"What happened next" Elijah cried, you could tell that he was totally immersed in our history, he was sitting on his knees almost bouncing up and down with anticipation.
The Historical Leader, although taken aback by his outburst chuckled softly.
"Well Elijah, this is the part where the details are unclear, we know that the war was won by the Moon Army, but what happened in the immediate aftermath was either not written or was over time forgotten"
I glanced over to Elijah who sat there with a confused face, eyebrows knitted together trying to find the right words. I knew that face too, I still had that face myself after all these years, I could never fathom that the discussions between Benedict and Ezra were so detailed yet what happened after was a complete blank, there was no details about how the battle was won, yes we knew that Khonsu had helped, we know that he gave them their wolves but then what?
There was no mentioned of who lost their lives, the casualty list must have been extensive, a three-day battle and no plaque, or monument to the dead? What happened the remaining forces of the Aten? Had they all been killed in the battle or were they eventually assimilated into the Wanderers group? Had they surrendered and that's why the war had ended? There was no story of what happened to the King, was he taken out?
Endless questions swam in my mind and we didn't have the answers, being a Combatant, I had been in my fair share of scuffles, admittedly these were on a minor scale, after all we were one group we may have had minor disagreements but never any real bloodshed, but even after all that had occurred we would celebrate, talk and be merry over the situation once it had been rectified, how could such a huge number of people not have at least spoken of it?
Wasn't it customary to salute the dead, to give them a send-off they deserved for laying down their lives for the good of the cause?
I guess, that they must have been tired and maybe the celebrations overhauled anything else, well I'd like to think the celebrated, I hoped they did, maybe this is why nothing was written down, but for the life of me I just couldn't compute the reason why there was no information being passed down by the spoken word.
A huge life changing battle, good vs evil if you will and no one knew anything, surely the stories of their ancestors bravery must had held, I would be proud to call my Grandfather a Moon Warrior, but of course none of us knew what happened after that day and this is the reason why I was adamant to find the truth.
Elijah to his credit managed to find some words, he had sat there puzzled for at least ten minutes at this point, slightly red faced like his brain was working so fast it may at any point just blow up on him "But if we won like you said we did, where is everyone" he paused for a moment then continued "And what happened to the Leaders, did they go off on their groups or stay together?" "Elijah" the Historical Leader said but he just cut her off, I was so surprised, though he was a ten year old child, you could see he was a smart one, he had sat back listening, absorbing this tale and storing away the questions as they came up, but now he was verbally bringing them to the surface at such a speed you could see the other children looking at him puzzled, how come he had questions?
"Also, you said this happened in the frozen North, do we live there?" again his little brows furrowed, and he continued "And what was the secret gift? Did Khonsu give them it?!" And there it was! The one-million-pound question, did they receive the gift?
Sighing the Historical Leader's eyes soften at Elijah, she knew that this was the bit of the meeting that she always got it hard, I could almost feel the aura of uncomfortableness coming off her, but this is what she signed up for, this was her job, to lead our group by telling them our history, guiding us, making sure we followed the words of Khonsu and making sure we looked after our wolves.
I did feel a small amount of sympathy for her, after all, even though this was her 'job' so to speak, she had chosen or was chosen by the Group Leader, their courtship and eventual pairing made her the automatic Historical Leader, you pair with the guy, you get the job, so she knew what was coming her way, though I did feel sorry for her in situations like this.
"Elijah, we just don't know the answer to all of your questions, we have nothing in written form and there has been no spoken word that has been passed down, but what we do know is this" she stopped for a second, took a breath and then continued " We know they left the frozen North, no one lives there the area we assume was decimated. The Leaders took their respective groups and left to wherever they were before, back scattered to the corners of the world, It was said that the groups were named and that there was a consensus that there should be continued trust and communication between the groups, yet that seems to have failed or the others never made it to their homes after.
All we know for sure is that we are here, protected by our walls, we know nothing about the Others, we may be the only ones that have survived over time". Breathing in deeply she looked over the group again and added "We have never found out about the gift, we cannot be sure whether it was given and it's something we experience every day, or it's something we are yet to find out about, after the war Khonsu stopped speaking, no one here today has heard from him, and some of us have been alive for a long, long time".
Elijah seemed only partially satisfied by her response, you could see it in his tiny face that he wanted more, no, needed more but he just sat back quietly and said nothing. The Historical Leader began to stand from her seated position at the front of the hall and advised us all that the stories were finished with and that we were now able to leave, if there was anyone who had any further questions they were able to stay behind and she would do her best to answer them.
I always lingered back, not just for my duty as guard for the event, but I always wanted to hear, to try and gleam any more information, like I'd not heard the same questions and given answers a millions times over, but you never knew, I just couldn't pull myself away just in case something different came out this time.
