Tylywoch 1 ~ The village of Sanctuary

   In Cheilin society female children were considered of little worth.   The poor in particular, regarded them as a means by which the Gods punish the impious.   In hard times many a girl child, was abandoned to the elements: just left to die.   In some circles this would be considered a kindness considering the life that awaited them.   A foundling girl child would therefore be left to her fate, almost as a matter of course, this being the general consensus.

   General Aldor was not most people.   His viewpoint and that of the Tylywoch was contrary to general opinion.   The family of the foundling girl Weilla had valued her highly enough to hide her from the attacking Huren, so in all good conscience, he would hold her in equal esteem.

   Aldor and his wife Meillo, took Weilla into their home and loved her as their own.   For years they had been childless and had, long ago, given up hope of ever having a natural child.   Meillo had not conceived during their first two years of marriage which in the general populace, would be considered grounds for divorce.   Not so in this mountain village, where men and women are considered equals.   Aldor knew the fault lay with him.  He had given Meillo leave to have a child by another man, but she steadfastly refused.   She was not a bought concubine.  They had married for love, which was a rare and strange phenomenon in those troubled times.  She’d refused to conceive by deception, denying herself the comfort of a child when Aldor was away administering the province.   Many of the Tylywoch envied their love match but lacked the vision to emulate it: that was their loss.

Tylywoch 2 ~ Early Years

   At three, Weilla was a well integrated member of village society.   She was treated no differently from the native born children.   As soon as she was able to walk, her training for life began in earnest.  At that early age children have no fear, prejudice, or preconceptions.  The Young Tylywoch were taught, contrary to other societies, that girls and boys are equals in every respect.   They are taught how to fight, and to kill, they are taught how to survive for long periods without food or water.   They learn many secrets, what they can drink and eat in times of hardship, and where they may be found; foods not generally considered edible, in a conventional society populated by outsiders, (gaijin).   Gaijin, lacking the necessary training, would frequently die, of hunger and thirst, in the midst of plenty.  They were simply not aware of the diversity of foods freely available, and perfectly edible, such as tree sap, plants, carrion, insects, grubs, lizards, frogs, and snakes.

   The young are trained progressively, to control, and live in harmony, with their environment.   They are taught to harness the power of their mind.   To control their body functions: to enhance their physical and mental capabilities.  The best students would be able to slow down or increase the speed of their heartbeat and control the flow of blood to all parts of their body; enabling them to cope with sudden heavy physical demands.    Enabling them to produce short bursts of intense speed and strength, which would be impossible for gaijin.   In extremes they could emulate animals, by entering into a state of hibernation.  They could control bowel and bladder movements, suspending them for days, or evacuating at the crack of a nut.   They were taught always to be mindful of bad character traits that could get them killed in combat or covert operations: traits such as Laziness, Anger, Fear, Sympathy, and Vanity.  Traits common in their enemies, but severely punished when identified in a Tylywoch child.   Lives depend on unquestioning loyalty, instant obedience, and the ability to act dispassionately and selflessly in the interests of the Empress and her Tylywoch guardians.  Their skills, ideals and abilities were tested daily, in life and death situations where weakness, or a wandering inattentive mind could cost lives.   All the basic human virtues, faults and failings are tested for on a regular basis.  The physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional attributes of each student are known to their trainers.

  By the time they reach the age of five (and some do not), they are highly skilled and valued members of Tylywoch society, as formidable as any adult from outside their mountain stronghold.   By the age of ten, they will have been routinely tested to their limits many times over.   The numbers surviving are a testament to the dedication and skill of their trainers.   At this age, they are expected to begin formal training dependant upon their personal abilities, physique, and proven skills.  

.-…-.

Weilla and nine others, in her group of five year olds, were being tested.   A hole was cut in the ice, and one by one they were lowered down into the swift flowing river.   They were suspended, completely immersed, for three minutes; then hauled out and revived.  To survive, they need to slow down their metabolism, selectively shut down body functions in order to conserve air, heat, and energy. Effectively suspending all unnecessary functions.   They select stones to determine their order, thus Weilla would be the last one to be tested.

.-...-.

