Chapter 23—HEADING NORTHWARD

“It’s time for us to move northward,” stated Varg Drake as he sat upon his throne. It was the first time that he was able to sit upon it for many hours without turning in early in days. “I just don’t know how we can do such a task.”

Varg was nearly alone with Lyra in the Great Hall, except for a few people that were within the room, talking among themselves. Even Carriage was talking to other people that night.

Lyra asked innocently, “What about building the wagons?”

He turned towards her. The look he gave her was one that nearly lost her breath, as if she believed that he had forgotten a few things that his people were able to do. “Of course.” He then turned towards the room at large. “I want all able bodies to start working on wagons.”

“How many, my lord?” asked a male voice at the back of the room.

“As many as it takes to get everyone moved to the Northern hills before the early snow.” He gave a dark look towards all that were there, fearing that a few would question his authority. “I don’t want another run in with that beast within the loch. It’s time for us to find another place to live.” Varg then turned towards his wife. “In order for our future to survive.”

“Yes, Lord Varg Drake.”

Lyra witnessed those that were there to leave the Great Hall, all of them grumbling that they would be needing to get some rest before starting their task in the morning. She wished that she had spoken about the possible plan with her husband’s people sooner but knew that they would not have been happy to hear such orders from their lord’s wife.

“What are we going to do about the horse problem, my dear? We don’t have the number of horses to pull the number of wagons that are needed for the move.”

Lyra gave a small smile towards her husband. “Don’t worry about it, Varg. I have a feeling that will be provided for us soon.” She then stood up from where she had been sitting and made her way towards the back door.

“Where are you going?” asked the carried voice of Varg. “I haven’t been able to sit in here for long, and you want to walk out. What has to happen for you to do, so?”

Without turning towards him or stopping in her tracks, she replied, “I’m going to solve our horse problem.” Once she had reached the door, she stopped for a moment. “Don’t wait up for me.”

When Varg heard the sound of the door opening and closed, he knew that she had left him all alone. He looked up towards the ceiling of his ruling hut and sighed. “I wish I was not this sickly creature, for I long for my wife to be beside me again.”

Lyra ran from shadow to shadow, hoping that none would see her running towards the stream that ran beside the village. She knew that this would be the place that she would find him. The one that would help her find the horses for her husband’s people.

“Iah,” called out Lyra softly. She knew that he was nearby and had not left the area in days. She was hoping that he was still around to help her some more.

“What is it, child?” asked a voice upon the wind. There was a light breeze that night.

She sighed happily, knowing that he was still there. “I need your help, Iah. I need a herd or so horses to help Varg’s people with a great move towards the North. He has been wanting to do before he had found himself hurt.”

Iah walked out from the deep dark shadows to where Lyra was standing. “I’ll do what I can, but I can’t promise anything. The horses here are a little on the untrusting side when it comes to humans and unicorns like me. They believe that I’m nothing more than a mere story to them.”

“I know that I seem to be asking a lot from you, and I understand that you can say no. But I fear of what can happen if we don’t move soon.” At that moment, she had tears leaking out of her eyes. “You haven’t seen the pain that I noticed in my husband. Whenever I had been able to walk away from the long hut, I would sneak off and see my sleeping husband. He cried out in his sleep. ALL because of ME.”

Silence was met by her words, but she knew that Iah was listening to her. Her tears flowed down upon her face like rivers carving into the rocks. “I sometimes wish that I wasn’t here.” She gulped loudly. She sounded like she was drowning from her own sorrow. “I just want him to be safe, even its without me.”

“No,” whispered the wind. “You were meant to be here.” Iah came closer and nudged her with his nose. “He would have been lost without you.”

After Lyra was able to collect herself again, Iah started walking towards the woods, away from all human life. “I’ll do what I can to help, Lyra.” He was nearly to the woods when his voice was carried upon the wind. “But soon, I must leave and never to return.”

“Understood,” called out a helpless sounding voice. Lyra could not believe that it was her own.

***

A week had passed, since Varg’s order for his people to start working on the wagons, and during that week. Iah had found a herd of Viking-worthy horses. Each one of them was big and bulky. The kind that would carry a full battle geared warrior into battle.

When Iah came back into the village. He was acting as the head stallion of the group, leading all the horses through the front gates. Lyra had run outside, with Varg right behind her to see what the great thundering sound was caused.

Varg called out, “HOW MANY?”

The tribesmen could not count for the amount of the horses were still running around and had not settled yet. A voice answered, though, “About FIFTY.”

Lyra looked around. She knew that voice; it was the voice that had been helping her. A ghostly smile made its way to her lips. “Iah,” she gasped out. She looked around until she was able to see her four-legged friend.

Lyra found him a few hundred or so feet from her, leading the last bit of horses into the gate. She started running towards the only pure white figure, dodging around those that were still moving fast. She was able to make to her friend without harming herself.

“Iah.” Lyra smiled happily and hugged him with her gratitude.

Villagers had grabbed some rope. As they started tying them around the horses’ necks to lead them to the wagons, he stepped away from Iah. When she started to hear the neighing from nearby horses, who sounded upset, Lyra turned just in time to see that Varg was about to toss a tied off rope towards Iah. She pushed him out of the way in time for her to be trapped in the rope that was meant for Iah.

“Varg, please, no,” begged Lyra. “Iah belongs to the wild.” This caused Varg to look at her with a questioning look. He had a feeling that she was talking a lot more than what he was hearing. “None should ever hold him back from his duties.”

It was then that the ruler gave a hard look towards the creature that he had thought was a horse. It was then that he was able to see a ghostly image of a horn. Varg sighed. He helped Lyra out of the rope, which fell to the ground.