Mostly everyone left, neatly filing out of the hall's wide wooden doors, just a few of us remained. I strode over to the refreshments area, got another apple juice, which had warmed up slightly now and waited for her to take her seat and for the questions to come. Little Lily was the first to sit in front on the Leader, she sat quietly legs crossed and smiled up at her, her parents were waiting for her by the doors, looks like this would be just a quick one I thought to myself.
Lilly's parents Jayne and Bruce were in their early thirties, they had paired off rather early having been only sixteen at the time, they had been neighbours, lived in the houses next door to each other and had played together as children, it was Jayne who had pursued Bruce, poor Bruce was a timid child and Jayne had him under the thumb years before the choosing, they had six children with Lily being their youngest.
Bruce held the title of 'Group Educator' he was the guy that trained the children in self-defence while at school, he was now a typical male, all possessive and masculine. Jayne, I thought had lost the sparkle of her youth and was a typical female, staying at home with the children. In some sense I envied the life they had together, beautiful children and a happy pairing, but I had chosen not to pair, something in me just didn't want it, and who would want me? I could beat my male within an inch of their lives, no one wanted a partner they couldn't dominate.
"Yes Lily, the Leader said looking deeply into Lily's eyes, Lily shuffled on the spot feeling a bit overwhelmed, "Well Leader, I just wanted to know why we all were told the story today?" "Well that's an easy one Lily, you'll be hearing from your wolf soon, we always like you to know the story before you hear from them". Lily's eyes shot straight over to her parents, she smiled and seemed happy with her answer, she hopped up said her goodbyes and left with Jayne and Bruce, I looked to see who was next, I smile graced my face, of course, Elijah. He looked sheepish, I'm guessing his parents had spoken to him about his outbursts earlier, I felt for him, but sometimes you just couldn't hold the questions in.
"Ah, Elijah" the Leader said, you could see the guilt in the poor boys eyes, "Firstly Nana Grace, I wanted to apologise for shouting out" the gasp from the side where his mother was, was loud and sharp, the poor boy jumped a little. "its fine Elijah, but when I'm doing events like this or speaking to the group you need to call me 'Leader'" his face was red, he'd obviously forgotten the rules, though he was family, in public he had to use people titles as a mark of respect. "Oh, I'm so sorry again, I keep messing up" Elijah said with a frown, the Historical Leader scooped him up, sat him on her knee and whispered something to him, whatever she had said caused a huge beaming smile to form on his face, it was a nice sight, he was a good kid.
"So, Elijah, what's your question?" "Well, Leader. I wanted to ask two things, firstly, do we really not know our own name? You know what was given to us at the time? And secondly why do you think Khonsu doesn't speak to us anymore?" looking up expectantly she just shook her head "Elijah we really don't know, some of the Olders and us Leaders have spoken about it many times but all we have are ideas, guesses, no real facts to be certain of, I know it's hard for you to understand and when your older some of the things we've spoken about will become more clear to you, your about to have contact with your wolf in the upcoming months Elijah, why don't you just look forward to that and we'll speak about it another time?" Looking slightly dejected Elijah nodded his head, gave her a quick squeeze and then hopped off her lap, a few giggles were heard from the other children, Elijah said nothing and quickly met up with his mother and left.
There was not many more children waiting for her attention at this point, mostly I guessed had either been excepting or not really concerned with anything else and were happy to go home, the last child left the hall and you could see the Historical Leader breathe deeply and was in lost in thought, I felt it rude to interrupt her, but none the less I was responsible for the hall at this point, I couldn't leave when people were still inside. Seeming to sense my eagerness to lock up and get going home the Leader motioned her hand to me to come over.
"It's been a long day hasn't it Samara?" she crooned, I nodded, it had been a long day, I was eager to catch up with Kirby, have baby talk and then head for bed "Yes it sure has, but I love it when the children are so involved, not surprised Elijah was so interested, he's a smart boy"
"Ha, yes he is, I take full responsibility for that, I've always said it's my genes he takes after" she said with a small chuckle, we had always gotten on well, over the years my incessant questioning had bought me to her door on too many occasions to remember, she was always kind and always made me feel like no questions were stupid ones, irrespective of the answer. Laughing with her I asked if she was ready to go, with one nod of her head we walked toward the door, I had a rummaged around in my pockets for the keys and once we had safely exited the building I began to lock up, turning around I have expected her to be long gone, but surprisingly she stood there eyebrows risen and furrowed deep in thought. She noticed that I had stopped doing what I was doing and I was watching her and she smiled, what I though was a mischievous glint shone brightly in her eyes as she smiled at me, to be honest I felt a bit weird, she'd never looked at me before that way and I suddenly felt uneasy, she turned to walk away releasing me from her gaze and threw over her shoulder " Samara, we need to talk".