Sheffali's Caravan

Voices called out to Lorrenz from the fields, drawing him from his memories. He smiled and waved to the workers. It was an old farm hand superstition that greeting a caravan returning from a successful trip brought the greeter good luck as well.

He snorted quietly, earning him a glance from his son. As if luck was a common commodity to be shared. He realized that on this return trip, their good luck charm was currently taking his well-earned rest back in the forest.

Chapter 2

Zell eased himself through the dense woods, his senses on maximum as his perceptions flooded his mind with data.

The forest was filled with life. He was surrounded by it. He let the individual impressions filter through and detected nothing to be concerned about. No Borrelians had used this trail in a very long time. He knew the woods could contain creatures that could be as dangerous to Zell as his foster father's species, but none were nearby.

Setting course for his hideaway, he stepped off the trail and slipped deeper into the shadowy forest. He wouldn't approach it in a straight line, and he remained on high alert, looking for any sign of Borrelian presence. His eyes took in the condition of the trees from canopy to roots as he slipped between them, winding his way higher and higher up the ridgeline toward the top of the treeline. He tasted the air and picked up the flavors of the creatures present nearby and those which had passed by.

As he moved, he grazed upon the forest's offerings. There was a glut of life from the smallest beetles up to bull pigs which could give the bulky Druug a run for their money. Zell wasn't hungry enough to tackle something that large and aggressive, so he remained downwind of a group of the agitated beasts as he passed them by.

Many of the plants here were edible, and some had medicinal qualities. He'd learned this from Noola and often collected them for her.

He took his time but reached his shelter just as the sun dipped below the horizon. He circled his home away from the caravan but found no evidence of interference, so he slipped inside. He cleaned out a few insects that had taken up residence and allowed himself to dial back his perceptions.

Zell already missed the desert. He definitely preferred the empty expanses of hot sand. It was where he felt most comfortable. He looked forward to hearing the whistle and joining up with the rest of his family as the wagons moved towards the mountain pass. He'd scout ahead and deal with any threats to the caravan. That was something else he did very well. He was a hunter, and using those skills to protect his family filled him with a deep sense of satisfaction. The weapons, ammunition, goods, and money they collected from the bandits all went towards the caravan. His brother, Olle, was in charge of inspecting the confiscated weapons to see if they were worth adding to their armory, selling to another caravan family, or destroying them to keep them from the hands of another bandit.

He knew his father would likely have them back on the road in a week or two. They were one of the most active traders on Llevven. They did the long treks to distant communities, delivering mail and medicines, a service paid for by Llevven's governing body. They traded goods in all the small to medium-sized villages along the east and west coasts. The larger cities were monopolized by a few larger trading houses, but Lorrenz actually made more profit than them on his runs. Not that the brilliant trader disclosed that fact to anyone.

He smiled as he thought of his foster parents. He was incredibly grateful to them for the incredible risk they'd taken when they found him and his mother at the crash site. Lorrenz and Lissan had an endless depth of compassion in their souls and gave him sanctuary, even though it put their very lives in jeopardy. Had they been caught harboring the enemy, they would have been executed immediately. Yet, they took him in and made him a member of their family.

Zell had spoken with Lorrenz many times about why he was considered an enemy to the Borrelians. His father could never discover the answer to that question, as no one was willing to discuss it. Lorrenz was smart enough not to push his luck.

In the early days, they took Zell with them on their journeys and taught him many things.

He learned how to speak Borrelian, but his voice was too distinctive, so he could only speak the language with the family and never around strangers.

They taught him about Borrelian culture as they learned about the Ush from his mother's book. There was much about his adoptive parent's culture he didn't understand and didn't agree with, starting with their senseless caste system. It pleased him immensely that Lorrenz agreed.

He learned how to wear Borrelian robes to hide his differences, though he didn't need the coverings when he hunted at night.

His night vision was exceptional, and he discovered he preferred to be awake during the night when his new parent slept. From an early age, he could help them by keeping watch while they slept. He only needed a few hours of sleep during the day to feel completely rested.

