.

“We can’t stop. Not anymore. HOLD ON!” The horse’s thoughts hit Joshua. He felt Krieg’s and Grey’s utter desperation, joined with his own.

Krieg pushed through the last of the high grass bushes and was suddenly suspended in mid air. Joshua let go of the horse’s back, lifting off, his wings unfolding. He saw Grey jump as well. Joshua felt gravity pulling him down. He struggled to land on a small tree-like branch jutting out of the rock. From there he watched Krieg and Grey fall and crash into the icy water fifteen feet below.

Then he saw two of the Hyenas fall over the edge. They couldn’t stop in time and fell down as well. Krieg and the wolf tried to swim to the side of the large pool but the current was too strong. They were inevitably pulled into a second waterfall and moments later disappeared over the edge. Joshua thought about it only for a second before he spread his wings again and flew down. He couldn’t swim so hitting the water was not an option.

When he was above the second waterfall he realized that this one was much higher than the first. At least fifty feet. The noise was deafening. Joshua barely made it over the edge without crashing into the water, nearly missing one of the hyenas. He looked into its eyes and felt his own fear reflected in them. Then it went over the edge.

The mist of the falls clung to his feathers making them heavier as he tried very hard not to lose too much height. There was a rock sticking out of the water far down from where he was. He had to make it there and land on it, otherwise he would certainly drown. He saw Grey and Krieg swimming toward it and hoped they would reach it as well.

He realized that if he stretched his wings just a tiny bit outward he wouldn’t have to struggle so much to stay in the air. “Who says roosters can’t fly!” He thought when suddenly a gust of wind pushed him down and toward the water. He was completely unprepared and could only counter it with one or two flaps of his wings before he crashed into the water. He went under, immediately pushed down by a strong undercurrent. Instinctively he held his breath but it became clear to him that he had only a few seconds before he would pass out.

“Where are you?” He heard Grey in his thoughts.

“Under water,” was the only thing he could think of in his panic.

For a moment nothing seemed to happen. Joshua was picked up by another undercurrent and pushed to the side, upside down turning over and over under water.

“Hold on to me!” He heard Grey.

Joshua, more out of instinct than anything else, dug his talons into what he thought was the fur of the wolf’s hind leg.

“Don’t let go!” Grey swam toward the surface and was almost there when another strong current took hold of Joshua and he lost his grip. Luckily this brought him to the surface where he flapped weakly while trying desperately to get air into his lungs.

Suddenly he was grabbed by sharp teeth. For a moment he thought it was one of the hyenas but then the teeth very gently pulled him out of the water without so much as a scratch. Grey carried Joshua onto the small island and dropped him on the stone. One of the hyenas tried to climb onto the island as well but Krieg just stood there looking at it. The hyena let go eventually and was, seconds later, swept away by the current.

The wolf shook himself, water spraying in all directions. Joshua, unable to move, was exhausted beyond anything he had experienced before in his life. He couldn’t lift even a wing.

“Are you hurt?” The horse asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“You should try to shake out your feathers. Otherwise they might freeze during the night.”

“It’s not over yet,” Grey’s thoughts reached both.