The sun was creeping awake as the hills shone with the golden light escaping the suns yellow rays.
Amena was the first to awake, or so she thought. She woke her tired horse and walked it over into a near forest of bushes to eat and drink some well-deserved water.
As she sat on a rock watching her horse, she heard something across the river and saw a bush move. Instantly Amena stood up. She patted her horse who was already on edge and lifted her dress. She stepped into the icy river and gave a shiver. She looked ahead, and just as she did so an arrow came whizzing towards her. She screamed and slipped into the icy water, and Ahearen came racing out of the depths of the forest.
"Amena!" Ahearen yelled, leaping over Amena to help her up.
Amena shivered rapidly.
"Amena? Are you okay?" Ahearen said, looking into Amena's eyes.
Amena stood up and looked up at him, her eyes dark, and anger burning within. "What do you think you were DOING?"
"Ame-"
Amena grumbled in a high-pitched growl and walked out of the water towards her horse.
"I was just practicing my shooting, I didn't see you there. I-"
Amena turned to face Ahearen. She looked him in the eyes, brows furrowed. "You almost gouged my eye out! I could've been seriously injured!"
"I'm sorry Amena. Come with me, you're going to get sick." Ahearen said grabbing her shoulder.
Amena shrugged his arm off and got onto her horse. "I can take care of myself bloody well, I don't need the help of someone who almost killed me!"
"Amena!" Ahearen said, but before he could continue, Amena rode off.
Ahearen began to walk back to the cave feeling very ashamed and disappointed. He wanted to yell out to the heavens, 'why? Why are women so hard to understand?'
He returned to the cave and had noticed the villagers following Amena over the other hills. "She left?" Ahearen said loud enough for all of the villagers to hear him. They all turned to look at him and Amena knew, "let's keep moving." She said, completely ignoring Ahearen who began to tag along behind the group of villagers.
Awhile later, the village people being followed by Ahearen finally came to their brother village. Amena dismounted her horse immediately and went to meet the headman, who had known they would be coming from a messenger.
"Dia's!" The headman's wife said running out of her hilltop house.
"Dia's," Amena replied, bowing.
"Marie is ainme dom, conas tá?" Marie asked.
"Dia's Marie, tá mé tuirseach," Amena laughed sighing.
"Well, a little bit of sleep and you shall be fine," Marie said in her very strong Irish accent. "My husband is busy at the moment, I will take you to your sleeping quarters. I do not know how it will make you feel being separated as a village, but I am sorry, it is all we can do."
"Don't worry yourself Marie. I will divide the village into some numbers where everyone is comfortable. Just tell me what you need." Amena said smiling softly with anger slowly, VERY slowly, melting away from her argument and near death with Ahearen.
"Well my dear Amena, there are four places, so you shall divide your village into two then?"
"Okay Marie, I will see what I can do then." Amena said turning towards the village. She began to call people into four groups with their families. "Where's Ahearen?" Amena said trying not to sound worried. She ran back to the hillside where they had all come from to see Ahearen sitting on a stone looking at his leg which Amena had forgotten, he injured. She walked up to him slowly and sat down next to him saying nothing.
"Hello," Ahearen said trying to sound more happy than pained.
"Ahearen," Amena said looking uneasy at his leg, which was being renewed with fresh blood. "We should go get that checked out. It's becoming infected, and, well, you need it to walk."
"Nonsense. Tons of people walk with one leg." Ahearen said smiling.
"Come now Ahearen," Amena said standing and giving her hand to Ahearen.
Ahearen stood with his non-injured leg and grabbed Amena's hand who put his arm over her shoulder. The two began to walk (and hop) back up the hill to their temporary village.
The two were in the shelter that they would live in. Ahearen was lying on his back while Amena drenched a dry cloth in boiling water, burning her hands. She slowly took it and wrapped it around Ahearen's leg. Ahearen tried not to wince at the pain and burning sensation, but he couldn't help it and he made a type of a small yelping sound.
"Sorry!" Amena said hoping that she didn't hurt him too bad. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine Amena, it's just a little warm," Ahearen replied trying to sound stronger than he really felt.
Later that night, everyone was asleep in their sleeping quarters except for Amena who was lying awake next to some other villagers. She couldn't fall asleep. It was too hot for one thing and for another, she couldn't discontinue to think. She was thinking about the day two days ago and how she heard the words "you don't… do this… family... brother." What did these words mean? Was it perhaps that he had a family, a brother? Or… was it that these words meant something worse… was it possible that this dark knight was somehow related to Ahearen… his brother? It was a huge possibility, at least to Amena it was. The knight knew Ahearen's name! That proves even more that the knight at least knew Ahearen. Amena sat up and rubbed her face. She needed to get rest, but had to stop thinking first. She got out of bed to take a walk. When she walked around the village, she noticed that there were still some villagers from this temporary village out around a fire. She walked with caution to the group of people; she tried to keep quiet but tripped over what seemed to be a small twig. Some but mostly no one looked in her direction. One of the villagers sitting around the fire happened to be a friend of her fathers who she had only met when she was five or six years of age. She knew his name but had not talked with him much; she was very fond of his stories that he told about his great adventures on the plains of Ireland and the journeys with her father and their best friend who had died during one of the more dangerous adventures. This family friend called over to her, "ah! Amena, how nice to see you again!" He smiled, "come, come. Sit!"