As their trade routes went from the capital city of Mnemmesh in the center of the continent to the east coast and sometimes the west coast, they had to cross deserts to reach the coastal towns and villages. Zell discovered how much he loved the expansive arid regions. He learned how to move silently and invisibly across the sands at night, hiding under the sand during the day when his parents would continue on to do their business in the towns and villages. He was always excited to see what they brought back and wondered if there would ever be a day when he could join them.

Not that he'd minded being left to his own devices out in the hot sands. There was so much to do there!

He learned through trial and error which desert creatures he could defeat and survived some significant mistakes only through his superior agility and speed when he fled. He had a few small scars to remind him of less fortunate lessons.

He fed himself from the creatures he killed and honed his hunting skills until he was the deadliest creature of the night.

Then came the event that changed everything.

They'd just returned from trading on the eastern coast. His parents had encountered issues as their trading partners in the villages needed larger shipments, and Lorrenz and Lissan were still doing the runs with their single wagon and the two Druug. He recalled the discussions at the campfires on the return journey about how they might expand, but they just weren't earning enough to afford it. They were sad as they kept putting off starting a family until they increased their revenue, and it was taking so long. Zell wanted to help them, but he couldn't participate in the trading, as he remained hidden.

He was eleven cycles old and already growing into his adult size. He was strong and an excellent hunter, so he could save them some money by augmenting their food reserves. It helped, but it wasn't enough.

He'd left the wagon at the edge of the forest with hugs for his parents and realized he had a craving for dune grubs. He knew his father wouldn't be calling for him for at least a week, so he ran back over the mountain pass and down into the valley leading to the desert. He arrived just as darkness settled over the vast sea of dunes. There was only a sliver of moonlight to light his way, but he was quite comfortable in the dark.

He continued on towards a spot he knew would be rich with the tender morsels.

When he heard laughter, he hid and slowly climbed up the side of a tall dune to peer down at the horrifying scene below. Five Borrelian bandits were picking through the cargo of a three-wagon caravan that had been following the same route his family's had. They'd obviously pulled off the road to camp amongst the dunes where they were attacked. While the bandits had let the Sheffali's single wagon pass, this three-wagon caravan was just too much of a temptation as they were newer and larger. Lying in the sand next to the wagons were the six bodies of the trading house family members.

Zell recalled how sharp his focus had become and the intense feelings of fear and rage surging through his body as he pictured the same fate befalling Lorrenz and Lissan. He tugged himself free of his robes, slipped over the top of the dune, and became death incarnate.

Once he returned to himself, the bandits were dead, and he was covered in their blood. He was uninjured as he struck too quickly, and they'd been too terrified to fight back effectively.

Lorrenz had drilled into him how important it was for him to remain out of sight of all Borrelians and how he must leave no clues to his presence. Now, he was standing amongst the brutal carnage of his first killing of another thinking being, and there were five bodies! Their blood was still dripping from his razor-sharp hooked claws.

He didn't feel the slightest bit of remorse for the bandits. Llevven was better off without them.

However, he'd broken a promise to his foster parents. He felt almost physically ill about that.

Zell moved back into the darkness of the dunes and quickly cleaned his fur in the sand. He donned his robes and raced through the night at his maximum speed. He paused outside the city boundaries to calm his breathing.

Sneaking into the city proved to be a simple task, and the guard beetles in the homestead compound avoided him once he clicked to them. He slipped into his foster parent's small home and stood outside their bedroom door, struggling to think of what he might say to make amends for breaking his promise.

"Father? Mother?"

There was a brief noise inside the room, then the door opened, showing Lorrenz standing in the doorway with a look of surprise on his face.

"Zell? What's wrong? Are you injured?" the male asked quickly, and Zell's heart clenched in his chest. His first words were of concern for Zell, not the sharp condemnation he'd been fearing.

"I-I'm sorry, father. I didn't know what else to do. I'm not injured... but tonight... I killed five Borrelians bandits who murdered a family of traders on the edge of the desert."

Lissan stepped out into the hall and gathered Zell into her warm arms. Lorrenz wrapped his powerful arms around them both. Zell instantly felt better. He shuddered at the thought of losing their love. They were all he had.

