The Book of Travels

Prologue: Broken Ground

Most days I can forget about what happened. Life moves on, and if I don’t stick in the moment I will be left behind, and I can’t let that happen. That would be unfair to her. Most days I wake up to the sound of explosions, only to remember that it is all in my mind. Most days, but not all. On the rare quiet night, when nothing is going on, I remember and I think to myself, ‘could I have done something to stop it?’

The answer, of course, is no and I knew that, but I can’t help but think that it could have been different, if only their had been time.

When I was young I never appreciated what was before me; that only came with age. I longed for the adventure my ancestors faced as they made their slow retreat across a continent before finally reaching the empire. I love the excitement of not knowing what lies beyond the next bend and the thrill of discovering what is.  Since becoming an adult I have made dozens of trips to the far corners of the land, journeying many leagues past the empires farthest reaches. I was Masfiri, greatest of the Pundamilian explorers.

My older brother, Zuberi, never had any such desire of grandeur. He joined the guard when he was just a boy. After five years of service he had progressed from the rank and file to being the military adviser to King Mwenye, the highest position you could hold without being on the king’s immediate council.

He was always the calm one; never deviating from what was expected of him, never acting out of turn. Everything he did, he did with the perfection of a master. Despite this, he was far more unpredictable, a quality that came in handy as a military commander. Sometimes he surprised even me. It was his downfall in the end.

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“You are betrothed!” I shouted.

“No, I am already married. You would know this if you had been paying attention,” Zuberi replied, calmly shaking his head triggering his gold bands to gently rattle against themselves. I often wondered why such an unwieldy devise had come to symbolize rank among my people. Once you got to the position of Zuberi they were more of a hindrance than anything.

We were seated in the great hall in the castle of Saba Urefu. Around us the rest of the rooms inhabitance hardly turned their collective heads to see what the commotion was about. Although neither of us spent too much time in the city proper, the sound of our raised voice within its castle walls was not uncommon and they knew that despite our numerous petty arguments we were quite close.

“I’m sorry, brother, but this is quite sudden,” I countered. I had always believed that my brother would die unwed and had never seen a reason to reassess my initial judgment until now.

Zurberi laughed, his dark blue eyes glissading with mirth. “Not in the slightest. We’ve been courting for over two years now.”

“What! It is inconceivable that my own brother, my closest confidant, could get married and not tell me,” I yelled, getting increasingly agitated.

“Do not blame me for your insistence on spending all your time out beyond any such thing as a courier. You have been gone for over three years now,” Zuberi said in exasperation. “It is difficult to correspond with you even when I know were you are and I wasn’t going to wait for you to get back.”

I pursed my lips at the familiar argument. “It’s my job to go out and explore past our frontier. It has to be done by someone,” I argued. “I am just surprised is all; I assumed you were too dedicated to your post to be so easily distracted.”

Zuberi chuckled, “Who ever said I got distracted? Mwenye saw that I was a little downtrodden, so he give me a special assignment to take my mind off things and the rest is history.”

This got my attention. If Zuberi got a special assignment it had to be for something big. He was too skilled to use for just anything. “Is that so. Is she a political prisoner?” I asked in excitement as I allowed one of my brother’s servants to clear my plate.

Zuberi shook his head. “No, she most definitely is not. Just look at it this way. Now I get to do more traveling like you want me to.”

I pondered this statement. “So I’m guessing that she isn’t from around here; or a professional criminal,” I finally said, earning a hearty laugh from Zurberi.

“You guessed correctly the first time. She’s the leader of a group of dignitaries from Equestria, a country far to the north and east. It sounds quite lovely other than the cold and the wet. And here I thought it only got cold if you went south?”

“You would think that,” I said sarcastically. “I’m sorry I got carried away. I ran all night to get back because I was a bit too excitable with only a day’s trek from home.”

“Well, there is no place like home, although I am beginning to consider a change in scenery. When my wife returns to her homeland I plan on accompanying her,” Zuberi said, a determined glint in his eye.

“What! Not only do you marry without me here but you’re leaving as well, all without a word of counsel from me!” I sputtered. My mind reeled as I fought to come to terms with what he had just said. He was leaving! But I had just got back. And besides, he had duties here. “Wouldn’t her staying here be more reasonable? She is a foreign diplomat after all.”

I saw a slight grin play across Zuberi’s face. “Since when have you been against me traveling? If I go with her I’ll be roaming farther than even you have ever gone,” he said with a chuckle. “You do bring up good points, but I seem to have accidently feed you some misleading information. She isn’t actually a foreign dignitary in any regard.”

“Then why is she here? She must be here with some purpose in mind,” I said, now thoroughly confused.

Zuberi just gave me a devious smile. “You’ll find out when you meet her tomorrow. Right now she is catching up on some paperwork and looking after our daughter.”

I was about to comment on how this mysterious enchantress had somehow made my brother a so devious when what he said hit me. “What!!! You just became a father and its only now that I hear about it! As an after thought no less!” I yelled, only remembering to keep my newfound calm once it had been thrown to the wayside once again. After all Zuberi was probably intentionally egging me on. I did not trust his new sense of hummer.

“I’m sorry. You were caught on the whole me being married and moving to a far off land. I thought I’d leave the big stuff for the end,” Zuberi said casually.

“Well can you at least give me their names?” I asked, exasperated.

Zuberi smiled. “No.”

“What?! Why?!” I sputtered.

“I want her to see you butcher her name,” he replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

I glared at him for a second, but seeing that he wasn’t going to brake down I decided to cut my losses. “Well, can you at least tell me your daughter’s name?”