 She kneels on her cloak, on the frozen river bank, concentrating her mind to reach the required level of consciousness to ensure she will survive the ordeal.   She becomes distracted from her preparation by a state of agitation in the people around her.  A tendril of her mind takes a peek and discovers somebody attempting frantically to cut another hole in the ice a hundred yards downstream.   Others insist it is a waste of time: the boy will already have been swept beyond the hole.  The water is flowing much stronger than expected in the clear channels, so a search would be more fruitful further downstream.  She discovers from their concern that when Ferrice had been lowered into the water, his line had snapped, and he had been swept downstream, under the ice.  Weilla rouses instantly, realising a friend was in mortal danger, she dove down into the hole.  Without the benefit of a trance the shock instantly drew much of the strength and heat from her body.  She allowed herself to be carried by the strongest flow; in the direction Ferrice would have gone.  Though vulnerable, outside the trance state, she did at least have her wits about her.  She intended to grab Ferrice and signal for those above, to rescue them.

 

Rising briefly to the surface, to attract the attention of searchers, she realised she was on her own.   She had already been carried far beyond the second hole.   Fingers of mind destroying fear sprung from nowhere ready to undermine her resolve.  But, her determination is stronger; she banishes the fear contemptuously from her mind. 

 

 ‘If… no when I find Ferrice,’ she thinks.  ‘I will haul him to the bank, smash the surface ice.  If I can stand, I can accomplish it, and then I will find us shelter somewhere and we will be discovered by the searchers’.  Her lungs are bursting without air.  Forcing her face up close to the ice, she finds the free air space she had been taught would be there; not for a second had she doubted it.  Taking three deep breaths she dives down again, deep into the swiftest flowing part of the stream, and kicking hard.  Her body had long since lost all feeling but, it was not necessary to feel in order to use it!   Not for an instant did she indulge in self pity.  She would locate Ferrice and they would survive together.  Failure was not an option in her mind.  Something hard banged against her head, she grabbed at it instinctively, realising immediately it is a leg.  She had him!  Now all she needed to do was get him to air, then to the bank, then to shelter.  It was simple, one step at a time, and they would triumph over this tribulation.

.-…-.

Aldor and others were called by horn to aid in the rescue.  At the very moment Weilla found Ferrice, the rescue teams were being briefed.

“They’ve been down for nearly six minutes?” Aldor repeats looking for confirmation, with a sinking feeling in his stomach.  The invigilator nods in affirmation, his distress evident to the trained eye.

“Then Ferrice is almost out of oxygen and Weilla, who is not in trance, will have been breathing from the ice-water Gap.”  Grabbing a heavy metal bar, he ran along the bank at breakneck speed for two miles, until he felt he’d outdistanced them.  Then, he started, digging holes in the ice, large enough for a five year old to scramble through.

As Aldor dug furiously he was aware of others passing him at speed, each with the same intent.  When he’d dug holes, for the fastest and most obvious channels, he ran on, leapfrogging others in the rescue relay.   Half a mile further on, he dug more holes, then he runs on and did it all again…   He kept on relentlessly until he heard the dreaded recall horn signifying the search was being called off.  He knew, as well as any, that nobody could survive for more than thirty minutes in water that was close to freezing.  Sick at heart he slowly returned, to the assembly point.   Meillo was waiting stony faced, wearing her stoic mask, displaying her bravery to the world.   Aldor knew that inside she would be dying slowly by degrees.   He knew that Weilla, their belated gift, from the gods, would never again jump eagerly into his arms to be hugged or simply to be near him.  At that moment he knew he was closer to breaking down than Meillo.  The trainers spoke with admiration of Weilla’s bravery and the selfless way she went to the aid of a fellow student, fearlessly putting her own life at risk.   Aldor heard the words, but could take no comfort from them.  It was a freak accident they said.  The rope had severed on a sharp shard of ice, and two valued young Tylywoch had been lost.

 

At his lowest point, a trapper arrived hauling a sled.

 “Found two strange looking critters huddled up in my canoe, under my fresh  pelts, anybody want to claim them?” he asked, unaware of the drama being played out before him.  Incredibly, he was referring to Weilla and Ferrice, both now in a deep state of trance, their life signs barely discernible, but they were alive and viable.  They were rushed to the nearest hut to be revived gradually over a period of twenty four hours.   Both were adjudged to have passed the test; though Ferrice would remember nothing of the ordeal and Weilla would recall it all! 

To be Continued/...

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