The pillars of creation

"I can understand why a woman would have cause to be frightened when a stranger suddenly walks up on her. I would have passed on by without alarming you, but I saw that fellow on the ground and you there, bent over him. I thought you might need help, so I rushed over."

The cold wind pressed his dark green cloak against his sinewy build and lifted the other side away to reveal his well-cut but simple clothes. His cloak's hood covered his head against the first trailers of rain, leaving his face somewhat indistinct in its shadow. His smile was one of courteous intent, no more. He wore the smile well.

"He's dead" was all she could think to say.

Jermsen was unaccustomed to speaking to strangers. She was unaccustomed to speaking to anyone but her mother. She was unsure as to what to say-how to react-especially under the circumstances.

"Oh. I'm sorry." He stretched his neck a little, without coming any closer, trying to see the man on the ground.

Jennsen thought it a considerate thing to do-not trying to come closer to someone who was clearly nervous. She hated that she was so obvious. She had always hoped she might appear to others somewhat inscrutable.

His gaze lifted from the dead man, to her knife, to her face. "I suppose you had cause."

Perplexed for a second, she finally grasped his meaning and blurted out, "I didn't do it!"

He shrugged. "Sorry. From over here I can't tell what happened."

Jermsen felt awkward holding a knife on the man. She lowered the arm with the weapon.

"I didn't mean to… to appear a madwoman. You just startled the wits out of me."

His smile warmed. "I understand. No harm done. So, what happened?"

Jennsen gestured with her empty hand toward the cliff face. "I think he fell from the trail up there. His neck's broken. At least I think it is. I only just discovered him. I don't see any other footprints. My guess is that he was killed in a fall."

As Jennsen returned her knife to its sheath on her belt, he considered the cliff. "Glad I took the bottom, rather than the trail up there."

She inclined her head in invitation toward the dead man. "I was looking for something that might tell me who he was. I thought maybe I should… notify someone. But I haven't found anything."

The man's boots crunched through the coarse gravel as he approached. He knelt on the other side of the body, rather than beside her, perhaps to give the knife-wielding madwoman a precautionary bit of space so she would feet a little less jumpy.

"I'd guess you were right," he said, after taking in the abnormal cant of the head. "Looks like he's been here at least part of the day."

"I was through here earlier. Those are my tracks, there. I don't see any others about." She gestured toward her catch lying just behind her. "When I went to the lake to check my lines, earlier, he wasn't here."

He twisted his head in order to better study the still face. "Any idea who he was?"

"No. I don't have a clue, other than that he's a soldier."

The man looked up. "Any idea what kind of soldier?"

Jennsen's brow drew tight. "What kind? He's a D'Haran soldier." She lowered herself to the ground in order to look at the stranger more directly. "Where are you from that you wouldn't recognize a D'Haran soldier?"

He ran his hand under his cloak's hood and rubbed it along the side of his neck. "I'm just a traveler, passing through." He looked as tired as he sounded.

The answer perplexed her. "I've moved around my whole life and I don't know of anyone who wouldn't know a D'Haran soldier when they saw one. How can you not?"

"I'm new to D'Hara."

"That's not possible. D'Hara covers most of the world."

This time, his smile betrayed amusement. "Is that so?"

She could feel her face heat and she knew it must be going red with how ignorant of the world at large she had shown herself to be. "Well, doesn't it?"

He shook his head. "No. I'm from far to the south. Beyond the land that is D'Hara."

She stared in wonder, her chagrin evaporating in light of the implications that came into her head at such an astonishing notion. Perhaps her dream might not be so extravagant.

"And what are you doing, here, in D'Hara?"

"I told you. Traveling." He sounded weary. She knew how exhausting it could be to travel. His tone turned more serious. "I know he's a D'Haran soldier. You misunderstood me. What I meant was, what kind of soldier? A man belonging to a local regiment? A man stationed here? A soldier on his way home for a visit? A soldier going for a drink in town? A scout?"

Her sense of alarm rose. "A scout? What would he be scouting for in his own homeland?"

The man looked off at the low dark clouds. "I don't know. I was only wondering if you knew anything of him."

"No, of course not. I just found him."

"Are these D'Haran soldiers dangerous? I mean, do they bother folks? Folks just traveling through?"

Her gaze fled his questioning eyes. "I–I don't know. I guess they could be."

She feared to say too much, but she wouldn't want him to end up in trouble because she said too little.