Amena obeyed the old friend and went and sat beside him.
"You remember me do you not?" The friend asked.
"Of course I remember you Seamus," Amena smiled widely.
"Well Amena. What are you doing up at this hour?" Seamus asked, waiting politely for a response.
"Oh, well. I couldn't sleep, too many thoughts on my mind." Amena sighed, still smiling.
"Well, you are the leader of the villagers, this is understandable. I am very sorry for your parents, and your siblings. It must be hard to cope with. I will miss your mother and especially your father." Seamus said, bowing his head. "I wish I could've met your brothers and sisters. I suppose fate is saying I should only meet you. It means that you are the strong one."
Amena smiled thinking that everyone had heard but she hadn't noticed that everyone was carrying on separate conversations between each other.
"Well Amena," Seamus said standing up. "You should get some sleep, just drink some water or tea and you will feel much, much better."
"Thank-you Seamus, I'll be sure to get some sleep." Amena said smiling and shaking Seamus' hand.
As soon as Amena has returned to her sleeping quarters and lay down on her bed, she fell into a deep, deep dreamy sleep.
The next morning Amena awoke late. She went outside and saw the fire's burning and smelled the different families breakfasts cooking. Amena didn't know if she should make her own breakfast or join someone else. She thought about it and decided that she would make her own breakfast and started to walk to the river in order to catch some fish but was stopped by the call of someone's voice.
"Amena! You come and join me!" It was Seamus sitting with Ahearen around a fire while fish cooked.
Amena smiled and walked over the two men. "Hello Seamus, Ahearen."
"Good Morning Amena," Ahearen said smiling. "Did you sleep well?"
"Once I fell asleep, I had a great sleep." Amena said smiling back to Ahearen, "thank you."
"I am glad to see you Amena. I was going to tell Ahearen here a story of when I was a young boy." Seamus said with a huge grin on his face.
"I'm glad you saw me then," Amena said leaning closer to Seamus, ready for the story.
"Well then, here I go." Seamus said taking a deep breath. "You may wonder why I have an accent that is not Irish but I have an Irish name. Well, my mother was an Irish woman and my father was not. Since my father had died before I was born and my mother when I was born, I do not know what my other race is. I know that I have got my accent from my father because my mother was of first generation and had no accent. Before my mother died, she decided that since I had another race accent that I should have an Irish name at least, that is how I am named Seamus."
Amena and Ahearen looked at each other, smiled, and looked back to Seamus who continued speaking.
"I truly wanted to know what my other race was, and since I was taken care only by different villagers at different times, I went searching to different places. I first went into the mountains, which took two days and one night. At the top of the mountain, there was a cave. I slept in the cave until a huge mountain lion came. I was scared right out of my pants and tried to run away and prevailed. I was going to keep running but I noticed that the lion was sad and was not chasing me. I asked the lion 'what is wrong?' The lion replied 'I am lost, I have no family near here and want to go home.' I felt bad for the lion so I helped him get back home. That took another day away. Then I-" Seamus continued to tell the story of his 'childhood' and Amena and Ahearen listened. The two were quite amused.
Seamus finished the story and everyone had finished eating. Amena stood up and headed for the river. Ahearen ran after her.
"Where are you going?" Ahearen asked loudly.
"If you don't mind, I am going to go bathe. Please leave me alone." Amena said sounding more unpleasant than she actually was.
Ahearen stopped running and watched Amena walk quickly to the forest for cover. He knew he loved her, but she was intimidating and if Ahearen did something wrong, he would be hated by Amena. "Why do women have to be so stubborn and-" Ahearen sighed. His dark past and secrets were not going to make him any closer to being with Amena. "What can I do?" Ahearen asked himself aloud. "What can I do?"
Later that day, Amena was preparing lunch with a rabbit that Ahearen had hunted and caught. Amena took a spoonful of the stew she was making, smelled it and tasted it. She relaxed with a sigh from the warming taste, when there was a sudden whistle of wind past her ear. She looked around and saw tons of arrows flying to those of the villagers. Amena began to run. She ran to her horse who was tied up to a tree near the river.