"Come. Let's sit in the kitchen, and I'll make some tea. We can talk and get some details for your mother," the father said.

Once they were settled around the table with warm tea cups in their hands, Lissan grilled Zell on every detail he could recall. When he described the sashes he'd seen around the gowns of the dead traders, his parent's faces showed their shock and sadness.

"Oh! The Tarron Family! They'd just expanded their homestead at the southern edge of town," Lorrenz sighed.

"We need to get to them before the beetles do! We need to contact the Tarron survivors, the Mrissa and the Jakkan families, and have them accompany us to the site," Lissan exclaimed. While she wasn't particularly religious, Lissan had a strong sense of respect and wanted to ensure the family received some dignity for their passage to the other side.

Lorrenz frowned. "We'd have to make contact at first light and immediately head back over the pass if we are going to get to them before the carrion beetles arrive. How are we going to explain how we know they're dead and where to find them? We just got home ourselves!"

Lissan looked at Zell. "You said it looked like they'd just set up their camp off the route?" He nodded, and she continued. "They must have been only a few hours behind us. The bandits must have let us pass as we remained on the route and were too small for their effort."

Zell nodded, as this matched his thoughts as well. If he'd been patrolling instead of resting on top of the wagon, he might have been able to catch the bandits. His thoughts stalled as he realized he didn't know if the outcome then would have been different than it was now. Except the Tarron family would still be alive. This was his first encounter with murderous thieves, and Zell proved to himself that he could be equally violent. Maybe more. He looked up to see Lorrenz watching him.

"I can see you're feeling sad for not protecting the Tarron family. While I've known they could be out there, this is my closest call with bandits. I haven't spoken with you about them. I probably should have." He sighed and thought of his next words carefully. "All life is sacred, but when people choose to put their fortune ahead of that principle, they forfeit their own claim to live." He cupped Zell's cheek and looked into his eyes. "The death of those bandits was their just reward for their actions." He lowered his hand to take one of Zell's to examine it. "My fear is we are trapped in a situation of being unable to explain how they died and how we found them without disclosing your presence. I assume you used these on them?" He tapped Zell's finger pads, which hid his retractable claws.

Zell nodded with a sad look at Lorrenz.

Lissan snorted, drawing surprised looks from the two males. She looked at them with a small smile.

"I have answers for both questions."

Zell recalled how he'd run all the way back to the site of the murders to prepare the scene as Lissan had directed him to. He finished only an hour before they arrived.

She and Lorrenz had insisted he rush back to the forest to hide when he was done, but he knew he could hide under the sand a short distance away and remain unseen. So he did.

It was noon when the three wagons from the city arrived and began their hunt. Lorrenz and Lissan were aware of the exact location, but they let Ogami Jakkan, the head of the Jakkan Trading House, make the discovery. The male was with his son, Kitow, and the two began shouting for the others to join them. Soon Henko Mrissa, head of the Mrissa Trading Company, and his daughter, Chalis, stood with Lorrenz and Lissan next to the bodies.

Chalis turned to stare at Lissan in shock. "It's true! You have the sight!"

As Lissan had explained to her husband and Zell earlier, her reputation of having a touch of prescience would finally become useful. She knew that her ability to foresee eventual results with great accuracy was simply her keen logical mind working through all the reasonable outcomes based on all known factors. As most had no skill at all in this, they naturally assumed it was a kind of magic. She found people's willingness to believe in supernatural attributes but refusal to accept her intelligence to be quite annoying.

Lissan shook her head sadly. "If I had a useful power, it would have manifested before they were murdered by the bandits instead of disturbing my dreams with these horrific images. I felt the anxiety of traveling through this area ourselves only hours before they came through. I put it down as end-of-journey jitters. Now it seems it had an actual source." The group was nodding as she gestured to the dead bandits. The group moved to examine them. They were all familiar with the tense emotions that surfaced just before returning from a long trip. This further solidified her story.

In the middle of the five bandits was the largest viper beetle any of the gathered beings had seen.

