The Legend of Oescienne - The Finding (Book One)
Page 4
***
The days passed and the winter proved to be much worse than predicted, and yet the land still had to endure a few more months of its deadly grasp. Every morning Jahrra woke to find the pastures and fields coated with ice. There’d even been snow on the lower hills, something that never happened in this part of Oescienne. Everyone was living on a short supply of food, for no one had prepared for a winter quite as long or harsh as this one. Sometimes people would even come by the cottage, begging for food. Luckily, Abdhe and Lynhi had stored up plenty.
“Now, aren’t you glad we did all of that extra work this fall?” Abdhe whispered to his daughter as she peeked past him at the thin woman standing at their door.
She looked weary and cold and her five children clung to her as if she were the source of a great heat. Jahrra felt a pang of compassion towards the family and dashed off to get one of her toys, a wooden horse, to give to them. Abdhe had carved it for her, but she knew her father wouldn’t mind. The woman thanked her and the children smiled weakly but appreciatively. Jahrra was grateful to have been able to do something, anything, for those suffering people, even if it was as insignificant as sharing a homemade trinket.
Although everyone was living off of a limited food supply, no one was expected to starve to death. Food was short, yes, the weather was cold and wet and windy, but there was wild game to hunt if provisions ran out. Unfortunately, the cold and hunger wasn’t what threatened the people of the region. Something far deadlier than ice was creeping throughout the land. No one had prepared for the lethal epidemic that crept quietly over the mountains to settle into the heart of Oescienne.
There’d been some word about a dangerous fever outside the province, but since no one ever dared cross the Thorbet or the Elornn Ranges, and since shipping had slowed for the winter, the people living in the south of Oescienne had little to fear, or so they thought. Despite all the obstacles, however, the sickness managed to find its way into the Oorn Plain and Raenyan and Aldehr Valleys. Signs of the fever were soon being reported all over the land.
Entire families would come down with the sickness and perish within the week. Anyone seen coughing or even looking pale would be avoided like a rabid dog. A medicine to fight the disease had been obtained and shipped in, but only the wealthiest could afford it, leaving the poor and underfed to the whims of nature. Many of the Nesnan commoners were left to fight off the illness on their own. Some scraped through, but others, especially the young and the old, didn’t survive.
A black hand of death squeezed the land in its grasp, seeming to drain every last drop of hope from its people. The loss and sorrow lingered like a cloud of evil in the icy air and more than ever, the people of Oescienne yearned for an end to the unrelenting winter.