Amena rode until she met up with Ahearen who had already slain many men.
"Go protect the villagers," Ahearen said carelessly.
"No." Amena said, "I can help."
Ahearen laughed slightly but stopped after seeing Amena's face. "Amena, they truly need you more than I do."
"I don't care! I want to stay!" Amena said loudly.
Ahearen looked Amena in the eye and said, "Amena. You need to go. If you stay, something may happen to you and if something bad happens to you, I won't be able to live with myself. Please Amena - please."
Amena sat on her horse in silence for a few seconds and then made a clicking sound telling her horse to trot away. "No," she said without looking back.
Amena was off and on her horse, fighting many men and killing a surprisingly large amount. She had just stabbed one man through the heart when she saw a woman. The woman was obviously on the dark side and was an extremely fine warrior. The woman had no horse but she would go behind the man who had obviously been seen as the leader the last time they met. He was the man who had said 'you don't… do this… family... brother' and kept Amena from sleep. As Amena was lost in thought and looking at the two humans on the horse, a man, one of the dark warriors, came and seized her from behind. Amena went to scream but the man covered her mouth with his hand. Amena bit the man's hand.
"Don't bother missy. I can take more pain than you can even imagine." The man laughed. He picked her up and brought her to a horse, put her on in front of him and rode to the leader.
"Let's go men!" The leader cried.
All of the men on the evil side both on feet and horses followed their leader who began to ride away.
Ahearen had noticed that Amena was struggling to get off of the horse by kicking, scratching, slapping and biting with her now free mouth. "Amena!" He yelled. "Duncan! Release her!"
The leader, Duncan, ignored Ahearen totally and kept on riding and kept the men following.
"I will come after you Duncan! I will! I will kill you if you do anything to her!" Ahearen yelled after him. Ahearen walked quickly to the village that wasn't as destroyed as it should've been. Ahearen walked straight to the leader of the village's house. He knocked on the wood in the entrance and waited anxiously until he heard the leader's wife, Marie say, "enter."
Ahearen continued to walk quickly inside the house until he came to the leader who was having a leg bandaged up after having it stabbed. "Sir, I would like your permission to have the villagers to stay here until I am able to come back. Amena was taken and I need to go get her."
"Ahearen, he does not speak English. His family only spoke Gaelic and he never learned English. I will translate my dear."
"Thank-you Marie." Ahearen replied quickly and quietly.
"Ahearen riachtanais dul sa seans óir Amena giall óir dorcha laochs. Sé riachtanais aire do muintir an tsráidbhaile mar sé coigil Amena. Gan í, sé faic." Marie said quickly, but calmly, smiling.
The leader smiled and said, "muid toil aire do muintir an tsráidbhaile, sé bealtaine gabh."
Marie turned to Ahearen and said, "my husband said 'we will care for the villagers' and that you may go."
"Thank you very much Marie. I am ever so grateful." Ahearen said running out to look for his beloved Amena.
Ahearen had not yet gotten his own horse or made friends with Amena's horse, but he would have to try and get on that white horse if he wanted to say his love.
"Hello –uh- horse," Ahearen said, obviously saying something to upset the horse who looked away and snorted. "Okay, I can't remember what your lovely Amena calls you but she's been taken and if you care so much for her, then you better clean up your act and let me ride you." Ahearen said in one great breath. The horse looked back at Ahearen, made a deep snort and let Ahearen get on his back. "You're a great friend… but I still cannot remember your name."
The horse neighed and galloped in the direction that Ahearen pointed him.
The horse galloped for quite a long time without tiring but began to slow down. "I've got it! Niamh, she calls you Niamh!" Niamh neighed and panted. "Niamh let's stop. I'll get off and we can walk to the river over there." Ahearen said pointing to the forest where he was able to hear rushing water.
They drank at the river for a while, "Niamh, I think we should stay here over night." Niamh neighed and snorted at the idea. "Don't worry Niamh. I know that Duncan, the leader, won't hurt her if he values his life." Ahearen said and then chuckled. "He doesn't think I will kill him. Doesn't that sound funny to you?" Ahearen looked at Niamh who had a look saying 'your crazy'. "Sure you're a horse but you truly do act like a human, it's funny actually." The horse snorted and turned away. "You're offended easily too. You'd be too much of a vulnerable human." Niamh stood up and began to walk away. "Come on Niamh, you can't save Amena without me, I know where she is and I can't get there without you. You'll just have to take my rude remarks like a true horse." Niamh turned around and snorted. He went to Ahearen and sat down beside him. "There isn't that better?" Niamh snorted and kept looking away. Ahearen laughed.
That night Ahearen made a fire and lay by it, looking up at the sky full of stars.
"I'll get you back Amena, if it's the last thing I do." Ahearen whispered to himself.
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