The Herald from the Far Beyond/Great Combat Tale Two
The Romance of Jawbone and Rhina
Cast of Characters:
Jawbone: Son of Facebreaker, the buck
Rhina: Sister of Lydia, wife of Dulltooth, the doe
Hammer Jack: Groinsquasher Warrior
Fiendhawk: Ribsmasher Warrior
Facebreaker: Chief of the Groinsquashers, Father of Jawbone
So it Begins,
During the Great Combat, Jawbone, son of Facebreaker, the chief of the Groinsquashers, met and fell in love with Rhina, younger sister of Lydia, the wife of Dulltooth chief of the Ribsmashers. It was a forbidden love in which the audience knows will end in tragedy. This is a gripping story of cross boundary humanity and love.
A small gang of Groinsquashers rushed into the rustic mill owned by one of the prominent Ribsmasher warriors, stealing his grain and harassing his family. Fiendhawk, the owner of the mill, was tied down outside helpless.
Jawbone led this expedition and proudly claimed it a success. His men piled the grain and the family’s entire food supply onto a cart while ignoring the pleading cries of Fiendhawks family. The woman of the mill tried to speak to Jawbone.
- “Please leave us some, what are we to eat for the next months?”
Hammer Jack kicked the woman to the ground warning her to stay away. Jawbone stopped him from doing further harm.
- “Groinsquashers, we got what we need. Let us be off.”
Jawbone waved mockingly at Fiendhawk,
- “May your master Dulltooth feed you and care for your family. This food is ours! HaHaa!”
Fiendhawk yelled muffled curses. The gang mounted their horses and began the trek back to their camp.
On the way, walking the opposite direction was a group of women carrying baskets on their heads. The Groinsquasher riders quickly circled them before they could flea. This path only led in one direction, to the mill. Hammer Jack spoke to interrogate.
- “What is your business on this path? What are those baskets? Why do you not have escorts?”
Three women hid behind the one in front, a slender, young, light eyed beauty. She replied.
- “Please leave us, we are carrying dyed cloth to the woman of the mill. There is nothing of value on us.”
Hammer Jack snapped back,
- “What says we don’t take you lasses as valuable?”
The women shuttered. Jawbone, becoming more entranced by the female speaker, decided to interrupt Hammer Jack’s aggressive questioning to discover something for his own.
- “You, light eyes, what is your name?” He spoke softly.
She looked at him with fear in her eyes at first, afraid of the horse and the anxious looking men surrounding her party.
Jawbone dismounted and walked closer.
- “My name is Jawbone, at least that is my tribal warrior name. Please, what is yours?”
The young woman sensed the gentleness of the young man in front of her. They were about the same age, she a bit older than he, and they were both unattached to any other. Without the knowledge that would come later, to many eyes they would seem compatible.
- “I am Rhina, sister of Lydia who is wife to –“
Hammer Jack yelled abruptly,
- “Jawbone, we don’t have time to charm these women, either take them with us or let’s be off! It is only a matter of time before one of Fiendhawks sons reaches the Ribsmasher outpost and alerts them. They will overwhelm us if we are intercepted. Forget her and get moving!”
Before Jawbone turned and remounted his horse, she gave him her light blue head scarf. He took it into his armour and rode off with the stolen goods. He smiled at her before their eyes separated.
She then thought of what she just heard; the Ribsmashers on alert, Fiendhawk’s sons running for help? The women realized something terrible must have happened and raced to the mill to discover that it was emptied and overturned. Rhina realized Jawbone was a Groinsquasher.
Jawbone rode back to the camp thinking the whole way. Rhina was the sister of Lydia. He recognized that name but was unsure from where. Who was she wife of? His mind returned to the woman he just met. Images of Rhina danced in his fantasies without end.
For the next few days, his mind was obsessed with this woman. He could not stop thinking about her and his dreams took the two of them to the most wishful of places, utterly in love. All the attention Jawbone had for his duties diverted to thinking of her.
One evening, Facebreaker, his mighty father, noticed the daydreaming young man and approached him.
- “Boy, where is your head? You cleaned only half of your horse, you have not stayed in your tent longer than a cock crow, and worse of all I can’t get three sequential words out from your mouth. Stop milling about and speak out with it. Are you possessed or something?”
Jawbone was nervous to reveal his emotions to his father. He did not think the man would understand love or romance, so he asked a safer question.
- “Father, during the raid on Fiendhawk’s mill, I overheard his wife mention the name Lydia, where do I know that name from?”
Facebreaker stopped cold and paused. A moment went by with Jawbone waiting puzzled for an answer.
- “Lydia, wife of Dulltooth. She was a good friend of mine when I was young, before this war began…What of her?”
Wife of Dulltooth! Jawbone’s heart imploded. How could it be? He tormented, but on the outside he remained collected.
