An Old Story

[Torchwatch]

The three young men slowly awoke a in a heap of warm bodies and furs at one end of the stone hut. It was cold, the pre-dawn cold of the desert that seeped into the valley every night. Quietly so as not to wake the two older men in the bed at the other end of the hut, they twisted loincloths around their naked waists and draped cloaks over their shoulders. Even in the dull light of the hut it was possible to see the scars left by a whip on the youngest man's back, he felt those scars at this time in the day and felt safe to be in the valley protected by the older men who had taken him in after he had run away.
They grabbed an earthenware jar of water, flat breads baked the night before and cheese wrapped in leaves then slipped out of the hut into the village. It was quiet but they could see other small groups of young men making their way down towards the water. This morning they had headaches, hangovers, the long nosed donkey dealer had plied them with bad wine while telling them they could sleep with his sister for a very moderate price. The sister a dirty ill used woman was more likely his wife. There was a better looking younger woman with them but again she looked dirty and tired. The dodgy donkey dealer hadn't realised that no one in this village would be wanting to sleep with a woman or buy one of his dirty, tired donkeys in a town with no grass. The boys had drunk his bad wine while the dealer became sullen and angry.
Arriving on the beach the young men loaded a boat with the food and drink and dropped in their cloaks before pushing the boat into the water. It was a wide wooden boat, crusted with salt from the lake, the planks held together wooden dowels and bronze nails. They had to go into the salty water until they were waist deep to launch the boat, before climbing in, their cotton thong like loincloths dripping and their naked wet skin shining in the first rays of the sun. There seemed to be something hidden under the sail in the bottom of the boat, someone kicked it and it moaned quietly, it was a someone rather then a something. They lifted a corner of the sail and found the younger woman in the donkey dealer's party, she looked terrified, they dropped the sail and started rowing the boat into deeper water.
The desert sun rose in all it's glory, the cold left them and they felt warm and alive again. With the daylight they could see across the lake, looking for the dark lumps of bitumen that had floated to the surface during the night. The Egyptians frequently sent caravans to collect the bitumen and paid well, well enough to keep the two villages in the valley supplied and fed. A place of sanctuary for those boys and young men with nowhere else to go.
Far out in the lake they saw a black smudge, the low angle of the sun casting a shadow larger than the actual object in the water. They rowed towards it knowing they must ignore the woman under the sail until they were far from land. They had all run away from homes and towns where they had been abused and hated before they had come to the valley and they all knew what a runaway looked like and how the girl must feel.
Now the sun had risen the older men in the village were waking up, lighting fires, dogs occasionally barked and ran around, the usual sounds of a small town at peace with it's self, muffled by the increasing distance of the boat. Suddenly there was a disturbance on the edge of town, where the donkey dealer was camped. Figures looking the size of ants ran about shouting, probably swearing, a crowd of tiny figures gathered to see what was happening, excited dots of dogs raced about barking madly.
The older of the young men in the boat poked the sail cloth with his foot and said “They know you're missing now, it's too late to go back, what do you plan to do?”
For a while they heard sobbing from under the canvas, they kept rowing and let it be. If the old men in the hut hadn't taken them in when they had needed help they would have been lost. The villages were full of runaways, there was no where else to go, and most of those who had beaten them were glad to be rid of them.
A line of donkeys left the camp site heading up the hill away from the valley, from the boat they could hear the donkey drivers shouting at the poor beasts and knew the animals were being beaten. A spasm of pain passed across the face of the youngest boy in the boat, his back was still not healed and he could feel the pain of the suffering donkeys.
The leader again pocked the girl under the sail and said “ They are climbing the hill now, they'll be gone soon, you can come out when you're ready.”
The girl stuck her head out from under the cover, staying low in the boat, she looked exhausted, her eyes red from crying, she was trembling slightly with fear. They gave her water, she drank, choked then drank more. They all knew how she felt, but they didn't know what to do, the valley was no place for women, what would the old men say? They didn't know, women never sought sanctuary in the villages.

From the shore came a loud long drawn out rumble, the village disappeared in a cloud of dust, the cloud became orange with flame then they heard a bang and echoes of the bang across the water, then the whole village seemed to move forward, towards the water then into the water and gone. A big wave came from the shoreline out across the lake, they saw it coming and faced the boat into it. The old salt crusted boat made it over the wave but was swamped, dead in the water until it could be bailed out. They all stood up in the flooded boat looking towards the shoreline, it was on fire, the bare rocks were burning, even the water seemed to be burning. There was nothing left of the village, no home, no sanctuary. Theirs was the only boat that had got away. Everyone they knew and cared for were gone. The four of them just stood in the swamped boat staring blankly, tears in their eyes, shocked into inaction.

Eventually the flames dies down leaving nothing, as if there had never been a village there. They sat down in the wet boat and started bailing, the water was so salty the swamped boat couldn't even sink.

Up on the hill the donkey dealer with the long nose was screaming mad and happy, happy that the girl that had run away had died, happy the boys who drank his wine and wouldn't pay to sleep with his wife were all gone. All those evil men who wouldn't sleep with women were destroyed and were cursed forever.