Artwork by Jane Yeager Noel

The Sentinels survey their promised land
Artwork Copyright © 2007 by Jane Yeager Noel

The Sentinels: 

There were five. Four followers and one leader. Two of the followers took up positions near his boots. The others waited where his right hand had been. They waited with the patience of toys, waited with mixed understanding. They waited near the body while all about them the air trembled with light and the earth sounded to the voice of the deepest drums.

By nightfall the pounding subsided, followed for a time by silence. It became so still they could hear the passing of the river to the east. And still they waited. Above them rode a darkness unbroken by stars.

The hours passed.

At dawn there came a half-twilight, followed by a hard rain. Without saying a word, for they could say no words, the five sentinels began to move. The smallest of them stood at five and a half centimeters, the largest –the lithe female—at six. When grasses bowed and trees swayed, they required shelter. The four looked to the female, who gestured with a splayed hand, urging them back to the belt pouch from which they had emerged sometime past.

The climb across the body, though difficult, was accomplished with practiced ease. As practiced were the moves by which they entered the small, stiff pouch and pulled its cover tight, closing themselves in the little darkness.

The rain sounded as hard against the tiny shelter as the artillery had when it burned up the sky. But inside, shoulder to shoulder, back to back, they knew they could not be separated, not washed away by the pounding torrents. Inside, at their feet, lay a small capsule of long-dried seeds, a singular possession given over to their trust. A promise. Beside it rested an intricately folded device of a size easily carried by two of the sentinels. It collected sunlight, and would need to do so again, soon.

In the meantime, the rain washed the battlefield, and the rivers ran red.  

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The Sentinels, a tale from Gatherer of Souls and Outland Sorrows
by Scot Noel

Jane Yeager Noel is an artist  living in Grapeville,  PA.

Jane Yeager Noel is an artist and web designer living in Grapeville, PA.

Contact Info:

Jane Yeager Noel

Phone: 724-523-6211

E-mail: Jane@CMEwebsites.com  

Website: www.CMEwebsites.com

Copyright Info

Artwork Copyright © 2007 by Scot Noel and Jane Yeager Noel

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