Trisarn Falahleed, part 3

...........My mouth was still dry and i could barley open my eyes, i was so bruised from the horse that breathing caused me to wince. The Inner huts of Fort Haven where almost empty compared to the out side. After dragging my tired feet and heavy body through many small rooms that must have been used for sleeping and storage, we reached a huge long almost empty room. The roof was twice as high in this room, and it was decorated with more of the white and blue fabric. On the ground in the middle of the room was a long wooden table surrounded by what they called Chairs and one large throne. Seated on the large throne was an old man, Dressed in the same stone dress and white and blue shroud but wearing a necklace of some unknown yellow stone and a ring of the same stone also on top of his long gray hair. The man who had brought me bowed lowly to him, he must have been a great member of the elders but he did not look as old as the ones of my tribe, nor as healthy. The spoke in the strange touge i did not understand, and the old man greeted me with a short pat on my shoulder. Then i was led away down a tunnel and out into a small dusty walled in yard with more smaller rooms at the back of it. Once in the yard he released my hands and left me, locking a door behind him. I wanted to escape but my body was week. I had not eaten properly and had not sung the songs of leaving my tribe. Even if i were to escape i could not go back without invitation, i would be seen as a deserter to have left during such a time of change. I stood looking about me, hoping to find some food to mend my body. The rooms at the end of the yard caught my attention, and i headed for the closest one. The door opened easily and inside i found lots of the thin dry grass i saw the horses eating, and old yellowing fabric rapped around them, this must be how the men slept. I went into the next room and to my surprise, i found two men i recognized from the Telinka water tribe that lived on the river which fed the pastures of Bengahani. We had met once a year in the hot seasons, when Earth grew to dry to support the cattle. The taller of the two was Elenho a boy of 17 cold seasons, he had become a man Hunter of his tribe just one cold season ago. The other boy was Reshni who had not yet reached 15 cold seasons it would still be many seasons till he was to become a man, like me he was Gesh, a keeper of the histories. But unlike me Reshni was the youngest of three brothers so had never been taught the stories. His older brother was already named Gesh, and when time came for Reshni to become a man the elders would find for him a new name; Minso (Hunter), Vinki (Fisher), Fintesn (Maker), or even Maesh (Elders man). They offed me fresh beef and corn and i ate like a lion. When i had eaten every last scrap, they tolled me the news of their tribe. I fell asleep almost as soon as they began. That was my first moon at Fort Haven, and the beginning of a journey that would take me far away from Bengihani, from the strength of our small histories, from all I knew and expected from life. This was the begging of a new Trisarn, for i would never be Gesh, now i had no name.......