Divine War: The Lancasterian Chronicles

On the high branch of a tree, the Lancaster's clothes are flapping, along with the field boots hanging from the shoelaces. Meanwhile, on the other side of the oasis, the princess's clothes were also laid out to dry. In waiting they would both be naked, therefore, Nadjela decreed a temporary separation that would end when she goes and tells him.

"What's the protocol for? I won't see anything to scare me," Chester says with his chin up and hands on hips. His smile disappears as Nadjela turns to leave clearly indignant.

Hours have passed, and she still doesn't understand the origin of her annoyance. She brings the fingers up to lips and slowly brushes them.

(It didn't count... By heaven and earth, this didn't count)

To avoid overthinking, she repeats the climb up to the branch where her clothes rest, and by touch finds out that they are dry. Already dressed, she slips through the branches with a cat's stealth, heading in the direction where she knows Chester is. What motivates her to keep silent is the beasts swarming nearby, she convinces herself that there is no ulterior motive.

Glimpse the Lancaster's naked torso, his abdomen scarred by exercise and the vestiges of cuts and projectiles. Also the pants on where they go. Nadjela lets out a sigh that, she was almost certain, was not of disappointment. She lands and walks the rest of the way.

Chester was so focused on his work that he didn't even hear her coming. Dipping a long branch into the water, he pokes at it, raises it, and dips back in. He tries until he manages to fish the dark visor. He puts the branch aside, shakes out the glasses and puts them on.

"It work! Thank goodness" He lets out a relieved breath. Almost as if he had eyes in back of his head, he turns to where Nadjela is waiting. "And the signal?"

The princess takes a few seconds to answer.

"You didn't hear, so I came"

"Did you?" Chester is skeptical for a few seconds, but then smiles. "I'm more absent-minded than a child"

With night the sky darkens and turns on with the lights of cosmos and artifice. On the dinner campfire rests the incomplete body of a cockroach big like a pit bull. Nadjela sits nearby, in her coppery hands holds a piece of the cockroach's abdomen, half-eaten inside. It tasted sweet to her, a huge dessert that she left halfway through to avoid becoming too gluttonous. With a hand she wipes the white crumbs out of her mouth. She turns her attention to Chester, who seems to retain the same amount of energy all day, and asks him if he feels sleepy.

"The day I die, I'll sleep until I'm sick of it"

The princess rolls her eyes, and decides not to take all swordsman's words literally. She knows that staying awake often is harmful to the body, mind and spirit. Chester's face is free of bags under his eyes and any signs of fatigue, he looks perfect. Still, the princess urges Chester to forget about the watch and sleep upstairs among the branches.

"Together?" he asks.

Nadjela is startled.

"Not together!" she replies, alarmed. Chester shows a naughty smile. Nadjela snorts and shakes her head. She resumes the words, but with a brusque tone. "The hunters in my tribe use that trick to keep themselves safe from predators. If any creature seeks to climb up, you wake up because the wood creaks and shakes..."

(I wish a beast would make you its lunch now, but then I would become its dinner)

They look for two trees nearby, and locate a branch thick enough from each tree to comfortably hold their bodies. The man in the sky sleeps in the shade, and Nadjela wears that comfortable cocoon or sack he provided. Nadjela feels remorse for the comfort she takes from the swordsman, but avoids complaining because she doesn't want to give it up either.

Four and a half meters above the ground, Nadjela and Chester have a good view of the stars. The princess takes the opportunity to continue telling Chester about her life and her people, about how those colored dots are eggs that, when they hatch and disappear from the sky, signify a new life, human or animal, that is born on earth.

-As long as light exists there will be hope, because life will prevail," Nadjela says.

Chester also speaks about where he comes from, but the picture he draws is inconsistent with what was preached in La Cuna. He describes the bright points of white light like giant gas spheres in constant burning, and the rest he calls ''Satellites''. Floating watchers that find out what is happening on the planet, and in turn give away a wonderful ether called ''Internet'', with which it is possible to obtain infinite information, communicate with anyone at any time, and a million other activities. Paradoxically, Chester complains that the all-powerful ether does not reach that area.

Nadjela, after meditating about it, concludes that those satellites Chester talks about are not as omnipotent as he paints, or actually he is wrong and demands too much from some eggs in the sky. If this thing called the internet existed, wouldn't La Cuna be aware by now? No doubt that being in constant communication and knowing everything would make their lives easier. The burning gas spheres thing, no matter how many times she think of it, she can't make any kind of sense out. She doubts that the swordsman is a liar, but perhaps the world from the clouds is a far cry from how it looks from the earth.

Transports that travel the clouds and beyond; Men and women with metal entrails; A life expectancy that easily exceeds 100 years; The near eradication of all disease and the continual creation of new diseases; Houses that stand alone and are smarter than their occupants; A rectangle that toasts bread and a circle on the ceiling that shrieks when the bread is over-toasted. Chester also talks about the giants, calling them '''Armored,''' and assuring us that they come in all sizes and shapes.

Apparently, even flying high conflicts occur. Something of more seriousness, a concept Nadjela grasps by explanation and warning from the elders, but never from personal experience: War. Hostility that goes beyond a skirmish between a handful of men. Hostility capable of wiping out entire tribes. Chester tells of an orbiting principality and an alliance of nations, which have been in contention for world dominion.

"Divine War. A war to put an end, forever, to all wars" mutters the man with a biting smile, as if he were speaking of a fairy tale with which children are fooled.

Nadjela does not answer. She thinks of the nights and their lights, and of what the horizon hides. The routine in La Cuna promises far less than the excesses of life Chester boasts of, but it is also simpler and more peaceful.

(Simple and peaceful sounds like a good thing)

With that thought Nadjela closes her eyes to fall asleep, but just a couple of minutes later, she looks up again when the trees begin to shake with an animal ferocity. The intensity grows, and she looks for something to hold on to, but the sleeping bag gets in her way.

The girl falls from the tree, letting out a scream.