- “Oh nothing important, Fiendhawk’s wife said something about Lydia not being happy that their food was stolen, something about sharing a certain flower that we took with us. That is as far as I could remember, except for the name which stuck out in my mind. Wife of Dulltooth is she? Well what harm could we have done, our tribes are already at war. It is not like he will attack us to recover the flowers now will he?”
They both laughed. Facebreaker looked at Jawbone, trying to peer beyond his eyes to see what really bothered him, but said nothing more. Jawbone was dismissed.
He returned to his tent and collapsed on his cot, unable to shut off his mind. Sister of Lydia! Sister of Dulltooth, my father’s mortal enemy! The Chief of the hated Ribsmashers! He decided to remove her from his mind and never think of it again. He took an oath on the blue head scarf she gave him. As it is known, and often learned from memorable consequences, human oaths are all too frequently empty. This one was no different.
The next morning, Jawbone was determined to speak with Rhina again. He prepared some tools and things he could use to disguise himself in grassland. He put this stuff in a sack and stealthily escaped his camp, on route to the Ribsmasher’s headquarters.
Jawbone arrived late in the afternoon and stayed at the very border of the camp, hidden under a pile of grass. He watched the enemy tribe carry on with their daily routines, cleaning, cooking, arguing with each other and all the rest of the activities a campsite would be observed to do. His eyes scanned the site looking for his target, Rhina.
He crawled around to the other side of the camp, hoping she would be found there. He still did not see her. He found a tree lying on the grass beside the path that entered the camp and thought he would hide next to it to watch, wondering if she was not in the camp but returning from somewhere. His assumption was correct. Later on in the day, Rhina, and the group of women she was with the days before, walked into the camp on this path. He watched her and traced her body into the distance of the tents to one specific tent. Dusk fell and she returned to that tent frequently. By darkness, she went in there and did not come out.
Trying to time his movement, Jawbone watched the sentries march about watching the camp. When both of them were walking away from each other, widening the gap, Jawbone snuck in.
Creeping through his way between tents, trying not to make any sound or unusual movements, he found himself near the tent Rhina was sleeping in. Quietly, softly, he opened the flap and entered. He saw her alone inside, sleeping under many heavy blankets.
At first he panicked and froze, afraid that she would scream and he would be captured. The son of the enemy chief would bring anyone a high ransom, or worse, his head would be a prize for Dulltooth. After his blood slowed, he approached her.
He heard her breathing softly. As he knelt and moved closer, her breathing stopped. He sat up in alert just as she jumped up and hit him. He grabbed her and pinned her to the ground trying to hush her. She yelped a bit before he covered her mouth and held her tight. She looked up and saw the blue head scarf around the assailants neck then stopped squirming. Her eyes opened wider.
- “Shhh! Stop screaming! You are going to get me killed. Rhina, it is me, Jawbone.”
He took his hand off her mouth. His heart melted when he saw her smile. He released her and she sat up beside him.
- “Jawbone! You will get yourself killed. What do you think you are doing sneaking into this camp? Are you entirely insane?”
He looked away then spoke, taking her hand into his.
- “I had to see you again. Rhina, you are the sister of Lydia, wife of Dulltooth! Is it true? Please tell me it is a different Lydia.”
- “There is only the one, and it is true Jawbone the Groinsquasher.”
- “I am the son of Facebreaker, mortal enemy to your brother-in-law, but, I…since I first saw you I have been unable to get you out of my mind. I feel as if I am captured, bound somehow to your image.”
- “The same for me son of Facebreaker, we are doomed the most common fate of humankind.”
- “What fate is that?”
- “Forbidden love.”
He embraced her.
- “Our tribes are enemies, but our hearts are inseparable.” She said beginning to weep, “We cannot reveal this to anyone or we will have our heads severed and raised on pikes.”
He agreed. They kissed their first sweet tender kiss then he departed promising to return the next night. Before he left he whispered this,
- “Though you are kin to my greatest enemy, you are the love of my life. I shall marry you Rhina, sister of Dulltooth, or my throat be slit open.”
He kept his promise and snuck into the Ribsmasher camp every night, bringing her little gifts and trinkets. They chatted and made love each night until he had to escape again. Their love remained a close secret only revealed after Jawbone’s unfortunate death at the hands of Dulltooth that great predestined evening. It was a confession which shook both tribes to the core, but did little to abate their hatred for one another, nor end the generation-long war.
Rhina took her own life after their romance was made public committing her life as another victim of the Great Combat and hoping to join her fallen lover in whatever lies after the final sleep.
May the Most High grant all lovers longevity and passion. We praise his overflowing love for us! We also mourn the torn hearts of this young couple, separated by war and hatred and restricted from the most essential element of life - love. Poor miserable life, how it teases us with wealth but starves us of nutrients for the soul. Only obedience to the Most High will grant one satisfaction.