Zell had a tough time finding one of the vicious beasts, and once he had, it almost proved to be too large for him to kill. He had some nasty scratches from their battle, but it was dead amongst the bodies while he lived.

"There's an almost poetic justice here," Henko sighed as he looked at the terrible wounds inflicted upon the bandits. "They did not live to enjoy the spoils of their deeds. Killed by a giant beetle and soon to feed smaller ones."

"Should we proceed with the burial ritual?" Lorrenz suggested.

Henko and Ogami both nodded with serious expressions. "Definitely. Before the carrion beetles arrive for the bandits," the second male agreed.

They pulled shovels from their wagons and dug a shallow pit over by one of the dunes. This would hold the six family members resting side by side. Once they were positioned properly, Henko poured a flammable oil over the bodies, and they stood in silent reflection for a moment. Henko, as the senior-most-Trader present, recited a poem to guide them on their journey to the other side. Then he lit the oil, and everyone stood back and watched in silence as the bodies were quickly consumed by the ferocious heat from the fire.

Lorrenz looked at Henko. "No one answered at the Tarron homestead when we went there this morning before coming to see you. Who is left to carry on?"

The senior trader looked at Lorrenz in surprise, and Ogami shared a look with Henko as well. "The house of Terron is no more. What you see before you were the last of them."

Lorrenz and Lissan gasped and looked at the others, who nodded sadly.

Once the flames died out, they covered the ashes with sand from the dune. Then the men dragged the bodies of the bandits away from the campsite over to the empty dunes. They stripped the bodies as they would carry nothing with them to the other side after the beetles picked them clean. All collected weapons, ammunition, valuables, and any cash were placed on a blanket by Ogami and his son.

"We now must address the disbursement of the Tarron estate," Henko said solemnly.

Lorrenz and Lissan gaped at him. "What?"

The senior trader nodded. "By ancient Caravan Law, if there is no one to inherit the estate, it goes to the ones who discovered the dead." He turned to his daughter. "Please fetch my satchel from the wagon."

She rushed off and returned momentarily. The father pulled out a writing pad with a stylus. These were imported items, and Lorrenz watched with interest as Henko quickly wrote out a contract. He looked up to Ogami and Lorrenz. "The division of items is based on traditional categories and will be divided amongst the three families present, the Mrissa, the Jakkan, and the Sheffali. The categories are: the homestead and all items therein, aside from warehoused goods and Caravan equipment and beasts, the Caravan equipment and beasts, and finally, the goods currently found in the warehouse and within the caravan wagons."

Zell watched and listened from his vantage point on a neighboring dune as his mind absorbed this news. The tragedy the Tarron family suffered might yield something positive for his family!

"As Lissan was the one who brought us here, House Sheffali will have the first pick. House Jakkan will have second pick, having found the actual scene of the murder, and Mrissa will accept the last. Do you agree, Ogami?" Henko asked as he looked at the other house leader.

After a moment's hesitation due to the exceptional value of the homestead, the male begrudgingly nodded his agreement.

They turned to Lorrenz and Lissan, who turned to face each other. They leaned their foreheads together and whispered. Zell wished he could be there with them.

They nodded to each other, then Lorrenz looked at the other two men. "We will accept the Caravan equipment and beasts."

"What?" Ogami exclaimed in surprise.

Henko smiled at Lorrenz. "Surely, you meant to say the homestead? As I recall, you currently live at the far edge of town in a rather unimpressive estate; pardon my frankness."

"It would be a grand upgrade, but we are a trading house of humble means. Such luxury would be lost on us. We will get better value by increasing our capacity. The extra wagons, equipment, and Druug would be gratefully accepted. Thank you!" Lorrenz and Lissan bowed to the other house leaders.

Henko glanced at Ogami, whose broad smile said he accepted the Sheffali's decision most willingly. He looked back to Lorrenz, shrugged, and nodded as he added that notation to the contract. He looked once more at Ogami, who was finally controlling his expression. "We accept the homestead," the male said calmly. Henko raised an eyebrow as he made the required notes on the contract.