“I’m sorry,” whispered Varg. He glanced up to look at the unicorn eyes. “I didn’t know. Your secret is safe with me.” The Viking leader walked closer to the creature that he had believed to be nothing more than a story. He raised his hand, gently petting the mane. “Thank you for bringing my wife home to me.”

The great white creature lowered his head, looking like it was giving a bow. Iah then glanced towards Lyra and spoke to her, “I must go back to where I belong. Take care on your travels. Watch out for the blue painted people. They are not the kindest of people.”

Tears were making their way out of the woman’s eyes, “Thank you, Iah.”

The mystic creature walked away, making his way towards the trees, where he disappeared. The couple that saw him leave knew that it would be the last time that they would see Iah or anyone like him because times were changing. The creatures that were part of the mystical world had no future for the human race that has yet to come.

“Come wife,” Varg spoke with such velvet tone in his voice. “It’s time for us to move north.” The two headed towards a wagon that was built for them, as well as a couple horses that were attached to it. The wagon was also loaded with things that they were bringing with them.

“What did he tell you?” Varg looked at his wife with wonder. “I know that they can talk to women.”

Lyra looked into his eyes. “Watch out for the blue painted people. They are meant to harm us.”

Varg helped Lyra up into the wagon before climbing in himself. “Don’t worry about it. My people and I have always kept our eyes out for trouble. Plus, I have my weapons to where I can get to them.”

He glanced down towards his feet, which caused Lyra to do the same. She saw his weapons lying on the wooden floor next to his feet but made sure that none of the sharp edges would touch any of them.

“Where are we going,” asked Lyra, who had a sense of wonder with her voice and in her eyes to match.

Varg chuckled deeply, causing Lyra to have butterflies fluttering in her belly. “We are going to a place that my Grandfather calls Loch Shin.” He grabbed the ropes that would control the horses. “It’s another body of water to the north, far away from this loch. Hopefully, it’s a place that your cousin will not be able to follow us to.” Varg gave her a look of worry. “If he happened to survive from the fight earlier, that is.”

Up to that moment, Lyra and Varg had tried very hard to not talk about the events that had caused him to get hurt. They knew that they needed to talk about it.

Lyra glanced around towards the landscape just as Varg had singled for the horses to start moving. “I’m sorry that you got yourself into another battle. I wish that my cousin would have left you alone.”

Varg kept his eyes in front of him, keeping control of the horses. “Don’t worry about it. I have found peace with your God. The one who had healed me.”

Lyra did not say anything towards Varg. ‘I have enough experience to know that I should just allow him to come up with questions. Or he could lose interest in the whole thing.’

Time seemed to pass them by. Lyra heard many of the wagons behind them. People talking among themselves. Horses walking among the tall reeds.

“Tell me about something from your God. Something about His teachings or about a warrior. Is there a warrior?”

Lyra smiled. She knew the Bible well, but not well enough to quote it from word for word. She knew the story about a young man name David. ‘It’s a great place to start.’

“There was a battle between the children of God and the warlords of the land. It happened somewhere in the Far East of here. A young man named David came to the war zone to provide food to his brothers. He was normally a shepherd boy. David would watch his family's sheep from nearby lions, wolves, and other hungry animals. He also had a talent for playing music…”

Lyra went on telling Varg the story of David and Goliath. As she spoke, she noticed that even though Varg had not shown much emotion about the story, Lyra could tell that he was listening just by the twitching of his eyes and the lean his head so he could aim his ear towards her. It was those simple things that made her want to smile some more.

Once the story was finished, Varg turned his head towards her and asked, “A small boy took down a giant with one little rock?” She saw that his eyes were opened in a surprised look. “Wow. I wouldn’t have thought of that. What else can you tell me?”

Just as she was going to open her lips again, she felt a light energy within her heart. She felt something taking over, and she allowed it. “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood. But against the rulers. Against the authorities. Against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms," recited Lyra just as the rightful feeling left her heart. She was near breathless from the experience.

The Wolf-Dragon huffed. He understood that there were forces of the unseeing eye. He also knew that there were people that would fight against the rulers who wanted power. They also do not want to help others, like he tends to do.

“What is the armor of God?” asked Varg. He really wanted to know. ‘I want to be prepared. I want to help the one, who saved my life.’

A feeling came over her again. “Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of Salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.”

Lyra took a deep breath, realizing that she was able to talk on her own again. She gave him a heartwarming smile. “Have faith in God. Escape from sin by baptism and the word of God in the Bible of which the local monks preach from.” She never once had thought that she would teach people about God or Jesus, but she was trying her best to explain things to Varg as best as she could.

“How does one get baptize?”

“By putting your whole body in the water. Be reborn by forgetting your sins. Live by the way of God and pray for his support before rushing off to war or other things in life.”

Varg shook his head and chuckled. “I’ll think about it. But thank you for your teachings, Lyra.”

She glanced towards him. Her lips seemed to stretch out from the corners. “What’s the true reason why we’re moving? Other than the water creature/cousin.”

The ruler groaned. He hated not telling Lyra much. “Do you remember the man, the one who came to take me and my people away for war?” She nodded, letting him know that she understood. Varg went on to say, “He wanted to come back and have his way with you.”

He saw her shiver from the edge of his eyesight. He was glad that he used the right words but hated to say them. ‘I’m done with war but if that man comes anywhere close to Lyra. I would most likely kill him.’

“Don’t worry, Lyra. He won’t be able to follow us. I have some men covering our tracks as we speak. He will not be able to find us. I have even told the King of the Vikings to not come after me or my people again.” Varg sighed. “I’m done fighting other people’s wars. Hopefully, he would honor me by doing so. But I don’t trust that sleazy man to not try finding us on his own.”

It was clear to Lyra that it was the end of talking, at least for the time being. She wanted to enjoy the landscape as they passed by it.