“If I must. Her name is Zecora.”

“As in Zebra? Isn't that a little self serving?” I asked skeptically.

Zuberi just laughed. “I want her to remember her heritage no matter where we end up. Besides, it’s not Pundamilian or Equestrian. It is more of a mix of the two, just like she is.”

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The ground shock violently, knocking me to the ground. I hurriedly lad as flat as possible, hoping the tremor passed before the rock face above me collapsed under the strain. This was unlike any earthquake I had ever experienced. Shock waves hurled over me with the strength of avalanches, uprooting trees and casing whole sections of the mountain slop to crumble away. When it finally stopped the ground was striped bare of life save me. Staggering to my feet I had to do a double take. The sky had light up with the strength of a thousand suns, making the entire world shine like a mirror. It took a second for the light to dim, allowing me to pin point it source. When I did my veins ran cold. It was coming from Saba Urefu, or what had once been Saba Urefu.

Saba Urefu, the City of the Heights, was gone. The city that for centuries had stood as a symbol of unity in the Pundamilian Empire, made of rock queried from the land of the original fifteen tribes, was a heap of rubble. In its entire existence no enemy was able to breach its walls, as if the gods themselves had deemed it so. Now all that remains is ash and dust.

It didn’t take me long to get back to outer walls, or rather the remains of the outer walls; all that was left was a heap of rubble. Inside the walls was worse off by far. Decrepit structures, barely standing, were all that remained of the city. Bodies littered the streets, left were they lay.

The sound of several raised voices reached my ears as I raced past crumbling walls and soot stained buildings. Despite my haste I ducked under a pile of rubble. I didn’t know exactly what happened, but I didn’t like the idea of anyone else was wandering these ruins. Below me I could see a small group of armed soldiers searching the wreckage. Their colors marked as part of the Tani movement, a political group that had popped into existence five years before my latest expedition. They had been a fairly small entity when I left, but know they were one of the most powerful groups outside the king’s immediate family.

“What happened here? This was suppose to be the simple mission,” one of the soldiers yelled. I had spent a large portion of my life trekking thru near impenetrable terrain, but this man made me look like a toothpick. From within their ranks a smaller, but somehow more imposing figure, turned to scan his surroundings. The others in the group were obviously not warriors, but these two looked like professional soldiers. I didn’t like the thought of the Tani hiring mercenaries.

Risking another quick glance I saw that the small one was scanning the wreckage.  “We should seek out survivors. With any luck we will connect with our forces and continue the campaign. Be wary; there were foreigners staying in the city before the explosion. I would guess that they had something to do with it,” he said calmly.

Now that it had been pointed out, I knew it couldn’t be coincidence; the Equestrians had been at court at the same time as the explosion. It is said that the many strange and dangerous things exist out beyond the borders of Pundamilia, and I could attest to the existence of many of them. I had never seen nor heard of anything such as this, but that obviously didn’t mean it didn’t exist. All I knew was that none of the bodies I’d seen were Equestrians. What I didn’t know was why. Although I only had words of their good intentions, they seemed sincere enough if only because my brother trusted them. I shock my head in frustration. I would figure it out latter. Right now I just needed to find them.

The last I heard of Zuberi he was with his wife at court with the counsel and the other royal advisors in the grand hall for an early morning meeting. I had been growing increasingly antsy in the big city, so I had decided to take a quick run thru the country, maybe even run into the rest of his party that I had abandoned upon entering into the empire.

Staying low I quickly moved farther away from the group and deeper into the cataclysm. When I finally made it to the castle the sight that met me nearly brought me to tears. If the city was rubble, the castle was sand. For hundreds of feet in all directions the ground lay bare, showing no trace of the once mighty structure. No creature caught in such a blast could have hoped to survive. Ignoring reason, I made my way down the shallow slope trying to find any trace of survivors. Bits of Ash clung to my throat as I blindly made my way forward until I saw something shiny amidst the ruin caught amidst the endless gray. It was my brother’s gold bands.

With an animal like howl I fell to my knees. I was to meet my niece and her mother for the first time today. I was to spend time with my brother before he left forever. Now I was never to see them… I was never to see my brother again.

Clang!

I whipped around at the sound of something shifting in the waste, focusing in on one of the few boulders that survived the explosion. Slowly, I made my way toward it, my imagination working in overdrive as it franticly tried to reach an explanation for the sudden breach of quiet. Whatever it was wasn’t very big if it could hide completely behind such a small piece of cover, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. With the utmost care I stepped around the obstacle and towered my query, ready for anything, or so I thought.

Lying before me was a tiny filly. She could not have been more than a couple of weeks old. She was covered in minor abrasions, but other that that she was fine.

I stared dumfounded at the sight. When I didn’t move away the filly started to whimper quietly. I did not know how this child had come to be in the middle of the blast zone, but I couldn’t stand by and do nothing. “Now, now. Don’t be afraid. Everything will be alright,” I said as soothingly as I could.

At the sound of my voice she stopped shaking and opened her eyes. Despite being drenched in tears and slightly blood shot; her eyes still caught me off guard. They were not just any eyes; they were Zuberi’s eyes. Maybe they were a tad brighter, and maybe they still had the look of innocence only found in the young, but they were without a doubt his eyes.

“Zecora?” I whispered.

Upon hearing her name Zecora’s body relaxed slightly. Within a few moments she had fallen fast asleep, exhausted from the days struggles.

Taking one last look around the ruined castle for any more survivors I gently picked up the sleeping baby. Although I did not know it at the time, my life’s real adventure had just begun, and I loved adventure. If only I could forget where it all began and what it had cost.